TGen Names Biotech Executive Love as COO
January 29, 2003
Phoenix, Wednesday, Jan. 29 Richard Love, a bioscience executive
with extensive experience in biotechnology and drug development, is
joining the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) as its
chief operating officer. As COO, Love will direct the integration
of TGen research with its clinical, academic and corporate
partners.
Love led the start-up of ILEX Oncology Inc., a Texas-based company
focused on the development and commercialion of anticancer
pharmaceuticals. As ILEX president and chief executive officer from
1994 to 2001, Love raised more than $450 million in equity
offerings and helped established ILEX as a leading oncology-focused
pharmaceutical company.
As TGen ramps up to become a leading research institute, we see
our mission as making significant medical advances based upon our
rapidly increasing understanding of the human genome, and, at the
same time, forging a new direction for the economy of Arizona, Love
said.
Loves expertise and experience in scientific management will
assure his ability to lead TGen in areas crucial to cutting-edge
bioindustry, said Dr. Jeffrey Trent, president and scientific
director.
Dick Love is an important player in the new world of bioscience
and immediately will move TGen into the front ranks of that
industry. He will forge the key collaborations with the academic,
clinical and corporate sectors that the institute needs to fulfill
our mission. We at TGen believe Arizonas biomedical and
biotechnology sector will be a major link to individuals and
companies in health care around the country and around the world,
Trent said.
During the past year, Love served as interim Executive Director of
the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative, a city-funded
non-profit organization that fosters the formation and growth of
high tech and biotech industries.
Love was the chief operating officer of the Cancer Therapy &
Research Center in San Antonio from 1991 to 1994. At CTRC, Love led
the construction of its state-of-the-art research lab and helped
organize its clinical research unit for Phase I and II clinical
trials of anticancer drugs.
Love said he will draw on his experience bridging research and
enterprise to ensure TGens scientific advances reach patients and
their families quickly.
I look forward to working with creative minds throughout Arizona
and building TGen as a model of collaboration and innovation, Love
said.
The arrival of the chief operating officer marks another key step
in TGens progress becoming an international center for genomics
research, Trent said.
TGen exists in Arizona today because of its terrific pool of
talent and the foresight of its civic, academic and business
leaders. After a national search, TGen now has exactly the right
executive to create a top-notch organization that will encourage
world-class research, Trent said.
The position at TGen culminates 22 years of leadership positions
in biotechnology and 13 years of managerial experience in the
petrochemical industry for Love. He started his career at Shell Oil
Co., working in manufacturing and economics. As manager of
biological business development at Shell, he established the
direction for the companys interests in biotechnology.
In 1983, Love became President, CEO and Director of Triton
Biosciences Inc., a biotech subsidiary of Shell based in Alameda,
California. During eight years at Triton, Love led the company in
productive research and development as well as successful
marketing. The companys achievements during this time included:
- Development of Fludara I.V., which became an important treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia;
- Phrase III trials for Betaseron (recombinant human interferon beta) for treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis. Betaseron was the first drug of its class to be approved by the Federal Drug Administration for patients with MS.
Love also acts as an advisor to the University of Texas at San
Antonio Business School and the Office of Technology Ventures,
University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio.
He has served on the board of directors of ILEX since 1994. He
also serves as a director of Parexel International, a public
contract research company and Signase, Inc., a private discovery
firm.
