Medical Device Daily: "A decade of growth in metro Denver’s medical device sector"

Quoting from today's profile in Medical Device Daily by Jeffrey Berg:

"The medical device sector in Metro Denver region has experienced dramatic growth over the past decade, including 16% growth during the years of recession, 2001-2010. This growth followed a report issued in March 2003 by the Governor’s office entitled 'Colorado’s Place in the Sun: A Bioscience Future, An Action plan to Grow Colorado’s Bioscience Cluster.' Metro Denver currently ranks as the sixth largest cluster of medical device companies in the U.S. Over the past five years, the region has seen more growth in device companies than biotech or pharmaceuticals."

Link to CBSA News

Leading CEOs Keynote 2013 Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor and Partnering Conference in Denver

The 2013 Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor and Partnering Conference keynote breakfast will include Kyle Lefkoff, founder and General Partner of Boulder Ventures, leading a conversation with the CEOs of Colorado's two premier publicly-traded pharmaceutical companies – Patrick Mahaffy, Founder and CEO of Clovis Oncology and Ron Squarer, CEO of Array BioPharma. The announcement is made by April Giles, President and CEO of the Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) who says the regional conference will also feature a keynote luncheon presentation by Jeff Calcagno, M.D., Principal, Venture Investments, Johnson and Johnson Development Corporation.

Lefkoff, one of the region’s leading venture capitalists and a member of the conference steering committee since 2009, says: “Clovis Oncology and Array BioPharma have been incredibly successful reaching both funding and developmental milestones. This is a great opportunity to hear first-hand from their leadership how they have achieved this success and what they look forward to in the future.”

Link to the Business Wire release

Link to the PitchEngine Social Media Release

AgriNews: 'Hoosier is honored for commitment to aquaculture'

Quoting from today's posting by Ashley Bechman:

"The only thing fishy about this year’s Indiana Agrivision Award recipient is his passion for aquaculture and growing it into a billion-dollar industry.

Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann presented Norman McCowan, president and chief executive officer of Bell Aquaculture in Redkey, with the Indiana Agrivision Award, which is given to a Hoosier involved in agriculture for their demonstration, vision, innovation and leadership in the industry...

...McCowan, who was nominated for the award by his peers in the agriculture community, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Indiana Soybean Alliance, noted that his love for fish stems from his childhood days when he would catch minnows and figure out the water and the temperature in which the fish thrived. Today, that boyhood hobby has turned into something much bigger as McCowan now oversees all of the work that goes into producing Bell Aquaculture’s farm-raised yellow perch."

Link to AgriNews

Viewpoint from OEDIT's Ken Lund: 'Building more investors is vital to Colorado’s economy'

Quoting from today's posting in the Denver Business Journal:

"Since January 2011, we’ve created 97,000 jobs and now have 2.4 million jobs in the state — prerecession levels. And we have the fourth-fastest job growth in the nation. We are continuing to successfully woo a number of industries and we’re enhancing our advanced industries with a 10-year, $150 million investment.

We are just missing one key piece of the economic pie: investors. Venture-capital investment is critical to the growth of successful startup companies...

...We’re working on creating more funding opportunities. OEDIT, in partnership with the Colorado BioScience Association and Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., established the Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor and Partnering Conference (RMLIPC) in 2009. Celebrating the third biennial conference on Sept. 19, RMLIPC will bring together more than 50 investors to Denver to showcase 30 regional startup companies in the biotech, diagnostic, medical device and pharmaceutical industries. The Rockies Venture Club, along with the Impact Angel Group, are working their connections with local angel investors and entrepreneurs."

Link to the OpEd piece authored by Ken Lund

About Ken Lund: Ken joined Gov. Hickenlooper as Chief Legal Counsel before taking the helm at the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade in August 2011. Ken is focused on driving the state's economic recovery, ensuring that Colorado is the most pro-business state in the country and that Colorado remains competitive in the global marketplace.

Coverage Overview: Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor & Partnering Conference Announces Thirty Regional Companies for 2013 Presentation Lineup

Link to CNBC.com

Link to Yahoo! Finance

Link to Metro Denver News Center

Link to VancouverSun.com

Link to Silobreaker

SeafoodSource: 'McCowan honored for aquaculture work'

Quoting from the August 16th posting:

"The president of an Indiana-based aquaculture company has been honored with an award for work in his field.

Norman McCowan, the president of Bell Aquaculture, received the Agrivision Award this week, recognizing him as a leader of the agricultural community in Indiana."

Link to SeafoodSource.com

Audio Interview: 'McCowan honored with AgriVision Award'

Quoting from the August 15th posting by Meghan Grebner:

"Yesterday was Farmer’s Day at the Indiana State Fair. In recognition of his vision, innovation, and leadership, Lt. Governor Sue Ellspermann presented Norman McCowan, president of Bell Aquaculture, the Indiana Agrivision Award.

McCowan says the honor is humbling. 'We’re in a niche sector, aquaculture, which is now a growing industry in Indiana,' he says. 'To be recognized was unbelievable. I’m very excited, it’s very exciting.' 

A recent Purdue Extension study showed that aquaculture is a growing contributor to Indiana’s agriculture economy. McCowan tells Brownfield he doesn’t see that slowing down any time soon."

Link to the Brownfield Ag News for America posting

Link to the mp3 interview