Meet Phoenix IDA Board Treasurer: Tess Burleson, MBA, CPA
Chief Operating Officer of TGen and President of TGen Health Ventures
As the chief operating officer of the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and president of TGen Health Ventures, Tess Burleson has spent the past two decades helping to shape the biosciences landscape in Phoenix.
“I’ve watched the bioscience campus in Phoenix fill up with amazing opportunities to learn, and witnessed the incubation of many new companies and it has been thrilling,” Burleson says.
TGen, an affiliate of the City of Hope, is a founding tenant of the Phoenix Bioscience Core, a 30-acre life sciences innovation district in the heart of downtown, which is now home to corporate, federal and early-stage life science leaders co-located alongside nationally ranked medical education and academic research institutions.
Burleson serves as a key link between the scientific and administrative leadership at TGen, and she is responsible for commercialization of TGen’s intellectual property, from initial evaluation to capitalization and divestiture. She also maintains responsibility for key strategic business ventures and high priority collaborations with several clinical partners.
This year, she serves as treasurer of the Phoenix IDA’s board of directors. She was first appointed to the board in November 2018.
“It’s really great to be part of an organization like the Phoenix IDA that does so much for our community behind the scenes and gives back in so many ways,” Burleson says.“I appreciate the work they are doing around affordable housing, and figuring out how we make it attractive for private industry to develop since there is a real need in our community for more workforce housing.”
With both her work at TGen and her role as board treasurer for the Phoenix IDA, Burleson thrives in a culture of collaboration. “At TGen, we are truly translating discoveries into something that benefits patients. We have launched 18 spinoff companies and a few have had a lot of success, improving lives and employing a lot of people in molecular diagnostics.”
With the Phoenix IDA, she values the return on investment the community receives noting that “everything they finance comes back to some benefit for the community.”
A recent example of this in the healthcare space is the bond financing provided for Brooks Rehabilitation, which will serve as a partner to Mayo Clinic in providing post-acute inpatient rehabilitation services to patients in north Phoenix when it opens in fall 2026.
Burleson is no stranger to serving the community – she currently serves on several boards in both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, skiing, reading, as well as practicing yoga and Pilates.
