Successful industry leader takes charge by creating the first biotech program of its kind at Cal State University San Marcos.

Recently, Al sat down with Dana Tennis of RetirementDNA to discuss a wide range of topics – sports and wine, to the debate on the cost of drugs and the future of San Diego's biotech and educational community.

Q1: Al, how did you end up in beautiful San Diego?

I was at Monsanto wanting to get involved in the biotech area. A colleague from Monsanto came to San Diego a year earlier to start Mycogen Corporation and he asked me to join him. That was in early 1986. We thought we would grow the agriculture-focused biotechnology company and take it back to the Midwest where we knew the agriculture. We found out two things: 1) California was huge in agriculture and 2) we liked it here. The company was successful and here we are.

Q2: What do you think was the seminal event for the biotech industry here in San Diego?

Obviously the academic community and the great research that was going on was the genesis, but my personal opinion is a combination of Bill Otterson with CONNECT and Ray Dittamore with Ernst & Young. They helped bring along the infrastructure, companies and entrepreneurs together to build the biotechnology base that we have today. That's my view.

Q3: Tell us about your new biotech program at Cal Sate University San Marcos.

Sure. To build an overall biotechnology program, there have to be a lot of components. The core program is a new Bachelors Degree in Biotechnology that we are launching this fall. It's the first major in biotechnology of its kind. Second, we launched a Biotechnology Lab Technician Certificate. This is a post baccalaureate certificate program targeted for a transitioning workforce. It is for people in the workforce who decide they want to work in the biotech industry and need additional training. Thirdly, we are offering and building continuing education programs and specialty training through our Extended Studies College. We are trying to engage the community individuals or biotechnology companies for their educational needs whether it is soft skill development, science programs or custom programs for company employees. We want to determine how we can help fill the community's educational needs, particularly in North County.

Programs on the horizon include a Professional Science Masters Degree in Biotechnology. A blend of science and an MBA program is for those who want to work in a high tech, biotech environment but do not want to stay in the lab their entire career. We also want to foster community forums. For example, we recently held a forum on bioterrorism with several guest lecturers. We want to bring the community to campus or take biotechnology issues to the community with these kinds of forums.

Q4: Tell us about some of the outreach programs and scholarships available for your program at CSUSM.

Let's talk about scholarships first. RetirementDNA is the first to say, "we'll help you launch your biotechnology program". It is the first scholarship at CSUSM that is dedicated to biotechnology majors and is significant at this time. It will give us legs to grow upon. It will allow us to pull together biotechnology-interested students as we advertise the scholarship this fall. As far as outreach programs, I addressed a few earlier, but we are looking for more ways to help non-traditional students and develop programs for community individuals and companies.

Q5: What do you think the program will add to the community that is different from current or prior programs? Has the corporate community been an active participant and supporter?

The community has been very involved in developing the programs. In fact, what we have now is the result of three biotechnology summits with industry leaders, as well as several individual meetings with the bio-community leaders. We asked, “What do you need?” and they said, “ We need graduates that are well-prepared, lab-ready and business savvy.” Through this feedback and several iterations with faculty, we came up with the Bachelors Degree program, which includes for-credit internships, selected business courses and several new courses loaded in. The curriculum is loaded with heavy science, industry experience and exposure to the community. We hope to provide graduates that are prepared for entry-level jobs as well as careers in the local biotech industry. We take this seriously since we know that 90% of our graduates stay in the San Diego region to live and work.

Q6: Will CSUSM also try to create a pipeline of potential students by working with local high schools in some capacity?

That is something we really, really need in general in this town. We need to get more students at a younger age into that pipeline and then improve the quality that comes out the other end. Yes, we need to work with grade schools and high schools. We are doing that to some degree, but after serving on the San Diego Workforce Partnership and BIOCOM educational committees, I’m sure we need to do more to improve the pipeline.

Q7: What do we need to do here in SD (and California) to improve the appreciation of science as well as performance among high school students?

I think we should start early and do a good job really encouraging young minds to start thinking about science and make it FUN! Plant the seeds, so to speak. We don’t know how or what to do yet, but I have approached Palomar and Mira Costa Community Colleges to see if there is something we can all do together to back-integrate into the lower schools.

Q8: Dare to dream. Tell us what you would like the program to look like in ten years?

First, I’d like the program to be recognized by community leaders as a supplier of quality product (students) and “preferred hires”. In ten years I would like to see the Bachelor's Degree, Certificate programs and Masters Degree programs matured. I would like to see us start a Center for Integrated & Applied Sciences to merge the disciplines. I'd like to have a science park near campus and be involved in an entrepreneurial kind of way, and have another venue for outside-the-classroom learning. A Center would be a crowning achievement.

Q9: What is the single biggest obstacle to attracting biotech companies to San Diego? Is the fiscal and political crisis hurting at all?

If I had to sum it up into one thing, it is the expense of doing business and the cost of living in this area. In the early days, the need for facilities, services and infrastructure was needed, but San Diego has really matured in the twenty years that I have been here.

Q10: What do some of our political leaders need to know about biotech and life sciences that they do not understand?

We have leaders that are making policy decisions on things that they don't really know anything about. I think they need to learn more facts about the science and disregard the emotions that surround biotechnology. Science is at a disadvantage in the public forum. The scientist has to prove everything and cannot prove a negative. The pseudo-scientist can merely make accusations.

Al, you just gave me a thought. Why not a biotech program for politicians? Maybe an online, short course that could be accessed by every Congressman and Senator?

Not only politicians. We live in a society dominated by science and technology and I bet less than 5% of the population understands scientific rationale. There is a lot of information available on the web and several other sources. Recognizing the opportunity, a few places are teaching “biotechnology for non-scientists”.

Q11: Should San Diego consider a taxpayer financed pool of capital run by professional VC's to launch companies and R&D efforts right here in SD? If we're willing to finance ballparks for the good of the community, why not SD companies?

It seems like the role of the municipality and tax dollars should be in building the infrastructure in which companies and businesses can start, grow and thrive -- not in direct VC type funding.

Q12: There is much debate over the price of drugs, and biotech companies are getting partially caught up in the anti-big pharma dialogue. We even have a couple of ballot initiatives coming up in November on this issue. Why are big drug companies getting so much heat and how should biotech companies respond?

The best thing that biotech companies and pharma could do is to do a better job explaining to the public the process, requirements and cost of developing drugs. I often hear said by the lay public, “It is the cost of advertising that makes the drugs so expensive”. We need to inform the public about the cost and development timelines required for a successful drug to come to market. People can’t appreciate what they don’t understand.

Q13: If you were governor for one month and had unilateral authority to make changes that would stick, what would be your top three initiatives?

1. Protect California citizens from the costs and problems of illegal immigrants.
2. Improve the quality of educators in education.
3. Encourage focus on science and technology to benefit society and the environment.

Q14: Should San Diego have more professional sports teams in town and is it important from a recruiting standpoint?

Seems to me that only in recent years have the fans really supported baseball and football. With the Padres, Chargers, Gulls, Sockers, and Surf Dawgs, it seems to be enough. I, myself, am a college sports fan. I like USC football and Michigan State basketball, my alma mater.

Q15: Do your children share your passion for the industry?

No, they do not. My son is in the music industry as a Director of Marketing for a subsidiary of BMG Music in L.A. My daughter is an HR Manager for high-tech companies in San Diego.

Q16: When you have the whole family together, where do you head for breakfast on a weekend morning?

We're all at the house with an array of eggs, pancakes, and biscuits. When we are together, my son cooks so there are probably some unusual omelettes with lots of salsa!

Q17: When you and your wife want to escape for a romantic dinner