The Evolving California Life Sciences Market

Sara Andersen is Director of Real Estate Management, part of Workplace Effectiveness at Genentech, the organization responsible for ensuring the work environments support desired business outcomes for the business units at Genentech’s South San Francisco site and beyond. Sara’s role at Genentech allows her to exercise her passion for providing healthy, sustainable, financially performing environments which allow people to do their best work. As a Real Estate and Financial services professional with more than 25 years of experience, she has focused on setting overall business strategy for her group, running business units, building relationships and developing cross functional teams. Her engagement with Genentech began in 2012, through design (Perkins + Will) and program management (CBRE), which resulted in Genentech’s most successful building to date. The building is a success because of the emphasis on the social engagement of the employees, user friendly technology that allows a “work anywhere” philosophy, and a healthy and sustainable work environment. Her ongoing work focuses on using workplace to support business initiatives, measuring success in faster time to market vs. square foot per person.. Prior to joining Genentech as an employee, she led the CBRE Occupier Strategy team in San Francisco, translating client business objectives into real estate strategy, informing lease sizes, terms and execution. She led vision sessions with senior executives to align goals across business units, spearheaded the development of solution scenarios with client and brokerage partners and ensured successful project delivery through strategic planning, design process, budget and schedule management, and the integration of IT, HR and communications. Prior to CBRE, Sara held positions as a Principal, Director of West Coast Interiors for Perkins + Will; Managing Director (Atlas Capital Strategies); and ran her own project management practice with clients such as SAP Labs and TD Waterhouse. Sara is educated and licensed as an architect, her education includes a Masters in Architecture from Washington University with an undergraduate degree from Lehigh University in Architecture and Computer Science. She was honored as a Northern California Real Estate Woman of Influence by the San Francisco Business Times and has spoken at both CoreNet and NeoCon.

Jasson Crockett joined Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Office of Economic Development in 2016, where he oversees the City’s Department of Cannabis Regulation and manages policy and business development in the life science and healthcare sectors, sports, and tax policy. Jasson works to connect companies of all sizes to resources within City Hall to enable their growth in the City of LA, and develop a more connected ecosystem wherein companies can thrive. Prior to joining the Mayor’s Office, Jasson worked with a national consulting firm, specializing in strategic financial management consulting for nonprofit organizations. Additionally, Jasson has experience as a teacher and case manager for a nonprofit organization located in South-Los Angeles, and worked for a short stint with a mid-cap asset management firm. Jasson holds a Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University where he majored in Finance and Management.

Susan is Vice President and Executive Principal at DES Architects + Engineers, where she leads the Life Sciences team. As an architect, she has had great fun designing over 1.5M square feet of life sciences space in the past few years. Her portfolio spans a wide range of clients from fast-growing startups and large biopharmaceutical campuses to developers and healthcare providers. Her insight comes from the wide range of project types she has led through programming, design, entitlements, and construction. Examples include: Scribe Therapeutics in Alameda, Guardant Health in Redwood City, Gilead Sciences in Foster City, and Menlo Park Labs for Tarlton Properties. She is an ardent advocate for her clients and for the betterment of the communities in which she works. Together with the DES leadership team, she sets the firm’s strategic direction and has been instrumental in DES becoming one of the largest and most influential architecture firms in Northern California. A graduate of Cornell University, Susan has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for Cornell’s College of Art, Architecture, and Planning. She has served on the Board of Directors for AIA San Mateo County and as a member of the City of Palo Alto’s Architectural Review Board. Susan is also a member of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE).

Wareham Development is committed to the long-term economic and environmental vitality of our communities. We work closely with city and state agencies to ensure that each project provides maximum benefit to its surrounding community. Unlike many developers who build projects only to sell, we retain ownership of the majority of our developments, many of which have defined the thriving technology corridor between the Bay and Richmond-San Rafael bridges.

Mike Futrell began serving as City Manager of South San Francisco, California, in April 2014, bringing broad executive experience in local, state and federal government. He was Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; served on staff in the United States Senate; and was an elected member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and of the Baton Rouge City Council. He served as a submarine officer in the U.S. Navy and rose to the rank of Navy Captain in the Navy Reserves. He previously practiced law with a private firm and was Executive Vice President of a public utility company in Hawaii. Mike holds a bachelor's degree in Business/Public Administration and a Juris Doctorate degree from Louisiana State University, a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and completed the Stanford Graduate School of Business Learn-Engage-Accelerate-Disrupt (LEAD) Certificate program in Corporate Innovation.

Kirk has 35 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1995 he founded Woodstock Development Inc. Prior to founding Woodstock Development, Kirk was a vice president of Coldwell Banker Commercial (now CBRE). Kirk oversees all of the company’s operations including Corporate Services, Acquisitions and Development, Property Management and Asset Management. Kirk is a graduate of Santa Clara University and he is the former Chair of the Board of Regents and a Trustee. Kirk is a past Director of Borel Private Bank & Trust where he chaired the Director’s Loan Committee. Kirk is also past Board Chair of Peninsula Family Service in San Mateo and remains on their Board as an Honorary Life member. Kirk was born and raised in San Francisco and attended St Ignatius Prep. He currently resides in Hillsborough (suburb of San Francisco) with his wife. They have 5 grown children.

Julie Robinson is Senior Vice President, Investments for Ventas, Inc., an S&P 500 company and real estate investment trust that owns approximately 1,200 healthcare, life science and senior living properties in North America and the United Kingdom, and serves as the primary capital partner to leading healthcare providers and research institutions. As a member of the Ventas senior leadership team, Robinson leads the team responsible for the risk assessment, diligence, negotiation and execution of all the firm’s investments, including real estate acquisitions, ground-up developments, joint venture investments and loans in the U.S. and internationally. Under Robinson’s leadership, Ventas has closed in excess of $15 billion in transactions including transformative investments in the Hospital (Ardent Health Services) and Research & Innovation (Wexford Science & Technology) sectors as well as trophy developments in outpatient medical, senior living and research & innovation. With an emphasis on optimizing business operations and improving performance, Robinson also plays an important role in evaluating and reviewing investment opportunities being presented to the Ventas Management Capital Committee. An accomplished business leader with more than 20 years’ experience in acquisitions, deal structuring, corporate finance, management consulting and process improvement, Robinson joined Ventas in 2012 following a successful career at General Electric (GE). During her GE tenure, Robinson played a lead role in the underwriting, due diligence and negotiation of debt financing for the seniors housing and skilled nursing industry at GE Healthcare Financial Services, and led GE’s strategic initiatives across a variety of industries, including the acquisition of a software company serving the utilities industry and the IPO of Genworth Financial. Robinson is a member of the Kellogg Real Estate Advisory Council whose mission is to enhance the Northwestern Business School’s impact on the field of real estate through efforts to support quality teaching, research, and curriculum development; to promote student recruitment and placement; and to advance relations with alumni and other leaders in the real estate industry. She also founded the Ventas Women’s Network, an employee resource group dedicated to the success and engagement of women at Ventas through professional development, career management and mentoring. Robinson received her B.S. in Finance from Miami University and her M.B.A. from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. She is married with one son.