All Access Healthcare: Spotlight on Westchester's Bioscience Ecosystem

Deborah Novick is the Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation within the Westchester County Office of Economic Development, where she directs Launch1000, Westchester RISES, the Element 46 incubator program, the Westchester County Biosciences Initiative, and oversees the Biosciences Accelerator program. In addition, she looks for opportunities to grow the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem in Westchester. Since February 2020, she has been a member of the Board of the Westchester County Association.

Novick was most recently Director of the Biotechnology Incubator at New York Medical College, a position she held since late 2017. Among her responsibilities was creating a collaborative community within the incubator and recruiting new start-ups. She was also responsible for overseeing the design and physical expansion of the incubator, which doubled in size.

Her background also includes having served as an instructor for a course on entrepreneurship at the Women’s Enterprise Development Center; co-founded a successful real estate staging firm and served as fund manager for several venture capital funds.

A resident of Larchmont, Novick earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University’s College of Industrial and Labor Relations. She holds a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Laurence Gottlieb has over thirty years of C-suite strategic communications and economic development experience having worked for (and with) a wide variety of entrepreneurial ventures, Fortune 500 corporations, global non-profits, and government agencies. He serves as Managing Director for Robert Martin Company’s life sciences and health technologies initiative, RMC Bio1, which he developed among other special strategic initiatives he is presently undertaking on the firm’s behalf. Prior to joining Robert Martin Company in 2019, Laurence was Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Nicholas & Lence, after having served as President and Chief Executive Officer for the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation (HVEDC) for several years. Before HVEDC, he was Westchester County’s Director of Economic Development where he developed the successful NY BioHud Valley regional life sciences initiative

and co-founded the area’s first biotech incubator space at NY Medical College (BioInc@NYMC). Laurence graduated cum laude from Pace University and completed executive education programs at Harvard Business School and Yale School of Management. He lives in Westchester with his wife and has two, grown daughters.

Mr. Pasini is the former Pfizer Vice President Worldwide Marketing, Product Development and Business Intelligence and Planning. Prior to joining Oligomerix, Mr. Pasini spent 30 years at Pfizer, Inc. where he held multiple senior level positions and was responsible for some of the company’s most successful brands including Spiriva, Zithromax, Diflucan and Zyvox. Among his career highlights, Mr. Pasini served as Vice President of Pfizer’s Infectious Diseases, Allergy & Respiratory Therapeutic Groups, where he led commercial decision-making involving two key therapeutic areas, generating annual revenue in excess of $5 billion.