Episode 10: Biotech-Based Family Offices with Key Opinion Leader Elaine Hamm

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Welcome back to Bio from the Bayou, everyone. Today, our guest is Dr. Elaine Hamm once again, talking about yet another interesting issue. Welcome back, Elaine.

Oh, I'm happy to be back, always.

Excellent. Elaine, as you know, the Tulane School of Medicine has been engaging with family offices more and more, and we recently attended our 3rd Elite Global Leaders Conference, which was your first, Elaine.

Yeah, I wasn't part of Tulane yet, so—

Oh, that's true.

How could I?

That's true, that's true. And as we talked about, these conferences are private wealth conferences and really designed to help attendees from family offices network and access with other independent RIAs, other family offices, professional athletes, pension funds, and other high-net-worth investors. Really amazing, interesting content that exposes them to novel technologies, ways of thinking about things, ways of connecting things that you might not think about other But before we really get into a discussion of what we did at this conference and where you see value, can you explain what a family office is to our listeners?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So a family office is really a private wealth management firm that really helps serve either high-net-worth individuals or families. And they offer a lot of— beyond just investment, they offer a lot of solutions to managing financial and investment needs of that affluent individual or family or multiple. There are some family offices that are multiple families. They provide things like investment management, charitable giving advice, wealth transfer planning, all kinds of different aspects, but really to help make the most of a wealthy individual or wealthy family, families, giving them an opportunity to make the most of their capital.

And so when they're making the most of their capital, do they ever invest in biotech?

Oh yeah, absolutely. So in a number of different ways, I mean, charitable giving is often what we think about with family offices. invest in biotech. They donate to hospitals, they donate to causes that they're passionate about, but more and more family offices are actually investing in biotech directly, into startup companies, into investment funds that invest in biotech companies. And it's a really great way for family offices to make a global impact. It's a great way for them to tie both an investment to a passion project. Maybe they have a family member that has a disease or something that impacts their family, they can help move the needle in progressing to a cure. And in fact, a family office helped develop the Pfizer COVID vaccine, which was a— I mean, not only was that lucrative for that family, obviously, because of the global spread of COVID but they also made an incredible impact on healthcare globally. It's becoming more of a thing for sure.

Interesting. Do you know, did they invest before the pandemic or as the pandemic started?

Before. Yeah. Oh, wow.

So they were in the ground floor.

Yeah. Yeah. So they were, they were invested in BioNTech, the group that originally developed the vaccine prior to Pfizer joining them. So they were kind of on the ground floor.

So.

And that's, I think it's a great background on family offices and how they can engage. And then we went to this conference specifically to do a keynote fireside chat, which was very exciting for us. And we talked about executive-in-residence roles in general, But especially how they work at Tulane and how they could benefit a family office. What are some of the key things that you think we conveyed as far as message points?

I mean, biotech is great to invest in, but it's really, really complicated, and it's usually in something that they may not know a lot about. And one of the other speakers, Eric Ball, actually discussed, you know, the importance of really truly having a diligence process and really understanding what you're investing in. And that's where universities come into play, and executives in residence can play a role as well. When I worked for an investment firm, when we were evaluating the deal, we engaged with university professors to help make sure that the science was sound. We engaged with industry experts to really make sure that the path forward was the correct one. And then, as a consultant, I've helped family offices post the investment understand, is this company doing well, but they get clinical data. Is this clinical data meaningful? Is it what the CEO is saying it means? And, and that's where universities and executive in residence can help provide a really valuable role to these family offices, is really making sure that what they're investing in is sound, and then is their investment going well?

So transitioning a little bit, what were some of the most interesting things that you learned from the conference instead of things that you delivered?

Oh man, it was great because I typically attend bio— you and I both attend— most of our conferences are biotech-based, right?

Right.

So we attend a lot of science-based conferences or industry-based conferences. So it was really nice to get a broader type of conference experience because I learned a lot from different sectors. So understanding, for example, AI. I mean, AI is something that's very big in biotech, but understanding how others are employing AI in their industries really got me thinking about how AI is going to impact science. You know, we'd also talked about NFTs, which frankly, I don't know about you, but I knew nothing about NFTs. I thought they were honestly like secret spots. Like, I really thought they were kind of stupid and they drive me crazy. But after that conference, I walked away with a completely new appreciation for NFTs. And it'll be interesting to see how NFTs can impact healthcare and can impact science. And when those collide will be really, really a fascinating instance.

So—

No, I absolutely agree with that. And it was, you know, my third time going and my third time hearing about them, but I felt like— and I don't know if it's that I got a baseline from the other 2 conferences or just that the presenters at this particular iteration in Madrid were, were just conveying it in a way that finally really clicked for me, or the fact that you were there explaining it in real time as well, and we were like talking together. But, um, yeah, absolutely, it was fascinating. And so one of the people who talked about NFTs, I have a feeling you'll probably mention next, but were there any people who particularly stood out to you? at the conference?

Well, I think, yeah, Nicole Buffett. I mean, she had— she helped me understand the role of NFTs in the art world beyond just sort of what I thought was, you know, kind of— I thought it was more gimmicky when I thought about NFTs and art, but she really helped me understand like the role of NFTs in provenance. When you think about sort of, you know, where, you know, you can track down the history of a piece of art or an antique or that type of thing, which is really important as it relates to value. So she helped me better understand that. But also what really stood out for me was Eric Ball. He was a former academic, which I love. He has a PhD as well, but he runs an investment firm called Impact Venture Capital, and they make early-stage investments in technology companies, particularly in AI. But he told a great story that really honestly set us up for our talk the next day. But he had invested in Theranos, and we all know the Theranos story and how that went. But he really made the case of, if you're going to invest in something, ask tons of questions, find the expertise, and make sure You know exactly what you're investing in. And so that really was a nice lead-in for us. So in addition to having some really amazing stories, listening to him was great. We toured Madrid and just listening to him talk was incredible. He had some great stories. So those were mine.

Yeah, and I thought it was great too that— I can't remember if it was Eric or someone else who said never invest in biotech or science unless you're a scientist or have one engaged with you who can actually help explain things and keep it going forward, which means you'll always have a job. So that's perfect.

Yeah, right, exactly, exactly. Perfect.

So we learned a lot, we discussed a lot, we had some really amazing conversations. And I think we both got to delve the most into the family office space that we've been able to so far with Tulane at this event. Do you see family office engagement as a wave of the future, both in biotech and for academics in general?

I don't know about wave of the future, but I see their role becoming more important in the ecosystem of investment. And moving the needle for technologies, moving the needle for startup companies, and a real opportunity to combine people that are passionate about a topic with the people that are trying to address that topic. So having someone that has, you know, the Hilton family, actually, they had an MS investment because someone in their family had MS. And to combine, as a scientist, I love working with investors that truly, truly care about what we are trying to solve. And so I think that family offices have a great role in that. And there's a number of different ways that they can do that. I mean, they can invest, like I mentioned, in research, they can invest in hospitals, but they can invest in startup companies. They can invest in whole funds that are dedicated to an indication. I mean, the Foundation for Fighting Blindness is an amazing investment fund run by Rusty Kelly. The American Cancer Society has their BrightEdge Fund, which is run by an incredible woman that, that really truly understands cancer, but also the investment. So you, you can invest in biotech in a really interesting way and make a big difference. And that is gonna play an important role in the investment ecosystem, I think.

Yeah. A lot of people refer to that as passion investing or impact investing, where these family offices obviously have a responsibility to the next generation, or at least feel a responsibility to their next generation to ensure that the wealth is not gone and then, and, and grows and is able to be more impactful. And we often hear a lot of talks as well about how these family offices are, are teaching the next generation about what is important to their families. And a lot of those are things you just talked about, you know, the ability to, to affect disease states or climate change or, or things that they've taken in as their, as their core tenets and what they, they really want to accomplish in the world. So it's not just about making a profit, which is kind of amazing to have partners in that way. Absolutely.

Absolutely. That's an important piece. It keeps you going as an entrepreneur because it's a hard— it's a hard job to be an entrepreneur. And so when you have people that really truly care, it gets you excited too.

So Elaine, my last question for you today is we may have family offices listening to this podcast that have not, you know, had the benefit of hearing you talk yet or hearing the panels of scientists that we've had before at some of the conferences, like Dr. James McLaughlin and Dr. Trevea Frazier spoke on panels for us before and got more deeper into science. But if they haven't had that experience yet, and they want to learn more about biotech, and they're curious how they can, A, learn more themselves, but, you know, B, about biotech or healthcare, connect with experts who could be the people who could help them, how can they do so?

Yeah, so there's a number of different ways. And I would first get them to think about, you know, what are things that they're really excited about, passionate about, you know, that, that they would want to learn more about too, because we want them to be educated in what they're investing in too. And think about that first and then connect with universities that are involved in that type of research. I mean, Tulane, we have incredible research scientists. We have incredible clinicians too that can provide guidance on if you have a particular technology that you're excited about, but you don't know for sure and you want to make sure it's not a Theranos situation, you can engage with your university, engage with Tulane to really understand, is this what it says it is? You can engage with clinicians actually that have been, that are sort of, they're on the ground floor of seeing the effects of the disease and, hey, is there a need for this type of therapeutic or drug or diagnostic? And they can give you the feedback of people that are living that every single day. And so there's expertise out there, and I highly encourage you to, these family offices, to reach out to these experts that can help guide them in their passion project in a way that can not only address their concerns or what kind of impact they want to have, but also that can help make sure that their investments are sound and generationally applicable. So yeah, and to talk to us, of course, that's my other plug. I mean, we get requests from people that are trying to understand, we had a recent request on pain drugs and we have Jim Zitidina, who's an incredible expert in pain therapeutics. So being able to connect those people are really important.

And are there any events coming up that wouldn't cost them anything where if they wanted to learn more they could?

Well, Bio in the Bayou is a great opportunity.

Shameless plug. Thank you, Elaine. Absolutely.

My gosh. I mean, it's a great opportunity to see a cross-section of a number of different universities, a number of different expertise levels and industry and research scientists, and you get to do it in New Orleans and you get to see us. So there's Sort of an added benefit, but, you know, just had to give us a shameless plug.

Exactly. And that's October 3rd and 4th this year coming up. And the website is bioonthebayou.com, a play on the podcast name, A Bio From the Bayou. And, and so we would love to have anyone there who would like to attend. And if they want to learn more from any individuals, we could set things up for them there as well. In closing too, I will also want to say to the family offices out there, like if there are new ones listening, and they would like to be connected to Neil Green and Jibway Productions and learn more about the Elite Global Leaders conferences, because he's one of the only ones I think that is really pulling universities and, and executives in residence into the mix as part of his offering. And it's kind of phenomenal. And they're, they're amazing, small curated events where he has roughly 100 people max in the room. So it's tremendous engagement, you're together for 3 days, hit either Elaine or I up, we'll be happy to make an introduction to Neil. And connect you with him to see if you're a fit for what he does there. But what he does is pretty amazing and we really enjoy going. So I want to give him a huge shout out for that. With that, is there, is there anything else, Elaine, that you feel like we should talk about today?

I think that we covered it. I mean, it was a really amazing opportunity and, you know, I always get excited to be able to talk about science with people that might be intimidated about science and, and want to help but don't know exactly how to. So anytime I get a chance to do that, I, I love, and of course talking to you. I mean, there's, that's the added benefit.

So we, we were told that we had incredible charisma on stage. We've done this a few times.

We've done this a couple of times. I may know him from a decade or so.

We spent years honing our, what we call it, kind of our newscaster persona on stage together, which really is our day-to-day persona. It's not any different. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I mean, it's just us. Exactly. Us minus cocktails.

Exactly. Well, Elaine, I wanted to thank you so much. I think it's a perfect way to end. I want to thank you so much for coming back again. We always love having We you. love having you on, and it's great that we always find new topics to talk about. We hope to have you back again in the future.

Absolutely.

We'll have Elaine's contact info, we'll have info on the ELITE Conference in our show notes as well. And if you want to know more about Tulane School of Medicine, family offices, the ELITE Conference, or Elaine, feel free to reach out to either one of us. Thanks for joining us for Bio from the Body.

If you'd like to learn more about the emerging biotech scene in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, visit us at biofromthebayou.com, where we have more info on who we are, how to get involved and connected in biotech in New Orleans, and the industry events we'll be hosting where you can meet with us in person.

And we'd be remiss if we didn't give a special thanks to the Accelerator Network for providing funding for this podcast. Learn more about them and our partners at biofromthebayou.com.

We'll catch you on our next episode of Bio from the Bayou.

Bye.