IFMA R&D and Health Care Councils Tour Genentech!

I recently attended the Joint Spring Conference 2009 of the IFMA R&D and Health Care Councils. I had the wonderful opportunity to meet colleagues and discover new and sustainable ways to operate, design and build Research and Development facilities. Participants heard and learned from industry leaders and saw new cutting edge buildings on biotech and healthcare campuses including Fibrogen's new Mission Bay Headquarters and Genentech's newest Biotech Laboratories in South San Francisco.

Attendees represented companies that operate research, healthcare, and clinical spaces. Also attending were architects, engineers, construction and other vendor companies that support the Global Healthcare and Research markets.

About IFMA R&D Council

The Research and Development Council is one of the many specialized groups of IFMA. The members are a diverse collection of individuals involved in R&D facility management encompassing a wide variety of industries (basic sciences, biotechnology, chemicals, consumer products, health care, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, telecommunications, technology, etc.). These facility professionals have the responsibility to effectively plan, design, construct, utilize and maintain a variety of buildings and facilities for their owners and clients.

About IFMA Health Care Council

The Health Care Council (HCC) consists of more than 550 hospital facility managers, design and construction professionals, consultants, vendors and students serving community hospitals, academic medical centers, children’s hospitals, retirement facilities, and specialty hospitals and clinics. As a council of IFMA, our goal is to holistically enhance the skills of facility management professionals within the health care industry and to further the profession overall. We host educational sessions and networking events at most of the national health care conferences.

About the Picture Above

Conference participants gather around the bronze statue that depicts the first meeting of Genentech founders Bob Swanson and Herb Boyer at Churchill's bar in San Francisco where they agreed to form Genentech. It has become a Genentech tradition to dress up the statues on special occasions and to drop coins into their cups for good luck.

Thank You San Francisco Chapter Volunteers!

A great deal of planning and coordination went into making this conference a success. Thank you to John Dilges, John Kennedy, Robyn Isom, Vik Bakshi, Albert Cusati, Homa Yazdani and all the others who participated in making this event a success.

Best regards,

Oscar