As Head of Company Sourcing for JLABS, Kara leads the company recruitment and selection process for JLABS including JLABS San Diego, JLABS@QB3 in San Francisco and JLABS@LabCentral in Cambridge/Boston. In this role, Kara is actively building a pipeline of prospects and driving licensee companies through diligence, selection, and joining JLABS. Kara coordinates with the J&J Innovation Centers and J&J Development Corporation to build opportunities and grow relationships between JLABS companies and potential strategic partners.

Moderated by Dennis Ford, Founder and CEO of Life Science Nation this panel of  active Life Science investors will explore their thoughts and experiences on what it takes to identify and support a winning life science  investment partnership with Paneists: Neil  Berkley of GSK, Cynthia Ekberg Tsai, and Conrad Plimpton

Named 2016 Arizona Bioscience Leader of the Year, Mara Aspinall is a biotech industry executive and healthcare pioneer. Aspinall is President and CEO of HealthCatalysts, a firm dedicated to the growth of new healthcare companies.  Aspinall is also Executive Chairman of GenePeeks, a computational genomics company creating a paradigm shift in genetic testing and personalized medicine.  GenePeeks’ proprietary technology can identify the risk of passing on monogenic disease to progeny pre-conception through data mining the maternal and paternal genomes.  Aspinall is the former President and CEO of Ventana Medical Systems division of Roche, worldwide leader in development and commercialization of tissue-based cancer diagnostics. Mara previously spent 12 years as President of Genzyme Genetics and Genzyme Pharmaceuticals. Genzyme Genetics, set the standard for quality in the diagnostics industry leading the market in prenatal and cancer testing. The business was sold to LabCorp for $1 billion. Aspinall is a member of the Board of Directors of Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE), Abcam plc (AIM:ABC), Blue Cross Blue Shield Arizona, Castle Biosciences and SenesTech.

Moderated by Mara Aspinal. Panelists:  Lindy Fisburne, Executive Director of Breakout Labs and Senior Vice President for Investments at the Thiel Foundation, Leading Biotechnology Entrepreneur and Investor Isaac Blech, and Tom McKenzie off Cavendish Global