Page 4 - Fall 2018 | Rochester Athletics | University of Rochester

ALUMNI PROFILE

L to R: Michael, daughter Brenna,
wife Cate, and son Donovan (1976)

MICHAEL RECNY

MICHAEL RECNY ’79 is the chief executive officer at Calvert He recently created the Dr. Michael A. Recny Endowment for Varsity
Holdings, which offers a broad range of contract research services to Football to provide the University of Rochester football team with
biopharmaceutical companies worldwide that are developing new, extra support. Here are some highlights from a recent conversation
experimental medicines in the life sciences industry. with Recny about his life and career.

Before joining Calvert, Recny served in various senior leadership HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO ENTER THIS FIELD?
roles at a number biotechnology companies including Trimeris, Inc.,
Procept, Inc., and Genetics Institute, Inc. (now a division of Pfizer). When I first started working on my PhD, my intention was to
During his career, he has made important contributions to the become an academic scientist and researcher. The field that I ended
discovery, development, or commercialization of three FDA-approved up in was in its infancy and there were only a handful of biotech
drugs that have collectively sold billions worldwide. companies in existence in the late 1970s. In 1983, when I was
finishing grad school, I was offered a job at a Harvard biotechnology
Primarily a track athlete in his high school days, Recny made the spinoff, Genetics Institute. All of a sudden, I saw a whole new world
football team as a walk-on his freshman year at Rochester and open up. I compare it to the early days of Silicon Valley. My PhD
played under legendary Coach Pat Stark. After completing his thesis advisor had lined up a postdoctoral fellowship for me at
bachelor’s degree, Recny received a PhD in biochemistry from the Harvard Medical School and he thought I was throwing my career
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
away by joining this little start-up biotech company.
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