RAISING CAPITAL - OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) May 2, 2004 -- Sponsored by

Preston|Gates|Ellis LLP

Panelists:

Entrepreneur:

Rhoda Makoff, Ph.D., is the former Founder and CEO of R&D Laboratories, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company. In the mid-1980s, Dr. Makoff started R&D Laboratories Inc. She served as the company's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer until 2000, when R&D Laboratories was acquired by a New York Stock Exchange company. In the early 1970s, after years of biochemistry research, Dr. Makoff co-founded the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. Dr. Makoff now pursues business consulting and charitable work.



Venture Capital:

Barbara N. Lubash, is a Managing Director of Versant Ventures. Versant Ventures has offices in Newport Beach and Menlo Park, California. Versant invests in all segments of health care, including medical devices, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, healthcare services and healthcare information technology. Versant Ventures raised its first fund in 1999, and is currently investing its second fund of $400 million. Prior to joining Versant, she was a Venture Partner at Crosspoint Venture Partners, where she also focused on early stage investments in healthcare services. Prior to that, she was Senior Vice President of Private Healthcare Systems, a national PPO. Her career also includes management roles at the hospital information systems division of Hewlett-Packard, and at the Harvard Community Health Plan, where she managed one of the first electronic medical record installations in the country. She serves on the Governing Board of the National Center for Children�s Healthcare Quality and is an advisor to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth.



Strategic Alliances:

Jane E. Rady, is Corporate Vice President, Strategy and Technology at Advanced Medical Optics, Inc. Prior to joining AMO, Ms. Rady was a director and the Chief Executive Officer of Integrated Genomics, Inc. From 1984 to 2000, Ms. Rady held various senior-level positions at G.D. Searle/Monsanto. Her roles included President and General Manager of Searle's U.S. joint venture, Lorex Pharmaceuticals; Vice President of Corporate Licensing & Business Development; Vice President of Strategic Planning; and Director of Venture Capital Investing.



Early Stage Seed and Angel Money:

Karen Z. Gifford, is an advisor to the NASA Commercialization Center, Pomona Technology Center and Entrepreneur Quest and is the former founding Director of Consulting for Venture Point. Ms. Gifford has 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and management consulting on an international basis with an emphasis in technology. She has been a financial intermediary and investor, coached companies on developing appropriate documentation for the investor community, assisted firms with their strategic and tactical business, marketing and sales planning issues. In the 1980�s, Ms. Gifford was the first National Aerospace Industry Executive for a $150 million division of the McDonnell Douglas Information Systems Group. Ms. Gifford is a recurrent guest lecturer at the UCLA and USC Entrepreneur Programs and the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum.



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