I am delighted to be involved in promoting alumni relations in Northern California and working together with Brian Jones who represents the southern part of the state. I spent six happy years in Liverpool where I completed my undergraduate and PhD in physics before joining ICI/Zeneca in the late 80s. I am not sure if it was a blessing or a curse, but I lived in seven different residences across the city so I certainly got a good exposure to the various locales (and pubs).
I came to America in the mid 90s to do an MBA at Harvard before embarking on a career in venture capital, firstly in Belgium then a decade in Munich, Germany. During this period I was fortunate to travel to the entrepreneurial hotbeds of the world and none was more impressive and exciting than the San Francisco Bay Area. It always struck me as amazing that this relatively small region by size has produced more iconic companies in both IT and biotech than any other region of the world, and continues to do so. Increasingly it is also becoming the world centre for cleantech start-ups. Particularly across the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County and up to the wine country of Napa/Sonoma it is also the pioneering centre for the development of innovative healthy foods and lifestyle products (mountain bikes were invented here!). It wasn't too much of a sell therefore, to bring my wife and two children here a couple of years ago. I now work as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at a venture capital firm where I build new companies from leading edge innovations coming from academia and entrepreneurs across the spectrum of the life sciences.
In addition to helping our local alumni network both here and across the US, one of my objectives in taking up the position of Alumni Ambassador is to work with our alumni to raise the profile of the University in this huge economic engine, which if it were a standalone country would be among the 10 largest economies of the world. I look forward to hearing from anyone who would like to get involved in any way including ideas for events or ways we can help the University prosper.
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