Founder

Dedicated to providing the global life science community with meaningful ways to connect, collaborate, and innovate, Alexandria founded the Alexandria Summit in 2011. The Summit fosters connectivity and collaboration among the medical, academic, industry, financial, and government communities as they tackle the most critical global healthcare challenges and shape future directions in life science research and development.

Apella™, Event Space at Alexandria Center™, provides the environment necessary for this crucial exchange. With a name originating from the ancient Greek gatherings of Spartan thought leaders, Apella is a global destination for collaborative exchange and innovation.

Since 1996, Alexandria Venture Investments, the strategic investment arm of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., has been supporting innovation and entrepreneurship by investing significant capital in the broad and diverse life science sector. Alexandria has made over 200 direct life science investments and commitments aggregating approximately $200 million.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., Landlord of Choice to the Life Science Industry®, is the largest REIT focused principally on providing high-quality real estate for the life science industry. Since 1994, Alexandria has created first-in-class life science clusters that foster innovative and collaborative environments in key locations immediately proximate to leading research institutions. Alexandria's broad and diverse tenant base includes internationally renowned academic and medical institutions, multinational pharmaceutical companies, leading private and public biotechnology entities, non-profit institutions, government agencies, medical device companies, biofuels companies, research tools and service companies, and venture capitalists. Located in the top life science markets around the globe, Alexandria's world-class properties, highly specialized operations, and expansive network assist the life science industry in translating promising discoveries into important, safe, and effective products that benefit humankind.

Joel S. Marcus is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Founder of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE:ARE), an urban office REIT uniquely focused on urban, world-class collaborative science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations. Mr. Marcus co-founded Alexandria in 1994 as a garage startup with a business plan and $19 million in seed capital and has led its growth into a publicly traded, investment-grade REIT. Alexandria has a total market capitalization of approximately $13 billion and significant market presence in key locations, including Greater Boston, San Francisco, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland, and Research Triangle Park. In 1996, Mr. Marcus also founded Alexandria Venture Investments, the company’s strategic venture capital arm, which he currently leads with a focus on novel, breakthrough discoveries in biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, research tools, agtech, digital health, and technology. In 2011, Mr. Marcus co-founded the renowned Alexandria Summit, an invitation-only gathering of the world’s foremost visionaries from the biopharmaceutical, medical, academic, financial, philanthropic, advocacy, and government communities, to address the most critical global healthcare challenges. Prior to co-founding Alexandria, Mr. Marcus had an extensive legal career specializing in corporate finance and capital markets, venture capital, and mergers and acquisitions, with a unique expertise in the biopharmaceutical industry, and was one of the principal architects of the Kirin-Amgen EPO joint venture in 1984. He was also a practicing certified public accountant and tax manager with Arthur Young & Co., where he focused on the financing and taxation of REITs. Mr. Marcus was one of the original architects and co-founders of Accelerator Corporation and AgTech Accelerator, for which he serves on the board of directors. He also serves on the boards of Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRA), Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), Friends of Cancer Research, Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITCI), MedBlue Incubator, Inc., MeiraGTx Limited, Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), NewYorkBIO, NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate, Partnership for New York City, and Yumanity Therapeutics, as well as on NAREIT’s 2017 Executive Board. Mr. Marcus is a recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Los Angeles – Real Estate). He was awarded his undergraduate and Juris Doctor degrees at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Emily Sheridan is Vice President of Strategic Programming & Philanthropy for Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. Ms. Sheridan works oversees the development and execution of life science programming for the collaborative spaces at the Alexandria Center for Life Science – New York City, including the Alexandria Summit and Converge at Alexandria. She also works on Alexandria’s transformational philanthropic program, providing critical support for medical research as well as military support service. Prior to joining Alexandria, she was Director of Development at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California, where she raised funds to advance the development and delivery of novel, more effective therapies for patients fighting cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening diseases. Ms. Sheridan received her BA in Psychology from Vassar College.

Deeda Blair is a long-standing advocate for biomedical research and for advancing global public health. Mrs. Blair served for 35 years as Vice President of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, working closely with Mrs. Lasker on the awards program, special projects, and on the Citizens Committee for the Conquest of Cancer. Together they initiated one of the most successful global public health outreach campaigns, The National Campaign Against High Blood Pressure, which sought to educate the public concerning the need for blood pressure screening – involving a collaboration of federal health agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and the Advertising Council.

Mrs. Blair has had a longtime interest in science. She served for more than 12 years on the Board of the American Cancer Society on the Research Committee, and in the 1970s she served on the Breast Cancer Task Force of the National Cancer Institute.

Mrs. Blair served on the Board of Scripps Research Institute from 1996 - 2009.

Mrs. Blair has been Secretary and a director of the Foundation for the National Institute of Health since its inception 15 years ago. The Foundation is active in a range of public-private partnerships, from the Gates Foundation's Grand Challenges in Global Health to the recently announced Genetic Association Information network and the Alzheimer's Imaging Project and Biomarkers Consortium.

Mrs. Blair has had a longtime involvement with the Harvard School of Public Health. She is Co-Chairman of the Harvard AIDS Initiative International Advisory Council and is a member of the Harvard AIDS Initiative Policy Board.

Having lived in Asia and Europe as the wife of Ambassador William McCormick Blair, Jr., she became deeply interested in a global approach to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.

Mrs. Blair's professional activities include serving as a consultant to the Head of Pharmaceuticals of Sandoz (then Novartis) and Head of Research from 1987 to 2005, focusing on academic relationships and biotech collaborations.

Lynne Zydowsky, PhD, is an experienced executive in the life science industry who has been involved in the launching and building of many successful companies. Her biotechnology experience spans all aspects of corporate and business development, operations, and finance. With over 20 years of industry experience, she has played a key role in raising private capital, setting overall corporate strategy, and establishing and managing strategic alliances.

As President of Zydowsky Consultants, a consulting practice founded in 2003 offering services to emerging companies, Dr. Zydowsky works with founders, investors, and management teams to build the foundations of life science companies. Previously, Dr. Zydowsky was a Co-Founder of Renovis, Inc. (now Evotec) and served as the initial President and Chief Operating Officer, and as a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to Renovis, Dr. Zydowsky joined Exelixis, Inc. as its first employee and held positions of increasing responsibility, including Vice President of Pharmaceutical Business Development. As part of the executive management team, she contributed to the growth and development of both companies, which led to their initial public offerings.

In 2011, Dr. Zydowsky, together with Joel Marcus and Deeda Blair, co-founded the Alexandria Summit®, an annual, invitation-only gathering that brings together the world’s foremost visionaries from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, medical, academic, financial, philanthropic, advocacy groups, and government to exchange ideas and help shape future decisions about life science research, scientific development, and regulatory reform to tackle the most important global healthcare challenges and accelerate the discovery of cost-effective, lifesaving therapies.

Dr. Zydowsky serves as a member of the West Coast Board for buildOn, an international non-profit organization focused on breaking the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations through its after school programs for urban teens based on changing lives and communities through service locally and globally. Since September 2016, Dr. Zydowsky also serves on the Board of Trustees for Butler University.

Dr. Zydowsky earned her PhD in Chemistry from The Ohio State University and was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. She was a Senior Research Scientist at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline plc, and has a BS in Pharmacy from Butler University.