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2008 Speaker Biographies

Principal
NanoBiz, LLC

Charles is a business attorney who advises angels, venture capital groups and an international nanotechnology fund, and assists startup technology companies From early in his career, Brumlik assisted in the creation and operation of start up companies for molecular models, energy, business methods, electrically conducting composites, food chemistry, and consulting. He earned a law degree at New York Law. He started his law practice in corporate, venture capital, and technology as an associate at Mathews, Collins, Shepherd & McKay, intellectual property law firm in Princeton. As an attorney with ExxonMobil and Honeywell he handled their materials science IP and managed international intellectual property strategies for materials, drafting patents for chemicals, manufacturing processes, and consumer products and negotiating technology, funding, joint venture and intellectual property agreements.


Yonnie Butler

Business Development Director
North Carolina Biotechnology Center

Business development consultant Yonnie Butler brings more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, contract research and consulting industries to his position as Business Development Director. In his most recent role, he was business development executive and managing consultant in charge of several large North American pharmaceutical accounts for Tunnell Consulting headquartered in the Philadelphia area. He has also worked for Roche, LabCorp, Magellan Laboratories, Cardinal Health and PharmaDirections. Butler received his undergraduate degree in biology from East Carolina University and holds an MBA from Elon University.


Loretta Daniel

Assistant Director
Murray State University-Regional Center for Emerging Technology

Loretta Daniel is currently the Assistant Director of the Regional Center for Emerging Technology at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. She earned her Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Business Administration from Murray State University. She has been employed with Murray State University for 8 years where she was the Management Consultant with the Small Business Development Center prior to accepting this position. Loretta is the former owner of several successful small businesses as well as a former bank manger. Ms. Daniel was a Woman of Achievement nominee for the City of Paducah, KY; has been published in the National Business Education Forum magazine; served as chair of numerous local boards; and is a member of the National Business Incubation Association. She also currently serves as a board member on the State of Kentucky Commission for Small Business Advocacy.


Scott Deiter

Head, Technology Transfer Office
Department of Defense

After 22 years conducting basic research on energetic materials, and internationally recognized as an expert on Solid State High Temperature Synthesis, Dr. J. Scott Deiter became Director of Technology Transfer and ORTA Representative for the Indian Head Division (IHDIV) Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Indian Head, MD. He has held this position for the past 13 years. He is responsible for all aspects of technology transfer, including negotiating Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), Partnership Intermediary Agreements (PIAs), all aspects of patent licensing, as well as business development for his laboratory.

During the past 13 years as a member of the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC), he has been Deputy Regional Coordinator of the Mid-Atlantic Region for 5 years. As Regional Coordinator of the Mid-Atlantic Region for 3 years, he significantly strengthened interactions between the federal labs, economic development centers, private industry and educational institutions within the region. In May 2006, he was elected as an At-Large Member to the FLC Executive Board. In 2003, he was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award for being recognized as a leader in Technology Transfer. In 2004, he was the FLC’s Harold Metcalf award winner; and, in November 2006, he was the third recipient of the Department of the Defense George F. Linsteadt Technology Transfer Achievement Award, which is based on Dr. Deiter’s leadership, innovation, and impact on the D0D technology Transfer Program and personal involvement and impact on industry. In May 2007, Dr. Deiter was elected Chairman of the FLC.


Jon Doherty
Sales Manager, Technical Insights Consulting
Frost & Sullivan

Jon Doherty has 16 years of experience working in the Aerospace & Defense industry. Mr. Doherty spent 5 years with CACI International as a Business Analyst and Program Manager in implementing electronic commerce and business process reenginerering efforts. During this time he has worked to implement electronic commerce solutions in the public and private sector. He has hands on experience working with businesses and government to develop e-commerce business strategies. Mr. Doherty is active in the business and political community in San Antonio, TX. He is involved in the Project Management Institute and is a former President of the San Antonio Business Opportunity Council. Presently, Mr. Doherty is the Consulting Engagement Manager for Frost & Sullivan's Technical Insights consulting practice and specializes in helping clients exploit opportunities that come from emerging and disruptive technologies.

He has a B.A. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and an M.B.A in Electronic Commerce Management.

Henry E. Fradkin

Principal
Value Extraction LLC

Henry E. Fradkin is the founder and principal of Value Extraction LLC, a consulting company offering services related to commercializing IP and technology. Value Extraction clients include Fortune 500, smaller firms, government agencies, and law firms. His services include conducting workshops on IP commercialization strategy, working with clients to improve their effectiveness in monetizing their intellectual assets, and guiding them on patent and other IP sales arrangements.

Prior to this position, he worked for Ford Motor Company for almost 31 years and retired in early 2002. In 1997, he founded Ford’s first dedicated business office for extracting value out of Ford’s technology and business intellectual assets and was its first director until he retired. He also initiated: a patent donation program, addition of commercialization opportunities to joint development arrangements, and starting up new companies based on Ford IP. During his 30+ years at Ford, he held several different senior executive level positions related to product, business, strategic, technology, and marketing planning.

Mr. Fradkin has a M.S. in Management from the Sloan School at M.I.T. and a B.S. in Engineering (specializing in Materials) from Brown University. He has been a speaker at several major forums, published articles on IP licensing in les Nouvelles and other magazines, had selected articles reprinted in other languages around the world, participated on several licensing-related panels, and has been the subject of nearly 30 benchmarking projects by other companies.


Dr. Randall Goldsmith

President and CEO
Mississippi Technology Alliance

Dr. H. Randall Goldsmith is the President and CEO of the Mississippi Technology Alliance. MTA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to champion innovation and technology-based economic development for the State of Mississippi. Dr. Goldsmith manages MTA’s vision of developing public-private partnerships to promote growth in the technology sector a well as assisting entrepreneurs and manufacturers and accelerating the commercialization process for university research. In addition, he oversees MTA’s programs to assist communities in assessing their technology needs and finding renewable energy opportunities.

Prior to joining MTA, Dr. Goldsmith served as Assistant Vice President for Technology Transfer and Economic Development at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. He was responsible for facilitating the growth and management of the University of Texas Health Science Center’s intellectual property assets to maximize the potential for financial and humanitarian benefit of the institution and the community. In addition, he had responsibility for identifying and developing new initiatives and opportunities to optimize the Health Science Center’s potential as an economic generator for the community and the state.

A native of Abilene, Texas, Dr. Goldsmith holds doctorate and master degrees in Urban and Regional Planning from Texas A&M University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hardin Simmons University.


Gordon Hogan

President
Central Florida Innovation Corporation

Gordon H. Hogan is the Business Development Executive for the UCF Technology Incubator.In addition to working directly with incubator companies, Gordon manages the Innovation Club, a group of high net worth individuals interested in investing in local startup technology companies.Previously Gordon served as President of the Central Florida Innovation Corporation (CFIC), a firm dedicated to creating and building technology companies in the region.

Gordon’s background covers 30 years experience as an executive, entrepreneur, and business consultant. His area of expertise includes matching technology to a market and preparing startup companies to secure first outside investment.


Tony Jeff

Vice President & COO
Mississippi Technology Alliance

Tony is Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of the Mississippi Technology Alliance, a non-profit organization whose mission is to champion innovation and technology-based economic development for the state of Mississippi. Tony has been at the Mississippi Technology Alliance since 2002 and has staffed the Tupelo office of MTA part-time since it opened in early 2007.

Tony has a breadth of experiences leading teams in Finance, Sales, Engineering, and Operations. While working at Florida Power & Light, General Motors, and Delphi Automotive Systems, Tony successfully led a variety of cross-disciplinary teams in implementing solutions to improve productivity and customer responsiveness. Tony was the Finance Manager for a $3.9 billion business-line at Delphi Packard Electric Systems where he led a team of analysts in the U.S. and Mexico who were responsible for financial modeling, appropriations, and cost estimating for future business of that business line.

In addition to his corporate experience, Tony has started two businesses - one around a patent he co-invented and successfully brought to market. Tony earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Mississippi State University. He received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, and a Masters of Engineering from the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University through the Masters of Management and Manufacturing (MMM) Program.


Connie Koch

Chapter President
Keiretsu Forum Southern California

Connie’s unique business sense and creative vision is the blueprint for her proven successes in various industries as both a serial entrepreneur and CEO/COO over companies from various industries.
As a serial entrepreneur, she founded and managed companies in retail, telecommunications, printing, graphics and forms design, technology, and in 1994, prior to social networking, developed an Internet community of more than 2000 women in business, internationally.
Connie is credited with growing companies organically as well as through acquisitions, serving as CEO/COO, noting three strategic acquisitions by SBC, PeopleSoft, and Curtco Publications. Her industry expertise includes publications, telecommunications, technology, public relations, franchising, and fundraising.
As an investor, her new focus is venturing into Fluoro-Raman Technology, wireless, new mobile media, and opportunities that support her passions, which are sailing/yachting/cruising and international travel.
Currently she serves on the business advisory boards of Fluorotronics, Inc., Women’s Film Network, and on the board of directors for America’s Baby Cancer Foundation,
Inspired by her family, with a belief that people and relationships are the most vital part of life, along with her pioneering attitude and insatiable desire for new experiences, Connie launches four chapters of Keiretsu Forum, Westlake Village, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, into one Southern California Region.


Dr. Christine Karslake

Principal
Prolog Ventures

Christine A. Karslake is Principal at Prolog. Christine has a broad industry background in pharmaceuticals, nutrition, medical devices, and agriculture. During the major portion of her 15 years at Tyco Healthcare, Mallinckrodt, Monsanto, Pharmacia, Searle Pharmaceuticals, and NutraSweet, she was responsible for biotechnology portfolio management reporting to senior officers of the respective firms. Prior to this Christine was one of the founders of NSC Technologies a supplier of pharmaceutical intermediates which was successfully sold to Great Lakes Chemicals (NYSE: GLK). Christine holds a doctoral degree in chemistry from Purdue University and an MBA in finance and strategy from the University of Chicago.


Michael Leventhal

Founder
MC Squared

Michael Leventhal is a refugee from the music business, having left the full-time practice of entertainment law to move into high technology and digital media before the internet was a business model. In 1992, he combined his entertainment and digital media practices, when “multimedia” meant the CD-ROM business. Since that time, Michael has been on the forefront of the legal and business aspects of nearly every major technological innovation in digital media, from payment for electronic transmissions of entertainment content (rather than just shiny discs), to dispute resolution over domain names, to co-branding and cross-licensing agreements for online services, to pay-per-click advertising services, to digital music download services, to television/internet hybrids and the development and licensing agreements required to make them run, to user generated content sites, including development in SecondLife.


Connie Luthy

Product Architect
Medical Product Innovation

Connie L. Luthy, Ph.D., MBA is a medical product developer and inventor with experience ranging from world-class medical research to Fortune 500 applied research and global development of drugs and all classes of medical devices. Dr. Luthy learned medical product development at Alcon, the ophthalmic drug/device global leader. While there she invented the technology platform for Alcon's world-renowned Opti-FreeŽ line. Prior to Alcon she lead immunoconjugate chemistry for BioDiagnostics, a venture capital funded start-up company. Since 1996, she has been product architect at Medical Product Innovation (MPI), a networked consulting firm specialized in data collection/analysis for the investment decision making involved in developing medical inventions into global commercial products. MPI helps client companies find better, faster, cheaper paths to success!

Dr. Luthy codified key elements of her new product strategy and due diligence processes by creating the Industry EcoSystemTM and ExperienceMapTM, assessment tools for new product developers and investors to identify domain expertise needs and gaps for new product development. These tools are useful for defining parameters for the make-or-buy decision. She recently served as the head of certification for the Dallas/Ft. Worth Product Development & Management Association.

In addition to consulting for start-up companies and investors, Dr. Luthy serves on the advisory board of the World's Best Technology Showcase, the Industry Advisory Board of the College of Science at UT Arlington and lectures in the Science and Technology Commercialization Masters Program of the IC2 Institute at UT Austin. Since its inception in 2001, she has served as a judge for the Technology Commercialization Competition held jointly by IC2 Institute and Austin Technology Incubator (ATI). First prize is admission to ATI.

Dr. Luthy did her post-doctoral training in the Departments of Biochemistry and Pharmacology at UT Southwestern Medical School. Dr. Luthy holds a B.A. degree from Rice University, and a Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University, both in chemistry, and an MBA from SMU's Cox School of Business.

Medical Product Innovation works closely with senior corporate executives, inventors, operating company managers, university technology officers, regulatory affairs professionals, investors and intellectual property attorneys to ensure optimal product definition because: "Well-defined products get funded, developed, approved and change lives!”


Dr. Faruq Marikar

President
nanobiz, LLC

Dr. Marikar has extensive experience in planning and developing new business opportunities through cross-sector alliances in a global setting. Working at major global corporations, Marikar’s purview has included materials, chemicals, electrical/electronics, and energy technologies. Product/industry areas of involvement include batteries, capacitors, fuel cells, films, coatings, plating, corrosion, carbon-graphite, plastics, ceramics, and composites. Most recently, as director of business development, Marikar opened an office for SGL Carbon in New Jersey and built a multi-million dollar business in Fuel Cell Components based on German R&D playing multiple roles of strategy development global market assessment competitive benchmarking establishing supply chain partnerships and eventually seeking venturing options on a team with AT Kearney. Marikar was the founding chairman of the Materials & Components working group of the US Fuel Cell Council.

Marikar served on an industrial advisory committee to the US National Science Foundation. He was the first chairman of the US Industrial Research Institute’s External Technology Directors’ Network; and represented Hoechst on the European Industrial Research Management Association panels on benchmarking and financing R&D. He has written on competitiveness and organized a conference on University-Industry collaboration.

With basic degrees in chemistry and a Ph.D. in engineering (Metallurgy/Materials Science) from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Marikar taught corrosion, and worked at Imperial College London and RPI in Troy, NY. He has 23 patents, 10 of them in the USA in batteries fuel cells coatings and nanomaterials. Marikar has lived on three continents.


Erik Molander

Managing Director
MENTOR Capital Partners

Erik is an Associate Professor of Boston University's Entrepreneurial Management Institute. Erik served as Practice Leader - Business Strategy Consulting, with March First / Mitchell Madison Group, where he directed cross-functional e-commerce teams including strategy, on-line branding and technology for clients in the semiconductor, telecommunications, consumer electronics, industrial automation and office equipment industries. He co-founded and subsequently sold Profit Solutions, Inc., a consulting firm that provided Demand Management, Supply Chain Management, Distribution Requirements Planning, site selection, network analysis, delivery route optimization, customer service enhancement and materials management services to manufacturing and distribution businesses. He has also served as Treasurer of CSX Intermodal, Director-Planning of CSX Transportation, Director-Financial Planning for Chessie Railroad System, and with the Corporate Development department of McCormick & Co.

Erik holds both an MA and a BA from Johns Hopkins University.


Matthew R. Morris

Managing Director
Fin|Econ, Inc.

Matthew Morris is the Managing Director of Fin|Econ Partners. He advises clients operating across a broad range of industries with an emphasis on transactions, intellectual asset management, valuations for financial and tax reporting as well as commercial litigation. Mr. Morris is an active member of many local and national professional societies and organizations, including the Licensing Executives Society (LES) for which he has served as the chair of the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter. His technology experience is broad, with particular expertise in communications, defense, healthcare and consumer products.

He earned his MIM from Schiller University in Heidelberg, Germany, and his MSc. degree in finance from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Mr. Morris holds a BA in history from the University of Dallas, where he graduated cum laude. In addition to his formal education, he has earned the prominent Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. In addition to his professional affiliations, Mr. Morris is a founding board member of Lakeland Academy, a not-for-profit Montessori school and serves as the chair of its finance committee. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Dallas, Graduate School of Management, where he has lectured in international finance.


Walter Nasdeo

Energy Technology Group
Ardour Capital Investments, LLC

Walter Nasdeo Supervises Ardour Capital’s Energy Technology group, and is responsible for the equity research effort. Walter was previously Vice President of Research and headed the energy technology team at Bluestone Capital, and prior to that, was at Credit Lyonnais Securities where he researched consolidating industries. Walter has presented at numerous energy technology conferences, and has been quoted in various publications, including CNNMoney, CNNfn, The Street.Com, Bloomberg News, Small Times, Sustainable Business.com, Dow Jones Newswire, and the Christian Science Monitor. He has been named a Bulldog Research Award Winning Analyst for earnings accuracy. Prior to his Wall Street career, Walter served as the Assistant Director of the Small Business Institute at the University of North Texas. Walter received his MBA and his BBA in Entrepreneurship from the University of North Texas. He is a member of NYSSA and AIMR, and was named the “Distinguished Student in Entrepreneurship,” by the Chancellor of North Texas University for 1992-93. Walter served in the U.S. Army European Operations, Berlin, Germany, and held a secret security clearance as a member of the Berlin Brigade in the 1980s.


George Petracek

Managing Director
Atrium Capital Corporation

George joined Atrium in 2000. Previously, he was a Corporate Business Development Manager at Hewlett-Packard, where he focused on M&A and venture investments across various HP businesses. Prior to joining HP George was a Vice President of Corporate Finance at Union Bank of Switzerland, working with telecommunications, industrial utilities, and financial institutions clients. Prior to that George was an Associate with Morgan Stanley in its M&A execution group. He began his professional career as a computer programmer for 3M. George received his MBA from Stanford University and his MS degree in Cybernetics from CVUT Institute of Technology.


Bruce Pittman

Consultant
Profit Engineering

Bruce Pittman has been involved in high technology product development, project management, and system engineering for over 25 years. As a consultant, coach and trainer Bruce has worked with a wide variety of both Fortune 1000 companies and smaller companies in the US, Europe, Asia and Central America, including Align Technology, New Focus, Varian, Westinghouse, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Cepheid, Behring Diagnostic, and government agencies such as NASA, and DoE. Bruce has also participated in a number of startups in such diverse areas as aerospace, energy, semiconductor manufacturing and medical devices.

Bruce has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Davis and a MS in Engineering Management from Santa Clara University. He is a Vice President and member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Concurrent Product Development. Bruce is also an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. As a member of the International Council on System Engineering (INCOSE) Bruce co-authored the EIA 632 ANSI Standard “Engineering of Systems”. He has published over two dozen papers on technical and management topics and edited two NASA workshop volumes. Bruce has been an invited speaker at many professional society meetings and conferences. In addition to his consulting work Bruce is also a member of the adjunct faculty in the Graduate Engineering School at Santa Clara University.

While working at NASA Bruce was awarded two Sustained Superior Achievement Awards and two Group Achievement Awards. He was also presented a Distinguished Leadership Award by the AIAA.


Jim Poage

President and CEO
San Antonio Technology Accelerator Network

Jim is the President and CEO of the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATAI). Prior to joining SATAI, Poage was the CEO of H2O Advisors providing investment advice to selected companies seeking funding. He has been active as a founder and an accredited investor in early stage companies.

Mr. Poage was previously the Chief Marketing Officer of TradeMC, a 50/50 joint venture between Fluor Corporation and IBM. TradeMC sales in the first 8 months of operations exceeded $100 million.
He has over 30 years of senior management positions in information technology including:

• Sabre, Inc. – SVP Worldwide marketing - $1.2 billion global P & L.
• Texas Instruments - Division manager – 3 years in Singapore & 3 years in Amsterdam.
• Bausch & Lomb
• Intel in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Worldwide Manager Medical Electronics Solutions
Texas Instruments

Shekar Rao is the worldwide manager for medical electronics at Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas and is also responsible for University collaborations in the Medical Electronics space. He is Texas Instruments’ representative to the Continua Health Alliance and is the Chair of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (Dallas Chapter).

Earlier as an entrepreneur, he founded startups in Telecom, Semiconductor IP and Life Sciences sectors. He possesses over 30 years of worldwide experience in product development, P&L, operations, business strategy, marketing, sales, and consulting within start-ups as well as established companies such Texas Instruments, NEC Electronics and LSI Logic. He has a track record in developing and implementing multi-product and multi-market business strategies. Mr. Rao is highly knowledgeable in anti-trust issues, intellectual property protection, patents and the promotion of industry-wide interoperability standards and collaborations. He has a deep understanding of issues and opportunities in industries as diverse as semiconductor, life sciences, healthcare, networking hardware, software, IT, knowledge management and workflow automation.

Mr. Rao has a BSEE and an MBA in International Trade. He has been a keynote speaker, panel chair or panelist in a number of international conferences on healthcare, medical electronics, innovation, entrepreneurship and technology commercialization.


William Reichert

President
Garage Technology Ventures

Bill Reichert is a Managing Director at Garage Technology Ventures. He has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and an operating executive. Since joining Garage in 1998, Bill has focused on early-stage information technology and materials science companies. He sits on the Boards of CaseStack, WhiteHat, ClearFuels, and cFares. Prior to Garage, Bill was a co-founder or senior executive in several venture-backed technology startups, including Trademark Software, The Learning Company and Academic Systems. Earlier in his career, he worked at McKinsey & Company, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., and the World Bank. Bill earned a B.A. at Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. He was a founding board member and a Chairman of the Churchill Club, and a Charter Member of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs. Currently he is the Chairman of the Small Fund Roundtable of the VC Taskforce and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.


Robert Robb

Associate Director
New Venture Development, UT at Dallas

Robert L. Robb is the Director of Venture Development for The Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at UTD and a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship in the School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. Mr. Robb spearheads the “virtual incubation” initiative at UTD and is an investor in or an advisor to several early stage enterprises. Mr. Robb’s perspective of new venture development is that of entrepreneur, venture investor and new venture developer with over 26 years experience in creating, managing and advising emerging enterprises. He has funded, founded, nurtured and/or managed 23 early stage companies and served as CEO of 7 emerging enterprises. Seven of the 23 companies Mr. Robb assisted or managed established a combined market capitalization in excess of $700 million and several of these enterprises were acquired by larger firms. He has coached entrepreneurs and advised early stage companies in all facets of creating and managing new ventures and has raised more than $80 million for start-up and early stage companies.

Mr. Robb’s experience includes 6 years with two, seed-stage, venture capital firms, including a public venture fund, which he founded. He also served 10 years as a venture developer and technology commercialization executive with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM Technologies, Inc.) and as the Director of the University of Michigan’s technology transfer office with responsibility to commercialize technology through the creation of new ventures.

His industry experience includes healthcare, biotechnology, medical devices, medical instrumentation, and the oil and gas industry. He currently serves as an advisor or consultant to Aqua-Synergy, BioSig ID, MicroTransponder, Solarno, and North Texas Enterprise Center, a medical products business incubator.

Mr. Robb received a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Biology from the University of Utah, and a Master of Science Degree in Parasitology/Microbiology from the University of Utah.


Dr. Ian Smith

Director General
National Research Council Canada

In addition to his duties as Director General of NRC's Institute for Biodiagnostics, Dr. Ian C.P. Smith carries out research in applications of complex physical methods to problems of biological and medical significance. His specialty is early diagnosis of cancer using magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy. Dr. Smith began his career at NRC in 1967.

He holds a M.Sc. from the University of Manitoba and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Stockholm and the University of Winnipeg, and an honorary diploma from Red River Community College.

Dr. Smith is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Chemical Institute of Canada, and the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Dr. Smith takes an active interest in the commercialization of technology, and the role of science and technology in Canada's economic future.


Tony Stanco

Director, Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer and Commercialization
The George Washington University

Tony Stanco, Esq. is the Director of the Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer and Commercialization (CET2C) and an Associate Director of the Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute at The George Washington University. Prior to joining The George Washington University, he was a senior attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where he worked on over 200 IPOs. He also worked on innovation policy, including start-up creation and funding by angel investor and VCs. He has an LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center in securities regulation and is licensed as a lawyer in New York state.

At The George Washington University, Tony works on innovation policy, start-up finance policy, software policy, Open Source, cyber-security and eGovernment issues with universities and governments around the world. Tony has given presentations at the U.S. Congress, various U.S. defense and civilian agencies, the World Bank, the European Commission, United Nations, Inter-American Development Bank, Organization of American States, World Summit on Information Society, LinuxWorld, Advanced Computer and Internet Law Institute, and International Computer Law Association, among others. Tony also teaches the "Lab to IPO" course dealing with start-up formation and funding.


Lt. Col Mark R. Thomas

Managing Attorney
Reid Law Group LLC

Mark R. Thomas is Managing Counsel at Reid Law Group LLC. Mr. Thomas advises and represents domestic and foreign business entities seeking to navigate the legal minefields, bureaucratic complexities, technical challenges, and business decisions that are inherent to transactions involving technologies with demonstrable potential in both commercial and government markets. Mr. Thomas’ exemplary military career included assignments as technology architect of the U.S. Air Force’s conventional weapons portfolio; the Defense Department’s future joint, interagency, and multinational war fighting capability; and the Federal Government’s combined nuclear command and control system. He is a Joint Specialty Officer (JSO) and Department of Defense Senior Acquisition Corps member. Mr. Thomas earned his Juris Doctor degree at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where he was a Ben S. Wendelken scholar and served as Business Editor of the Denver University Law Review. He holds graduate degrees in business and military operations, along with postgraduate credentials in defense systems management, national security strategy, and Federal procurement policy. Mr. Thomas resides near Denver.


Dr. Lloyd L. Tran

Managing Director
International Association of Nanotechnology

Dr. Tran is the president of the International Association of Nanotechnology, a non-profit association to foster research and business collaboration in nanotechnology worldwide. He serves as the managing director of the California Institute of Nanotechnology focusing on the advanced research and applications of nanotechnology for biotechnology, aerospace, homeland security and clean tech industry. He is the chairman of Neurobiomed Corporation, a biotechnology company to discover and develop new drugs for the treatment of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

He has more than 20 years experience working as a scientist and technical director for biotechnology companies including G.D. Searle & Company, Monsanto and Biomed Corporation, and is the sole inventor holding several US patents on nanocoating membrane controlled release drug delivery system which has been approved for marketing in the USA. He is also the inventor of a new drug for the treatment of Alzheimer's diseases.


Robert J. Ward

Partner
Gardere

Robert Ward represents clients in protecting, defending and enforcing their intellectual property rights, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. Mr. Ward’s practice covers all areas of intellectual property law, with particular expertise in patent litigation enforcement and defense, patent and trademark preparation and prosecution, licensing, and the preparation of legal opinions on patentability, patent infringement and patent validity. Mr. Ward advises clients in the acquisition and protection of strategic intellectual property assets, and in maximizing return on these assets. He advises clients on establishing strategic relationships with third parties to maximize return on their intellectual property assets, and, in some cases, to obtain rights to third party intellectual property assets that are important to the client’s growth. Mr. Ward assists clients with establishing corporate intellectual property programs to ensure that valuable innovations are timely identified and properly protected.

Mr. Ward represents and advises clients ranging from individual inventors and start-up companies to universities and large, multi-national corporations. He has successfully represented start-up companies in obtaining angel and venture capital funding , and in developing strategic and meaningful patent protection that provides product line exclusivity that resulted in retail sales, for one client, exceeding $200 million. Mr. Ward is a registered professional engineer. He worked in industry as an engineer prior to attending law school.


Daniel Winegarden

President
Iowa Agricultural Finance Corporation & tecTERRA Fund

Daniel Pitts Winegarden, J.D. is the President of Iowa Agricultural Finance Corporation (IAFC) and Administrative Director of IAFC’s tecTERRA Fund. IAFC is a private corporation established with a $25 million long-term, interest-free loan from the Iowa Department of Economic Development. tecTERRA is a $43 million double-bottom line venture capital fund focused on biotechnology and high value food ventures with ties to the state of Iowa. Dan’s experience includes negotiating and closing a complex restructuring of a biotechnology investment, simultaneously resolving regulatory issues, prior obligations, and securing significant new capital essential to preserving value and growth potential. Dan’s prior experience includes: First Deputy Commissioner of Insurance, the chief operating officer (COO) of the Iowa Insurance Division which oversees Iowa’s securities industry; Counsel to the Commerce Committees of the Iowa General Assembly; and Governor’s policy advisor. Prior to state service, Dan practiced commercial transaction law with the Des Moines law firm of Davis Brown Koehn Schors & Roberts. Dan is for the day-to-day operations of IAFC and its tecTERRA Fund. IAFC is preparing for Fund II working with Iowa Farm Bureau Federation’s Rural Vitality Fund on value-added ag processing (food, fiber and bio-energy) investments and other financial advisory partners for biotechnology opportunities.


George Winston

Investor
Keiretsu Forum Southern California

George Winston has thirty plus years experience in the medical products industry, with Abbott Laboratories and Hospira Worldwide, major medical device/pharma manufacturers. This tenure includes 20 years experience in marketing and sales management, supporting the launch of new critical care devices and pharma product lines and deployment of sales forces. More recently, for the last two plus years he has been associated with Keiretsu Forum, the country’s largest angel investing network. This time included experience working with entrepreneurs, focusing on entrepreneur coaching, development and fund raising strategies. Educational background includes degrees in Aeronautical Technology, Engineering and Aviation.