Jennifer Hawks Bland
Chief Executive Officer at NewYorkBIOJennifer Hawks Bland is the Chief Executive Officer of NewYorkBIO. Prior to joining NewYorkBIO, Ms. Bland was an Executive Director in the State Government Affairs & Policy group at Merck. She has also held government affairs positions at GlaxoSmithKline and the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), the 136-year old trade association representing manufacturers of over-the- counter medicines. Ms. Bland previously was an associate with the Jackson, MS law firm of Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens, & Cannada, PLLC where she principally practiced in the area of products liability litigation. Before entering the practice of law, she worked for six years for U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (RMiss.). Ms. Bland is a member of both the District of Columbia and Mississippi Bar Associations. She also has extensive volunteer experience and is currently the PTA co-president of her child’s school and sits on the Board of the Pelham Art Center. Ms. Bland currently resides in Pelham, New York with her husband, R. Trabue Bland and their two sons.
Andrew Lam
Principal at Ally Bridge GroupAndrew Lam is a Principal at Ally Bridge Group, a $2bn AUM global life science-dedicated investment group, where he leads therapeutics investments in private biotech companies including Arbor Bio, CARGO Therapeutics, CG Oncology, Endeavor Bio, Rayze Bio, Shoreline Bio, and Sonoma Bio. Before his current role as an institutional investor, Andrew has two decades of biopharma-focused experience spanning operating roles within industry and sellside roles in equity research and investment banking. Andrew holds a Pharm.D. from Long Island University and MBA from Drexel University.
Linda Malek
Partner at Crowell & Moring LLPLinda Malek is a partner in Crowell’s Health Care and Privacy & Cybersecurity Groups, where she advises a broad array of health care and life sciences clients on compliance with federal, state, and international law governing clinical research, data privacy, cybersecurity, and fraud and abuse. Her clients include national hospitals systems and academic medical centers, genetic and biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, financial institutions involved in healthcare services, research foundations and international scientific organizations.
In the healthcare context, Linda is particularly focused on regulatory compliance issues related to clinical research and clinical trials. She creates and implements comprehensive policies governing the conduct of research involving human subjects, and advises clients on human subject research compliance issues. Linda also counsels on legal issues related to conducting secondary research on existing data repositories and tissue banks, including on data privacy and informed consent issues related to the ability to conduct future research. She has experience advising clients on a wide variety of research areas, including biologics, pharmacogenomics, translational research, secondary research, tissue banking, and data repositories. Linda also advises clients in general health care matters related to fraud and abuse, including issues under the Stark laws and federal and state anti-kickback statutes. Her work includes structuring complex transactions in compliance with such laws, assisting in the creation of internal compliance programs, and advising on issues related to the False Claims Act.
Linda’s privacy and cybersecurity practice involves advising clients in both the private and public sectors regarding the complex interaction of, and compliance with, various state, federal, and international data privacy laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), federal law regarding the protection of human research subjects, the European Union’s General Data Privacy Regulations (GDPR), and the FTC and state enforcement activities. She counsels clients on both transactional and regulatory issues across industries on issues related to the use of personal data.
Linda advises on issues relevant to the collection, storage, protection and authorized use of personally identifiable information (PII). Her work includes performing compliance audits, structuring transactions and drafting agreements, and, when needed, assisting clients in the conduct of internal investigations.
Linda began her legal career in government and served as an attorney for the Office of the Corporation Counsel, Division of Legal Counsel, where she focused on health policy issues and was named Outstanding Assistant Corporation Counsel by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
Linda is a respected leader in the field, recognized by top legal publications. She was recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® for 2022 through 2024, included in the list of Notable Women in Law by Crain’s New York Business in 2020, and honored by New York Metro Super Lawyers in seven consecutive editions.
Prem Premsrirut
CEO of Mirimus IncDr. Premsrirut is a co-founder and CEO of Mirimus, Inc., a company at the forefront of developing RNA interference and CRISPR gene editing technologies and investigating their potential therapeutic applications. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Premsrirut led her team in a call to action to address the lack of efficient testing methods that would be required to reopen our schools and economy and was named a winner in the XPRIZE Rapid COVID-19 Testing Competition for Mirimus’ innovative SalivaClear strategy. Dr. Premsrirut earned a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology and Biochemistry from UC Berkeley and joint M.D./Ph.D. from SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She is a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10K Small Business Entrepreneurship program through Babson College. In addition, she has played an active role as a Board Member of NY BIO, a life science trade organization, and a member of the Board of Directors for BioBAT, a biotechnology incubator joint venture between SUNY Downstate and NYC Economic Development Center. She has been a vital force within the life science ecosystem in NYC, working to accelerate growth of this sector over the past decade.