Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> October 26, 2004

Haro Hartounian – Microislet Inc (mii)

HARO HARTOUNIAN is President and Chief Operating Officer of MicroIslet, Inc., and also a member of its Board of Directors. Before joining MicroIslet, he was the Head of Process Development at Kelco BioPolymers, a unit of Pharmacia, one of the world's largest producers of Biopolymers. While at Pharmacia, his group developed the Ultra-Pure Alginate used in xenotransplantation applications and he was involved in development of other biopolymers and nutraceuticals used in pharmaceutical applications and nutritional supplements. Prior to that, he served as the Associate Director of Process Development at SkyePharma (Formerly Depotech) where he was responsible for all aspects of process development, scale up and technology transfer and was the key contributor in commercialization of Depotech's first product. Before joining SkyePharma, he held a senior research engineer position at Dupont Central Research and Development. He has held numerous leadership positions in professional pharmaceutical societies in the United States. Dr. Hartounian served as an Executive Vice President of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering, San Diego Chapter. Dr. Hartounian was an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Drexel University and is a Lecturer in the Bioengineering Department at University of California, San Diego. Dr. Hartounian received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware. Profile
TWST: Would you begin with a brief historical sketch of MicroIslet and

then give us a picture of the company at the present time?

Dr. Hartounian: MicroIslet is a biotechnology company engaged