Leadership
Rick Williams
Chief Business Officer
Rick Williams is the Chief Business Officer at The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, based in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina. The Hamner is an independent, nonprofit organization that includes the CIIT, formerly CIIT Centers for Health Research, a leader in environmental safety research for more than 30 years, and the new Institute for Translational Biomedical Sciences. As a member of the executive team, Williams supports The Hamner’s mission to collaborate with academia, the private sector, and government to conduct translational research and new educational programs, both of which are designed to improve human health assessments and the development of safer medical treatments.
As Chief Business Officer, Williams will also pilot and launch a translational medicine accelerator to create additional opportunities for universities, The Hamner, and other research institutions to transfer technologies and spin out new companies, thereby providing greater benefit to society. Working in conjunction with the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, and university business schools and entrepreneurial programs, Williams will provide guidance to emerging companies as they develop their initial technology, commercialization, and funding plans.
From 2003 to 2005, Williams served as Chief Business Officer for CellzDirect in Tucson, Arizona, and was instrumental in transforming its cell-based Internet business into an in vitro hepatic research company. With the acquisition of a state-of-the-art cell culture lab and bioanalytical research facility, CellzDirect now provides a portfolio of hepatic products to leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies while also conducting metabolism, induction, and inhibition studies on their behalf. Utilizing his Genentech experience, Williams created a national data-collection project for liver disorders—the Hepatic Research Registry—with a network of top transplant and oncology surgeons from Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, Medical University of South Carolina, University of Colorado, University of Florida, University of Pittsburgh, University of Southern California, University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University. Together, they capitalized on advances in cell preservation and isolation/culturing to make resected liver tissue available for use in biomedical research.
In 2007, before joining The Hamner Institutes, Williams worked with the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, first as a volunteer and then as a director in its Business and Technology Development department. He helped to develop an innovative program that provides technology, business, and corporate-formation support, as well as funding, to spin out new companies based on technologies transferred from universities and research institutions throughout North Carolina. He also expanded the program so that the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s network of scientists and business experts can work with technology transfer departments to identify and develop earlier-stage research opportunities, which will lead to the formation of even more commercially viable companies.
Throughout his extensive career, Williams has been active in various professional groups, e.g., BIO, as well as patient-advocacy organizations such as the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. During 2007, he co-chaired Biotech Forums in RTP on clinical development and commercialization—sponsored by the Council for Entrepreneurial Development and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center—and was moderator for “Alternative Funding Strategies” at the September 2007 Cato Symposium. He also serves on the steering committee for the annual state conference on biotechnology. An avid historian, Williams is the author of a book on American history; his second manuscript is currently under review for publication. He earned a B.A. in Speech and Hearing Science at the University of Pittsburgh in 1977, graduating summa cum laude. A University Scholar and member of Phi Beta Kappa, Williams also completed graduate courses at Temple University and Carnegie Mellon University.