Alumni Spotlight:
Tom Amick CEO, Aldagen
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om Amick graduated from Elon College in 1969, never imagining his journey would one day bring him back full circle. Besides achieving success as a biotech executive, Amick is a member of the Love School of Business Advisory Board, chair of the board of advisors for the Doherty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, and now an Elon parent. After graduation, Amick worked for Proctor & Gamble in sales but soon realized that his real career interest was pharmaceuticals. Following his passion, he joined the world’s largest healthcare company, Johnson & Johnson. When in the late 1980s the company ventured into the biotechnology business, Amick got in on the ground floor and moved quickly through the ranks. He became president of Janssen Ortho Canada with responsibility for all of Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical and biotech business for Canada. Amick then moved to Europe as president of Ortho Biotech Europe, where he was charged with building the biotech business in western Europe. With offices in England, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, Amick and his family experienced many different cultures. At the end of his European assignment, he moved back to the U.S. and joined Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, the venture capital arm of the company, where he worked closely with many of the leading venture capitalists in the U.S. Retirement in 2004 to his beach house in Emerald Isle, N.C., was shortlived. A month into retirement he was asked to join the board of directors of several biotech companies, and he began to serve in advisory roles for Quaker Bioventures in Philadelphia and Intersouth Partners in Durham, N.C., both venture capital firms. He now serves as chairman and CEO of Durham, N.C.-based Aldagen Inc., a portfolio company of Intersouth that focuses on regenerative medicine. Amick is also chairman of the board of directors of Discovery Labs in Philadelphia, and recently became the company’s acting CEO. In an interview, Tom shared insights on his career in biotechnology and encourages Elon students to “have a passion for what they study.”
Tom Amick ‘69 and daughter Christine, class of 2013
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You moved to a start-up environment after years as a corporate executive at a Fortune 100 firm. What has that experience been like for you?
Johnson & Johnson is unique in that it is very decentralized, so you have the opportunity to employ an entrepreneurial spirit in running your businesses. I built the oncology business at Ortho Biotech, began and built the biotech business in Europe, and turned the Canadian operation from being flat to having one of the strongest year-on-year growth rates in the industry in Canada. The biggest difference between my experience at Johnson & Johnson and starting new biotech companies is the limited resources available to you. Therefore, your responsibilities are broader than those at a large company where you have unlimited resources, but it’s also more exciting.
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What are the greatest opportunities and challenges you face as a biotech entrepreneur?
The challenges are recruiting quality people for both your scientific and overall management team as well as raising enough capital to support your research and development. The opportunities are being involved in cutting-edge science and technology from all stages of development. From a healthcare perspective, these technologies have the potential to transform medicine as it’s performed today. That’s where being an entrepreneur in this field is fun and exciting.
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What advice would you offer to students pursuing an undergraduate degree in business and/or an MBA degree?
I think it’s important that students have a passion for what they decide to study. I would recommend that they work very closely with the faculty and administration of the LSB and the Doherty Center to ensure that they have exposure to entrepreneurs and their businesses, internships at successful businesses, and international experience. All of these avenues are available to students at Elon, but students have to take advantage of them. It’s really important for students to know and understand that they will face adversity and roadblocks in school, personal life and careers. It’s the passion and willingness to keep working through the tough times that will make them successful.
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Your daughter is an incoming freshman. How do you think her experience at Elon will differ from yours?
Let me start out out by saying how thrilled I am that Christine (Conti) has chosen Elon. It makes me very proud. Elon has changed significantly since I went there and it was named Elon College. Through Leo Lambert’s leadership it has grown into a university that is on par with some of the best private universities in the country. Elon truly cares about its students and offers the support needed for them to be successful. I have no doubt that Christine will take advantage of all of the opportunities that Elon has to offer, and that Elon will become a part of her life forever. AN ANNUAL REPORT PREPARED FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS
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