Other Advisors

The CAP engages a number of management, investment, legal, and industry advisors, too many to be listed separately. Advisors listed below are a representative sample for your information, and you also may want to visit Larta’s web site www.larta.org regularly.

Rahul Ballal, Ph.D.
Industry Advisor
Business Development-Broad Institute of MIT/Harvard
ballal@broadinstitute.org

With more than seven years of experience in high-technology and biotech financing, Rahul is practiced in raising capital for startup companies. Rahul was most recently a Senior Associate at ASMR, a $30MM biotech venture capital fund located in Washington DC. Previous to joining ASMR, Rahul was the CEO and founder of Redmind, Inc., a venture backed software start-up that raised $12MM and was acquired by real-time applications vendor Ikimbo Inc. Rahul received a B.S. in biology from Brown University and a M.S. in Bioinformatics from The Johns Hopkins University. He left ASMR to complete his PhD at Georgetown University School of Medicine. He currently works in Business Development at the Broad Institute of MIT/Harvard.

Tien T. Bui
Industry Advisor
Biozen Consulting
tien@biozenconsulting.com

Tien T. Bui is the Principal of Biozen Consulting, a healthcare strategic consulting firm. Ms. Bui is also on the Leadership Team of the Institute for Drug Resistance which was created to serve as a vehicle for enabling, supporting, and promoting novel, multidisciplinary approaches to tackle the challenges of drug resistance for the research and clinical communities. She has 18 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industry having been extensively involved in all aspects of drug and technology commercialization. For seven years she was VP of Sales & Marketing and VP of Medical Affairs and Education for Virology and Oncology, at Monogram Biosciences (formerly Virologic). During that time she started Monogram's first specialty sales force and was in charge of all commercial functions including payer relations, client services, medical marketing, clinical affairs & education and launched 4 new state-of-the-art technologies. Before joining Monogram, Ms. Bui served in various commercial, health policy and strategic product development roles at DuPont and DuPont-Merck Pharmaceuticals from 1990 to 2000. Ms. Bui is a board member of Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center and chairs the Development Committee.

Karen J. Cha
Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance Advisor
Sapience Regulatory Consulting Services
SapienceReg@gmail.com

Karen Cha is a Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance professional with 12 years of experience working with pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations from early development through Phase 3 clinical trials. Most recently, she was Sr. Director of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance (QA) and a founding member of Catalyst Pharmaceutical Research, LLC, a full service contract research organization in Pasadena, California. She has worked with companies ranging from virtual start-ups to multi-national organizations developing a broad range of therapeutic products.

In the area of Regulatory Affairs, Karen specializes in filing original Investigational New Drug Applications (IND) to FDA to allow the initiation of clinical studies. She has written and submitted numerous original INDs for chemical drugs as well as protein biologics to various Divisions within FDA, including providing assistance with the completion of IND-enabling studies and helping to address compliance around the outsourcing needs of smaller companies such as contract manufacturing. She has also routinely provided assistance with FDA meeting requests, preparation of the meeting briefing package, authoring or technical writing support of IND documents (protocols, Investigator Brochure, Study Reports, etc.), and on-going maintenance of INDs which have been both paper and electronic in the new Common Technical Document format accepted in the ICH regions (US, EU and Japan).

She also has extensive Quality Assurance experience complementing the needs of early development projects including conduct of vendor audits (GMP, GLP, 21 CFR Part 11 compliance), clinical site GCP audits, SOP writing, GCP training, document management initiatives, etc.

In addition to her experience in pharmaceutical and biologic drug products, Karen has experience in regulatory affairs for cosmetics and over-the-counter drug products from an industry leader in consumer products.

Karen received her Bachelor of Arts in Biology, a Master’s degree in Biomedical Science and a Master of Business Administration all from Boston University. She is an active member of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society and the Drug Information Association.

Alan Donald
Regulatory Advisor
Matrix Medical Consulting Corporation
adonald@matrixmedcorp.com

Alan Donald is currently President, CEO, and Founder of Matrix, a consulting firm specializing in domestic, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and international regulations related to medical devices, biologics, and pharmaceuticals. Prior to Matrix, Donald was president, CEO, and founder of Pacific Regulatory Services, Inc. (PRSI), a consulting firm specializing in FDA regulation of devices, biologics and drugs; product development, and quality assurance.

As Director of Regulatory Affairs for ABA, Donald worked on regulatory affairs including domestic and international projects in technologies and products ranging from breast implants to AIDS therapies. Donald was the Senior Manager of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance specializing in human skin grown synthetically for human transplants. There he directed corporate-wide regulatory and quality assurance programs in compliance with FDA regulations. As V.P. of Operations, Donald was responsible for production, quality control, and regulatory affairs at Tri-Stage, a manufacturer and marketer of dental implants and associated instruments. The company was acquired by Collagen Corporation in November, 1989 for cash and royalty payments. Donald was retained by Collagen to facilitate the transfer for products and technology. While at Windsor Medical he managed eight departments, significantly reducing operational/manufacturing costs while increasing product quality and reliability. The company specialized in portable, programmable insulin infusion pumps and other diabetic therapy-related products. The company was sold to C.R. Bard. Donald held various management positions at IMED, a manufacturer of intravenous therapy products.

Alan Donald received his MA in Biochemistry from San Diego State University and performed specialty studies at Harvard University. He received his Executive MBA from University of California.

Donald’s additional contributions include: Member, Tech Coast Angels; Member, ASTM Standards Group for Tissue-Engineered Medical Products; Regulatory Affairs Professional Society; The Honorable Mark Wyland Biologics Advisory Committee; Professor, Regulatory Affairs, Master’s Program, Center for Bio / Pharmaceutical and Biodevice Development, San Diego State University; Lead Auditor, Registrar’s Accreditation Board; National Institutes of Health (NIH); Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant Review Committee; National Institute on Drugs of Abuse (NIDA); Member, BIOCOM; Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry (MD&DI) Technical Advisory Board.

Farida Fotouhi
Marketing Advisor
Reality2
farida@reality2.com

Farida Fotouhi is President and founder of Reality2 LLC, a marketing and advertising company. She has spent 30 years working with clients ranging from major national brands to start-ups, in just about every business category.

Reality2 helps companies define what they stand for (branding) and what they should say to whom (positioning strategy). Then, the firm executes unified programs based on the strategy. Program elements can be a new website, logo, sales literature, presentations, trade show displays and ad campaigns in all media. The Reality2 “package for startups” includes positioning strategy, corporate image, website, brochure and PowerPoint.

The company is named after its reality-based approach, which starts by analyzing three key realities: what customers care about, the competitive environment, and the client’s true strengths. Instead of overlooking the truth or hiding it, as marketing is sometimes accused of doing, Reality2 uses core truths to drive results.

One of Farida’s noteworthy traits is the ability to distill highly complex concepts into simple and compelling messages, whether the client is in technology, higher education or financial services. She thinks this capability comes from her and her team’s multi-cultural background.

She spent her childhood overseas as the daughter of an American diplomat, and consequently speaks Japanese, Portuguese, some French, Hausa, and casual Spanish. Her ability to build bridges between different cultures has been an asset in today’s fragmented marketing environment. Reality2 is in effect a “translator”, helping clients talk to each target audience in its own language.

For 25 years she and her creative partner Jorge Alonso headed up one of LA’s top mid-sized advertising agencies, Fotouhi Alonso. Her current company, reinvented as Reality2, is the result of a desire to work more closely with clients one-on-one.

Farida was graduated cum laude from Middlebury College in Vermont. She lives in Mandeville Canyon with her husband Mike Freehling and their Rhodesian Ridgeback Shaka Zulu. She is an avid equestrian and competes in show jumping events.

Albrecht W. Frauendorf, Ph.D.
Industry Advisor
CODA Genomics, Inc.
afrauendorf@codagenomics.com

Albrecht is currently Senior Vice President of Operations and Finance for CODA Genomics, Inc., a company that provides protein expression solutions to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. He is responsible for operational excellence and strategy execution.

With over ten years experience in project and quality systems management, he has helped the commercialization process of several start-up companies. He is currently also coaching entrepreneurs to become more successful by dealing with their personal shadow. Albrecht has an interdisciplinary background that includes chemistry, neurophysiology, systems theory, and analytical psychology.

Albrecht came to the U.S. for post-doctoral work in the laboratory of R. Letsinger at Northwestern University. Starting a business career in 1996, Albrecht joined Protogene Laboratories, Inc., and had increasing levels of responsibility leading to the title of Directory of DNA micro-array Manufacturing. He facilitated growth of the operations group from 8 to over 30 employees through project management training and team building. Albrecht then joined Nimblegen Systems, Inc. as Vice President of Manufacturing and Quality Systems where he was responsible for growing global production during commercialization and setting up the company's manufacturing facilities in Madison, WI and Reykjavik, Iceland.

Albrecht earned his Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry in the laboratory of Professor J. Engels at the University of Frankfurt, Germany.

Paul M. Grand
Investment Advisor
RCT BioVentures
pgrand@rctech.com

Paul M. Grand is Director, Pacific Coast for RCT BioVentures, a technology venture investment firm and management company that provides early-stage venture funding for promising biomedical companies and technologies. RCT has assets of more than $300 million to advance technology and product development. Prior to joining RCT, Grand was co-founder and VP of Operations of Imagine Pharmaceuticals. Imagine is developing a platform to selectively deliver therapeutics and other compounds across the blood brain barrier. He was also co-founder and CEO of MicroSurgeon in Los Angeles. MicroSurgeon is developing a microwave thermal ablation device for the treatment of solid tumors.

Grand has extensive experience in new company formation and fund raising. Since 1990, he has built, operated, recruited management and raised financing for eight high technology, medical device and biotechnology companies. He has employed more than 300 people in the Los Angeles area and served as CEO in companies with up to 150 employees. Grand also was a managing director for Fruition Ventures, a group of private equity investors focused primarily on early-stage information technology companies.

Grand is a frequent panelist at biomedical conferences, and he is a member of the Los Angeles Life Science Roundtable. Grand has lectured on entrepreneurship and venture funding to faculty, students and scientists at the University of California in Los Angeles, and he serves as an investment advisor to the LARTA NIH Commercialization Assistance Program for National Institute of Health Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program awardees. Grand has spoken at more than 100 conferences, been featured in hundreds of articles in publications including Forbes, New York Times and Wall Street Journal and appeared as an expert on Bloomberg Television, CNN, and CNN/FN.

James K. Hu
Industry Advisor
Martek Biosciences Corp.
j77hu@yahoo.com

James K. Hu currently serves as Associate General Counsel at Martek Biosciences Corp. At Martek, James focuses on technology and licensing transactions, corporate collaborations, IP matters, regulatory, and merger and acquisitions. Prior to joining Martek, James was the Director of Legal Affairs of Focus Diagnostics, where he was the chief legal officer of the company and guided the company through three successful acquisitions and ultimate sale of the company to Quest Diagnostics. Prior to joining Focus, James was a partner of Helios Concepts, where he provided strategic consulting and management services to early-stage biotechnology and information technology companies. Prior to Helios, James co-founded and served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of AegiSoft Corp. James was instrumental in growing Aegisoft from a start-up to a multi-million dollar company and was the company's chief strategist and negotiator in several rounds of private venture financing, international licensing and strategic partnerships and eventually in the sale of the company to RealNetworks, Inc. Prior to Aegisoft, James was one of the founding employees and served as the Director of Corporate Development for Stem Cell Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to Stem Cell, James was the Associate Director of Technology Transfer for Temple University focused in life sciences technology and medical devices. James also held various corporate development and legal positions with Cytogen Corp. and the Cornell Research Foundation. James earned a J.D. from Syracuse University and a B.S. in Microbiology, Molecular Genetics, and Economics from UCLA. James currently sits on the Board of the Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association.

Zeynep Ilgaz
Industry Advisor
Confirm BioSciences
zilgaz@confirmbiosciences.com

Zeynep Ilgaz is the co-founder and President of Confirm BioSciences. As the global leader in the field of lab testing for drugs of abuse, Confirm BioSciences is committed to being on the cutting edge of offering new, service-oriented drug testing technologies. The company was recently named as one of the fastest growing companies in San Diego (#3) by the San Diego Business Journal.

Ilgaz is an advisor to the National Institutes of Health commercialization assistance program and is a dedicated participant in the educational and entrepreneurial programs of San Diego State University, UCSD,High Tech High and the San Diego Unified School District. She has initiated a corporate giving program whose beneficiaries include The Alpha Project for the Homeless, The McAlister Institute, San DiegoYouth and Community Services, Teen Challenge International and Volunteers of America’s Alcohol and Drug Services Center.

Ilgaz received her MBA from San Diego State University in 2000. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics and Finance from Bosphorus University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Ilgaz was a recipient of the 2008 YWCA TWIN (Tribute to Women in Industry) awards and a recipient of 40 under 40 in from San Diego Metropolitan Magazine in September 2008. In 2009, SDSU presented her with the Charles Lamden Rising Star in Business award.

Lisa Kattan
Intellectual Property Advisor
Venable LLP
LMKattan@Venable.com

Lisa Kattan is an intellectual property litigator and focuses her practice on complex patent litigation. Ms. Kattan concentrates on patent litigation regarding pharmaceuticals (including Hatch-Waxman litigation), biotechnology, medical devices, optical equipment, polymers, catalysts and consumer products.

Ms. Kattan has experience with all phases of patent litigation, including developing litigation strategies, participating in bench and jury trials, motions practice, and Markman hearings, as well as primary responsibility for developing expert testimony and taking and defending fact and expert witness depositions. Ms. Kattan has litigated in federal district courts throughout the U.S., the Court of Federal Claims, and the International Trade Commission. Ms. Kattan also has been involved with appeals before the Federal Circuit. She has experience with matters before the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, including preparing patent applications, responses to office actions, and requests for reexamination. Ms. Kattan is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Ms. Kattan is a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the American Bar Association (Intellectual Property section), the Federal Circuit Bar Association (Pro Bono committee), the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia and the American Chemical Society. She earned a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of South Dakota, M.S. in Scientific and Technical Communication from the University of Minnesota, and J.D. from Northwestern University.

Roger Kitterman
Investment Advisor
Partners Healthcare
rkitterman@partners.org

Roger is an experienced venture capital investor with more than 15 years in the industry and has guided multiple venture-backed companies through the earliest stages of development through IPO. He has also been the startup CEO for three venture-backed companies. He is currently a Partner in the Innovation Fund of Partners Healthcare, an integrated healthcare delivery system founded in 1994 by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, two of the main teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School. Previously, he was a general partner at Mi3 Venture Partners, an early stage, bioengineering focused fund. Prior to joining Mi3, he was a managing director at Lee Munder Venture Partners, the venture capital arm of Lee Munder Capital Group. He joined Lee Munder from Boston University's Technology Fund, where he made venture capital investments in the life sciences and developed and managed spinouts from the university and Boston Medical Center. Roger began his venture capital career in Eastern Europe with the Bulgarian- American Enterprise Fund, a $55 million venture capital fund. Roger holds an MBA in Finance and Business Development from the Columbia Business School and an AB from Harvard College. He is a Member of the Board of Directors of a number of private companies.

Scott Leese
Industry Advisor
Dynamic Coaching Strategies
dynamiccoaching@verizon.net

Scott Leese founder Dynamic Coaching Strategies a consulting and coaching firm specializing in advisory support of entrepreneur’s inventors and start-up teams.

Responsibilities include:

Evaluation and alignment of market viability
Commercialization strategic planning and process.
Alignment of decision making strategies that accelerate market entry, position and time-to-market.
Generating linkages between inventors, research institutions, investors and industry leaders.
Advisory rolls in technology transference, adaptation and facilitation.
Management and team innovation consulting and coaching.
Scott was invited to join the Larta Institute as an advisor for the National Institutes of Health program back in October of 2007. Scott has recently been involved in the Keiretsu So-cal forum as well as the So.Cal Tech forum.

Furthermore Scott’s expertise falls in the areas of Executive development, Presentation preparation and the amplification of innovation process through the fields of TRIZ, NLP, and Six Sigma. Scott has worked with current and former executives from Unocal, Gartner Group, and Nexxan Technologies.

Scott and his family live in Thousand Oaks California. He holds a Masters in Educational Technology from Pepperdine University and spent 9 years as a volunteer for the Malibu Mountain Search and Rescue Team.

Steve Maylish
Industry Advisor
Aubrey Group, Inc.
smaylish@aubreygroup.com

Mr. Steve Maylish has been in the medical device industry for 20+ years. Prior to Source Scientific and Aubrey Group, he was associated with several well-known medical companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Shiley, Sorin Biomedical, Baxter Healthcare, and Edwards Lifesciences. His past management experience includes serving as Director, Cardiopulmonary Marketing, at Edwards Lifesciences, and as Director, Hardware Division, at Jostra Bentley.

Mr. Maylish has mostly been involved in marketing medical devices related to cardiac surgery and has coordinated product launches both in the U.S. and abroad. In 1999, he was instrumental in the integration of both Cobe Cardiovascular and Avacor perfusion businesses into Baxter Healthcare. As Baxter Healthcare spun-off Edwards Lifesciences, he assumed responsibility for Cardiopulmonary Marketing. With the subsequent purchase of the Bentley division from Edwards Lifesciences by Jostra Bentley, he became responsible for the strategic direction and implementation of the company's hardware division.

At Source Scientific, Mr. Maylish is responsible for sales and marketing efforts related to the company's medical device design and manufacturing services. His prior management experience also includes serving as an International Service Manager and Product Manager for Sorin Biomedical, and Senior Product Manager for Baxter Healthcare. Mr. Maylish has an A.S. degree in Electronics from RETS Electronics Institute, Broomall, PA, a B.S. in Business from the University of La Verne, La Verne, CA and an MBA from the University of California, in Irvine.

Andrew McAleavey
Intellectual Property Advisor
PatentBest
andrew@patentbest.com

Andrew McAleavey is a registered patent agent with over six years of experience. He focuses his practice on procuring patents for companies and individuals in the United States and throughout the world.

Andrew holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University, which included work in a number of disciplines. Consequently, his practice spans a wide range of technologies, including medical devices, bioinformatics, applied chemistry, computer science, business methods, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering. He specializes in multidisciplinary technologies that require a good grounding in basic science and broad knowledge of engineering.

Andrew began his career as a patent agent with Pillsbury Winthrop LLP, a global law firm, where he prepared and prosecuted patent applications for a number of well-known companies and also acted as a technical advisor to a litigation team in a case involving machine vision and programming language theory. After leaving Pillsbury Winthrop, Andrew joined a smaller, Washington, D.C.-area firm with a growing patent practice, handled patent cases, and advised on infrastructure and procedural issues.

In addition to work in private practice, Andrew also served as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where he examined patent applications directed to cleaning technologies, including dishwashers, washing machines, and semiconductor wafer cleaning apparatus.

Barrett McGrath
Industry Advisor
Larta Institute
barrett.mcgrath@sbcglobal.net

Barrett McGrath is an executive with more than 24 years of commercial and business development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He has worked with mid-size companies as well start-up and emerging Life Sciences concerns. Most recently, Barrett served as Executive Director, Alliance and Portfolio Management with Novaquest (formerly PharmaBio Development), the strategic investment unit of Quintiles Transnational. In this capacity, he was responsible for oversight of new and established product development and commercialization partnerships with early stage and emerging biotechnology companies.

Barrett has also served as a consultant to the Life Sciences industry, providing both commercial and business development services to privately held companies, and helping guide them through several levels of financing, including IPOs. Notable among these is Tercica Inc., founded in 2001 and having an IPO in 2003. During this engagement, Barrett had an instrumental role in Tercica’s successful migration from New Zealand to the United States, the raising of a Series A financing, and closing the in-licensing of their lead compound, IGF-I, from Genentech.

Barrett’s career began in 1982 with American Critical Care, a pharmaceutical division of American Hospital Supply Corporation (ACC was subsequently acquired by Du Pont Pharmaceuticals). During his tenure at ACC/Du Pont, he held positions of increasing responsibility in sales and marketing/brand management. Barrett then joined Genentech in 1989, where he remained for 11 years, and again held positions of increasing responsibility in sales management and marketing management.

Barrett received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration/Marketing from the University of Tennessee in 1982. He is married, with three children, and resides in Los Altos, California.


Nader Mousavi
Legal Advisor
Technology Transactions and Licensing Practice Group
nader.mousavi@wilmerhale.com

Nader Mousavi is a partner in the Technology Transactions and Licensing Practice Group. He joined the firm in 2001. After working in the Boston office, he returned to his native California in 2005 as a founding member of the firm's Palo Alto office.

Mr. Mousavi concentrates his practice on business transactions involving technology and intellectual property. He has represented emerging and established clients in hundreds of transactions involving the licensing, development, manufacturing, supply, marketing and commercialization of products, technology and intellectual property. He also has extensive experience advising clients in collaborations, alliances, joint ventures, spinouts, mergers and acquisitions, cross-licenses and settlements.

Mr. Mousavi has substantial in-house legal experience. After the establishment of the Palo Alto office, he served on special assignment to Cisco Systems' technology licensing group, where he advised Cisco's voice and wireless business units. Prior to joining the firm, he served as the general counsel of TCS, a telecommunications software and services company. At TCS, Mr. Mousavi was responsible for all legal affairs from TCS' startup phase in 1997 through its substantial growth and then acquisition by Convergent Networks in 2000 for over $100 million. Following the acquisition of TCS, Mr. Mousavi served as senior counsel of Convergent Networks, a broadband infrastructure company, until joining the firm in 2001.

While in Boston, Mr. Mousavi was one of 10 attorneys selected to participate in the Boston Bar Association's Public Interest Leadership Program, an intensive, year-long leadership development initiative focusing on public service. He also served as a member of the Grants Committee for the Boston Bar Foundation and a member of the Development Advisory Board of the Philips Brooks House Association, a student-led public service organization at Harvard University.

Richard P. Ormond
Legal Advisor
Buchalter Nemer
rormond@buchalter.com

Richard Ormond is an Associate in the firm's Los Angeles office, with expertise in intellectual property, e-discovery, remedies and litigation, including bankruptcy litigation. Representative of his clients are national lending and financial institutions, popular international clothing companies, a national upscale restaurant chain, state and federal receivers and international technology companies.

Bilingual and biliterate in Spanish, Mr. Ormond was twice chosen as a Southern California Super Lawyers Rising Star (2005 and 2006). He represents both institutional and entrepreneurial clients in litigation, dispute resolution, intellectual property matters including copyright, trademark, trade secret and trade dress claims e-commerce and e-discovery matters, domain name litigation and enforcement of meta-tag rights. Mr. Ormond has tried cases before the Los Angeles Superior Court, as lead trial counsel, the United States District Court, Central District of California and the Bankruptcy Court of the United States District Court Central District of California and has arbitrated before JAMS, Alternative Dispute Resolution and the American Arbitration Association.

Mr. Ormond chairs the Buchalter Nemer Pro Bono committee, co-chairs the firm's Diversity Committee, founded its Hispanic Attorneys Committee and co-chairs the firm's litigation MCLE committee. He is the author of numerous articles and teaches Continuing Legal Education courses on New Developments in e-Discovery, Considerations for Complex Litigation, Basics of Receivership Law and Practice, and Lender Security in Intellectual Property.

In addition to his practice, Mr. Ormond is actively engaged in civic and professional organizations, among them, Uncommon Good, a nonprofit organization of which he is a board member, and Bet Tzedek House of Justice, which provides free legal services to Los Angelenos who need them. Professionally, he is an active member of the National Hispanic Bar Association, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, of which he is a member of the Remedies Section Executive Committee and co-chair of the Remedies Section Recruitment/Membership sub-committee, and the California Receivers Forum.
Mr. Ormond earned his bachelor's degree at the University of California, Los Angeles and his J.D. at the University of San Diego School of Law. He also studied international law and business law at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

He is admitted to the bars of California, U.S. District Court Central District of California, and the U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit.

Robert D. Patti
Industry Advisor
California Manufacturing Technology Consulting
rpatti@cmtc.com

Robert D. Patti is a quality professional with diverse industry experience in the design, manufacture and quality of high technology products for worldwide consumer, aerospace, telecommunication, electronics, medical and industrial markets.

Mr. Patti has over 30 years experience in the medical device and pharmaceutical industry. He has held executive level positions with: Baxter, G.D. Searle, Medtronic, Technicon and Siemens Pacesetter Systems. In addition, he has consulted domestically and internationally for such companies as: Eli Lilly, Siemens Medical, National Medical Care, and many other firms including the FDA. He has performed over 60 quality systems audits in 14 countries to QSR, GMP, and ISO requirements.

His experience includes assisting companies in recovering from FDA: 483s, Warning Letters, Consent Decrees and Import Embargos. His product experience includes: IVDs, Drugs, OTCs, and a broad variety of all three classes of Medical Devices. He is versed in quality systems implementation, sterilization processes, bioburden control, the MDR, customer complaint evaluations, clinical evaluations, regulatory approvals, metrology, recalls, field notifications, product test and inspection, vendor control, corrective and preventive actions.

He holds a BS in Electronic Engineering from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, CA and is a Professional Quality Engineer in the State of California. He has served as an Examiner for the California Governor's Golden State Quality Awards and is a Senior Member of the American Society of Quality, Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the Instrument Society of America. He is also a member of the Southern California Biomedical Council.

Patti has ten years experience with California Manufacturing Technology Consulting.

Karol Pessin, JD
Intellectual Property Advisor
Foley & Lardner
kpessin@kpessin.com

Karol Pessin is an intellectual property lawyer and advisor with about 20 years experience in the biotechnology field.

She worked at Amgen for over 10 years with primary responsibility for IP of the Neupogen/Neulasta franchise. Prior to Amgen, Ms. Pessin was in private practice at Lyon & Lyon, where her major responsibility was patent litigation on behalf of Genentech. She is currently with the law firm Foley & Lardner.

As a Larta advisor under the CAP program, Ms. Pessin has advised start-up management on patent and licensing business and research strategies, including market exclusivity and market entry. This involves not only patent properties, but may involve regulatory requirements, manufacturing strategies or licenses. Ms. Pessin has advised on managing outside counsel, and how or when to use outside counsel effectively, and on setting up an in-house law department. Currently, Ms. Pessin is an intellectual property lawyer with Foley & Lardner, in the life sciences and chemical/pharmaceutical area.

Ms. Pessin received her JD from UC Berkeley, Boalt Hall.

David Pyrce
Senior Industry Advisor
Jaguar Investment Group
davidpyrce@verizon.net

David J. Pyrce is a skilled executive with more than 25 years of diverse senior management experience. Mr. Pyrce's background includes investment banking, venture capital, asset management, business development, product development, marketing and sales.

David Pyrce is the Founder and the Managing General Partner of the Jaguar Investment Group, LLC, an investment management firm focused on opportunistic investments. Prior to forming Jaguar, Mr. Pyrce was President of Bear Creek Capital Management, LLC, an investment management firm and Managing General Partner of Bear Creek Capital Partners, LP, a limited partnership investing in public and private equity as well as direct investments. Previously, Mr. Pyrce worked at First Security Van Kasper, a San Francisco investment banking firm, as Managing Director of Investment Banking and General Partner of their venture capital fund. Mr. Pyrce joined the Company as a Vice President and Senior Analyst.

Mr. Pyrce began his professional investment activities while part of the venture capital group of SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals. While at SmithKline, Mr. Pyrce managed the roll-up strategy for the Company's clinical laboratory group, acquiring a portfolio of regional clinical labs across the country. Mr. Pyrce soon learned that owning, repositioning and ultimately disposing of these medical office properties was a highly profitable business.

Mr. Pyrce was Chief Business officer of Inovio AS, an Oslo, Norway-based biopharmaceutical firm developing monoclonal antibodies, protein therapeutics and vaccines. Mr. Pyrce negotiated the sale of Inovio to Genetronics Biomedical, a San Diego-based firm with similar product development programs, with the company renamed, Inovio Biomedical Corporation.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Pyrce was Vice President of Corporate Development of Vical Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, and was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Baxter Healthcare.

A graduate of Northern Illinois University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Biology, Mr. Pyrce holds a Master of Business Administration in Financial Management from the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is also an alumnus of the Advanced Executive Program at the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.

David Roth
Industry Advisor
CODA Genomics, Inc.
droth@codagenomics.com

Dr. Roth is presently the Senior Vice President of Research and Development at CODA Genomics, Inc., in Laguna Hills, CA, a privately held biotechnology company spun out of technologies invented at, licensed from, and developed in close collaboration with scientists at UC-Irvine beginning in 2005. CODA applies its proprietary technologies using computational and synthetic biology to design and build genes for optimal protein expression and function. CODA’s business model is to drive revenues via synthetic gene programs for optimized protein production for clients and partnering to solve customers' demanding protein challenges. David is responsible for creating, developing, and executing CODA’s product and technologies pipeline, developing and managing the intellectual property portfolio, and creating business and academic alliances for grants and contracts (including the NIH and DOE), collaborations, and strategic relationships. He works closely with CODA’s Market Development, Business Development, Operations, and Sales and Marketing teams to conceive, propose and manage corporate- and USG- funded partnerships.

Prior to his work at CODA David spent 3 years as the VP-R&D at Gene Therapy Systems, Inc., a startup biotech company in San Diego specializing in molecular tools aimed at the DNA, RNA and protein delivery markets, and the development of proprietary platform technologies for antigen discovery used for vaccine and diagnostic product development. At GTS David identified new funding opportunities, spearheaded and wrote successful collaborative grant and contract applications, and worked as the business development and lead scientist to promote and raise money for the company by identifying and negotiating contracted services, strategic alliances and partnerships with vaccine and diagnostic companies, US government (including NIH and the NMRC) and international agencies, and non-profit organizations. He designed and oversaw the development of new catalog-driven products and wrote new patent applications for novel products invented in-house. David also created and directed collaborations between GTS and biotechnology, pharmaceutical, vaccine and diagnostics partners (strategic alliances, joint ventures, grant- and contract-based collaborations and partnerships), academic and institutional collaborations, and scientific consultants.

David began his industry career at Collateral Therapeutics, Inc. in San Diego, where he was the Director of Research and Technology for over 4.5 years where he planned and managed R&D projects in these integrated fields: cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, rodent physiology (rats, mice, transgenics), large animal physiology and pharmacology (pigs, rabbits), and process development. David directed and coordinated internal interactions between these departments: research program planning and management, quality assurance, regulatory affairs (including FDA interactions), legal/in-house counsel (patents, licensing, intellectual property), process development and manufacturing (GLP, GMP, QC), pre-clinical and clinical development, product development, human resources, financial planning and budgets. He also provided leadership during evaluation and prioritization of programs and projects during acquisition/transition phases of Collateral Therapeutics with Schering AG-Germany, and it’s wholly owned US subsidiary, Berlex Biosciences.

Prior to working in the biotech industry, David was an Assistant Professor and Director of the Molecular Physiology Laboratory in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Along with running successful research programs, he was also the recipient of the University’s Teaching Excellence Award given by the Student Organization for Alumni Relations (SOAR) for tenure track faculty for the 30-75 undergraduate student class size.

David received his BS, MS and PhD degrees at UC-Berkeley in the laboratory of Prof. George Brooks, PhD, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UC-San Diego School of Medicine with Prof. H. Kirk Hammond, MD, in Molecular Cardiology.

Steve Runnels
Senior Industry Advisor
ProteoTech, Inc.
srunnels13@cox.net

Mr. Steve Runnels has more than twenty-six years of successful and proven international business management experience in the healthcare industry. He is the Chief Executive Officer of ProteoTech, Inc., a drug development company with therapeutic programs in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

He has held the position of President and CEO of several start-up biopharmaceutical companies, executive vice president and Board member of publicly traded NeoTherapeutics, Inc. (NEOT: NASDAQ) and Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Sigma-Aldrich, a Fortune 500 company. He has extensive business experience covering strategic planning, development of domestic and international sales and marketing teams and development of an international distributor network.

He has led drug discovery and in vitro diagnostic product development activities in the therapeutic areas of Central Nervous System, Oncology, Clinical Cytogenetics, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Immunohematology and Diseases of Bone and Cartilage.

Mr. Runnels is a Senior Industry Advisor for the National Institutes of Health Commercialization Assistance Program (NIH-CAP), managed by the Los Angeles Regional Technology Association (LARTA). He is on the Advisory Board for Extension Courses in Medical Product Development, at the University of California – Irvine. Mr. Runnels holds a B.S. in Cell Biology and certification from the American Society of Clinical Pathology as a specialist in Immunohematology. He has an MBA in International Business and is a Ph.D. candidate in Management.

Ronald Schoengold
Senior Industry Advisor
E Gold Solutions
ron@egoldsolutions.com

Ronald Schoengold has been an active contributor to the biomedical environment for over 40 years. As a consultant to both large and small companies in the biotechnology industry, he offers expert advice to companies that must comply with regulatory and quality system requirements. Schoengold is certified in regulatory affairs and has a proven track record for integrating quality and regulatory requirements with technical, organizational and business development needs. He offers advice on the effective commercialization and maintenance of medical products and services. Schoengold has specialized training and hands-on experience in developing screening and diagnostic products in gastroenterology (e.g., Hemoccult® colorectal cancer screening tests), infectious disease and point-of-care devices, reagents and test systems. He is currently listed as a senior advisor to the Larta Institute (National Institutes of Health, Commercialization Assistance Program). Schoengold has published, presented or contributed to more than 16 scientific publications including a book chapter on point-of-care testing. He holds 8 patents related to point-of-care diagnostics.

Joanna Schulman
Senior Industry Advisor
Thallo Bioscience Advisors, LLC
joanna@thallobiosciences.com

Joanna Schulman is founder and managing partner of Thallo Bioscience Advisors, LLC a financial and strategic advisory firm serving clients globally in the life sciences sector. She has extensive experience working with organizations ranging from startups to multinational enterprises providing advisory services in the areas of corporate financing & growth strategies, asset acquisition & divestiture, M&A, partnering and alliances, licensing opportunities, company/product positioning and capital raising.

Prior to establishing Thallo, Joanna worked with Deloitte to build their national/international life sciences practice and has held various executive positions in industry including Vice President of a pharmaceutical commodities trading company and Consulting Director to Pathways Cancer Center.

Joanna is and active participant, committee member and speaker for industry organizations including BIO, BayBio, Larta & CHI. She has served on the board and steering committees for a wide range of non-profit and patient advocacy groups.

Greg Scott
Investment Advisor
Life Science Angels
gscott@centient.com

Mr. Scott is President and co-founder of Life Science Angels, a private equity investment group that has invested in ten early stage biotechnology and medical device companies since its launch in 2005. He is also founder and CEO of Centient Consulting, a consulting firm providing business and investment strategy services to emerging and established life science companies. Mr. Scott has helped launch more than twenty startups as founder, angel investor, board member and advisor. He is also the Executive Editor of The Centient Biotech Investor™ and the Managing Editor of The Golden State BioBusiness News™. Mr. Scott previously held senior management positions with MCI, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Capgemini.

Michael A. Shimokaji
Intellectual Property Advisor
Shimokaji & Associates, P.C.
mshimokaji@shimokaji.com

Mr. Shimokaji is a shareholder in the law firm of Shimokaji & Associates, P.C., located in Irvine, California. The firm is engaged in intellectual property litigation and the procurement of patent rights domestically and abroad.

For more than 20 years, Mr. Shimokaji has supported clients in industries as diverse as aerospace, apparel, household products, medical devices, software, telecommunications, photo imaging, and semiconductors. He is the author of articles that include “Inducement and Contributory Infringement Theories to Regulate Pre-Patent Issuance Activity” 37 IDEA 571 (1997); “Type of Use Determines Whether Use of Web Content Will Be Infringing” L.A. Daily Journal, August 22, 2002; and “Cease and Desist Letters May Contain Some Hidden Perils” L.A. Daily Journal, February 27, 2003; “Contingency Defense in Patent Lawsuits” L.A. Daily Journal, August 1, 2006; “Putting Designs to the Test” L.A. Daily Journal, October 30, 2008; “Mind Over Matter” Los Angeles Lawyer, April 2009; “Taking Orders” L.A. Daily Journal, August 19, 2009.

During the past seven years, Mr. Shimokaji has been a member of the Steering Committee for the California Minority Counsel Program. He was a founding director of the Orange County Japanese-American Lawyers Association and has served as an instructor in the paralegal program at the University of California, Irvine. Mr. Shimokaji is a past president of the Orange Coast Optimist Club. He served for three years on the Executive Committee for the California State Bar Intellectual Property Section. He is currently serving a three year term on the California State Bar Federal Courts Committee. Mr. Shimokaji is also a member of the editorial board for The Journal of the Association of University Technology Managers.

Following graduation from the University of California, Irvine with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, Mr. Shimokaji received his Juris Doctorate degree from Southwestern University School of Law. In law school, Mr. Shimokaji was an executive editor for the school’s law review. He has served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Robert M. Takasugi, Judge, United States District Court. Mr. Shimokaji is admitted to the California Bar. He is also admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Robin Tucker
Legal Advisor
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
rtucker@wsgr.com

Robin Tucker is an associate in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She specializes in corporate and securities law and advises private and public companies in various technology industries, including life sciences.

Robin returns to legal practice after a career in management consulting, with expertise in strategic planning, market assessment, financial analysis, and training design. Robin also has management experience in a start-up environment and spent over 12 years in the healthcare industry.

Robin earned her B.S. in Management and MBA from Arizona State University. She received her law degree from University of California, Berkeley. Ms. Tucker is admitted to the California bar.

Monica Alfaro Welling
Industry Advisor
Strategic Links
MWelling@StrategicLinks3.com

Ms. Welling has over 18 years of experience in strategic planning and marketing in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical devices. Her unique career in the life science industry has allowed her to touch every aspect of the development and commercialization process of early and late stage development products and new therapeutic applications. In addition Ms. Welling has experience launching products, medical devices, and new product indications, both domestically and internationally.

Prior to co-founding Strategic Links, which provides business solutions for life science companies, Ms. Welling served as Senior Vice President for Hythiam, an early stage company focusing on the medical treatment of addiction. She was a corporate officer and member of the Executive Leadership Team, overseeing all of the company’s marketing, planning, and strategic operations. While there, Ms. Welling supported several rounds of fund raising, and developed and implemented the commercial platform for the company. This resulted in the roll-out of a robust data package plan, an innovative strategy to create initial awareness and early adoption, and an infrastructure to support company growth. Largely as a result of her initiatives and management, the company grew to a market cap of $350M in the 3 years she was there.

In addition to her experience at Hythiam, Ms. Welling held senior level positions at Novo Nordisk and Allergan. She was the first commercial person to manage a drug and device development program during her tenure with Novo Nordisk, and she created several best practices to manage project risks and ensure cross-functional management buy-in, which was implemented throughout the company. At Allergan, she led the commercial development of new medical therapeutic areas for BOTOX, one of the most successful pharmaceutical brands ever to be marketed in the USA. These strategies and initiatives resulted in significant expansion of its use in the medical community.

Ms Welling has a Masters in Business Administration from Odense University in Denmark as well as a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Irvine.

Mark Wittman
Industry Advisor
mwittman3@roadrunner.com

Mark Wittman, MD, MBA is an entrepreneur, consultant, and physician, with significant experience in both clinical and management positions. In 2004, he was a cofounder of Alba Therapeutics, a Baltimore based biotechnology company devoted to the inflammation, autoimmune space. He assisted in company formation, capital raise efforts, and business development initiatives. The lead candidate is currently in phase II human
clinical trials.

Dr. Wittman was a managing director of COLDWATER ASSOCIATES, LLC, a capital advisory and strategic management consulting company that was initially formed as Coldwater Financial, LLC in June 2001. The partnership had two additional directors. Dr. Wittman's focus was on the life sciences space, dealing with clients and investors in all sectors of life sciences investments.

Dr. Wittman was a co-founder and Senior Vice President of Business Development for My Life.com, an Idealab! Company, an internet healthcare company devoted to improving the quality of life through a portfolio of web-enabled medical devices that allowed users to automatically send their health data to a secure, personalized life record.

Dr. Wittman served as a strategic business development consultant to Edwards Lifescience, critical care division, where he assisted in the launch of a minimally invasive hemodynamic monitoring system, performed clinical sales support for the product, and assisted on several product development initiatives.

Dr. Wittman was the principal of MW Consulting, Inc., a consulting firm dedicated to areas of strategic development, and product and market analysis. Examples of clients included Viso Health, a start-up a telemedicine company that was focused on remotely diagnosing and treating patients, thereby maintaining the health of its patients and significantly decreasing medical costs.

Dr. Wittman has served clinical and management roles in Emergency Medicine, Anesthesia, and Critical Care Medicine. He has served as the Associate Director of Surgical Critical Care at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center as well as the Co-Chairman of the Department of Anesthesia at Midway Hospital Medical. He has had significant
experience in liver transplant anesthesia and critical care. He has also been quite involved with the development and testing of new anesthesia and critical care products.

Dr. Wittman holds a Doctor of Medicine from Northwestern University, a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Southern California, a Masters in Public Health from University of California Los Angeles, and a Bachelors of Arts in Biology and Psychology from Washington University. He is board certified in Emergency Medicine, Anesthesia, and Critical Care Medicine, having obtained postgraduate training at Harvard Medical School.

Allison Young
Legal Advisor
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
AYoung@mintz.com

Allison is an associate in the firm's Palo Alto office, practicing in the Business and Finance and Intellectual Property sections with technology and life science clients. She represents companies at various stages of development from early start-up through venture funding and entry into the public marketplace. She advises clients in a broad range of industries, including biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, internet and computer hardware and software, on a variety of business and legal issues, with an emphasis on structuring and negotiating complex technology transactions, including international and domestic strategic alliances, joint ventures, collaborations, licensing arrangements and other transactions involving intellectual property. She also advises investors and companies on intellectual property matters arising in M&A transactions, venture capital and public equity financings. Her practice includes licensing and collaboration agreements, including joint R&D and sponsored research agreements; counseling (including procurement and regulatory approval); corporate organization, formation and management; antitrust considerations; patent and trademark litigation and related risk assessment counseling; and freedom to operate for high-technology, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

Prior to joining Mintz Levin, Allison practiced in the Intellectual Property and Litigation groups of an international law firm. Her practice was focused on the management of IP/patent licensing deals as well as patent litigations for high technology and life science companies, including medical device, pharmaceutical, diagnostic and instrumentation companies. Prior to entering private practice, Allison worked for the Attorneys Generals' Antitrust Divisions' Pharmaceutical Working Group Task Force, investigating ANDA Paragraph IV patent infringement litigation settlements between brand name and generic pharmaceutical companies. She was also the Assistant Director of the Maryland IP Law Center, a non-profit center providing fee-free counseling and representation to start-up technology companies in the greater D.C. Metropolitan area.

Allison serves on a variety of committees including CHI, BayBio, ABA; She is Executive Producer for BioTech Nation on National Public Radio (NPR); Officer and Board Member of the Sima Faris Young M.D. Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting medical research targeting women's oncology; and authors articles and speaks at conferences, including drafting the IP Section of the American Bar Association (ABA)'s resolution on compulsory licensing, and co-authored Pharmaceutical Pricing: The Right Prescription, published in the Journal of Generics Medicine.
Allison is admitted to practice law in California, the District of Columbia and before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She was awarded her A.B. from the University of California at Davis (1999), and her J.D. from The University of Maryland School of Law (2002), cum laude, where she served as a Moot Court Board Member & Competition Judge.