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EBTC names new president

Columbus, OH, January 3, 2002: Anthony J. Dennis, Ph.D., a microbiologist, entrepreneur, technology advocate and native Ohioan, has been selected to be the next president of Edison BioTechnology Center. Dennis' selection was announced today by EBTC Board Chairman James Scozzie, and will become effective on January 1, 2002.

Dennis, currently executive vice president and co-founder of BIO-NOVA in Portland, Oregon, is the third president in EBTC's 15-year history. He succeeds Frank Samuel Jr., who left the post to become science and technology advisor to Ohio Governor Bob Taft in June 2000. Dorothy C. Baunach, EBTC's founding president and currently director NorTech (the Northeast Ohio Technology Coalition) and deputy director of Cleveland Tomorrow, has served since then in an interim capacity.

"The selection of Anthony Dennis as the new president of EBTC culminates a thoughtful process by the board's Search Committee," stated EBTC vice chairman Bill Sanford, who chaired the committee. "We learned a great deal about the perception of bioscience activity in Ohio in the process. We had many stellar candidates apply from across the country, and we learned that Ohio's bioscience activity is highly respected."

"As EBTC has worked to retool itself over the past year to assure our continued success in building the bioscience industry in the state, we developed specific criteria for the role of the presidency," noted EBTC Board Chairman James Scozzie. "Our standards were high, and Dr. Dennis meets them all. He is an experienced entrepreneur and administrator, and will be a strong and articulate champion for the Ohio bioscience industry. We are pleased to have him."

Dennis is already familiar with the state's bioscience community. After receiving bachelor of science (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) degrees in microbiology from The Ohio State University, he began to work for Battelle in Columbus, first as an entry-level researcher and eventually as vice president for biotechnology. He then served a two-year stint as president of IntraCel, a biotech company operating in Geneva, Switzerland. He returned to the U.S. in 1990 to serve as vice president for research and development at Tastemaker (now Givaudan, a division of Roche), from 1990 until 1997.

Dennis then co-founded Nutri-Logics, Inc., where he acted as president through two rounds of start-up funding He concluded his day-to-day responsibilities at Nutri-Logics in 2000.

Simultaneous to the founding of Nutri-Logics, Dennis was co-founding another startup, BIO-NOVA, in Portland, Oregon, where he now remains as executive vice president.

In addition to his hands-on involvement with startup bioscience companies, Dr. Dennis is an expert in the general area of innovation and creativity in research, particularly as it applies to the development and commercialization of new products. He is currently completing a book that examines the key barriers to breakthrough innovation in the United States that will include recommendations on how to surpass these barriers.

He is also highly familiar with the workings of a bioscience industry association. In Oregon, he serves as a director of the Oregon Biotechnology Association (OBA), and he is a consultant for the Oregon Resource and Technology Development Account, the Oregon state technology development fund.

Dennis also has experience as a technology advocate and strategist in the state of Ohio, where he has served as a member of The Ohio State University Graduate Dean's Alumni Council and the OSU Agricultural Technology Development Council.

"Anthony Dennis is familiar with the bioscience industry in each of its phases, from pure research, to startup activity, to large company management," said Scozzie. "He understands the problems and issues facing entrepreneurs, and he is very knowledgeable about the needs of large and small technology businesses. He will be an excellent advocate for our industry in the media, at the Statehouse, and in the boardroom." Scozzie noted that Dennis will be based in Columbus.

"I have had the opportunity to see Ohio's bioscience industry develop both from within and outside the state and I believe that there is no better time than now to develop one of the leading success stories in the nation," said Dr. Dennis. "Success will take three things: the will, the skill and the resources, and I believe Ohio has or is aggressively developing all three. With the active support of our dedicated leaders in industry, academia and government I am confident of our success."

Edison BioTechnology Center, Inc. (now Omeris) is a non-profit organization supported by the Thomas Edison Program of the Ohio Department of Development. Its mission is to grow and develop life sciences companies and to foster a strong business climate for the expanding life sciences industry cluster in the State of Ohio, to benefit the State's economy and improve the public health. EBTC has offices in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Athens.