Sheridan Snyder

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Dr. Sheridan Gray "Sherry" Snyder OBE, LLB (born October 20th, 1936), often referred to as Sherry Snyder. He is a legendary entreprenuerial figure in the biotechnology industry and philanthropist, who has also made significant contributions to the development of the game of tennis.

Mr. Sheridan G. Snyder was born in Sea Cliff, New York. He is a legendary and prominent entrepreneurial figure with over forty years of experience. He is considered to be a “rock star” in today’s biotechnology industry. A philanthropist, Sherry has made significant contributions to the game of tennis as well as other distinguished non profit centers.

Mr. Snyder graduated from The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and is a 1958 graduate of The University of Virginia, with a BA in French and Romance languages. Mr. Snyder has also received an MBA from New York University and an Honorary Doctorate of Law degree from the University of Dundee in 2002.

Mr. Snyder is a veteran start-up entrepreneur, having founded up to 19 companies to date.

Upon graduation, he began his auspicious career at the Bank of New York. He pursued his MBA degree from NYU while at Bank of New York. His first venture, the Cambridge Mailing Machines was founded in 1964. This initiated the development and invention of high speed mailing/envelope inserting machines, which after tremendous company growth was subsequently sold.

In 1971 he founded a packaging company, Instapak, which markets a new form of industrial packaging whereby liquid urethane is injected into a package and expands to 120 times its original volume (foam-in-place-packaging). It formulates a complete protective barrier for heavy, fragile, technical equipment. Revolutionary for its time, it is now the largest division of Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE). Currently, it has 5,500 plus employees with revenues of $1 billion. Mr. Snyder sold Instapak to Pitney Bowes, whereupon he became the youngest sales manager at Pitney Bowes. It was during this time that Sherry founded NJTL (National Junior Tennis League) with Arthur Ashe and Charles Pasarell. They began in Harlem with a few children which grew to over 250,000 inner city children who are playing tennis throughout 110 cities in the United States. NJTL is now administered by the US Tennis Association. The NJTL effort was recognized by the Ripple of Hope Award to Mr. Ashe and Mr. Snyder from President Kennedy.

Currently, Mr. Snyder is an All American Athlete winning numerous awards in sports (including “Athlete of the Year” while attending UVA) encompassing Soccer, Basketball and Tennis, of which he was Captain of all. While attending the University of Virginia, he was the number one tennis player at the University and reached the last 32 at the US National Championship, the quarter finals of the men’s doubles. Mr. Snyder has played Tennis throughout the world. One of his accolades includes playing tennis at Wimbledon, and long after he had retired from competitive tennis, he reached the third round of men’s doubles at the US Open.

In 1980, Mr. Snyder co-founded Genzyme with Henry Blair and served as President/CEO. Genzyme’s business plan focused on small markets addressing enzyme deficiency diseases. It currently employs 6,500 people worldwide, with approximate $1.5 billion in revenues, with a market valuation of $7.5 billion and a market cap of over $18 billion. Genzyme (NASDAQ:GENZ) is the largest employer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1986, Mr. Snyder initiated the first sale of Genzyme stock shares (Initial Public Offering).

Mr. Snyder founded Biotage in 1989, now part of DYAX (NASDAQ:DYAX), a supplier of large scale chromatography systems which then expanded to therapeutics using phage display technology. It employs 125 people and has a valuation of $250 million.

PRA International was founded (?) by Mr. Snyder in (need year). It is one of the world’s leading clinical development organizations with more than 2,700 employees worldwide. PRA provides reliable service delivery, program-level therapeutic expertise, and easy global access to knowledge. (This needs work)

In 1995/1996, Mr. Snyder founded and served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Upstate Incorporated. Upstate Inc. develops innovative cell signaling products, technology platforms and services to accelerate life science research and drug discovery efforts. Upstate was sold to Serologicals Corporation in Charlottesville, Virginia in (need year?)

Biocatalyst International is the most recent of Mr. Snyder’s business enterprises, founded in 2003. Biocatalyst bridges the gap between world class science and access to the United States market. Spearheaded by Sherry, with his expertise and insight of identifying technologies, Biocatalyst creates sustainable biotech companies.

Biocatalyst International to date incorporates three dynamic companies interfacing with diverse markets of the biotechnology world. These three prevailing and successful corporations were founded by Mr. Snyder, as he takes the biotechnology industry into the future. Biocatalyst International, Molecular MD and Xcovery are leading forces catapulting profitable biotech start-up ventures and expanding the boundaries of science today.

Mr. Snyder co-founded Xcovery with Dr. Chris Liang, Director of Medicinal Chemistry, Scripps Research Florida, and co-developer of Sutent, Pfizer’s first small molecule oncology drug. Xcovery has several lead compounds with a focus on cancer and inflammation, as well as solving toxicity issues in current therapeutics.

Molecular MD was co-founded with Dr. Brian Druker, inventor of Gleevec, Associate Professor, Director School of Medicine, at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. Oregon. Gleevec is a revolutionary small molecule drug that prevents and stops the growth of cancer cells in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML Gist) and other cancers. MMD is a cancer diagnostic company in the world of personalized medicine.

Mr. Snyder was honored with a prestigious OBE (Order of the British Empire) Award in 2005. He is a distinguished member of the Ivy Charitable Foundation, as well as the New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF) and Partnership for New York City (PFNYC).

Mr. Sheridan Snyder currently resides in Palm Beach, Florida, where he serves as Chairman/CEO of his three corporations Biocatalyst International, Molecular MD and Xcovery.