J.P. Morgan Healthcare Week Webinar

Douglas Kawahara
Biotech CEO, Board Member
Principal, DJK BioConsult

Douglas Kawahara is a C-level executive with both scientific/business knowledge and experience: >30 years of biotechnology industry experience in executive leadership, business/corporate development, M&A (search & evaluation; due diligence; negotiation), in-/out-licensing, technology assessment, strategic marketing/market analysis, and R&D management; plus 10 years of basic and clinical research experience in immune regulation and autoimmune diseases. His work has spanned the spectrum of the life sciences industry: multiple therapeutic areas (oncology, inflammatory & autoimmune diseases, infectious disease, CNS, CV); discovery to late-stage development; a range of therapeutic classes (small molecule, peptides, biologics), therapeutic and preventive vaccines; platform technologies; diagnostics; and research products. He has a Ph.D. in microbiology (cellular immunology), MBA (finance), and is a Certified Licensing Professional.

Eric Zeece
Executive Director, Central Oregon Innovation Hub, Oregon State University – Cascades

Eric Zeece established the new capital readiness program based at Oregon State University – Cascades. Prior to that, Eric was chief executive officer of Thyreos Inc, an alpha herpesvirus vaccine startup located at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Eric's consulting work included contracts with major state universities to assist biotech startups in commercialization efforts.  He authored the Nebraska Department of Economic Development’s State Small Credit Initiative program application for the State of Nebraska including program design of more than $64 million in grant, loan and equity investment efforts to support innovation and innovators in the state.

Eric served as Innovation Manager at a venture capital fund, establishing the state's first wet-lab incubator- operated by the fund.  He held the positions of interim director, deputy director, and chief performance officer at the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.   At the Innovation Accelerator Foundation, Eric served as the senior commercialization specialist.  IAF was a national accelerator working with the National Science Foundation for phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award recipient startups throughout the country.