Fueling Innovation: Colorado's Rise as a BioTech and HealthTech Powerhouse

Dustin is an award-winning business journalist, bestselling author, and the chief content officer of Smart Business. Over the past 30 years, he has interviewed thousands of business and civic leaders, and helped more than 50 CEOs and entrepreneurs transform their ideas into books. A trained investigative politics reporter and former digital media entrepreneur, Dustin joined Smart Business in 1997 after serving as an editor at several daily newspapers.

As President & CEO of the Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA), Elyse Blazevich collaborates with CBSA’s Board of Directors, team, partners, sponsors, and members to build a collaborative environment for health innovation. Elyse understands what it takes to lead a Colorado life sciences company from concept to commercialization.

Before joining CBSA, she co-founded Securisyn Medical and as COO and CFO, transitioned the company from a founder-led startup to a professionally led, commercial-stage medical device company. She remains a member of the Securisyn Medical Board.

Kimberly Muller is the Executive Director of CU Innovations where she leads innovation for the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Kimberly’s business development responsibilities include investing, company creation, innovation management, forming key strategic industry partnerships, and licensing. Large-scale industry collaborations have been established in areas such as AI and drug development.  She also manages several investment funds, including a $10 million innovation grant fund, a $50 million early-stage venture fund, a $75 million follow-on fund, and partners with UCHealth on a $200 million growth stage fund.

Kimberly joined the University of Colorado from Yale University where she was formerly the Deputy Director of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI), and managed New Ventures in the Office of Cooperative Research. During Kimberly’s tenure, Yale’s Office of Cooperative Research started more than 70 new ventures that have raised over $5 billion in investor capital.

Previously, Kimberly started and sold companies in the biotech, tech, and clean energy fields, companies included Curagen Corporation (acquired by Celldex Therapeutics), 454 Life Science (acquired by Roche), and Arbor Fuel, a biofuel company that utilized recombinant microorganisms for the production of ethanol and butanol. Kimberly began her career in New York as a patent attorney for Chadbourne and Parke, LLP.

Kimberly has a graduate degree in Genetics and received her law degree with highest honors from the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Dr. Afshin Safavi is a founder, CEO, councilman, consultant, board member, scientist, entrepreneur, and investor in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, animal health, technology, and real-estate sectors with multi-billion-dollar turnovers in biological products and is responsible for multiple drug products in the market today. He has founded Colorado Health & Tech Centers (CHTC) and BioAgilytix Labs, one of the most successful multi-billion-dollar Contract Research Organizations (CRO) known internationally.

He has extensive experience establishing and leading teams in pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies. Before founding Colorado Health & Tech Centers (CHTC) and BioAgilytix Labs, he worked for various organizations, including AAIPharma, Bayer Biologicals, Talecris BioTherapeutics (Grifols), Nobex Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline, and IGEN International.

Dr. Safavi obtained his B.S. in Biochemistry from UCLA and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Kentucky Medical School. He completed a two-year postdoctoral assignment at the Emory University, Department of Pathology.