we've licensed our platform to five of the world's top 15 pharmaceutical companies. we believe this provides a very strong vote of confidence in what we're doing. lexus was founded in 2009. originally we were located in pasadena. i wanted to relocate the company to san francisco. i looked at a number of places in the bay area. after looking at places in the east bay and the peninsula, i realized the company should be right here in the mission bay innovation center. why? we were always going to remain small. i wanted to be a capital efficient company, and the opportunities to maintain cost control were huge by relocating the company here. being in san francisco, we are

also ideally located to recruit top talent, and we've done so. we're goiming to -- going to remain small. my standards for hiring top employees, very high. we found good employees and they've relocated from other cities in california and the east coast to work here. so we've brought new, talented people into the company. we also have people who commute in from the peninsula. i think that's another strong selling point that people in mission bay don't realize. we're at the center of a transit hub and that's very important for not only environmental reasons, but allowing people to come into the city and work efficiently. so we have employees who ride cal train. we also have employees who walk.

so we're very proud to be calling fibrogen our home. and as a vote of confidence of the future here, we have extended our lease to stay here, and i'd like to thank katherine and jenny and tom for their support in making this such a great place in which to have a biotech company. thank you. >> when this plan initially started, it came out of mayor lee's office. and the idea was presented to us by todd ruffo by the office of economic development. we talked about the micros as partners and the various innovation centers. one of our biggest partners in this has been ucsf.

wi that, i'd like to introduce you to douglas crawford. >> this is a experiment that was begun maybe 1, 15 years ago. in the long term, the vitality of mission bay will depend on the small companies that come to make this home as well. it's that integration between small and large companies that made this so attractive for bay area in part to come here. so that is something that we don't often take credit for or give credit to in the mayor's office deserves credit for making that happen. at the end of the day, what will make this a community will be people that -- people are

network hubs for making this happen and qb3 is one. katherine has proven to be one of the important network hubs, and she deserves our thanks for that. so congratulations. >> i think with that, that concludes the scheduled speakers. but now i'm going to open this up to any questions that we might have from the press. ok. with that, i would invite you to either stay out here and special outside or join us inside. i believe we do have some treats in there. and fairly shortly after a few minutes, we are going to take the mayor on a tour of a couple of the labs and give him an idea of what this really looks like. thank you all for coming. [applause]

♪ oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming? whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? and the rockets' red glare, the

bombs bursting in air, gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. o say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? ♪ ♪

>> [speaking foreign language] ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪

>> please welcome the general of the republic of the philippines.

>> honored guests, friends, ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor for us to be here to celebrate the philippine- american history month. we're honored to have the honorable city mayor of san francisco, the president of the board of supervisors, former mayor brown, and other city officials, friends. in celebrating -- this is the second year that we celebrate the filipino-american history month. it is also quite appropriate to announce perhaps that the u.s. senate has passed a senator solution proclaiming october 2011 as philippine-american history month as well.

i think it is also appropriate to announce that govern merck -- governor edwin brown announced that he had signed ab 199, school curriculum, social sciences, filipinos in world war ii. i think that all of these events show that the filipino- americans are really coming out of the woodwork and showing themselves as a group that needs to be recognized. as we, this evening, a well recognized quite a number of them. we welcome you tonight. may i also ask you to welcome

the honorable mayor edwin lee. [applause] >> well, welcome. welcome to city hall, everyone. it is my pleasure to welcome all of you here to the seventh annual philippine-american celebration heritage month. counsel general, thank you. mayer brown, thank you very much. i know you are out there somewhere. board president, thank you for being here as well. i am is so happy, because we have a lot of things to celebrate. and i want to first and foremost thank one of the people that i have had a chance to work with, and i think she is a proud member of the filipino-american community here in san francisco, and that has been my chief adviser on families, children, education, and of course she is

the president of our school board. hydra mendoza, thank you. thank you for being here. [applause] you know, as we celebrate filipino history month, we recognize the filipino history that is inextricably a part of our city's history. and during the historic struggle that we kept seniors -- remember those years where we stood on an alliance to protect our senior residence of the international hotel. we still had that legacy here, as we still a contract with residents of that hotel south of market. even today, i am proud, having stood on that that line and still fighting for justice and social causes to help with our filipino-american community, their quality of life, and making sure that our city responds and continues building a strong community that involves

our seniors and all of our members of our filipino community. i also want to acknowledge the veterans and the filipino community for their dedication to the lives of protecting our country and for that -- for them -- for how they had bought and continue to fight to protect our come community -- our country. thank you to those of you- americans. as i said earlier, the filipino community south of market has been industrious. in fact, they have been such a vibrant part of our communities that it. down there, you'll see many of our streets are named for filipino national heroes. people like the names that continued to ring as to go through and recognize some of those streets. i also want to thank the san francisco filipino culture

center and all of the filipino community organizations that have worked with our city around the years protecting in supporting filipino families, the arts and education, and also our valued neighborhoods across our city. there are so many neighborhood organizations that have sprouted up, but there are many, too, that have been there for long, long time. i want to thank the philippine news, the filipino whelm -- filipino womens' network. by the way, the network has been instructing me about -- to make sure that i know what pinay power is in san francisco. thank you. i said it wrong. you see, they're still teaching me. because as i grew up, all i knew was pinoi. the bay area fashion week, the filipino nurses association of northern california.

of course the filipino international book festival. the filipino-american art's exposition, which of course hosts the parade and festival. and then, of course, there is the fantastic san francisco manila sister city. i want to give a special thank you to dennis normandy. thank you for your wonderful leadership on the sister city and for your great work on our commission as well. thank you very much. [applause] we want to recognize the incredible diverse accomplishments of all of our filipino-american contributors to our city and to make sure we look forward to continuing that strong relationship as we go forward in our city. so it is my honor to present today, on behalf of our city and county, the filipino american history month proclamation. you may join the council

general, and please, the honorable hydra mendoza, president of our board of education, and of course, kyra rodriguez from our filipino channel. please take this problematic -- proclamation declaring this is a filipino-american history month in san francisco. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the highest ranking and only filipino-american elected official in the city and county of san francisco, president of the board of education and education adviser to mayor edwin lee, honorable hydra mendoza.

[applause] thank you. it still saddens me when you saw the only in the first filipino ever elected in san francisco, but it is always such an honor to be here with my community, and i want to thank you all for this celebration. we really have so much to celebrate, and i wanted to make sure we acknowledge this month alone and some of the things we have been able to accomplish. as the council general mentioned, ab 199 finally acknowledges the work and the tremendous bravery of our soldiers in world war ii, who will be written into our history books. we're going to make sure that happens. the dream act that was signed by governor brown, which will enable our immigrant students to go on to college and applied for the funding they need to move forward. we had a wonderful celebration with the filipino women's network, he brought forward 100 of our most influential phillipines from all over the country. it was great for them to be about to celebrate here in our

beautiful city of san francisco. saturday night, we had a celebration with the filipinos eddy pinay educational partnership, who are our teachers and being trained to come in and remind our students of our heritage and our culture and the beauty of the work in the belief we have in our filipino community. last month, we were able to secure the funding to start our -- to restart our program at balboa high school, with the wonderful support of the united way of the bay area. these are all wonderful things for us to celebrate, and it is such an honor to work under our first asian-american mayor here in san francisco. and these are too many firsts that have taken way too long for our community. but it is one that we should always celebrate and embrace, because we have so much to be proud of, so much culture to

share, and so much of our heritage to remember. on this month, we celebrate. but it is not just this month that we celebrate. this is something that we embrace 355 days a year. because we, as a people, are proud, and it is so wonderful to be a filipina and to be a filipina here in san francisco. we welcome you this evening to celebrate with us. thank you. [applause] >> please welcome chief financial officer here. >> hello, good evening, honorable mayor lee, honorable commissioners hydra mendoza, and the council general. everybody has talked about that it was only in september 2009

that california state legislature approved the resolution that officially declared october as a filipino american history month. the city and county of san francisco has been celebrating this for seven years. we're fortunate to have partnered with the office of the mayor for the last five years to honor the contributions of filipino-americans to the united states through all of these decades. when we started, we thought we were just broadcasting television content to global filipinos. but who are these filipinos? we have had the privilege an opportunity to know these filipinos all over the world. north america, the middle east, europe, asia, even africa. the 9 million overseas filipinos are a diverse bunch. migrant workers, young and old, first generation adventuress or their children and grandchildren.

despite many differences in their work and their educational background or lifestyles or in their country of residence, the global filipino is much the same. he is taken each -- conscientious worker, an opportunity-seeker, a courageous risk-taker willing to sacrifice for better future for their family. she is resilient and assimilates to the foreign land immediately. but in her heart, she cherishes the aspiration of one the recent -- returning him to the philippines. we are overseas filipinos ourselves. we live among the global filipinos to make our mission real and our dreams a reality. these global filipinos share their stories with us, the highs and lows, the joys and pains, the sacrifices they have made in the content -- continue to make for their families. and the hopes and dreams that keep them going every day. we're fortunate to be able to

retell these stories and are honored to be welcomed into the homes of these global filipinos every night. every day we bring doc, we bring the largest community of filipinos. they laughed together. they cried together. they celebrate the proudest moments of our country together. and/oregon when tragedy strikes, they come together to help those that are back home. we have witnessed the greatness of the global filipino every day. together with you, our community leaders, we play a very critical role in helping build a strong global filipino community. together, we create the image of the filipino in places where we live. the world's image of the filipino is really in our hands. here in the united states, we have made our mark, whether through our work at the

community center, the fight for rights for our veterans of world war ii, or our friends south of market. or, you know, just inserting filipinos in the san francisco lantern parade every christmas. the towards of filipino-american legacy continues to burn brightly as our community renews evarts every year to impact history, society, and culture in san francisco. this year is no exception, and we feel very privileged to be part of distributing to seven organizations that have made key milestones. the filipino nurses association of california, northern california chapter. the filipino womens' network. the literacy initiatives international foundation. the filipino-american art's exposition. philippine news. the san francisco manila sister city committee. last but not least, the bay area fashion week.

we congratulate all the awardees that the certificates of recognition from the office of the mayor, and where most honored to be part of these excellent milestones through our partnership with these organizations. thank you for bringing fame and glory for the filipinos to our community through your work in through your contributions. like modern heroes, you have become the torchbearers for all filipinos. shining your light in who we are, what we're here for, and who we can become. may you all continue to highlight our values, the richness of our culture, and the honor of our people. we only have one wish for all of us global filipinos -- [ speaking foreign language] wherever we are and wherever we go, let's always remember that we are filipino. [speaking foreign language]

[applause] >> and now, please welcome your host for tonight, senate candidate -- san upset -- please welcome your host for tonight. >> good evening, everyone, and welcome to this beautiful venue, the historic san francisco's city hall, as we celebrate filipino-american history month. >> before we continue with our program, we would like to knowledge some of our elected officials who have joined us here tonight. i saw in the crowd honorable lilly brown. [applause] we have president of the board of supervisors, honorable david chiu. [applause] commissioner dennis normandy. [applause]

commissioner mandahar. [applause] commissioner claudine cheng. [applause] and all the members of our consular corps, thank you all for being here. let's all give them a warm round of applause. [applause] >> tonight, we're honoring seven milestones of the san francisco bay area's filipino american the community but these events became our communities benchmarks because of the remarkable achievements. among them, and achievements of decades of public service, if you first, and events that have significantly impacted our community. tonight, certificates of honor will be presented by honorable hydra mendoza, the council general, and executive kai rodriguez. >> one filipino-american publication has stood the test of time.

50 years of committed service by delivering the news and documenting our history. ladies and gentlemen, philippine news. [applause] ♪ >> truth, integrity, and bold journalism. in 1961, the philippine news was founded in the garage. its vision was to create a community newspaper to tell the stories of the growing filipino community in the united states and to advocate on its behalf. the family took over philippine news in 1996 and propelled into the digital age, linking over 7 million worldwide sites with their journalism of engagement. celebrating its 50th year, the philippine news published its 2,600th issue on the fourth week of august, holding true and continuing to celebrate their

culture. the filipino-american in committee sees this milestone. a legacy of 50 years of chronicling the filipino- american story. >> our next guests are representing philippine news. [applause] [applause]

>> our second honor read is the largest and most formidable national association of filipino women whose recent convention brought hundreds of the most accomplished an influential phillipines into san francisco. ladies and gentlemen, the filipina women's network. ♪ >> later, a teacher, mother, filipina. the celebration of filipino women begins of providing a safe place for all women and girls and a powering them to achieve their lives purpose. this year, the filipina women's network had eight philippine leadership summits and honor the 100 most influential philippine that american women in the united states. in the golden city of san francisco, where diversity in progress is a way of life. the san francisco bay area filipino-americ