Burrill

Shirley M. Burrill has received the Good Scout award from the National Pike District of the Baltimore Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. She was honored at a breakfast ceremony Friday at the Turf Valley Resort & Conference Center in Ellicott City.Recipients of the award are chosen for outstanding community service and leadership.Burrill has served as executive director of Leadership Howard County since its inception in 1985. An active Girl Scout in her youth, she has been a member of the Boy Scout National Pike District advisory committee.

These are heady days for scientists at biotechnology companies as they take part in what many see as a remarkable revolution in our understanding of disease and efforts to develop treatments for scourges like cancer and spinal cord injuries.But for the executives charged with running many of these ventures, these are days of fret and worry: As their companies burn up cash, traditional sources of financing such as venture capital and the stock market have gone bone dry."It's really dismal," said Robert Curtis, chief executive officer of Baltimore-based Lion Pharmaceuticals Inc. The company was born two years ago as the nation's first biotech venture focused on commercializing discoveries at a major university, in this case the Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine.

Dwight A. Burrill has announced that he is retiring as president of Howard Community College, a post he had held for the past 16 years."I'm going to take some time to step back and evaluate what I want to do with the rest of my life," the 57-year-old resident of the Columbia neighborhood of Hobbits Glen said yesterday. "I might do some business of some sort, but right now, I don't know what that would be."Burrill, whose retirement from the $120,000-a-year post takes effect Sept. 1, is the second president in the college's 27-year history.

In an article in the Business section of Sunday's editions, the name of a newsletter published by Steven Delco was incorrect. The proper name of the publication is the Delco Biotech Investment Letter.The Sun regrets the errors.The bull market may be on a roar, but promising biotechnology companies looking to go public have had to turn elsewhere this year to get in on the money action.The sour initial public offering, or IPO, market for the biotechnology industry has sidelined several promising Maryland biotechnology companies' plans to go public this year, including Osiris Therapeutics Inc., a Baltimore company developing medical therapies using human tissue cells.

HOWARD COMMUNITY COLLEGE is not accustomed to selecting new presidents, so you'll have to excuse its board for being a bit rusty as it goes through the process. It has been 16 years since the 27-year-old institution last conducted this exercise, and that was but the second time it had to choose a new leader.Dwight A. Burrill looked for all the world like he would be HCC president for life.He's only 57, has roots in the community as immutable as those of the tall trees that surround the Columbia campus and has become a visible part of Howard County's business scene.

Henry Linck, vice president and dean of instruction at Howard Community College, has been named the school's acting president as the Columbia institution searches for an interim president as well as a permanent replacement for Dwight A. Burrill, who resigned in July.Linck, the college's No. 2 administrator, will be acting president until the school's board of trustees completes interviews of three finalists this week and makes its selection for the interim-president position, said board member Roger Caplan.

LET'S GET THIS STRAIGHT: Howard Community College trustees have appointed an acting president to lead the campus until they choose an interim president to serve until they select a permanent president.This is one step too many in the process of choosing a leader to replace Dwight A. Burrill, who served for 16 years at the west Columbia school before his retirement took effect Monday. Worse, it is a waste of time and money.There is no need to have two people serving in acting and interim capacities -- terms that are usually synonymous.

President for Life.That title someday may prove true for Dwight A. Burrill, who has led Howard Community College from adolescence to maturity, built firm roots in Columbia and tried -- unsuccessfully -- to build a local business base for himself.A year and a half ago, though, Burrill's future seemed far less certain.He hinted in a September 1994 interview in the school newspaper, the Times, that he might leave. The school was beginning an effort to raise private funds and Burrill wondered whether he was through.

Representatives of Howard Community College and various social service agencies urged the County Council last night to accept their budget requests, saying that the funding the county executive recommended for them is barely adequate.Howard Community College "will increasingly live or die with county support," said the college's president, Dwight A. Burrill, who is seeking $9.4 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1.Even if the council grants the request, the college will still have to raise tuition $60 a year for students with a full load of 15 credits per semester, Dr. Burrill said.

The Soccer Association of Columbia and Howard Community LTC College are considering a joint venture to create a soccer complex on campus with up to nine fields, possibly with seating for fans and evening games under lights.The 23-year-old soccer association, the largest youth sports organization in the county with about 3,800 male and female participants ages 5 to 19, has been looking about five years for a site in the county on which to establish a complex. Soccer association officials presented a sketchy proposal to Howard Community College's board of trustees last week.

CoGenesys Inc., a Rockville biotech spun off from Human Genome Sciences Inc. in 2006, is being sold for $400 million to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Inc., an Israeli company that specializes in generic drugs, the companies announced yesterday. In a statement, Shlomo Yanai, Teva's president and chief executive officer, said Teva had decided it needed to grow in biopharmaceuticals, and was interested in CoGenesys for its "breadth of technologies and the depth of their team and pipeline."

On August 4, 2007, Mary Elizabeth, of Parkville, beloved wife of Bill Burrill Sr.; loving mother of Bill Burrill Jr. and wife Nancy, Theresa Lacko and husband Michael, David Burrill and wife Renee, Laura Schuelke and husband Kevin, Suzanne Ray and husband Michael; loving grandmother of Tonya, Christina, Garrett, Dana, Stephanie, Eric, Bryan, Tyler, Evan, Emily, Sarah, David, and Megan; loving great-grandmother of Katie; dear sister of the late Madeline Abbott...

S.H. Irish appointed executive director of Leadership Howard Stacie Hunt Irish has been appointed executive director of Leadership Howard County. She had served as director of the Howard County Regional Campaign for United Way of Central Maryland since August 2000. A recent graduate of the Class of 2002 of Leadership Howard County, Irish will succeed Shirley M. Burrill, who has been executive director of the organization since its inception 17 years ago. She was instrumental in formulating the group's mission: to strengthen and improve the community by providing knowledgeable, effective leaders for community organizations.

Burrill leaving Leadership Howard County Shirley M. Burrill, executive director of Leadership Howard County, has announced that she will step down Oct. 31. Burrill was instrumental in formulating the organization's mission to strengthen and improve the community by providing knowledgeable, effective leaders for community organizations. The program now enrolls more than 40 students each year. Burrill was recognized as Volunteer Educator of the Year in 1991. Warfield's Daily Record named her one of Maryland's Top 100 Women in 1997, 1999 and this year.

Think of it as the biotechnology industry's New Year's hangover. After partying through last year with a record 67 initial public offerings in the sector, a number of newly public biotechnology companies might see shares dive - or at least dip - in the first part of this year. The reason: Company insiders and many large shareholders suddenly will be freed from "lockup" periods that have prohibited them from trading their shares. The lockup expirations, which generally come six months after an initial public offering, could result in a flood of shares hitting the market.

In another sign that the market for biotechnology stocks has revived, Gaithersburg-based Gen- Vec Inc., a developer of gene-based drugs, has filed for the second time to go public. GenVec had filed for an initial public stock offering in May 1998, only to shelve those plans when the market for biotechnology stocks soured. Company officials were not available for comment on the filing last night. However, in a news release issued late yesterday, the firm said that it had filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a necessary step for companies seeking to go public.

If any theme will mark the biotechnology industry in the coming year, says industry expert G. Steven Burrill, it likely will be this: The big will grow larger while the small struggle on. Only this year, the struggle shouldn't be quite as exhausting. That said, the industry should also find a friendlier investor climate, predicts Burrill, chief executive officer of San Francisco-based merchant bank Burrill & Co., a major biotechnology industry investor. Already this year investors have been flocking back to the industry.

These are heady days for scientists at biotechnology companies as they take part in what many see as a remarkable revolution in our understanding of disease and efforts to develop treatments for scourges like cancer and spinal cord injuries.But for the executives charged with running many of these ventures, these are days of fret and worry: As their companies burn up cash, traditional sources of financing such as venture capital and the stock market have gone bone dry."It's really dismal," said Robert Curtis, chief executive officer of Baltimore-based Lion Pharmaceuticals Inc. The company was born two years ago as the nation's first biotech venture focused on commercializing discoveries at a major university, in this case the Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine.

Shirley M. Burrill has received the Good Scout award from the National Pike District of the Baltimore Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. She was honored at a breakfast ceremony Friday at the Turf Valley Resort & Conference Center in Ellicott City.Recipients of the award are chosen for outstanding community service and leadership.Burrill has served as executive director of Leadership Howard County since its inception in 1985. An active Girl Scout in her youth, she has been a member of the Boy Scout National Pike District advisory committee.

LET'S GET THIS STRAIGHT: Howard Community College trustees have appointed an acting president to lead the campus until they choose an interim president to serve until they select a permanent president.This is one step too many in the process of choosing a leader to replace Dwight A. Burrill, who served for 16 years at the west Columbia school before his retirement took effect Monday. Worse, it is a waste of time and money.There is no need to have two people serving in acting and interim capacities -- terms that are usually synonymous.