Friday, December 31, 2010

Dear Friends,

This year, we watched as an earthquake shook Haiti and devasted a whole country, and Pakistani floods paralyzed villages and left people homeless. We watched as the Chilean miners were found and rescued after months of being underground with the help of technology, and watched the power of nature as volcano Eyjafjallajökull spewed ash into the sky for days disrupting air traffic across the Atlantic and Northern Europe. We also watched as Apple launched the IPad (and in my innovation classes we talked about it extensively), Facebook reached 500 million users, the BP oil spill contaminated the Southern coastlines of the US, and the General Motors went public.  Many more events happened in 2010, and we watched while we were busy working on our own goals of improving lives globally.

In 2010 at Biotrends, we focused on expanding our efforts on creating more companies, bringing more companies into our portfolio, and growing our team and continuing with our efforts on promotion of science, medical research and innovation. Many people who attend my talks as well as my students know that I keep repeating these words:  Changing the world, One Innovation at a time, One Discovery at a time, One Company at a time. As we watched the world over this past year,  we also saw amazing technologies and discoveries in front of us (at Biotrends); a drug discovery company that has created the next great drug, a medical device company with a new technology to disrupt a whole sector, a company with a new medical instrument improving patient care,…

With the beginning of a a new year, we have the opportunity, to renew our commitment to do more to improve lives, and create a better tomorrow for the next generations. In 2011, we focus once again on the future, as in order to create the future, we need to imagine it today. The beginning of a new year is also a reminder to once again thank many who have helped me and my team along this journey; those of you who have believed in our goals and mission, those friends who have cheered us along the way, those friends who have supported us with their words on Fb, online, at conferences and meetings and many events, and those who have said yes to being a part of our efforts.  I thank all of you; some I have tagged here to thank (specifically Simin, Michael, John, and Bill who agreed to provide interviews and materials for our efforts in Nov and their continued support for our programs focused on innovation and entrepreneurship), many are not on FB (believe it or not-yet), (some I am not tagging as they wished, to keep their privacy), some I have written emails to or called, many friends I have known for a long time and many I have met here on FB.  To all of you I say: Thank you again and wish You a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

Shadi