Biocom California adds new members to its board of governors

Biocom California, the association representing the California life science industry, today announced that it has appointed Matthew Bresnahan, partner at Wilson Sonsini; Denise DeMan, founder, chair and chief executive officer of Bench International; and Thierry Diagana, Ph.D., head of the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases to its board of governors.

“The last year has seen tremendous interest from the public at large in the biotechnology industry, yet there are a number of threats to the future industry’s ability to develop life-saving therapies that loom on the horizon,” said Joe Panetta, president and chief executive officer of Biocom California. “We are actively working to appoint the brightest minds in the life science industry to help guide Biocom California to successfully meet the challenges ahead of us, and these individuals will have great influence.”

Mr. Bresnahan is a partner in the San Diego and Los Angeles offices of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he has focused his practice for more than a decade on establishing and building biotechnology companies. His training is in all aspects of intellectual property, including strategic patent counseling, patent prosecution, licensing and litigation. He is an adjunct professor of law at the University of San Diego School of Law and serves as an advisor on medtech issues at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Mr. Bresnahan earned his J.D. from the University of San Diego.

Ms. DeMan is the founder, chairman and CEO of Bench International, the oldest and largest global executive search firm serving the life sciences. She serves as a member of multiple non-profit boards including Learning Forum International, which focuses on childhood education, as well as the Maple Counseling Center, a non-profit organization committed to providing low-cost, comprehensive mental health services. She holds a double Master of Science degree in auditory pathology and speech pathology. Prior to founding Bench, Ms. DeMan served as a research fellow in a joint research program sponsored by National Institute of Health (NIH) and Siemens Corporation; the University of California, San Diego; San Diego State University; and the San Diego Speech and Hearing Center.

Dr. Diagana is the Emeryville Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research Site Head, where he leads the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD), which was initially based in Singapore and recently relocated to California. NITD aims to discover novel treatments and prevention methods for major tropical diseases. NITD advanced multiple innovative drug candidates to clinical trials to address major global health challenges such as malaria and dengue. He carried out his Ph.D. work at the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France) and completed his post-doctoral studies at the Salk Institute (La Jolla, California). Business Wire