Who's Involved

Susan Finston. Susan launched Finston Consulting, LLC in June, 2005. She is also the founding Executive Director of the American BioIndustry Alliance (ABIA), a new advocacy organization that seeks enabling conditions for biotechnology through sustainable, mutually beneficial Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) policies, including technology transfer policies aligned with the principles of the Bayh Dole Act. Her previous experience includes 5 1/2 years at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), where she was Associate Vice President for Intellectual Property, Middle East/Africa and South Asian Affairs and 11 years in the U.S. Foreign Service where she specialized in intellectual property, trade and development issues. Susan graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with a joint J.D./M.P.P. degree and holds a B.S. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan Honors College. She lives in Washington, D.C .

Dan Woods. Dan serves as Executive Director of BayhDole25, Inc. He is also Chief Technology Officer and publisher, Evolved Media Network. He has a background in technology and journalism, with a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan along with an M.S. from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former CTO of TheStreet.com and has written seven books on technology and related topics. He lives in New York City.

Ananda Chakrabarty, Ph.D. Ananda, who serves as a board member of BayhDole25, Inc., is a distinguished professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and advises senior officials in the U.S. and abroad on policies relating to biotechnology and related technology transfer. In 1980, Chakrabarty became the first person to receive a patent for a transgenic organism; before that Supreme Court decision -- made the same year as Bayh/Dole's passage -- life forms had been excluded from patent laws. He is also a founder of CDG Therapeutics, a U.S. biotechnology company currently engaged in clinical research on novel approaches to cancer therapies. He lives in Chicago.

José Miguel Flores Acuña, LL.M., José Miguel, who serves as a board member of BayhDole25 Inc., is a Chilean Attorney and a professor of Corporative Law and Tech Transfer at the Universidad de Concepción, Chile. Through his Company, Flores & Asociados, Jose advises companies and Universities in Chile and abroad on effective protection for and commercialization of advanced technologies. With unique expertise in the business of biotech, negotiation of tech transfer agreements and Intellectual Property Law, he has brokered a number of most successful technology transfer agreement in Chile and the region, and serves as a primary point of contact for both the private and public sectors. Among other activities, he participated in the creation of the Industrial Property Unit of the Universidad de Concepción, which now represents a substantial percentage of all of the patents registered by a University in Chile.

Barbara Peitsch. Barbara Peitsch is currently an independent consultant, and serves as the Finance Director of BayhDole25. She worked for the William Davidson Institute from 2001-2006 where she developed the Institute’s public sector consulting and advisory capabilities. Prior to joining the Institute, Ms. Peitsch headed the Emerging European Fixed Income and Macroeconomic Research Department of Banco Santander Central Hispano in London. Ms. Peitsch has 10 years of international commercial and investment banking experience and was employed by First National Bank of Chicago, now JP Morgan Chase, from 1985-1991. Ms. Peitsch worked for the OECD in Paris from 1992-1997, where she was responsible for OECD sponsored technical assistance in the area of foreign direct investment in Central and Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union. In 1991-1992, she participated in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Technical Assistance Program to promote financial sector development in former East bloc countries. She was a resident of Budapest, Hungary, where she advised the Chairman of the Hungarian Credit Bank on measures to be taken prior to privatization. Ms. Peitsch has a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan.