26 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • FEBRUARY 2018 26 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2017 26 LONGISLANDPRESS.CO M • SEPTEMBER 201-----------TUTU111
PRESS BUSINESS
For James Hayward, building
companies is in the DNA
By WARREN STRUGATCH
One of Long Island’s leading
life-sciences entrepreneurs, James
Hayward co-founded Europe’s first
liposome company, Biocompatibles
Ltd. in the early ’80s; headed
worldwide research at Esteé
Lauder from 1984 through 1989;
then founded The Collaborative
Group, a cluster of interconnected
companies servicing the biotech,
pharmaceutical, and consumerproduct
industries from 1990
through July 2004. After selling the
company’s assets to Dow Chemical
and to a company later acquired by
BASF, Dr. Hayward refocused
on venture capital investing.
In June 2007 he was named
chairman, president and
CEO of Applied DNA
Sciences Inc., a Nasdaq
company that uses DNA
tagging, testing and
manufacturing to reduce
counterfeiting and improve
supply-chain integrity. Dr.
Hayward – the degree
is in molecular
biology
and
biophysics from Stony Brook
University – serves on the boards
of the Stony Brook Foundation, the
Research Foundation of the State of
New York, and the Long Island Life
Sciences Initiative. His longtime base
of operations is the Long Island High
Technology Incubator at Stony Brook.
Here are edited excerpts from our
conversation.
Warren Strugatch: Tell me about
your early years.
James Hayward: My family lived
in St. Albans, Queens. We owned a
small deli-cum-general
store and lived
right behind it.
Everyone in the
family worked
there from
the time we
could walk.
We had the
experience
of being
in the great
minority. The
neighborhood
was undergoing
integration, with
some reluctance.
Being store
owners was
something of
a struggle.
Assembling and selling the Sunday
newspapers was my job. When
the city bus stopped at our corner,
I’d hop on with a bag full of
newspapers, sell up and down the
aisles for five or six stops, then hop
off. I’d take the next bus back. I
learned to sell face to face and to do
the work behind it.
WS: How did your parents influence
you?
JH: My dad, Robert, was from
England. My mom, Margaret, was
from Ireland. Dad ran the store,
Mom made the salads. Mom was
socially minded and volunteered at
nursing homes and Creedmoor State
Hospital. As a student, I worked as
an orderly at Creedmoor. Both my
parents had remarkable work ethics
but understood there was more
to life than work. When the store
finally closed, we’d take out our
roller skates and roll up and down
the aisles.
WS: What do you consider your
strongest business skill?
JH: I’d say it’s choosing my friends
wisely. I chose my academic advisors
on the basis not only of personal
admiration but of friendship. My
mentors became friends for life. I
was fortunate in that my post-doc
advisor in London at the Royal
Free Hospital School of Medicine
kept a leg in academia and a leg
in industry. I learned a lot about
business from him.
WS: Unlike some scientistentrepreneurs,
you’ve thrived on the
financial and fundraising aspects of
business.
JH: What I learned in London,
running a company trading on
the FTSE Financial Times Stock
Exchange, was that raising funds is
a matter of telling a great story with
passion. As a result, we had kind of an
easy path to initial funding. We spent
less time on the road raising money.
The old adage about raising money is
to do it when you have a prospectus,
not when you really need it.
WS: How did working at Esteé
Lauder affect you?
JH: Working at Lauder was a great
lesson in speed to market. A company
like Lauder makes expensive
advertising commitments in bigcirculation
magazines months in
advance, sometimes for products in
development. As a scientist, you better
manage your team so you launch on
time. You can’t miss ad deadlines.
WS: Why is the work of Applied
DNA Sciences important?
JH: We’re a small company that’s
the world’s largest manufacturer
of DNA. We use DNA to
detect counterfeit products in
materials like cotton, currency,
pharmaceuticals, and now
legally sold cannabis. We catch
manufacturers who cheat by
diluting and mislabeling their
products. We take the evidence
to court. So far we’ve had 116
convictions in 116 trials. Our work
makes life better for consumers.
WS: Can you describe your business
vision?
JH: Our vision is to change the
world for the better. By improving
large commercial ecosystems and
impacting lots of people, we can
make the world a more sustainably
managed and more truthful place.
WS: What’s your take on your
company’s future?
JH: This is a $50 million market-cap
company that should be a billiondollar
market-cap company.
Warren Strugatch is a partner
at Inflection Point Associates,
a consulting firm in Stony
Brook. Reach him at Warren@
InflectionPointAssoc.com
Applied DNA Sciences CEO James
Hayward is a leader in the local
biotech industry. (Photo by Bob Giglione)
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