WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Christopher H. Price, Ph.D., has been named executive director for the Piedmont Triad Research Park (PTRP). He also holds the title senior vice president, Wake Forest University Health Sciences, and reports to Richard H. Dean, M.D., CEO and president of Wake Forest University Health Sciences.
“With the opening of the newest building on our downtown PTRP campus later this year, we are eager to welcome Dr. Price, who brings a breadth of experience as a life sciences research scientist and a biotechnology entrepreneur,” Dean said. “For more than 15 years, he has been intimately involved in doing just the kind of innovative and successful science-based business development embodied in the PTRP strategic plan.”
Price will be responsible for implementing the PTRP Master Plan. In the near term, he and his team will oversee land acquisition, infrastructure development, construction of new buildings and recruitment of business tenants. As executive director, Price will be the principal liaison with the local business and educational sectors, as well as local, state and federal government agencies.
Bill Dean, president of Idealliance, the Wake Forest organization that oversees park development, will report to Price.
“I could not be more excited about this opportunity,” said Price. “The vision that Dr. Dean and his team are championing is that of a self-contained urban research park, one that will be seamlessly integrated into the lifestyle and culture of the city of Winston-Salem and the surrounding communities. The PTRP may well serve as the model for future urban research parks developed as local and regional economic community development, rather than a stand-alone real estate venture.
“Wake Forest University and its outstanding professional schools bring enormous assets of people, technology innovation, and experience that will be invaluable to the success of the PTRP,” added Price. “In my experience as a business person in the life sciences, I have never seen a more powerful combination of entities that are highly motivated and genuinely committed to help drive the vision of the PTRP in step with their own visions: from the support of the city of Winston-Salem and other cities of the Triad, to Forsyth County and its neighboring counties, to the state of North Carolina and the federal government.
“The key decision makers and participants in building and growing life science companies are founding scientists and entrepreneurial business people, pharmaceutical and established biotechnology companies, venture capitalists, bankers, service providers, and many others,” he said. “I believe they all will be quite attracted to PTRP as a unique approach that integrates the park’s core purpose of life science research and related business development alongside so many community resources and supporting businesses, most of which will be within walking distance.”
After earning the Ph.D. degree in biology at Syracuse University, Price served three years as a research fellow in cellular neurobiology at the University of Texas Medical School at Galveston. He joined the faculty of Boston University in 1979 to focus on research and teaching neurobiology. He completed an M.B.A. degree at the Sloan School of Business (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1987.
Price initiated his business career in the life sciences in 1987 as vice president for business development with Nova Pharmaceutical Corporation in Baltimore. In 1993, he became a co-founder and CEO of Larex, a natural products biochemical company. He joined Nobex Corporation in Research Triangle Park, NC, as CEO in 1997. He has served as a director on the boards of numerous life sciences companies.
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Media Contacts: Mark Wright, mwright@wfubmc.edu, Karen Richardson, krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu, at 336-716-4587.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine and its other related enterprises included the Piedmont Triad Research Park. The Medical School is ranked 4th in the Southeastern United States in revenues from its licensed intellectual property.