Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MARCH 4, 2024 39 Center for the Performing Arts was no exception. It was forced to close its doors from March 2020 through Sept. 11, 2021. David Fay, The Bushnell's CEO since 2001, led the charge in urging state and federal policymakers to provide government aid to the industry. He's also been a leading advocate in helping the sector recover from the public health crisis. Audiences have slowly returned, but many theaters still haven't recovered to pre-pandemic levels. The Bushnell has experienced a lift from its "must-see" Broadway shows, which have attracted strong ticket sales. The musical "Frozen" was recently in town and played in front of well-packed crowds. Fay has been a strong voice at the legislature, urging policymakers to increase funding for the arts. Prior to leading The Bushnell, he was president of the Canadian Producing Division of SFX Theatrical Group, and executive director of the Pantages Theatre in Toronto. He also spent 15 years as the president and CEO of Fox Associates in St. Louis, Missouri. Fay is currently on the board of corporators of Hartford Hospital. 42 John Houston A rvinas may be one of Connecticut's most prom- ising clinical-stage life science companies. The New Haven-based biotech is led by John Houston, who has helped the company reach several important milestones. With a recent $350 million fund- raise, Houston said the publicly traded company is now financed through at least 2027 to pursue bringing its cancer-fighting drugs to market. Arvinas is working on treatments for breast and prostate cancer. It has been focused on creating drugs that harness the body's natural protein disposal system to remove disease-causing proteins. Arvinas has an ongoing collab- oration with Pfizer to develop and commercialize Vepdegestrant, a breast cancer drug candidate in phase 3 clinical trials. Houston said he anticipates data from those ongoing trials by the end of 2024, and if they are positive, the drug could be brought to market as early as next year. "That'd be very exciting for Arvinas, which would be transi- tioning from a late-stage develop- ment to a commercial company over the next couple of years," Houston said. Arvinas also is pursuing a pros- tate cancer treatment, with phase 3 trials expected to begin in the next year, Houston said. The company, which has been working out of Science Park and has 450 employees, has leased three floors, or 160,000 square feet of lab and office space in developer Carter Winstanley's new 101 College St. bioscience tower, which is slated to open in the coming months. The move will more than double Arvinas' current space. Houston has over 30 years of industry experience and previ- ously served as the senior vice president of specialty discovery at Bristol Myers Squibb. He also worked at Glaxo Wellcome Research and Development in the U.K., where he served as head of the lead discovery unit. 43 Jacqueline Heard J acqueline Heard's startup company is at the heart of the data-driven agriculture move- ment, applying artificial intelligence to developing a new generation of pesticides that she hopes will meet the tough challenges facing farmers who must feed a growing world population. Heard is CEO of agrichemicals company Enko Chem, which made headlines in 2021 when it announced plans to relocate its headquarters from Greater Boston to Mystic, at 62 Maritime Drive, where it currently occupies an 89,000-square-foot facility formerly owned by Pfizer and Monsanto. Enko has raised $150 million from numerous investors, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Connecticut Innovations, the state's quasi-public venture capital arm. The company has generated hundreds of crop-protection mole- cules through a technology platform it calls ENKOMPASS. It combines screening of DNA-encoded chem- ical libraries with machine learning and structure-based design to find new, better-performing and more targeted chemistries. The goal is to find safe and effective pesticides in a more timely manner. Historically, it's taken about 13 years to bring a novel compound to market. Heard said she believes her AI-driven model can cut that to between eight and 10 years. In January, Enko announced a partnership with Switzerland-based Syngenta Crop Protection to develop a new chemistry to control fungal disease in cereal crops. "The world faces a food security crisis that climate change is steadily worsening," Heard said in announcing the partnership. "By proving that digital tools can cut discovery time for new crop protection solutions, we hope to accelerate the digital trans- formation shift within the agricultural industry as growers' needs become more urgent." Heard earned her Ph.D. in biology from Boston College and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. She's an agricultural industry veteran, having spent more than 11 years at Monsanto Co. 44 Vincent Candelora S tate Rep. Vincent J. Cande- lora is one of the top-elected Republicans in the state. He's spearheaded the GOP's battles in the legislature, which is fully controlled by Democrats. Candelora has backed policies that aim to make the state more afford- able for residents and businesses. When Gov. Ned Lamont announced plans last year to cut the income tax for middle-class earners, 33 Main Street, Old Saybrook, CT 06475 POWER 50

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