Richard Murphy, Lori Hoffman, Roya Stanley, Edward Bowman Jr., Tom Vessey, Jack Callicutt, Andrew Weesner

 

Richard Murphy has been named interim president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine by its governing board, just a month after retiring as president and CEO of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif. He succeeds interim president Lori Hoffman, who held the position since Zach Hall retired in April; she continues with CIRM as its chief finance and administrative officer.

 

Murphy will serve through March 2008, when CIRM expects to have completed its search for a permanent president. Murphy has ruled himself out for that position, after expressing to CIRM a desire to move East to be closer to his children and grandchildren. As interim president, Murphy will be paid $300,000 and serve as a consultant for up to six months. Because he is an independent contractor, Murphy will not be entitled to any health or retirement benefits from the state-created CIRM, which funds human embryonic stem-cell research.

 

Murphy will work with CIRM’s chief scientific officer, Arlene Chiu, on a scientific transition program for the agency, while she advances her new initiative to develop junior research faculty members at California institutions, and helps the institute review applications for major facilities grants.

 

At Salk, Murphy led strategic planning and fundraising efforts that resulted in the renovation of one-third of the institute’s research space, the hiring of 16 new investigators, and the establishment of new programs in chemistry, computational and theoretical biology, and stem cell research.

 

Before joining Salk in 2000, Murphy was director of the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University, where he was also a professor of neurology and neurosurgery. At McGill, he spearheaded a successful movement to restore government funding for basic research in Canada.

 

Murphy received his doctorate in zoology at Rutgers University and a bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross. He conducted post-doctoral studies at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and began his academic career at the Harvard University Medical School’s Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy in 1976, with funding via a Sloan Fellowship and a NIH Career Development Award. He left Harvard in 1986 to chair the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Canada’s University of Alberta.

 

 

Roya Stanley has been named director of Iowa’s Office of Energy Independence, Gov. Chet Culver announced Aug. 6. The appointment is subject to approval by the state Senate.

 

Stanley will oversee Iowa’s biofuel production and transportation efforts, as well as the state’s new four-year, $100 million investment vehicle Iowa Power Fund and its new Office of Energy Independence. In addition, she will lead public education about renewable energy and energy efficiency; pursue funding for those efforts from public and private sources; and coordinate all existing state and federal grants, programs and policies relating to renewable energy, renewable fuels and energy efficiency.

 

“Biofuels has been a terrific boon to our economy and without question has made us a leader in the renewable energy industry.  We must now ask ourselves ‘what's next?’” Culver said in his announcement.

 

Stanley previously worked for Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources. During her 18 years with the department, she collaborated with several Iowa organizations to develop the state’s switchgrass initiative, laying the foundation for a cellulosic fuel of the future. And as chief of the department’s energy bureau, Stanley led the development of a state program that provided more than $150 million in energy-efficiency project investments for Iowa public facilities.

 

Stanley earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Colorado State University.

 

 

 

Edward Bowman Jr. has been named chairman of Connecticut Innovations by Gov. Jodi Rell. CI is a quasi-public agency charged with helping grow Connecticut’s economy through venture capital and other investments.

 

Bowman, a Southbury, Conn., resident, is the former owner of Village Oil Company and a current member of the board of directors of the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association, an organization of local home heating oil and gasoline distributors. He was elected to the Cheshire Town Council in November 1994 and served until March 1997.

 

“I am especially pleased that Ned comes to this job from an energy background, because my energy vision for Connecticut calls for strategic investments in developing technologies that will make our state more independent and efficient in the years to come,” Rell said in the Aug. 8 press release announcing Bowman’s appointment.

 

Bowman succeeds Elaine Pullen, who announced her resignation on Aug. 6 from the unpaid CI chairman position.

 

Bowman has a biofuel background, through his role in the development of a bioenergy production facility in Cheshire, Conn., by the F & S Oil Company. The News-Times of Danbury, Conn., citing unnamed state officials, reported that F & S is seeking a $200,000 low-interest loan toward materials and equipment, in return for creating a dozen jobs. Bowman is no longer involved with F & S, the officials told the newspaper.

 

 

 

Tom Vessey has been named a Bank of America senior vice president and senior client manager for commercial banking in San Diego.

 

Vessey is responsible for serving biotechnology companies, as well as technology, financial, and sporting companies and other large general industries corporations. In addition to delivering traditional banking products and services to these clients, Vessey will also partner with the company's Global Investment Banking team to bring capital markets and advisory solutions to clients and prospects.

 

Vessey's appointment completes the market's commercial banking leadership team, led by the recently appointed market executive Kate Collier. Under Collier, eight client teams in Orange County and San Diego serve “middle market” companies with annual revenues of $20 million to $2 billion by offering services that include credit, treasury services, investment banking, and international banking.

 

Vessey previously served as vice president and senior relationship manager at Union Bank of California, and has 26 years in the banking industry in San Diego. Prior to this, Vessey played six years of professional baseball as a catcher for the San Diego Padres and Houston Astros.

 

He graduated from the California Intermediate School of Banking and attended San Diego State University prior to signing a contract to play professional baseball with the Padres in 1977.

 

 

Jack Callicutt has been named vice president and chief financial officer of Tikvah Therapeutics, an Atlanta biopharmaceutical company focused on treatments for central nervous system diseases, effective Aug. 6.

 

Callicutt was previously senior vice president and chief financial and accounting officer at Corautus Genetics, which he joined in September 2003, and negotiated the recent merger of Corautus with Via Pharmaceuticals. Earlier he spent 14 years with Deloitte, a global accounting firm.

 

Callicutt is a certified public accountant who graduated cum laude from Delta State University.

 

 

 

Andrew Weesner has joined Meredith & Grew's Development & Advisory group as a project manager with a primary focus on the fit-up of tenant space for both tenants and building owners.

 

Weesner received his MBA from Babson College, a BSc in construction project management from Wentworth Institute of Technology, and a BA in economics from Lake Forest College in Chicago. Previously, Weesner had various levels of responsibility for real estate-related projects in positions with Spaulding & Slye Colliers, AJ Martini, and the Modern Continental Companies, all in Boston.

Weesner lives in Boston.