Great Expectations Update, September 2008

Allan Will Extends Support for the Will Course on Enterpreneurship in the Life Sciences

Now in its second year, the Will Course on Entrepreneurship in the Life Sciences has been extended for another five years with the generous support of its benefactor, Allan Will, ’76 Zoology. The course is designed to help biological science majors gain business skills to enable them to lead and perhaps establish biotechnology companies. The class makes use of guest lecturers with real world entrepreneurial experiences and has had a full enrollment since its founding.

Allan Will (pictured) is a founding Managing Director of Split Rock Partners. Based in the California office, he serves as a member of the firm's healthcare investment team and focuses on opportunities in therapeutic medical devices.

Before founding Split Rock Partners, Allan was a General Partner with St. Paul Venture Capital's healthcare team. He joined St. Paul Venture Capital in November 2002 from The Foundry, an incubator that he founded in 1998. At The Foundry, Allan served as a founder, CEO, director and advisor for early stage medical device companies, providing expertise in commercializing medical device technology. Allan has founded or cofounded thirteen companies, including Adjacent Surgical, Ardian, Cabochon Aesthetics, Cierra, Concentric Medical, Emphasys Medical, Evalve, First to File, ForSight Vision3, Miramar Labs, Satiety, The Foundry and XTENT.

Allan is an inventor on 23 issued patents for medical devices. He holds a bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of Maryland and a master's degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dean Allewell Visits California, Finds Golden Opportunities 

Dean Allewell spent several days in California in mid-July and visited with many alumni who have gone on to successful careers in the biotechnology industry, academia and pharmaceutical field. The alumni provided Dean Allewell and Asst. Dean Andrea Morris terrific insight and feedback related to their own individual scientific pursuits. Over the course of five days, Dean Allewell and Ms. Morris met with nine alumni who graduated between 1958 and1994.

Several alumni committed to continue or increase their level of financial support to the College. Their past support led to many student and faculty successes which encouraged their continued giving.

Among the alumni who greeted Dean Allewell was Dr. Cecilia Leonin Manibo, (Zool ’85), Chief of Staff and Medical Director of the Student Health Center at San Jose State University. Dr. Manibo arranged for in-depth tours of the health center, biology facilities, and libraries along with faculty visits. Impressed with the undergraduate program there, Dean Allewell encouraged the faculty to send talented students to Maryland for graduate school, given our close proximity to NIH and other federal agencies.

While in Southern California, Allewell and Morris visited alumnus Douglas Bingham, Executive Vice President of the Scripps Institute in La Jolla. Dean Allewell learned first hand of the expansion of Scripps Florida and opportunities for post-doctorial fellows and was encouraged to refer possible Maryland applicants. After the visit, Dean Allewell and Ms. Morris visited the area around Scripps and explored a sea cave carved by the Pacific Ocean. All in a day’s work for the Dean of the College of Chemical and Life Sciences.

The visit to San Diego was capped off for Dean Allewell with a poster presentation she gave at the 22nd Annual Symposium of The Protein Society. She met many talented young people with an interest in coming to Maryland for graduate school, post-docs, or junior faculty positions.