ICOC Members | Center for Genetics and Society

ICOC Members

By Center for Genetics and Society

Also see information on members' appointments and potential conflicts of interest.

Robert Klein, Chair, President of Klein Financial Corporation, a real estate investment banking consulting company; President of Klein Financial Resources, a real estate development company, and Chairman of the Yes on 71 campaign. Klein was the chief force behind Proposition 71 and was one of its chief authors. He has a son with juvenile diabetes and his mother has Alzheimer's disease. He donated more than $3 million to the Yes on 71 campaign (the Coalition for Stem Cell Research and Cures), which he also chaired, and his company donated another $700,000.

After the election, the Yes on 71 organization morphed in to the California Research and Cures Coalition (CRCC), which Klein initially chaired. It works to generate support among the public and key decision makers of the value of stem cell research and the new CIRM. In December 2004, the new coalition organized a two day "best practices" session with the National Academies, which several ICOC members attended. In January it was given responsibility for executing the second meeting of the ICOC and organized four public forums throughout California. The CRCC later changed its name to the Alliance for Stem Cell Research.

At that January meeting of the ICOC, Klein announced his resignation as chair of the CRCC and promised to only serve half of his six year term as chair of the ICOC. Later, he defended the practice of "directly recruiting" the staff of the Yes on 71 campaign and CRCC for positions at the new CIRM. By March, the majority of the CIRM staff previously worked for the campaign and/or CRCC.

The Yes on 71 campaign is $6.5 million in debt, $1 million of which is owed to Klein. Klein is raising funds to pay these debts.

In the 2003-2004 election cycle, he donated more than $175,000 in cash and other non-monetary assets to three of the four elected officials who unanimously nominated him for chair of the ICOC. At the first meeting of the ICOC, he was unanimously selected by its initial 27 members.

Klein made his fortune in California real estate, primarily in the affordable housing market. At age twenty-seven, he was the primary author of the bill that established the California Housing Finance Authority. He later served on its Board of Directors.

In the early 1980's, while consulting for Fresno County on an upcoming bond issue, he created a web of personal conflicts of interests. Unknown to the county Board of Supervisors, his firm was also consulting for the two companies likely to receive contracts from the bonds. These relationships were detailed in an in-depth article in the May 13, 1984 Fresno Bee.

Edward Penhoet, Vice-chair, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, President and Chiron, cofounder. With two academic colleagues, Penhoet founded Chiron immediately after leaving his position as a professor at UC Berkeley's Biochemistry Department. After seven years as CEO and President, he returned to Berkeley as Dean of the School of Public Health, although he remains on the Chiron board and has more than $1 million in its stock. Several years ago, Chiron participated in stem cell studies. Paul Hastings, who was the president of Chiron's BioPharmaceuticals Division until January 2001, is now a board member of ViaCell, a stem cell company.

Penhoet is a salaried principal at Alta Partners, a venture capital firm with a large biotechnology portfolio.

While Dean at Berkeley, he was an advocate of the University's $25 million research agreement with Novartis, a biotech company that owned 44% of Chiron stock and retains three seats on Chiron's board. After leaving UC Berkeley in 2002, Penhoet worked for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, becoming its president in July 2004.

Penhoet founded another biotechnology company, Renovis, which works on the growth and regeneration of nerves. He retains more than $1 million in stock and is still on its board of directors, which shares a director with Geron, a prominent stem cell company." Furthermore, Renovis' exclusive licensee is AstraZeneca, which uses stem cells in their research programs.

Penhoet is also on the board of Zymogenetics. Zymogenetics presumably conducts stem cell research, as it has described the work of its "stem cell biologists" and its "Director of Stem Cell Biology" in a press release. George Rathmann is the chair of Zymogenetics' board. Rathmann is also on the board chair of Nuvelo (Nuvelo's President, CEO, and director is ICOC member Ted Love); cofounded and was the CEO of Amgen (on whose board sits ICOC member David Baltimore); and is on the board of Cellerant (on whose board sits Baltimore), a stem cell company.

Until October 2004 Penhoet also served on the board of directors of Eyetech, which has an exclusive licensing partnership with the biotechnology company Gilead Sciences. (ICOC member Gayle Wilson is still on Gilead's board.) Penhoet is on the board of BayBio, and has served on the boards of the Biotechnology Industry Organization and the University of California System Biotechnology Advisory Committee.

Penhoet has investments in at least fifteen biotechnology companies.

David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology, President. A prominent supporter of Proposition 71, Baltimore sits on the board of Cellerant, a privately-held California-based company dedicated to the commercialization of human stem cell therapies. Baltimore likely owns an equity stake in Cellerant.

Baltimore serves on the board and has $100,000 to $1 million dollars invested in biotech giant Amgen. Amgen has a strategic relationship with ViaCell, a stem cell company. As recently as January 2005, a headline at Forbes.com read, "Amgen Profits From Stem Cell IPO." In exchange for a $20 million dollar stake in ViaCell, Amgen granted ViaCell a worldwide license to stem cell growth factors developed by Amgen. Furthermore, Amgen retains an option to collaborate with ViaCell. In addition to Baltimore, Edward Fritzky is on the board of Amgen. Fritzky also has a seat on the board of Geron, the largest and most prominent stem cell corporation, based in California.

He is also on the board of BB Biotech, AG, a Swiss biotechnology investment company; MedImmune; and, along with ICOC member Gerald Levey, FasterCures / The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions, a medical research advocacy group. Baltimore is also on the board of overseers of the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, where ICOC member Brian Henderson is dean.

Baltimore won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and was prominent among the scientists who, in the mid 1970's, developed self-regulation for the use of recombinant DNA. In the 1980's, he was the founding director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT.

Baltimore has investments in at least fifteen biotechnology companies.

Robert J. Birgeneau, UC Berkeley, Chancellor. Birgeneau has served as the president of the University of Toronto and the Dean of Science at MIT. At Toronto, he oversaw two prominent cases of firings of faculty members who were prominent critics of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries: Nancy Oliveri and David Healy.

Keith L. Black, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, director of Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute. Black owns $10,000 to $100,000 in stock in Genentech, which conducts stem cell research. Black was previously a Professor of Neurosurgery at UCLA, and appeared in an advertisement for the Proposition 71 campaign.

Susan Bryant, UC Irvine, School of Biological Sciences Dean. Bryant is a biologist whose research focuses on limb regeneration. At UC Irvine she has also been the assistant vice chancellor for plans and programs and the chair of the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology. She was a prominent supporter of Proposition 71.

Marcelina "Marcy" Andaya Feit, president and CEO, ValleyCare Health System, a non-profit healthcare system with hospitals in Livermore and Pleasanton in California. Feit was appointed in September 2005 to replace Phyllis Preciado.

Michael Friedman, City of Hope, President. Friedman is currently on the board of directors of MannKind Inc., a biopharmaceutical company which develops therapies for diabetes. The president and COO of MannKind, Hakan Edstrom, is also on the board of Ixion Biotechnology, which specializes in a stem cell treatment for diabetes

For a number of years, Friedman was a researcher and professor of hematology and oncology at UC San Francisco. He served as acting commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration. In the private sector, Friedman was senior vice president for clinical affairs at Searle, a subsidiary of life sciences giant Monsanto. After Monsanto's pharmaceuticals merged and Upjohn merged into Pharmacia, he became the senior vice president of research and development, medical and public policy. He has led the Office for Biomedical Preparedness at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Michael Goldberg, Genomic Health, Director. Goldberg is a venture capitalist, partnering in ten venture capital and private equity funds with almost $2 million invested in biotechnology. Among the venture capital funds are five established by Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, & Byers, the largest corporate donor to the Yes on 71 campaign. Goldberg was vice-chair of the Yes on 71 campaign, and donated close to $60,000. He owns over $1 million in stock in Bristol Myers-Squib.

Goldberg is involved as a board member with a number of companies, including Zyomyx, iKnowMed Systems, Cemaphore, and eHealthInsurance. He served as Chairman of OnCare, an oncology practice management company he founded in 1995, and was founder and CEO of Axion Inc.

Brian Henderson, University of Southern California Medical School Dean. Henderson owns $2000 to $10,000 in stock each in Genentech and Medtronic, which both engage in stem cell research.

Edward Holmes, UCSD Medical School Dean. Holmes served on the board of Tularik until July, 2004, when it was acquired by Amgen, which invests in stem cell research. (ICOC member David Baltimore is on Amgen's board.)

Holmes has consulted with Genoptix (ICOC member Tina Nova is the founder and CEO), which develops lasers applicable in stem cell isolation. He owns $10,000 to $100,000 in stock in Teva Pharmaceutical, which is in a $3 million alliance with Gamida-Cell, a stem cell firm with a product in the early stages of human testing. He also owns $100,000 to $1 million in stock GlaxoSmithKline, and $10,000 to $100,000 in Pfizer Inc.

David Kessler, UCSF Medical School Dean. Kessler reported receiving $10,000 to $100,000 from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for delivering a lecture in 2004.

Sherry Lansing, University of California, Regent and Paramount Pictures, former Chairperson of Motion Picture Group. Lansing is the founder and Chair of Stop Cancer, a nonprofit organization that funds research, including stem cell research.

Gerald Levey, UCLA Medical School Dean. Levy owns $10,000 to $100,000 in stock in Merck.

Ted Love, Nuvelo, President and CEO. Love is a member of the board of directors for Predix Pharmaceuticals and Santarus, as well as the California Healthcare Institute, a biomedical industry advocacy organization. He owns over $1 million in stock in Nuvelo and Theravance, a biotechnology company. A director at Nuvelo, David Williams, is also the CEO of PharmaFrontiers, a prominent stem cell company. Walter Funk, vice president of research at Nuvelo, was a founding scientist at Geron, the largest stem cell company.

Richard Murphy, Salk Institute, President.

Tina Nova, Genoptix, President and CEO. Genoptix, Inc., which develops lasers applicable in stem cell isolation. She also owns stock worth $100,000 to $1 million in the drug discovery firm Discovery Partners Inc. and serves on the Arena Pharmaceuticals board.

Philip Pizzo, Stanford University Medical School Dean.

Claire Pomeroy, UCD Medical School, Associate Dean.

Francisco Prieto, American Diabetes Association, President of Sacramento-Sierra chapter. Prieto is also a physician at Sutter Medical Group.

John Reed, Burnham Institute, President. Reed serves on the board of Stratagene Holding Corporation, which utilizes stem cell research in the development of its products. He owns stock in Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, and Shering, and serves on the boards of Isis Pharmaceuticals and Idun Pharmaceuticals.

Joan Samuelson, Parkinson's Action Network, President. Parkinson's Action Network accepts money from Medtronic, which engages in stem cell research. She appeared in an advertisement for the Proposition 71 campaign.

David Serrano-Sewell, City of San Francisco, deputy city attorney. Serrano-Sewell is a volunteer for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's government relations committee.

Jeff Sheehy, UC San Francisco, Director of Communications, AIDS Research Institute. Sheehy also serves in a volunteer capacity as Mayor Gavin Newsom's HIV-AIDS adviser.

Jonathan Shestack, Cure Autism Now, founder. A member of the Cure Autism Now Scientific Advisory Board, Ira Black, is also the founding Director of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey.

Oswald Steward, UC Irvine, chair and director of the Reeve-Irvine Research Center for Spinal Cord Injury. Steward owns $10,000 to $100,000 in stock in Renovis (where ICOC vice-chair Edward Penhoet is a director), which shares a director with Geron, a prominent stem cell company based in California. Furthermore, Renovis' exclusive licensee is AstraZeneca, which uses stem cells in their research programs.

Leon Thal, UC San Diego, director of Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and chair of Department of Neurosciences. Thal said he "thought long and hard" before accepting a seat on the stem cell board, in part because being on the board means that he could not apply for stem-cell research grants.

Gayle Wilson, Gilead Sciences, Director. Wilson owns $100,000 to $1 million in stock in the biotech company Boston Scientific Corp, which engages in stem cell research. Wilson announced her resignation from the ICOC in January 2006.

Janet Wright, American College of Cardiology.

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