Award Winners
The Robert A. Spar Memorial Founders' Award
The Bio-Life-Tech Founders' Award is awarded to an individual who has shown outstanding commitment, leadership and support of the venture capital community as a whole. This individual is committed to the growth of the overall venture capital community and has shown a belief in and commitment to this region in the development of venture capital and entrepreneurial activity.
This year, we are renaming the Bio-Life-Tech Founders' Award to the Robert A. Spar Memorial Founders' Award in memory of Robert A. Spar - An Inspiration, Supporter, Colleague and Friend.
Robert A. Spar started his legal career at Weinberg & Green in 1988 and stayed on when that firm became the Baltimore office of Philadelphia- based Saul Ewing in 1998.
Spar forecasted early the increasing importance of biotechnology as an industry in Maryland and the need for legal representation by life science companies. So he made that the focus of his practice and worked with both startups and large pharmaceutical companies. Robert A. Spar was loved and respected by his colleagues and clients who remember his helpful nature, sense of humor and indomitable spirit.
Spar served as co-chairman of the Life Sciences Transactions and Strategic Alliances team within the Life Sciences Practice group. Spar also helped found the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards in 2000, and co-chaired the transactions and strategic alliances team of Saul Ewing's Life Science practice.
2008 Winners
Richard C. Birkmeyer, Ph.D
Senior Partner, Leading Technologies Inc.
Dr. Birkmeyer advises numerous biotech, large corporations and venture firms on acquisitions, technology assessment, funding and corporate partnering. He is a board member providing counsel for six different corporations.
Dr. Birkmeyer was the founder of Strategic Diagnostics in 1990, a public company on NASDAQ (SDIX). While CEO and president at SDI, he established and implemented highly successful strategic corporate partnerships with Fortune 100 companies, raised venture capital financing, completed six strategic acquisitions including utilizing a financial reverse merger resulting in the public company.
Dr. Birkmeyer received his B.S. in biology from the State University of New York in Plattsburgh, his Ph.D. in biochemistry/immunology from the State University of New York in Binghamton and completed post-doctoral research in immunogenetics at Iowa State University.
Pier 5 Hotel, Baltimore Inner Harbor Baltimore, Maryland
December 9th & 10th, 2008
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