North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue, U.s. Senators to Speak at CED’s Biotech 2009

Research Triangle Park, NC, February 11, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Joan Siefert Rose, president of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) (www.cednc.org), a private, nonprofit organization that promotes entrepreneurial efforts in the Triangle region of North Carolina, has announced the speakers for the Biotech 2009 conference, scheduled for Monday, Feb. 16 and Tuesday, Feb. 17 at the Raleigh Convention Center, located at 500 S. Salisbury St.

N.C. Governor Bev Perdue is slated to provide opening remarks on Feb. 16. U.S. Senator Richard Burr will offer opening remarks Feb. 17. U.S. Senator Kay Hagan will address conference attendees during a lunch reception on Feb. 17.

Biotech 2009, CED’s 18th annual biotech conference, will unite the Southeast's life science community to celebrate one of the biotech industry's most dynamic regions.

Featured speakers for CED’s Biotech 2009 include:
· James C. Mullen, president and CEO of Biogen Idec
· Dr. Victor J. Dzau, president and CEO of Duke University Health System
· Dr. Oliver Smithies, Nobel laureate
· Holden Thorp, UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor
· The Honorable James C. Greenwood, president, CEO of Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Panel moderators include:
· Frederick Frank, vice chairman, Barclays Capital
· Heather Preston, M.D., Managing Director, TPG Biotech, TGP Growth, LLCDennis Gillings, Ph.D., CBE, chairman, CEO of Quintiles Transnational Corp.
· Richard Kent, M.D., venture partner at Intersouth Partners, former CEO of Serenex Inc.
· The Honorable James B. Hunt, Jr., former governor of North Carolina and attorney at law, Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice PLLC
· W. Steven Burke, senior vice president of corporate affairs of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and acting president of the Biofuels Center of North Carolina
· Michael Baldock, founding partner of Quattro Partners, LLP
· The Honorable E. Norris Tolson, president, CEO of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center
· Lynne Scott Safrit, North American commercial division president of Castle & Cooke North Carolina, LLC.

For a full list of panelists and speakers, visit www.cednc.org/conferences/biotech/2009.

“We are excited to have so many of our elected officials and influential members of North Carolina’s biotechnology community join us as speakers at CED’s Biotech 2009,” said Rose. “They are sure to provide a great deal of insight into the important things happening in the biotech industry in our region.”

About the Council for Entrepreneurial Development:
The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1984 to identify, enable and promote high-growth, high-impact companies and accelerate the region’s entrepreneurial culture. Headquartered in the Research Triangle Park, CED is the oldest and largest entrepreneurial support organization in the nation with more than 5,500 active members. CED provides know-how, networking, mentoring and capital formation resources to new and existing high-growth entrepreneurs through annual conferences, programs and web-based resources. CED has helped entrepreneurs, investors, service partners, researchers and public policy makers in diverse emerging industries and at all stages of development – from high-tech, production-based organizations to service companies, from one-person start-ups to 1000-person businesses. Visit www.cednc.org for more information.

Patty Briguglio
MMI Associates, Inc.
(919) 233-6600
patty@mmimarketing.com
PR Firms Raleigh, NC

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