Two of southern Arizona’s bioscience rising stars are getting new additions to their front office this summer. Tucson entrepreneur Larry Aldrich has been named chief operating officer of the new drug development institute, C-Path, and 36-year-old Shaun Kirkpatrick is taking the reins at Research Corporation Technologies as CEO, where he was formerly president and COO.
C-Path president and CEO Dr. Ray Woosley tapped Aldrich, formerly president and chief executive officer of Tucson Newspapers, Inc. and now general partner in the venture capital investment fund Valley Ventures III LLP, to head up operations of the collaborative drug research center.
“I was inspired by the vision – it sounds so hokey, but it’s true,” Aldrich told the Arizona Daily Star. “It was the chance to be part of something so powerful and interesting.”
C-Path, operating under an initial business plan forged by the University of Arizona, the Food and Drug Administration, and SRI International of California, currently has 39 full-time employees and $7.5 million in pledged funds, with $525,000 collected to date. According to the Star, C-Path officials hope its innovative projects to cut down on the cost and time of taking a drug to market will pull down $13.5 million in annual revenue by its fifth operational year.
The Star reported that Aldrich is also a director on the boards of two Tucson biotech companies, CellzDirect Inc. and HTG Inc.
And Flinn Scholar alumnus Kirkpatrick (’87) became president and chief executive officer of Tucson-based RCT on June 1, following Gary M. Munsinger’s retirement. Munsinger will remain on RCT’s board of directors as non-executive chairman.
Kirkpatrick, has been with RCT 12 of its 18 years, most recently serving as the president and chief operating officer of the company. The technology investment company, which began in 1987 to provide support for biotechnology development and angel funding for research start-ups, has assets exceeding $300 million and international alliances in Australia and Cambridge, England. Of RCT’s 40 employees, 35 of them work in Tucson, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
Kirkpatrick has managed RCT’s commercialization group and taken on leadership roles in some of the start-up companies in which RCT invested. Kirkpatrick told the Star that some of his first orders of business as CEO will be to staff some open positions, including chief scientific officer and a new branch opening in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina.
After attending the University of Arizona on the Flinn scholarship, where he received a dual bachelor’s degree in biology and economics, Kirkpatrick continued on to Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and earned a master’s degree in science/technology and international economics.
Along with his new leadership role at RCT, Kirkpatrick was recently spotted in Phoenix playing honorary emcee at the Flinn Scholars May 15 recognition dinner for graduating seniors and scholar-designates.
For more information:
“UA alum now head of RCT tech firm,” Arizona Daily Star, 05/28/2005
“Local business leader to head drug research institute,” Arizona Daily Star, 05/27/2005