External Advisory Board

A "task force" of private entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and expert investors was established in the summer of 2009 to specifically focus on business development at Scripps.  The advisory network contains tremendous business expertise and these individuals are truly passionate about helping  Scripps take an institutional focus on connecting basic research to private sector application.  Scripps leaders report regularly to this Task Force on all aspects of  business development  and the Task Force regularly reviews the Scripps research portfolio and advises on pathways for commercialization.

“Each of the volunteers on our Business Development Task Force are experts in their own realm and their support will be critical in forging the future of Scripps.”  

Jason B. Khoury is chairman of the Scripps Business Development Task Force.  Jason notes, “I support Scripps because we are all responsible for leaving the world in a better condition than how we found it. Through education, we will be able to make more informed decisions both on a corporate and personal level that hopefully will lead to environmental sustainability for us and the future generations.”  Jason is President and CEO of Pacific Scene Companies, a fully integrated real estate company. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Real Estate Planning and Development at University of Southern California. He is involved with several professional organizations, including the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), where he serves on their Board of Directors Executive Committee as Education Chairman.  Jason also serves on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Building Industry Association and is a member of the Executive Committee  He is a member of the San Diego and Riverside Building Industry Associations and is also a member of the Associated General Contractors (AGC). He supports a number of charities in the San Diego area, including Craig Kielburger’s Free the Children, the re-construction of Fire Station 13 in La Jolla, CAPF, St. Germaine’s Children’s Charity, as well as Father Joe Carroll and St. Vincent DePaul Village.  When he is not working or volunteering, Jason takes pleasure in working out and training in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, as well as coaching his son’s soccer and baseball teams. He also enjoys sailing, fishing (catch and release), reading, and spending time with friends and family. He resides in San Diego with his wife and two children.  As a Scripps supporter, Jason is interested in the development of the private and public partnerships with Scripps Oceanography.

Martha Fay Africa is Managing Director for Major, Lindsey & Africa.  Among the joys of being part of Major, Lindsey & Africa is the great learning that comes from interacting with clients and candidates from all over the world. Formerly a Placement Director at Boalt Hall School of Law, Martha Fay Africa (Marty) occasionally thinks that her job has not changed much since leaving academia. Helping a client or a candidate get from point A to point B is still at the heart of what she does and that is why she loves it. Working on searches at all levels from general counsel to executive director to counsel for varied organizations like The Nature Conservancy, Texas Pacific Group, Silicon Valley Bank, Stanford Research Institute, the California Independent System Operator (Cal ISO), the University of California, Blue Shield of California, Epicentric, Inc., to give a representative sample, consumes perhaps half of her time. Retained and contingent law firm searches at all levels from partners and/or groups to associates, writing and public speaking about issues of interest to lawyers and
law students, and service on non-profit boards consume the remainder. Marty is active in the American Bar Association, having served as liaison to the Commission on Women from the Law Practice Management Section and having founded Women Rainmakers, an organization devoted to training women lawyers in the art of networking and practice
building. She also serves on various committees addressing concerns relating to minority lawyer advancement, principally for the Bar Association of San Francisco. She is a member of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Council, among other outside interests.  Marty lives beside a creek in a redwood forest where, in her spare moments, she listens to jazz and thinks about the future of the legal profession.

Julia R. Brown is a member of the Board of Directors of Targacept, Inc., Labopharm, Inc., and MediQuest Therapeutics, Inc. She was a member of the founding Board of Directors of Trius Therapeutics, Inc. and continued to serve until its recent Series B financing. She remains on the Trius business advisory board. She was a member of the Board of Directors of Tanox, Inc. from 2005 until its acquisition by Genentech in 2007. She served on the business advisory board of CovX Pharmaceuticals from 2004 until its acquisition by Pfizer in 2008. Julia is a member of the board of CONNECT, an organization that fosters innovation, entrepreneurship and the formation of new companies. She serves on its public policy committee. Julia is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the University of California, San Diego Foundation. Julia is a certified director. She is a Tech Coast Angel, a member of NACD, Corporate Director’s Forum, and Athena.  From 2000-2003, Julia was Executive Vice President of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Advisor to the CEO until 2008. Prior to joining Amylin, Julia was Executive Vice President of Dura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. She was with Dura from 1995-1999. Julia spent over 25 years with Eli Lilly and Company in progressively more senior roles. From 1992-1994, Julia was Vice President of IVAC Corporation and General Manager of its Vital Signs Division (a Lilly subsidiary). She was Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for Hybritech (another Lilly subsidiary), and led global marketing from 1986-1992. She held a variety of positions in the pharmaceutical division, including eight years in the Company’s international division. She did basic research in antimicrobials from 1969-1973. Julia is a graduate of Louisiana Tech University where she studied microbiology and biochemistry.

James V. Cimino is Regional Managing Director at Wells Fargo Bank Private Bank.  Dr. Cimino was awarded a PhD in neurophysiology from the University of California, Berkeley and earned a Masters of Business Administration degree in Finance and Security Analysis from the University of California, Los Angeles Anderson Graduate School of Management. His undergraduate work was completed at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree.  Dr. Cimino resides in Rancho Santa Fe, California with his family. He is on the board of directors for the Barrio Logan College Institute, the California Trust for Public Land, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Scripps Stevens Cancer Center and the University of California, San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Stuart Goode has over thirty years of experience as an investments professional.  He is a private investor and fromer partner of E.M. Warburg Pincus & Co., a New Yorkbased venture banking and investments management firm. He was associated with the the firm from1981 through 1996. Stuartwas born and raised west of Chicago, and received a B.S. and M.B.A from NorthwesternUniversity. He resides in New York City and Bridgehampton, New York.

Wayne Kennedy joined the University of California's Office of the President as Senior Vice President for Business and Finance in July, 1993 and served in that capacity until retiring on September 1, 2000.  A nationally recognized expert in issues related to the financing of research universities and medical education, Mr. Kennedy previously was Vice Chancellor for Administration at UC San Diego for eight years. Mr. Kennedy's professional activities included past and present membership on numerous boards and committees dealing with technology transfer, government relations, grant and contract policies, private fund raising, and medical education administration.  He is also the author and co-author of numerous papers and statements delivered before governmental bodies and agencies and professional and academic organizations. Mr. Kennedy serves on the boards of several not for profit and for profit entities.

John Lormon, J.D. is a Partner at Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP.  Mr. Lormon specializes in environmental, climate change and sustainability law. He has experience working with local and state government and regulatory agencies on environmental permitting, entitlement and compliance matters. Mr. Lormon has handled project development, permitting compliance and enforcement issues.  Mr. Lormon has managed numerous Clean Air Act cases involving stationary and mobile sources. He has special expertise in air emission impacts to local communities. He has worked on carbon emission, diesel and soot projects in large projects in Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbor. He is experienced in health risk assessment matters on a local and a community wide scale involving vapor intrusion and pesticide / herbicide applications.  Mr. Lormon has been active in politics and bond initiatives. He was team leader for Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich’s (now DLA Piper Rudnick) environmental practice group for eight years before joining Procopio. He was appointed by the Governor to the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Diego Region 9 (1992 to 1996), and to the State Coastal Conservancy Board (1997 to 2004).

John Andrew "Mac" McQuown is a co-founder/director and principal of Diversified Credit Investments, located in San Francisco, a firm that manages portfolios of corporate credit risk for institutional investors. Mac was a co-founder and Chairman of KMV, a corporate credit risk analytics firm acquired by Moody's Investors Services in 2002. He co-founded and remains a director of Dimensional Fund Advisors, an equity funds investment advisor. Previously, he co-founded Diversified Corporate Loans, Chalone Wine Group, and Loan Performance. Mac began his business career in the Corporate Finance Department of Smith, Barney & Co., New York.  Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mac was the Director of Management Sciences, Wells Fargo Bank, where he was responsible for the effort that resulted in the world's first "index" equity funds. The McQuown family resides in Sonoma, California, where they grow organically wine grapes, heirloom vegetables, and olive oil; and their first proprietary red wine will soon be released. Mac received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University and a M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

John S. Patton, PhD is the Founder and CEO, Dance Pharmaceuticals.  He is a biotechnologist, entrepreneur and world renowned expert on drug delivery and the delivery of peptide and protein therapeutics. He is the Founder of Dance Pharmaceuticals and a Co-Founder of Pleiades Cardio Therapeutics, both 2009 biotechnology start-up companies. Prior to 2009, he co-founded Inhale Therapeutics (now Nektar Therapeutics) in 1990 and served as Chief Scientific Officer from 2001-2008 and as director from July 1990-2008. Nektar specializes in the development of new inhaled medicines and the PEGylation of small and large molecule therapeutics for improved efficacy and safety. Nektar developed the first inhaled insulin product which was approved in Jan 2006 in the US and Europe. From 1985 to 1990, Dr. Patton was with Genentech, Inc., the first biotechnology company, where he headed their non-invasive drug delivery activities. Dr. Patton was on the faculty of the Marine Science and Microbiology Departments at the University of Georgia from 1979 through 1985, where he was granted tenure in 1984. Dr. Patton received a B.S. in Zoology from Pennsylvania State University, an M.S. in Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island, a Ph.D. in Biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego and conducted post doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and the University of Lund, Sweden, both in biomedicine. Dr. Patton is also a director of Halozyme Therapeutics, and Pikamab Pharmaceuticals, Inc., both biotechnology companies and serves on the Pennsylvania State University, College of Science Advisory Board.