In January Darden Executive Education traveled to the West Coast to take part in the 35th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. As the largest healthcare investment symposium in the industry, the conference attracts more than 450 private and public companies and over 9000 investors to the San Francisco Area.
To kick off the the week’s festivities, Darden co-hosted the annual Virginia Reception the evening of Sunday, 8 January with Virginia Bio. The reception brought together UVA and Darden alumni with the leaders of Virginia bioscience companies and translational research centers from across the country.
Virginia Bio CEO Jeff Gallagher explained, “One of the strategic objectives here is to help all of our universities integrate more fully into economic development and bioscience commercialization. And the Darden School has this extraordinary network of talented people throughout the world who are in the industry already.”
The reception garnered a packed room — in fact, attendance boasted a 73% increase year-over-year with a total of 180 attendees. Special guests in attendance included Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, Executive Vice President of Health Affairs at UVA Rick Shannon, CEO of Inova Center for Personalized Health Todd Stottlemyer, Senior Vice President of Health Sciences at VCU Marsha Rappley, Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands, and Celgene CEO Bob Hugin.
“[Darden and Virginia Bio] have put together another extraordinary event representing Virginia’s healthcare sector here at the J.P. Morgan conference,” said Rick Shannon. He continued:
“We’re doing business differently in Virginia…in partnership with INOVA, we’re excited that the University of Virginia is extending to the shadow of our nation’s capital where elements of the Darden iLab, the biomedical engineering program, materials and computer sciences and the medical school will be co-located [with INOVA] — an opportunity afforded us by the partnership with INOVA and the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Shannon went on to say, “Our idea is to launch a strategic investment fund, together with the Commonwealth and the governor’s effort to promote research investment, that will bring talent to Virginia that will allow Virginia to be the most productive, emerging place for biotechnology and healthcare.”
Darden Executive Education is honored to partner with the University of Virginia and the INOVA Center for Personalized Health. Together, we aim to create a ‘Research Rectangle’ in Northern Virginia, charting the course for what a 21st century biomedical enterprise can be.
If you have any questions regarding Darden’s work with the bioscience and healthcare industry, please contact Senior Director Heather Huff at
