Thanks to our speakers, panelists, partner organizations and the attendees for making the 2008 Ohio Biz/Bio Event a success!
Anthony J. Dennis, Ph.D., a microbiologist, entrepreneur, technology advocate and native Ohioan, became president of Edison BioTechnology Center, the predecessor organization to BioOhio, on January 1, 2002. Dennis is the third president in the organization's 15-year history. He succeeded Frank Samuel Jr., who left the post to become science and technology advisor to Ohio Governor Bob Taft in June 2000.
Dennis brought to BioOhio a strong familiarity with the state's bioscience community. After receiving B.S. (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) degrees in microbiology from The Ohio State University, he began to work for Battelle in Columbus, first as an entry-level researcher and eventually as vice president for biotechnology. He then served a two-year stint as president of IntraCel, a biotech company operating in Geneva, Switzerland. He returned to the U.S. in 1990 to serve as vice president for research and development at Tastemaker (now Givaudan, a division of Roche), from 1990 until 1997.
Dennis then co-founded Nutri-Logics, Inc., where he acted as president through two rounds of start-up funding. He concluded his day-to-day responsibilities at Nutri-Logics in 2000. Simultaneous to the founding of Nutri-Logics, Dennis was co-founding another startup, BIO-NOVA, in Portland, Oregon, where he served as executive vice president until joining BioOhio, which at the time was named Omeris.
In addition to his hands-on involvement with startup bioscience companies, Dr. Dennis is an expert in the general area of innovation and creativity in research, particularly as it applies to the development and commercialization of new products. He is currently completing a book that examines the key barriers to breakthrough innovation in the United States that will include recommendations on how to surpass these barriers.
He is also highly familiar with the workings of a bioscience industry association. In Oregon, he served as a director of the Oregon Biotechnology Association (OBA), and he was a consultant for the Oregon Resource and Technology Development Account, the Oregon state technology development fund.
Dennis also has experience as a technology advocate and strategist in the state of Ohio, where he has served as a member of The Ohio State University Graduate Dean's Alumni Council and the OSU Agricultural Technology Development Council.
