A Message From The President

July 2008

Well this is it – my last President’s Message. The past two years have certainly gone by very quickly, but it is time to turn over the reins to a new President. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time participating in the Chesapeake Bay Area Chapter’s Board over the past nearly ten years. We may not be the biggest Chapter across the nation, but I have always enjoyed the dynamic of our organization and truly value the friends and colleagues I have made over the years. The Chapter is stronger than ever and I can assure you the current Board has both the vision and the determination to make the Chesapeake Bay Area Chapter even better over the coming years.

While I will be leaving the Board, I do plan to remain active in my participation of the Chapter. In fact, I will be working to start up an Advisory Board over the next year. The purpose of this Advisory Board is to create a sounding board for the Board of Directors that is composed of integral members of our Chapter’s life sciences companies. Our hope is that with the establishment of this Advisory Board, we will be able to continue to tailor, refine and add programs and events offered by the Chapter that are of the highest value to our membership. So, to my fellow Board Members, I guess you are not done with me yet!

We set sail on Black Eyed Susan on June 12th for our Annual Summer Social, but this year we included a new twist - Casino Royale aboard the high seas of the Patapsco River. As always, it was a fabulous night filled with networking among friends, great food and some highly entertaining high stakes gambling. A very special thanks to all of our sponsors who made the night possible and congratulations to all of the prize winners – you obviously all have luck on your side, but something tells me it wouldn’t be as easy in Vegas!

On August 14th, we will be having our next Roundtable event. Unlike Roundtables in the past, this will be open to the first 35 registrants. The topic is Waste Neutralization Systems and the audience will include select industry experts on the topic. If you are integral in the planning, maintenance and/or operation of your company’s waste neutralization system or just would like to learn more about the technical aspects and options available, I would encourage your attendance at the event. This is an excellent format to discuss issues amongst industry experts and peers and the past roundtables have proven to be very valuable to those who have attended. We will also be having a larger roundtable later this Fall that will host 50 to 75 people and will focus on the challenges and possible synergies that exist in the execution of facility commissioning and validation. We hope to see you at both of these events, but do not delay in signing up as space is limited and they will fill up quickly.

On September 16th we will be taking over the Whiskey Creek golf course for the day to have our Annual Golf Outing – another Chapter favorite. If you have no signed-up, please do not delay as this event is always a sell-out.

In parting, I would like to say thank you to our entire chapter for the opportunity and privilege to serve as President over the past two years. We have an amazing Chapter that is filled with the very best people in the life sciences industry. Our area offers an amazing cross-section of life sciences related research and development, diagnostics, medical device and production just to name a few. For our Members who are active in the Chapter, I hope you will agree that our events if nothing else offer a venue for the area industry professionals actively engaged in life sciences related work to meet, share ideas and grow our industry so we may continuously improve quality of life through research discovery translated into improved medicines. For those of you who would not consider yourself an active Member and for those who are not currently members, I leave you with this challenge – get involved. You will not regret your decision and you will meet new friends and great people along the way. I wish each and every one of you all the best and hope to see you at upcoming events!

Sincerely,
Jonathan Hess
Chapter President