Biotech veteran David Hale chosen for Connect Hall of Fame

Sep. 26--David F. Hale, one of San Diego's most prolific life science company creators and investors, has been chosen by Connect w/ San Diego Venture Group for the entrepreneural group's Hall of Fame.

Hale, a former chairman of Connect, will be honored at Connect's annual Innovation Awards dinner in December. He is a founder of Biocom, the San Diego-based life science trade group for California, and a co-founder and former board chairman of Connect.

Even before arriving in San Diego, Hale's pharmaceutical experience included Becton Dickinson and Johnson & Johnson. Hale's local career began at Hybritech, San Diego's first biotech company, where he was president.

Hybritech was sold to Eli Lilly in 1986, an event which spawned numerous other San Diego companies by newly wealthy Hybritech alumni. He is now CEO of Hale BioPharma Ventures. Hale's philanthropic activities include co-founding the Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine in 2014, which he chairs.

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Last year's inductee was Viasat founder and CEO Mark Dankberg. Other inductees include Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs; former Illumina CEO Jay Flatley; and Althea Technologies co-founders Magda Marquet and Francois Ferre.

Three other local leaders will be recognized at the December dinner.

UC San Diego associate vice chancellor of public programs Mary Walshok will get the William W. Otterson Award for Advancing Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Taner Halicioglu and Carol Gallagher are to receive Duane Roth Distinguished Contribution Awards.

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Walshok launched Connect with Otterson in 1985. A sociologist, Walshok has written extensively about the relationship between entrepreneurship and society. She heads UCSD Extension, and has forged deep links to local businesses to make its courses more useful.

Walshok was a reluctant convert to San Diego. When she moved to the city in 1969, she recalled crying, "There is nothing in San Diego but the Navy and the zoo!"

Walshok says that because San Diego had so little in the way of institutions, it was more open to new ideas than more established cities.

Halicioglu, Facebook's first full-time employee, donated $75 million to UCSD for data science in 2017. He is a lecturer in computer science at UCSD; a founder of the venture firm Keshif Ventures and a co-founder of SEED San Diego.

Gallagher is being honored for her drug development achievements. She was the leader for sales of Rituxan, a blockbuster cancer and immune disease drug discovered in San Diego.

Gallagher has also held senior roles at Anadys Pharmaceuticals, CancerVax, Agouron Pharmaceuticals and other companies. Before arriving in San Diego, Gallagher worked in sales and marketing at Eli Lilly and Co. and Amgen.

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