News & Observer | newsobserver.com |

Investor to lead N.C. Biotechnology Center

- Staff Writer

Published: Thu, Oct. 30, 2008 12:30AM

Modified Thu, Oct. 30, 2008 02:01AM

Bookmark and Share email this story to a friend E-Mail print story Print
Text Size:

tool name

close
tool goes here

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- The N.C. Biotechnology Center has elected venture-capital investor Arthur M. Pappas as its new chairman.

Pappas, 61, founded Pappas Ventures in 1994. The RTP venture capital firm manages more than $250 million, with investments in 40 companies. He previously worked at drug makers such as Glaxo and Abbott.

At the biotech center, Pappas replaces Sue W. Cole, a principal of Granville Capital of Greensboro. He will work closely with CEO E. Norris Tolson, the former state secretary of revenue, who took the helm of the state-funded nonprofit last year.

"These tough economic times reinforce the importance of our mission to expand the role of biotechnology in creating high-paying jobs statewide to meet the challenges of the 21st century," Pappas said in a statement.

A graduate of Ohio State University, Pappas earned his MBA in finance at Xavier University. He is a decorated Vietnam veteran, having served as an officer in the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and the Special Forces.

The center also elected other board members: Vice Chairwoman Patricia Morton, a partner with Franklin Street Partners, a private investment management firm in Chapel Hill; treasurer John Atkins, president and CEO of O'Brien/Atkins Associates in Durham; and secretary Jack Cecil, president of Biltmore Farms in Asheville.

Get it all with convenient home delivery of The News & Observer.

No comments have been posted for this story. Log in to be the first to comment.
 

 

The News & Observer is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.

Since The News & Observer does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not The News and Observer.

If you find a comment offensive, clicking on the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.