Recent Activities and Future Plans - I'm Still Here!!!

My apologies for the long delay since my last post.  Since beginning this blog, I strive to post at least once per month.  Unfortunately, due to a very busy end-of-the-year, blogging slipped.

As you are aware from the content of my posts and from my personal website (www.DELbiopharma.com), I am a consultant providing the following services:

• design and implementation of medicinal chemistry programs
• chemistry outsourcing management
• technical due diligence

As a consultant, it is absolutely essential for me to continually network and market my services.  Time for these activities must be allotted in addition to the time that I spend working with my clients. From all aspects, the combination of scientific engagement and personal interactions is unparalleled to any employment situation I experienced prior to becoming a consultant.  That being said, I would like to focus this post on both highlights of the past 6 months and events planned for the near future.

Recent Activities

During the second half of the summer, I had a full load of clients - all with unique needs.  One in particular required the synthesis of several compounds within an extremely aggressive timeline.  After contacting seven different contract research organizations (CROs), I was able to identify one that was willing to take on this project within the parameters of the required timeline.  I am happy to say that this project, arguably the most difficult assignment I took on, was completed on time with all objectives met.

As indicated above, networking is critical to the establishment of a contract pipeline.  As such, I regularly go to local networking events and conferences.  The following is a list of groups I find particularly interesting in the San Francisco area:

• BioScience Forum (www.biosf.org)
• Bio2Device Group (www.bio2devicegroup.org)
• Bay Area Biomedical Consultants Network (babcn.net)
• CACO-PBS (caco-ca.org)
• BioE2E (www.bioe2e.org)
• QB3 (qb3.org)

In August, I was asked to present a talk at a BABCN event entitled "Creating Opportunities - Generating Consulting Income in a Hostile Market."  This talk was well attended and I received a great deal of positive feedback.

In January, I participated in the CSU Biotechnology Symposium as a career mentor.  The following week, I attended the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.  One week later, I attended the Personalized Medicine World Conference.

As a follow-up to my BABCN presentation in August, I was invited to write a guest blog covering a key component of my consulting activities - identifying, engaging and managing CROs.  This blog was posted on January 31 and can be found at http://hamptonexecutivesearch.com/?p=1497.

Future Activities

Having brought you up to date from the past 6 months, the following is a list of plans for the near term.

As networking is essential to my ongoing consulting activities, I plan to attend the following conferences:

• InformexUSA 2012 (www.informex.com)
• Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference (www.triconference.com)
• American Chemical Society National Meeting (www.acs.org)

During the American Chemical Society meeting, I will be speaking as part of a symposium discussing chemistry careers outside of the laboratory.

Finally, as a follow-up to the CSU Biotechnology Symposium in January, I will be posting blogs addressing all of the questions raised at my table during the career mentoring session.  These posts will begin in February and continue until all questions are answered.

As always, I encourage you to bring up any topics you would like discussed in this forum.