Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 02/02/2015 - 14:01
It is with great sadness that we record the death of Dr Geraldine Rodgers, who was associated with the Institute of Biotechnology for over twenty years, most recently as a lecturer on the Bioscience Enterprise programme and in her finance professional capacity. Geraldine joined the University from industry in 1994, initially as Business Manager at the Institute and she concluded her career as Head of Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds, where she had responsibility for managing an equity portfolio comprising almost 70 companies and spanning all technology sectors. She is acknowledged as a key figure in the founding of many successful life science and other technology companies, including Horizon Discovery, Genapta, Sentinel Oncology and BlueGnome.
In 2004 Geraldine was seconded back to the institute to run the Bioscience Enterprise postgraduate life science business programme, a role in which her expertise in technology commercialisation was invaluable. In a relatively short period Geraldine reshaped the syllabus and strengthened the teaching team through introductions to her network of experts in business and life sciences, laying the foundation of the course as it is provided today. In her investment capacity Geraldine continued until her retirement to actively engage with Institute spinouts and she remained a close mentor to both staff of the Bioscience Enterprise programme and students undertaking the internship component of the course. The department is grateful for the many messages of condolences received from her past students and joins them in mourning a wonderful colleague and friend. Without Geraldine much of the success attributed to the Institute would not have been accomplished and we are greatly indebted to her.