Connect, the longstanding nonprofit organization that runs one of San Diego’s best-known startup accelerator programs, said Thursday that Tega Therapeutics CEO Tim Scott will become chairman of its board of directors on Dec. 1.
Scott has a long history with the organization. As part of the founding group that, in 1999, launched San Diego-based Internet startup Active.com (formerly RaceGate.com), he went through Connect’s accelerator program, Springboard. After, the company received $5 million through the organization and was a winner in its annual Most Innovative Product (MIP) award contest.
Scott went on to found Pharmatek Laboratories, which was acquired in 2016 by Catalent (NYSE: [[ticker:CTLT]]), and Tega, a glycobiology company, in 2014. (Tega was an MIP finalist in 2017.)
“I believe strongly in the mission of Connect to support entrepreneurship and innovation in San Diego,” Scott said, in a prepared statement. “I look forward to taking on another chapter in my work with Connect.”
Scott, who has served on the Connect board for six years, is on its executive committee and heads the internal group that oversees the Springboard program. Appointed to a two-year term, Scott will succeed Stath Karras, who has held the position of chairman for four years.
Karras, executive director of the University of San Diego Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate, will continue to serve on Connect’s executive committee. Karras joined Connect’s board 12 years ago.
Another member of the executive committee, James Mackay, has also been named to a two-year term. He’ll serve as vice chairman.
Mackay, who joined Connect’s board in 2014, is president and CEO of Aristea Therapeutics, a San Diego-based company he founded this year to develop treatments for inflammatory diseases. Previously he was CEO of another local biotech, Ardea Biosciences, which closed a few years after it was acquired for $1 billion by UK-based pharma giant AstraZeneca (NYSE: [[ticker:AZN]]).
