Joseph Panetta is President and CEO and a member
of the Board of Directors of BIOCOM, the regional
association representing the 400 biotechnology,
medical device, diagnostics, medical equipment and
bioagriculture companies in the San Diego area,
and the considerable number of service sector companies,
civic organizations, municipalities, as well as
the universities, colleges and biomedical research
institutions in the San Diego region. As President
and CEO, Mr. Panetta is responsible for executing
on BIOCOM's mission of serving as a catalyst in
positioning the San Diego biotechnology community
to achieve global success working with a staff of
14 and a 40 member Board of Directors.
Mr.
Panetta serves on various committees, boards, and
business coalitions addressing legislation, workforce
and economic development in San Diego as pertains
to biotechnology. He is currently on the boards
of directors of the San Diego Regional Economic
Development Corporation, the San Diego Workforce
Partnership, UCSD-CONNECT and the High Tech High
Foundation. His civic involvement includes serving
on the San Diego Public Utilities Advisory Commission,
to which he was appointed by Mayor Dick Murphy,
and previously as a member of the Select Water and
Sewer Working Group. He also serves as Vice-Chair
of the Biotechnology Industry Organization's Council
of State Biotechnology Associations that coordinates
joint efforts of state biotechnology associations
nationwide in identifying and adopting best practices
for association management.
Mr.
Panetta has been actively involved in biotechnology
product development and commercialization for more
than 20 years, having begun his career in industry
with Pennwalt Corporation, a Philadelphia-based
pharmaceutical and chemical corporation now owned
by the Elf group. In 1988 he joined Mycogen Corporation,
a pioneering San Diego based biotechnology firm
where he played a principal role in commercialization
of the first recombinant DNA microbes and crops.
Mr.
Panetta served as Vice President of Government and
Public Affairs at Mycogen during a period when the
company grew to over 600 employees with sales of
$250 million, with offices throughout the U.S. and
the world. His business development responsibilities
included creating and serving as Chairman of Mycogen
Mexico, as corporate board member of Mycogen France,
as a principal liaison to Mycogen's Japanese partners
Kubota Corporation and Japan Tobacco as well as
the company's Argentine subsidiary. After participating
in the sale of Mycogen to The Dow Chemical Company
in 1998, he served briefly as Global Leader of Government
and Regulatory Affairs for the Plant Sciences Division
of Dow AgroSciences before joining BIOCOM as its
first President and CEO. Mr. Panetta's association
involvement includes serving as founding member
and chairman of numerous national and international
level biotechnology committees including the International
Biotechnology Forum. He has advised the National
Academy of the Sciences on biotechnology policy
issues and has testified before a number of congressional
committees on legislation regarding biotechnology
policy and international trade. Mr. Panetta has
also been a representative to the Governor's Council
on Biotechnology and a Delegate to the Global Consultation
on Safety in Biotechnology under the auspices of
the United Nations Environmental Program.
After
earning a bachelor of science degree in biology
from LeMoyne College in 1976 and a Master of Public
Health degree from the University of Pittsburgh
in 1979, Mr. Panetta began his career in government
with the Washington, D.C. headquarters staff of
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where he
became the senior policy analyst for the adoption
of the Toxic Substances Control Act passed by Congress
in 1978. While at the EPA he was a member of a select
group of policy analysts who worked with the administrator
to develop the first agency-wide goals and objectives.
Mr.
Panetta resides in San Diego with his wife and two
teenage children. He enjoys participating in outdoor
sports such as long distance running and mountain
biking.
