January 24, 2019 | Nancy Tyrrell
Women in Bio, CBC and AbbVie Ventures at BioPathways Event: “2019 JP Morgan Outlook: Challenges for Women in Biotech”
Date: Tuesday, January 15th, 2019
Time: 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM
Location: Rosalind Franklin University
3333 Green Bay Road
Centennial Room
North Chicago, IL 60064
Moderator: Nancy Tyrrell – President, Women in Bio, ADTA, Chicago Biomedical Consortium
Keynote: Margarita Chavez – Managing Director, AbbVie Ventures
Upon the invitation of Michael Rosen, Managing Director of Rosen Bioscience Strategies and longtime friend of the CBC, Nancy Tyrrell, Associate Director of Translational Activities at the CBC and President of Women in Bio Chicago Chapter, served as the moderator at the BioPathways Entrepreneurial Series held at Rosalind Franklin University (RFU) on Tuesday, January 15th, 2019. Margarita Chavez, Managing Director, AbbVie Ventures, was featured as the keynote speaker at the event.
The event opened with pizza, refreshments and a networking reception. BioPathway’s emcee, Tom Denison, President of SmartHealth, introduced Dr. Ron Kaplan, EVP of Research at RFU and Dr. Wendy Rheault, the new RFU interim President and CEO.
Following Tom’s introductions and welcome, Nancy Tyrrell presented slides describing Women in Bio’s history and mission. She welcomed folks to attend the WIB Chicago Chapter events, including the new Rosalind Franklin play, “Photograph 51” on January 23rd. Nancy then introduced Margarita Chavez, who shared a slide presentation with an overview of AbbVie Ventures and its focus on 2019, as well as investments made in 2018. Margarita then spoke about her perspective of the JP Morgan Conference with a focus on the hurdles that face women executives in the biotechnology sector.
Following the slide presentation, Nancy had the opportunity to interview Margarita during an informal question and answer session. During the “fireside chat”, Margarita shared her amazing career journey and talked about her insights regarding the unique challenges that women must overcome as they advance their professional careers.
The final presentation of the BioPathways event was a “pitch” made by Kevin Honaker, CEO at BiomeSense, a startup that is developing novel technologies to change the collection, storage and analysis of microbiome data. Kevin made a dynamic presentation and addressed questions from the audience about how BiomeSense is accelerating the development of microbiome-based precision medicine.
The audience and speakers continued to interact during the closing reception and it was apparent that everyone enjoyed this month’s Biopathways event. Can’t wait to hear about the focus of February’s meeting!
Enjoy a photo gallery from the event, courtesy RFU!