William J. Link, Versant Ventures on Entrepreneurship

Winter Quarter 2009 Entrepreneurship Seminar Series

"Innovations in Medical Technology--The Impact of Biomedical Engineering"

Featuring William J. Link, Ph.D.
Managing Director
Versant Ventures

Location: McDonnell Douglas Engineering Auditorium
Free and open to the public

The Entrepreneurship Seminar Series provides a real-world introduction to the theory and practice of entrepreneurship.  Through a series of presentations by prestigious entrepreneurs and industry leaders, participants will explore the various organizational, strategic and financial challenges facing successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs.  Topics include start-up strategies, business idea evaluation, business plan writing, and introduction to venture capital.

For a complete listing of Entrepreneurship Seminar Series guest speakers, please visit http://www.eng.uci.edu/events/entseminars.

About the Speaker:
William J. Link, Ph.D., specializes in early-stage investing in medical devices at Versant Ventures. Prior to co-founding Versant Ventures, Link was a general partner at Brentwood Venture Capital. He has a proven record of building and operating large, successful medical product companies. With extensive knowledge of medical devices, particularly in ophthalmology, his operating experience spans more than 23 years in general management in the healthcare industry.

Perhaps Link’s greatest operational success was as founder, chairman and CEO of Chiron Vision, a subsidiary of Chiron Corporation, specializing in ophthalmic surgical products, which was sold to Bausch and Lomb in 1997. Prior to Chiron Vision, Link founded and served as president of American Medical Optics, a division of American Hospital Supply Corporation, which was sold to Allergan in 1986.

While at Brentwood, Link invested in a number of early-stage companies, including eyeonics (sold), Genyx (sold), IntraLase (sold), Intra Therapeutics (sold), and OraMetrix (private). His Versant investments include the following private companies: AcuFocus, Cameron Health, Confirma, ForSight, Glaukos, Inogen, LenSx, NeoVista, Neurotech Pharmaceuticals, Rox Medical, Second Sight and Wavetec.

Before entering the healthcare industry, Link was an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Link earned his bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering from Purdue University. In February 2002, the Orange County Engineering Council named Link “Engineer of the Year.”