MicroIslet Appoints Dr. James R. Gavin III Interim President and CEO
January 19 2006 - 4:05PM
PR Newswire (US)
Internationally Recognized Diabetes Expert Is Former President of
the American Diabetes Association SAN DIEGO, Jan. 19
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MicroIslet, Inc. (AMEX:MII) today
announced that it has appointed James R. Gavin III, M.D., Ph.D., as
its interim President and CEO, effective January 20, 2006. Dr.
Gavin has been a member of MicroIslet's Board of Directors since
March 2001. Haro Hartounian, Ph.D. has announced his intention to
resign as an officer and as a member of the Board of Directors,
effective February 17, 2006. "We wish to thank Dr. Hartounian for
his fine service in leading MicroIslet, and for his efforts in
assembling an outstanding scientific team. During his six-year
tenure, MicroIslet has accomplished important work in establishing
proof of concept for islet transplantation as an alternative to the
requirement for repeated injections of insulin, for many patients
often a barrier to more effective management of blood sugar. The
Company is entering the next stage of its development as a pioneer
in the quest to bring the world even more effective treatments for
diabetes, one of the world's most widespread and devastating
diseases. As we seek innovative ways to bring technological
solutions to the war against the diabetes epidemic, it is an honor
to be chosen as MicroIslet's interim President and CEO," commented
Dr. Gavin. Dr. Gavin currently serves as Clinical Professor of
Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA and as
Executive Vice President for Clinical Affairs for Healing our
Village, LLC, which was established in 2004 as a multifaceted
health education/media organization devoted to improving the
management of chronic diseases, especially in underserved groups.
He also serves as National Director of the Harold Amos Medical
Faculty Development Program. He previously held numerous
prestigious research and academic positions including Senior
Scientific Officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
and Director of the HHMI-National Institutes of Health Research
Scholars Program. Dr. Gavin also served as the William K. Warren
Professor for Diabetes Studies and Acting Chief, Section of
Endocrinology, Metabolism and Hypertension at the University of
Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. In addition, Dr. Gavin has served
as president of the American Diabetes Association and as a member
of several editorial boards, including The American Journal of
Physiology. He is immediate past chair of the National Diabetes
Education Program and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the
National Academies of Sciences. Among numerous awards he has
received is the Banting Medal for Distinguished Service from the
American Diabetes Association. Dr. Gavin serves as a director for
several organizations including Baxter International Inc. and
Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and is a member of the Boards of
Trustees for Duke University, Livingstone College and Emory
University. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Livingstone College
and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Emory University, and received his
M.D. at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Gavin will no
longer be considered an independent director of MicroIslet, and
will therefore no longer serve on the audit, compensation and
nominating and governance committees. He will continue to serve on
the executive committee. In addition to the appointment of Dr.
Gavin as interim President and CEO, John J. Hagenbuch, currently a
member of MicroIslet's Board of Directors, will become Chairman of
the Board, and Bradley A. Geier, a director and member of the
compensation and nominating and governance committees, has been
appointed to the audit committee. John F. Steel IV, Founder and
current Chairman and CEO, will remain a director, and will assume
the title of Director of Corporate Development. John J. Hagenbuch
has served as a director of MicroIslet since April 2005. He is
co-founder and Chairman of M&H Realty Partners, which raised
and manages several real estate opportunity funds for institutional
investors. Prior to forming M&H in 1993, Mr. Hagenbuch was a
General Partner of Hellman & Friedman, a private firm that
initially provided strategic investment banking and financial
advisory services to a number of large, public corporations, and
then later raised and managed several private equity funds. Before
joining Hellman & Friedman as a partner in 1985, Mr. Hagenbuch
spent nearly seven years at Salomon Brothers as a generalist
investment banker. In addition to his current position at M&H
Realty Partners, Mr. Hagenbuch is an active private equity investor
and has served on the boards of a number of public and private
companies as well as of not-for-profit organizations. Mr. Hagenbuch
is the brother-in-law of John F. Steel IV. He is also a partner of
Bradley A. Geier in M&H Realty Partners. Mr. Hagenbuch
completed his A.B. in Politics at Princeton University and his
M.B.A. at Stanford University. The company also announced that it
has appointed Kevin A. Hainley as Interim CFO. Mr. Hainley was
Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of Ontro, Inc., a San
Diego-based public company, from 1996 to 2003. He has served as a
financial and accounting consultant from 2004 to the present. As a
result of Dr. Gavin's appointment as interim President and CEO, he
is no longer an independent director. The company has notified the
American Stock Exchange that its board now has a majority of
non-independent directors, and is therefore no longer in compliance
with Section 121B(2)(c) of the Amex Company Guide requiring that
the board have a sufficient number of directors such that at least
50% of directors are independent. The company received in response
to its notification a warning letter from the Amex confirming that
the company is not in compliance with such continuing listing
standard, and giving the company until April 10, 2006 to regain
compliance with the continuing listing standards. Amex has also
informed the company that its stock symbol will become subject to
the extension ".BC" to denote the company's non-compliance with the
above listing standard. The extension will not change the company's
trading symbol, but it will be disseminated as an extension
whenever the company's trading symbol is transmitted with a quote
or trade. The company is actively seeking an additional independent
director, and upon such appointment and the effective date of Dr.
Hartounian's resignation from the board, the company anticipates
that it will regain compliance with the continuing listing
standards of the American Stock Exchange. About MicroIslet
MicroIslet is a biotechnology company engaged in the research,
development, and commercialization of patented technologies in the
field of transplantation therapy for people with insulin-dependent
diabetes. MicroIslet's patented islet transplantation technology,
exclusively licensed from Duke University, includes methods for
isolating, culturing, cryopreservation, and immuno-protection
(microencapsulation) of islet cells. MicroIslet is working to
develop and commercialize a first product, called MicroIslet-P, a
microencapsulated porcine islet cell suspension that will be used
for transplantation in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes.
Additional information about MicroIslet can be found at
http://www.microislet.com/. Except for the historical information
contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release,
including the expectation of development of new therapeutic
products, the impact of MicroIslet's products on diabetes patients,
and the expectation of appointing an additional independent
director and regaining compliance with American Stock Exchange
continuing listing standards, are forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking
statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause
actual results to differ materially, including the risks and
uncertainties inherent in medical treatment discovery, development
and commercialization, the risks and uncertainties associated with
MicroIslet's early stage xenotransplantation technologies, the
risks and uncertainties of governmental approvals and regulation,
dependence on the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and
Research as a sole source supplier of animal parts for pre-clinical
and clinical studies, MicroIslet's need to raise substantial
additional capital to proceed through human clinical trials and
bring any product to market, the risks that MicroIslet's
competitors will develop or market technologies or products that
are more effective or commercially attractive than MicroIslet's
products, the possible unavailability of qualified independent
directors who agree to serve, and other risks detailed from time to
time in MicroIslet's most recent filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements speak only as
of the date hereof. MicroIslet disclaims any intent or obligation
to update these forward-looking statements. For more information,
please visit our Web site at http://www.microislet.com/. For
further information, contact: John F. Steel IV, Director of
Corporate Development, MicroIslet Inc. +1-858-657-0287, First Call
Analyst: FCMN Contact: george.neil@ccgir.com DATASOURCE:
MicroIslet, Inc. CONTACT: John F. Steel IV, Director of Corporate
Development of MicroIslet Inc., +1-858-657-0287, Web site:
http://www.microislet.com/
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