Sheridan Snyder

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Dr. Sheridan Gray "Sherry" Snyder OBE, LLB (born October 20th, 1936), often referred to as Sherry Snyder, is a legendary entrepreneurial 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 speaking at many international conferences. A philanthropist, Snyder 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 received 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 14 companies to date.

Upon graduation, he began his career at the N.Y. Trust Compnay. His first venture, the Cambridge Mailing Machines was founded in 1964. A high speed mailing/envelope inserting machine, was developed which was subsequently sold to Pitney Bowes.

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 Sealed Air. 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 in 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 presented by the Robert F. Kennedy family.

While attending the University of Virginia, he was the number one tennis player at the University.

In 1981, Mr. Snyder founded Genzyme and served as Chairman/President/CEO. Genzyme’s business focused on enzyme deficiency diseases. It currently employs 10,000 people worldwide, with approximately $3.6 billion in revenues, with a market valuation of $20 billion. Genzyme (NASDAQ:GENZ) is the largest private employer in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1986, Mr. Snyder initiated the first sale of Genzyme stock shares (Initial Public Offering).^[1]

Mr. Snyder founded Biotage in 1989 which focuses ono the development of novel drug development systmes. Biotage was acquired by the Swedish biotechnology company Pyrosequencing in 2004 which then took the name Biotage AB.

In 1996, Mr. Snyder founded and served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Upstate Biotechnology 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 2004.

Biocatalyst International is the most recent of Mr. Snyder’s business enterprises, founded in 2005. Spearheaded by Sherry, with his expertise and insight of identifying technologies, Biocatalyst creates sustainable biotech companies in partnership with leading scientists.^[2]

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 5 lead compounds focused on cancer.

Molecular MD was co-founded with Dr. Brian Druker, inventor of Gleevec, Director of the Cancer Center 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). MMD is a molecular diagnostic company in the world of personalized medicine utilizing highly sensitive detection systems.

Mr. Snyder was honored OBE (Officer of the British Empire)in 2005. He is a 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, MolecularMD and Xcovery.

Snyder's efforts in building Upstate from 1997-2004 resulted in a $45 million gift to the University of Virginia Health Center which has used this gift to construct a new Children's Hospital, the Emily Couric Cancer Center and the Sheridan G. Snyder Translational Research Center.

In 1995 Mr. Snyder contributed to the construction of a new tennis center at the University of Virginia which was named the Sheridan G. Snyder Tennis Center.

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