The Entrepreneur's Journey: Firsthand Experiences in Founding, Building and Selling Ventures - 2

Bill Walker and Jay Strum headshots

 Bill Walker, Ph.D., Executive in Residence, Pratt School of Engineering
Jay Strum, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, ARC Therapeutics

Sponsored by Duke MEDx and Duke Engineering Entrepreneurship (EngEn)

7 - 10 p.m.
Thursday, November 5, 2020
Zoom

Registration is required
Attendance is limited to 75

If you have any questions or after registering you find that you will be unable to attend, contact Donna Crenshaw at donna.crenshaw@duke.edu


In this workshop, successful entrepreneurs will share their own stories. Beginning with invention and ending with a company sale, you will hear about the challenges and victories at each step of the way. Our speakers will tell you what went well and what they will do differently next time. Speakers will also discuss creating barriers to competition, building a team, financing their venture, developing their product, and ultimately exiting the venture.

This event will feature Bill Walker, who has started and exited multiple medical device companies, and Jay Strum, from the pharmaceutical development sector.

Bill Walker received his BSE and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University. He spent 13 years on the faculty of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia, rising from Assistant Professor to Full Professor. At UVA, he designed and led the undergraduate major in Biomedical Engineering, a program that rose to thirteenth in the nation only three years after its inception. In 2010, he left UVA — giving up tenure — to lead HemoSonics, a company based on technology he invented. He served HemoSonics as both CEO and CTO. HemoSonics was acquired in 2018 and currently markets its unique blood diagnostic in the US and Europe. In 2016, Bill returned to Duke as Pratt’s first Mattson Family Director of Engineering Entrepreneurship. He leads Duke’s Clark Scholars Program, coaches entrepreneurs at all career stages, architects new entrepreneurial programs, and actively performs research in ultrasound imaging. He has published over forty journal articles, holds more than thirty patents, and has founded three medical device companies — two of which successfully exited and brought products to markets. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of CoapTech in Baltimore, M.D.

Jay Strum is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at ARC Therapeutics. Prior to joining ARC, Dr. Strum was the founding Chief Scientific Officer at G1 Therapeutics where he also served as President and Director. He is the co-inventor of trilaciclib, the first in class CDK4/6 inhibitor for mitigation of chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression and lerociclib, an oral CDK4/6 inhibitor currently in Phase 2 clinical trials. Prior to G1, Dr. Strum was a Director at GSK where he led efforts in translating scientific discoveries into improved therapies across multiple therapeutic areas. He has co-authored 50 scientific publications and is an inventor on 28 issued US patents and more than 350 patents worldwide. Dr. Strum received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Wake Forest University and completed his postgraduate training in Molecular Cancer Biology at Duke University.

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