The Team
The management and directors of Golden Pine Ventures have a history of past successful ventures in the biotechnology field. In total, they have successfully launched over two dozen companies, raised over a billion dollars in financing, and have taken seven companies public.
Peter D. Meldrum – Chairman, Board of Directors
Mr. Meldrum is currently the President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Myriad Genetics, a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company. He has been a Director of the Company since its inception in May 1991 and has been President and Chief Executive Officer since November 1991.
Prior to his time at Myriad he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Founder’s Fund, LLC, a venture capital group specializing in the biotechnology industry. While at Founder’s Fund he was involved in the establishment of nine portfolio companies that raised over $1 billion dollars, three of which successfully completed public offerings.
In 2002, Mr. Meldrum was selected by Scientific American as one of the Top 50 Scientific Visionaries in the World. He also received the Mountain West Venture’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2001, and was awarded the Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology in 1998. Mr. Meldrum currently serves as a member of the Engineering National Advisory Council, University of Utah College of Science Advisory Board, Executive Board of the Utah Life Sciences Association and Chairman of the Science Advisory Board at Westminster College.
Mr. Meldrum received an MBA degree from the University of Utah in 1974 and a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Utah in 1970. In
2004 he received an honorary doctorate degree from Westminster College.
Christopher S. Meldrum – Managing Director
Over his career Mr. Meldrum has worked extensively with development-stage biotechnology and medical device companies, helping to secure initial financing for several start-up ventures. From 1997 until 2002 he also served on the Board of Directors for one of these companies, Alaxis Biosciences, Inc.
Before coming to Golden Pine Ventures Mr. Meldrum held the position of Director, Corporate Alliances, at Paradigm Genetics, a publicly-traded biotechnology company where he led business development efforts for both the healthcare and agriculture businesses. He held business development positions of increasing responsibility since joining the company in the summer of 2000. During his time at Paradigm he negotiated to completion 7 revenue-generating collaborations with deal values totaling over $30 million.
Before joining Paradigm Mr. Meldrum worked as Licensing Associate for Purdue University where he managed the out-licensing of Purdue’s biotechnology and life sciences portfolio. Prior to his time at Purdue he worked for two years in the University of Minnesota’s technology transfer office. Over the course of his career he has successfully led negotiations for more than 80 fully-executed deals.
Mr. Meldrum received his MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, and his B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Utah.
Ian J. Mehr, Ph.D. – Managing Director
Dr. Mehr’s extensive experience in the life sciences spans both research and business development. Prior to joining Golden Pine Ventures Dr. Mehr served as Vice President of Business Development for Qualyst, Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company focused on novel and proprietary products that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of drug discovery and development. Dr. Mehr has also led business development at Paradigm Genetics and Laboratory Corporation of America, holding senior roles where he leveraged platform technologies for collaborative applications in drug discovery and development research. Dr. Mehr's considerable deal sheet is valued in excess of one hundred million dollars.
Dr. Mehr received his M.B.A. in strategy from Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, his Ph.D. in genetics, bacterial pathogenesis and immunology at Northwestern University's Medical Center, and his B.S. in microbiology with honors in genomics, molecular evolution and bioinformatics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Mehr is also involved with a number of local non-profit organizations, and in April
2007 was chosen among a select group of people to receive
the Triangle Business Journal's 40 Under 40 Leadership Award, acknowledging his accomplishments in business and contributions to the community.
John E. Hamer, Ph.D. - Director
Dr. Hamer is currently a Managing Director with Burrill & Company, a life sciences merchant bank. In addition to this role Dr. Hamer serves on the Boards of Directors of AgraQuest (observer), Chlorogen, CropDesign (observer) and E-Markets. Dr. Hamer co-founded Arete Therapeutics, Inc., a cardiovascular drug development company, and until recently served as the company’s President and CEO. Dr. Hamer joined Burrill & Co. in November 2003 as Entrepreneur-In-Residence.
Previously, he helped to build Paradigm Genetics, a public biotechnology company, from its beginning in 1998 serving in various capacities as Director of Microbial Research, Vice President of Research, Chief Scientific Officer, Vice President of Business Development and Interim President and CEO.
Dr. Hamer received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California, Davis in 1987 and was a visiting scientist at Dupont’s Central Research and Development from 1987 to 1989. He also served on the faculty of Purdue University where he held the positions of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor,
Professor and Adjunct Professor of Biological Sciences. Dr. Hamer also served as Adjunct Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Indiana University/Purdue University Medical School. He serves on numerous scientific review and advisory boards including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, Purdue Alumni Science Advisory
Board and North Carolina Genomic and Bioinformatics Consortium.
James A. Severson, Ph.D. - Director
Dr. Severson is the Vice President of Global Networks for Veratect Corporation, a Seattle company providing early warning systems to global businesses to predict disease-related commerce disruptions. Most recently Dr. Severson was Vice Provost for Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer at the University of Washington, where he held responsibility for programs to commercialize discoveries made from research conducted at the University. Prior to joining the University of
Washington Dr. Severson was the President of the Cornell Research Foundation, where he had responsibility for technology transfer from Cornell’s Ithaca campus and the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City.
From 1990 to 1999 Dr. Severson held positions in technology transfer at the University of Minnesota, including Director of Health Technologies in the Office of Patents & Technology Marketing. From 1986 to 1990 he was with Amersham Corporation and held positions in new technology assessment and market development. Dr. Severson is a Past President of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), a national organization of university technology transfer professionals, and has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR), a Washington-based association of over 140 research universities that focuses on the policies and issues of federally sponsored research programs at universities. In 2005 Dr. Severson received the Bayh-Dole Award in recognition of his untiring efforts to foster and promote intellectual property activities on behalf of the university and nonprofit community.
Dr. Severson received a B.S. in zoology and a Ph.D. in physiology from Iowa State University, and did postdoctoral research at the University of Southern California. From 1980 to 1986 Dr. Severson held a faculty appointment in the University of Southern California School of Medicine.