Steve Kanzer

For the past decade, Steve H. Kanzer has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Accredited Ventures Inc., a venture capital firm, and Accredited Equities Inc., an investment bank. With these two businesses, Steve Kanzer focuses on supporting new technologies concerning the life sciences. Since starting these companies, he has licensed innovations from colleges throughout the country and established more than 20 companies in this field, including Ann Arbor, Michigan's Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now Synthetic Biologics, Inc.) and Developmental Therapeutics, Inc.

At Synthetic Biologics, Inc., Steve H. Kanzer acted as the Ann Arbor, Michigan, company's Chairman, CEO, President, and sole investor for five years. In these positions, Kanzer developed partnerships between the company and the pharmaceutical conglomerate Meda AB and Intrexon Corporation, a leader in synthetic biology. Another of his endeavors, Developmental Therapeutics, created an oral thyroid hormone analog for use by patients with congestive heart failure, and the company was later purchased by Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Before starting Accredited Ventures and Accredited Equities, Steve H. Kanzer spent most of the 1990s at Paramount Capital. While there, he co-founded Avigen, Inc., which revolutionized gene-based medicines with its adeno-associated virus vectors. He also chaired the synthetic lung surfactant designer Discovery Labs and led PolaRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., as it engineered a leukemia drug. Also during this period, Kanzer relocated to Budapest to aid in the privatization of the Institute for Drug Research Kft., a 60-year-old research and development center that caters to Eastern Europeans.

Prior to starting his career, Steve H. Kanzer attended Baruch College as a Baruch Scholar, ran a computer company, and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting. Subsequently, Kanzer enrolled at the New York University School of Law to earn his Juris Doctor.