Also stakes in high tech, biotech.
"We're very strong in the biosciences," he says, but asks, "can we translate that into a big industry?" And he acknowledges that strength in biotech and high-tech industries depends too on attracting the right people to scientific employment.
Because the work in biotech involves a high technical component--and because many biotech companies are started by Ph.D. scientists--you'll find Ph.D.s throughout management.
Inwentash spent the 1990s not in the bowels of a uranium mill but pursuing riches in high tech and biotech via publicly traded venture funds through Pinetree Capital, which he founded in 1992.
He's also pushed hard for stem cell research, so California can lead the way in biotech and biomedicine, and for high-speed rail.
"The salaries may be higher in pharma and biotech," says Sigismondi, "but my current salary is considerably higher than what I would be making as a postdoc or if I was unemployed".
In biotech news, shares of Amgen and Cytokinetics were trading higher after the companies said Wednesday that they will work together to develop cardiac drugs.
So we found investors who have a mindset where they can see how a novel probiotic, something that actually is engineered to work and is based in a high level of biotech is something that can really disrupt that area.
"Gore, Bush and Bradley each have crafted credible jobs of cultivating support in the high tech and biotech industries," says Jeff Modisett, vice president and general counsel of TechNet, a bipartisan high tech political action group in Palo Alto, Calif.
"That's what we do in biotech.
