Jacqueline Northcut, the chief executive officer of BioHouston, announced Tuesday she has resigned. The organization said that chief operating officer Ann Tanabe will assume the top post.
In a separate e-mail to contacts, Northcut said she has not yet decided on her next steps. “I am proud of the work that has been accomplished during my time at BioHouston,” she wrote. “After much reflection, however, I have decided it is time to move on to other adventures.”
While there has been a recent upswell in activity in Houston around boosting young life sciences companies—the Texas Medical Center’s TMCx accelerator, for one—BioHouston has been at the forefront of promoting the city’s biotech ecosystem since its founding 15 years ago. Northcut joined BioHouston in 2002 as president and CEO, and since that time, the organization has run regular events such as an annual life sciences forum and a monthly breakfast series, among others.
Tanabe joined BioHouston in 2011 following a decade-long career in corporate communications and investor relations at Houston area companies, including Texas Biotechnology, Encysive Pharmaceuticals, and Synthesis Energy Systems.
“Jacqueline was relentlessly innovative and showed endless energy in pursuit of the BioHouston mission,” said David McWilliams, BioHouston’s chairman in a statement.
