Andy Wilson’s Post

There is nothing more important than public trust and confidence in our democratic systems. I was honored to serve on the City of Pasadena's recently concluded Charter Study Task Force (A city's charter is its core governance framework - like a local constitution). After numerous meetings led by our capable chair Ken Chawkins and vice chair Marcus D. Hatcher, a few weeks ago the Task Force presented a serious of well researched and vetted recommendations to the Council that we felt would enhance voter confidence in our local system. Two of the more controversial recommendations (but generally favored by the electorate) were term limits and contributions limits. I wrote an opinion piece yesterday specifically encouraging our Council to adopt reasonable term limits. I am thrilled to report our Council showed unified leadership and late last night more or less adopted our full set of recommendations. I want to particularly acknowledge the strong leadership through this process from my local Councilmember Jason Lyon and his colleague Jess Rivas. It is great to know our local leaders are committed to adopting policies and guardrails that enhance public trust. We are also fortunate to have one of the best City Clerk in the state - thank you Mark Jomsky. Proud to live in City of Pasadena! https://lnkd.in/geentbjH

Strengthening communities and enhancing connectivity has been a common theme of my work these past 15 years. I just came back from 3 days at my 35th (yikes!) Dartmouth College reunion. I was thrilled to reconnected and strengthen my ties to the College and so many of my classmates including Scott Kelley, MD (and wife Jill), actor Rachel Dratch, David Downie and Bob Lasher just to mention a few. Continued to be impressed with new president Sian Leah Beilock - particularly excited that the College which has a deep male heritage now has an impressive (first!) female at its helm. Of course the '88 band playing on the Dartmouth Green was super enjoyable (helps that the weather was perfect & the cold beer plentiful). No reunion visit would be completed without a visit to the old dorm (Lord Hall - Room 408) oh the memories! I had a related conversation with Techstars returning CEO David Cohen today about the pivotal role of community to support entrepreneurship - a vital piece of infrastructure that serves to improve the odds of building a successful venture. Having supported >3,000 startups, engaged many thousands of mentors and partnered with numerous VCs, I can only imagine how powerful their alumni network might be to supporting current and future startups. What communities are you part of and what types of outcomes do they support?

I was happy to shorten my Saturday morning power walk today so I could attend Caltech Entrepreneurs Forum instead. Congrats to Randy Churchill, Stan Tomsic and Lynn Foster for assembling an all star line up of startup experts to share incredible wisdom on how to navigate the perilous entrepreneur’s journey. So many terrific nuggests from my long time friends and collaborators Jeff Stibel & Brett Brewer (of Crosscut Ventures ) plus other experienced startup-builders Chris Heatherly, Maria Simone with skilled moderation from Joe Sichta. Definitely time well spent - glad so many entrepreneurs were in the audience scribbling notes . . . including my eldest son Spencer Wilson

Cool aerial overview of amazing Caltech (a true treasure in City of Pasadena and a global leader in science and research . . and consistently ranked as one of the top universities in the world) from KCAL news chopper with nice commentary. . . . though the misidentify the Chen Neuroscience Research Building as the Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology. I feel privileged to live down the street and walk through the campus at least 1 - 2x per week. . . .in hopes that it might elevate my IQ! https://lnkd.in/gF_wKerC

Amazing way to end a hectic week at the big annual #LABest conference hosted by UCLA Technology Development Group. Great line up biotech leaders from Amgen, Biogen and Kite Pharma. Particularly excited to learn more about the new #California Institute for Immunlogy and Immunotherapy. Love Gary Michelson’s vision and enthusiasm for this truly transformational project. Also so many useful workshops. Not surprisingly I particularly enjoyed the panel on the state of biosciences in greater LA hosted by Rohit Shukla with terrific speakers including Kelly LoBianco, Dan Gober and Howard Xu. Nice to catch up with so many friends including Seth Lieblich, Fred Farina, Jack Steele Congrats to Mark Wisniewski, Amir Naiberg and entire TDG team.

Inspirational and spectacular! The only way to describe Carver Mead’s recent tour de force lecture at Caltech - Beckman Auditorium focused on the advent of the modern semiconductor and the digital age. Stunning how integrated and important Caltech is to this epic saga spawning such firms as Fairchild - now part of ON Semiconductor and Intel Corporation. Over his 65 years, Carver touched so many industry leader (he is now 90 and going strong!). What an epic life as an academic leader and industry maker yet still so humble. Also loved the great framing of the story/history by Caltech’s historian David Zierler. Proud to be a friend and suppporter of Caltech!

One of our greatest assets in SoCal is the incredible concentration of top research universities like Caltech, UCLA, University of Southern California, UC San Diego, and Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) institutes (just to mention a few) each brimming with talented scientists. Some of this research seeks to make its way into the commercial world through a technology transfer process where entrepreneurial minded principal investigators secure licenses from their host institutions (lab to market journey) The Alliance for Southern California Innovation big annual First Look Innovation showcase is the formal “coming out party” for many of these science-driven spin outs. Congrats to the two dozen exciting startups who were show-cased yesterday. Also wonderful to start the day with insightful comments on the future/growing potetial of AI from impressive Keith Strier from NVIDIA and Mike Miller from Amazon Web Services (AWS). These startup pitches are especially dynamic because of our panels of knowledgeable experts who engage in real time dialog/questions with each presenter- thanks to all of those panelists for a job well done. I know each presenter learn so much from these exchanges. Special thanks to our lead sponsors Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, KPPB LLP, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and other underwriters Kathryn Barger, Yuyu Pharma and Aline. Finally a big call out to the Alliance team but especially Steve Gilison for pulling the laboring oar to make this important event such a success!

Occasionally, we have milestone events in SoCal that really move the innovation ecosystem to the next level. We just had one of those yesterday with the grand opening of AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles incredible new campus. What an compelling facility for our burgeoning blue economy. Congrats to Jenny Krusoe and Terry Tamminen for their comitted and focus leadership. Glad to see other SoCal innovation leader there including Stephen Cheung, Tad Funahashi, and Matt Horton This critical infrastructure is certain to help accelerate this important and growing part of the SoCal innovation ecosystem. #thisisSoCal

No better way to start my Saturday than a walk with my dog Gandalf to enjoy a great latte at Jones Coffee Co and then make my way to incredible annual seminar day at Caltech to be learn from some of the greatest minds in science including Brian Stoltz (developing new therapeutics) and Pietro Perona ( using AI for sustainability) plus many others. Amazing to do this all on foot. Feel extremely lucky to live in City of Pasadena

One of my most special accomplishments while in elected office for City of Pasadena was working with Kaiser Permanente to help build and launch the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. What a thrill to see my friend and founding Dean Mark Schuster present diplomas to 37 member of the inaugural class. Congrats to Mark, Greg Adams, the faculty and staff and especially these incredible graduates who I know will provide extraordinary care for their patients and be agents of positive change in healthcare. Also a call out to Magic Johnson for a heart felt graduation speech and taking individual selfies with each graduate! So proud to have such an incredible institution in our City.