press release archive

Rigel Appoints Thomas S. Volpe to Board of Directors

South San Francisco, CA - August 21, 2000

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the appointment of Thomas S. Volpe to the company's Board of Directors, bringing the total number of members to seven.

"We are delighted to have such an accomplished leader in the life sciences industry on our board," said James M. Gower, Rigel's chief executive officer. "He brings to Rigel the experience derived from his long and successful associations with several of the leading investment banks in our field, and we look forward to working with him."

Mr.Volpe is the Chairman of Prudential Volpe Technology Group. For 12 years, Mr. Volpe was President, CEO and founder of Volpe Brown Whelan & Company, a risk capital and investment banking firm focusing on rapidly growing entrepreneurial companies. Prior to forming Volpe Brown Whelan & Company, he was President, CEO and a member of the Board of Directors and Management Committee of Hambrecht & Quist Incorporated. Previously, he was Head of the Science and Technology Group of Blyth Eastman PaineWebber. Mr. Volpe received an A.B. in Economics at Harvard University, a M.Sc. in Economics from London School of Economics, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Based in South San Francisco, California, Rigel is a privately-held post-genomics combinatorial biology company focused on discovering a portfolio of novel small molecule drugs based on the Company’s rapid drug target identification and validation technology. Rigel has nine product development programs in immunology and cancer and has entered into collaboration agreements with Cell Genesys; Janssen Pharmaceutica, a Johnson & Johnson company; Novartis and Pfizer.