2008 Entrepreneurship Presentations to Feature Industry Entrepreneurs and Investors

CLAREMONT, Calif., February 29, 2008 – Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) today announced that the 2008 Entrepreneurship Presentations will take place on Friday, March 7, 2008, from 1:00-5:00 pm PST and feature a panel of local entrepreneurs and investors evaluating student business plans.

The event is part of KGI’s Applied Entrepreneurship course (ALS 458) led by co-instructors Molly Schmid, PhD, KGI professor, entrepreneur-in-residence and director of research, and David Margolese, PhD, adjunct professor, and vice president and chief technical officer of ORFID Corporation, an organic electronics company.

“This annual event keeps getting bigger every year, and we are delighted by the response from the KGI community and from local entrepreneurs and investors to participate in this event,” said Schmid. “Students get the chance to prepare their ideas for the biotech companies of tomorrow and have business leaders and investors critique these projects. This is the kind of hands-on, real-world education that students enjoy at KGI.”

Seven student teams will present their business plans for biotech companies aimed at developing new therapeutics and devices, scientific instruments and reagents, biomaterials and green products. Student teams must create a written business plan, make a 20-minute presentation and field questions from the evaluation panel and from an audience of KGI students, faculty and staff.

Margolese has more than 20 years’ experience developing new materials and technologies in the semiconductor and related industries. Previously, he was employed at Systine, Inc., a start-up company in Pasadena, Calif., as both principle investigator and senior scientist on a nanotechnology program to develop displays based on nanoparticles.

KGI Background
Educating the future leaders of the bioscience industry, Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) offers an interdisciplinary graduate education through its Master of Bioscience (MBS) degree program and its Ph.D. program in Applied Life Sciences. Using team-based learning and real-world projects, KGI's innovative curriculum seamlessly combines applied life sciences, bioengineering, bioethics and business management. KGI also has a robust research program concentrating on the translation of basic discoveries in the life sciences into applications that can benefit society. KGI is a member of The Claremont Colleges, located in Claremont, California.

Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences is dedicated to education and research aimed at translating into practice, for the benefit of society, the power and potential of the life sciences.