Sherer and White to Receive 2016 Georgia Bio Industry Growth Awards

Print 08 January 2016

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Todd Sherer, PhD, Associate Vice President & Executive Director of the Emory University Office of Technology Transfer, and Daniel White, President and CEO of Clearside Biomedical Inc. are the recipients of the 2016 Georgia Bio Industry Growth Awards.

The Industry Growth Awards are the highest honors bestowed each year by Georgia Bio. They recognize individuals in the public and private sectors who have made extraordinary contributions to the growth of Georgia’s life sciences industry.

Todd Sherer is being honored for his transformational contribution to technology transfer by finding new ways to create value in university technology. Dr. Sherer has led Emory University’s Office of Technology Transfer for more than 10 years, expanding it into a leading a program with national prominence. His leadership resulted in multiple record-setting years in licensing revenues, licensing agreements and start-ups. Dr. Sherer’s efforts have not only benefited Emory University, but also the broader Atlanta and Georgia bioscience communities.

Daniel White is being honored as the leader of Clearside Biomedical, Inc., an innovative ophthalmology pharmaceutical company. Within 4 years the company has raised over 50 million and entered phase 3 pivotal testing on their lead program. With some of the foundation intellectual property discovered at Emory and Georgia Tech, Clearside’s SCS™ microinjection system is being applied to a number of innovative first-in-class drug therapies to treat blinding diseases of the eye. Under his leadership Clearside Biomedical has developed an innovative and diverse culture, grown rapidly by attracting top talent, raised significant funding from top tier investors, and created strategic partnerships all with the end goal of developing a technology that provides a ground breaking impact on saving vision and preserving quality of life for patients.

Mr. Sherer and Mr. White will be honored at the Georgia Bio Annual Awards Dinner, January 28, 2016 6 pm to 9 pm, at the Atlanta Fox Theater. Other leading companies, executives, researchers and dedicated individuals will receive Georgia Bio Awards. Learn more and register at www.gabio.org/awards.

Biographies of Honorees

Todd Sherer, PhD

Todd is Associate Vice President for Research Administration and Executive Director of Technology Transfer at Emory University. He has worked in academic technology transfer for nearly three decades at public and private universities on both coasts. Before coming to Emory, Todd was the Director of the Office of Technology and Research Collaborations at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon. He earned his Doctorate in Toxicology from Washington State University in Pullman, Washington where he studied gene expression in the developing brain. Todd became a registered patent agent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1995.

Todd is Past President of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) where he has held numerous board positions and volunteered for several decades. He is also Vice Chair for Southeast BIO and participates on the selection committee for various translational support programs. Todd is a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP) and a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP), as both programs are aimed at encouraging the development of new professionals. He continues to be an active speaker at technology transfer, economic development, and commercialization conferences across the globe.

While at Emory, Todd developed a strategy to attract crucial support by focusing attention on its world class, product pipeline driven by the success of its licensees. He received support to add new positions focused on startup support, translational funding, technology scouting, marketing and license compliance. Emory continues to be one of a handful of universities with an in-house patent division focused on drafting, filing, and prosecuting un-licensed technology. The office oversees a $600K Proof-of-Concept fund to prepare technologies for patent, license or larger funds. Recently, the office broadened its focus on industry relations through the realignment of Emory’s industry contracting function with the technology transfer office.

Daniel White

Daniel White is the President and CEO founder of Clearside Biomedical. In the 4 years since the company's initial financing, Clearside has entered their initial pivotal trial for treatment diseases of the retina and choroid of the eye. Clearside has raised $52 million to date and has 6 active programs in development, 2 of which are in the clinic. Prior to joining Clearside Biomedical, Mr. White served in Global Corporate Development as head of transactions for GSK’s dermatology division of Stiefel. Daniel White has participated in private equity raises and sales of assets for over $175 million and has played an integral role in the negotiation of over 30 acquisitions and divestitures. Product successes include 8 launched products and 4 late Phase III products associated with assets identified, licensed or acquired. He was a founding member and instrumental in the creation of Alimera Sciences, Inc. (ALIM) in 2003, now a publically traded, Atlanta-based specialty pharmaceutical company developing drugs for prescription ophthalmology indications, where he served as Vice President of Finance and Corporate Development. He has previously held management positions in global corporate development with the ophthalmology subsidiary of Novartis, CIBA Vision, and aaiPharma, and has developed numerous contacts in the health sciences industry and among VCs and investment banks. Mr White holds an MBA from Wake Forest with a focus in Finance, has an undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology from Auburn University and performed graduate work in pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and post graduate work in finance at Harvard.

For a list of past Georgia Bio Industry Growth Award recipients, click here.

Georgia Bio (www.gabio.org) is the state’s life science industry association whose members include pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, medical centers, universities and research institutes, government groups and other business organizations involved in the development of life sciences related products and services.

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