Source: PRESS RELEASE, 10/18/13

Raleigh, NC – The Office of Governor Pat McCrory announced the following appointments today:

North Carolina Biotechnology Center
      Art Pappas (Durham County) – Pappas founded Pappas Ventures in 1994. His company  focuses exclusively on investing in the life sciences sector across North America. Pappas is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, where he was past chair, and is actively involved with a variety of industry and philanthropic organizations dedicated to furthering medical research. He attended Ohio State University and Xavier University. He is a reappointment for this board. The term length is two years.
      Carol Marino (Wake County) – Marino is the managing director for Syngenta Ventures – the corporate venture capital company within Syngenta, focused on biotechnology for agriculture applications of output traits, input traits, crop protection, and productivity, research platform technologies, adjacent technologies, and cleantech/bioenergy. She attended the University of New Hampshire and Merrimack College. The term length is two years.
      Dr. Bhaskar Venepalli (Wake County) – Dr. Venepalli is president and CEO of CiVentiChem, a research & development services company. In 2010 he was honored as the Entrepreneur of the Year in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals Category by the Boston based IndUS Business Journal. Venepalli attended the University of Rochester and earned his Ph.D. at Osmania University in Hyderabad, India. The term length is two years.

The center is responsible for supporting biotechnology research, business and education, strengthening the state’s academic and industrial biotechnology research capabilities and working with business, government and academic  to move biotechnology from research to commercialization in North Carolina. The center also fosters the state’s biotechnology industrial development, informs the public about the science, applications, issues and benefits of biotechnology. It enhances teaching and workforce training capabilities of the state’s educational institutions and works to establish North Carolina as a preeminent international location for the biotechnology industry.