Leadership
Cosmo is responsible for strategy and business development, primarily matching unique business opportunities to the scientific advantages of the partnership. He is currently leading commercializations in the following areas: early detection, personalized medicine, genomics, advanced imaging, immunotherapy, microbiome and sustainable food supply.
Cosmo is involved at the early stages, working with scientists to design their vision based on unique intellectual property, helping growth-oriented companies achieve their next levels of success or larger entities utilize their existing infrastructure to capture new market share.
He was the Founder and CEO of United Advisors, a leading merchant bank focused on growth strategies and M&A. While at UA, he led the buildout of one of the fastest growing investment companies in the US, eventually listing on the NYSE.
Cosmo started his career with JP Morgan and received his MBA from the University of Connecticut.
Tess Burleson, CPA, MBA, is TGen’s Chief Operating Officer and President of TGen Health Ventures. In addition to the day-to-day operational responsibilities, she works closely with TGen’s Board, Chief Executive Officer, and Scientific Director on strategic planning and oversight.
Ms. Burleson serves as a key link between the scientific and administrative leadership. She is responsible for commercialization of TGen intellectual property, from initial evaluation to capitalization and divestiture. She also maintains responsibility for key strategic business ventures and high priority collaborations with several clinical partners.
Her career began at KPMG, and she subsequently went to work in the healthcare industry, including serving as President of a multi-state clinical research company as well as Chief Financial Officer of its health system and medical research organization.
Ms. Burleson has over 20 years of progressive experience in advising and developing key business support operations across a variety of industries, including healthcare, pharmaceutical, and biomedical R&D.
Ms. Burleson also has experience in managing investment activities, including auditing, developing and maintaining investment policies, selection of investment advisors and money managers, and ensuring compliance while consistently achieving better returns than relevant benchmarks.
Ms. Burleson currently serves on a number of boards, in both for profit and non-profit organizations. She is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with experience in taxation, audit, and advisory services.
Tess earned her MBA from The University of New Mexico, Robert O. Anderson School of Management.
Derek is an Origin Partner, responsible for the relationship development and direction of our biopharma initiatives. He is heavily involved in coordinating strategic partnerships, including grants, philanthropy, commercializations and research programs.
Further, Derek focuses on the financial and clinical impact of our initiatives, ensuring the right resources and infrastructure from across our partnerships and collaborations..
Derek is leading the clinical coordination around our cancer early detection strategy. Specifically, how the most promising late stage therapies, diagnostics and protocols shed insights on the prevention, early detection and early treatment of the most difficult to treat cancers.
He received his Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine where he studied neurodegenerative diseases. From 2003-2004 Derek placed his grad school on hold to deploy for a year long tour of duty in Iraq with his Army Reserve Unit where is he served as a Preventive Medicine Specialist covering roughly 20,000 lives.
Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP is currently Physician in Chief, Distinguished Professor Translational Research Division at TGen (Translational Genomics Research Institute) in Phoenix, Arizona. He is also Chief Scientific Officer for Scottsdale Healthcare’s Clinical Research Institute and is the Medical Director of Research at McKesson Specialty Health and the Scientific Medical Officer for US Oncology Research. He holds an appointment as Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ.
Dr. Von Hoff’s major interest is in the development of new anticancer agents, both in the clinic and in the laboratory. He and his colleagues were involved in the beginning of the development of many of the agents we now use routinely, including: mitoxantrone, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, irinotecan, nelarabine, capecitabine, lapatinib, vismodegib and others. At present, he and his colleagues are concentrating on the development of molecularly targeted therapies particularly for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Von Hoff has published more than 648 papers, 138 book chapters and over 1085 abstracts. Dr. Von Hoff received the 2010 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology for his outstanding contributions to cancer research leading to significant improvement in patient care.
Dr. Von Hoff was appointed to President Bush’s National Cancer Advisory Board in 2004-2010. Dr. Von Hoff is the past President of the American Association for Cancer Research (the world’s largest cancer research organization), a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a member and past board member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is a founder of ILEX™ Oncology, Inc. (acquired by Genzyme after Ilex had 2 agents, alemtuzumab and clofarabine approved by the FDA for patients with leukemia). Dr. Von Hoff is founder and the Editor Emeritus of Investigational New Drugs – The Journal of New Anticancer Agents; and, past Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. He is a co-founder of the AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop. He is also proud to have been a mentor and teacher for multiple medical students, medical oncology fellows, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows.
Bill focuses on Origin’s overall strategy and market selection. He is the Managing Partner at Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg where he has built a reputation as an aggressive advocate and sought-after, experienced litigator whose practice focuses on shareholder, employment, real estate, securities and insolvency litigation. Bill builds and maintains client relationships of all sizes and across a number of industry sectors and represents them all with same amount of passion for justice. Bill prides himself on being a problem-solver for his clients.
Bill is a founding member of the firm and served as the Managing Partner for 22 years. Under his management, the firm became one of the region’s most entrepreneurial, profitable law firms, financing itself organically without any debt.
He is a graduate of Temple University School of Law, J.D. and St. Joseph’s College, B.S
Patrick focuses on Origin’s capital markets and business development overall. He is a Partner at Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg where he concentrates his practice on the representation of private investment funds on behalf of general partners, sponsors and investors, privately held companies and publicly traded corporations.
Patrick works with commercial, individual and mid-market clients advising them on their complex day-to-day legal issues. He routinely counsels clients on how to operate their businesses in the most efficient, successful manner, encouraging them to focus on the most important details in order to fully understand the big picture.
These issues are in connection with general corporate governance matters, general corporate counseling and a wide range of complex business and commercial matters including:
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Equity and debt offerings
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Venture capital and private equity financing
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Commercial financing
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Mergers and acquisitions
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Joint ventures
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Strategic investments and similar transactions