POPULARITY
Born and raised in Michigan, Mr. Tolia attended the University of Michigan where he earned a BA in economics and BSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering, He previously held roles with investment banking firms Peter J. Solomon Company and hedge fund Midtown Capital before co-founding Bengal Capital Trading LLC, a Chicago based hedge fund. While at Bengal Capital, Vinay was an early investor in various US multistate operators (MSOs) as well as other ancillary cannabis companies. In 2018 he left Bengal to become the CEO of the Flowr Corporation. Mr. Tolia led the company’s go-public fundraise as well as subsequent financings as well as the acquisition of Holigen Holdings which gave Flowr a global footprint. Vinay served as a member of the board of directors of Imerman Angels, a cancer support organization and his keenly interested in education reform and social justice. In this episode, Vinay answers questions like: How do you manage life on the road as a husband and father while managing your day-to-day tasks in business? What about business management are you most passionate about? Who or what do you attribute your success to? What has your biggest success this year been? What was your biggest failure and why? How did you get through it? Resource Links: Connect with Vinay Tolia on LinkedIn More about Flowr Corporation Hire Leaders with Yscouts
PJ SOLOMON Chairman Peter J. Solomon and Managing Director James McGinnis discuss the factors that are leading the transition to clean energy in the US rapidly and forcefully ahead.
Ira Pastor, ideaXme exponential health ambassador, interviews Fred Frank, Founder and Chair of Evolution Life Science Partners, an investment bank focused on the needs of life sciences and healthcare companies. Ira Pastor Comments: On several recent shows we’ve been discussing some of the novel, alternative funding pools that have been emerging in and around the biotech space, specifically related to some of the unmet medical needs of which we have been focusing on, on the ideaXme show, particularly related to the age-tech and longevity biotech fronts. We have had guests join us from both the $125 Million Healthy Ageing Challenge program of UKRI (UK Research and Innovation)and the US$30 Million Healthy Longevity Global Grand Challenge of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine. We’ve have also talked to folks at the XPrize Foundation, specifically related to their upcoming inducement prize contest for therapeutics for the diseases of aging. However, today we are going to get back to back to basics; "Back to the street" as they say, to Wall Street, where the majority of the big action and big deals occur. Fred Frank I’m honored to be joined this morning by Mr. Fred Frank. Mr. Frank is an investment banker, and with more than 50 years of experience on Wall Street, is widely considered to be one of the first investment bankers to have ever specialized in the areas of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and health care services. Routinely listed as one of the top contributors to the world biotechnology, Mr. Frank has served in a variety of roles over the years including, but not limited to, Vice Chairman at Lehman Brothers, Barclays Capital, and the Peter J. Solomon Company. He is credited as lead underwriter for over 125 IPOs, and as a negotiator in over 75 mergers and acquisitions, including the mega Bristol-Myers Squibb merger, and the Hoffmann-La Roche acquisition of Genentech. He was around doing deals when companies like Genentech and Cetus (which eventually became Chiron) were tiny startups, so has really seen the evolution of this business from the very beginning. Mr. Frank's Work Mr. Frank is currently the founder and chair of Evolution Life Science Partners, an investment bank focused on the needs of life sciences and healthcare companies, including capital raising, licensing/partnering, and M&A, and it's partners have executing hundreds of deals with an aggregate value in excess of $125 Billion. Along with his wife Ms. Mary Tanner, another major bio/health investment banking force on Wall Street, Mr. Frank is Trustee of the Tanner Frank Foundation of New York Citywhich is involved in variety of charitable giving activities. Mr. Frank has won numerous awards over the years including The Richard J. Bolte Sr. Award which recognizes "outstanding contributions by a leader who provides products or services vital to the continuing growth and development of the chemical and molecular sciences community", the Albert Einstein Award from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and the Top 100 living contributors to biotechnology by the Reed Elsevier organization. On this show we will hear from Mr. Frank About his background, how he became interested in investment banking, in biotech/healthcare M&A deals, the early days of recombinant DNA technology development and his realisation of what a game-changing opportunity it was for the industry in the 1970s. His views on the current big pharma / biotech M&A balance dynamics in 2020. His views on the "Unicorn" biotech phenomena, a term used in the venture capital industry to describe privately held startup companies with a value of over $1 billion. Finally, we'll hear his views on the current state of the biotech venture capital industry, as well as the longevity / anti-aging biotech segment. Credits: Ira Pastor interview video, text, and audio. Follow Ira Pastor on Twitter:@IraSamuelPastor If you liked this interview, be sure to check out ourinterview with Dr. Roey Tzezana, lead researcher at XPRIZE! Follow ideaXme on Twitter:@ideaxm On Instagram:@ideaxme Find ideaXme across the internet including oniTunes,SoundCloud,Radio Public,TuneIn Radio,I Heart Radio, Google Podcasts, Spotify and more. ideaXme is a global podcast, creator series and mentor programme. Our mission: Move the human story forward!™ ideaXme Ltd.