Board of Directors

Richard Benkendorf

Richard Benkendorf – Co-founder and Managing Principal, Technology Impact Partners

Mr. Benkendorf previously served at IBM Corporation where he held a number of senior executive positions all over the U.S. After his tenure at IBM, he served as head of M&A and strategic investments at Ameritech Corporation in Chicago. As a principal at both T.I.P. and Concentric Partners, Mr. Benkendorf has managed over $125 billion in venture capital investments throughout the country.

Nevan Elam

Nevan Elam – Former Head of Nektar Pulmonary

Mr. Elam is a former member of the executive management team of Nektar Therapeutics where he served as Senior Vice President of the Pulmonary Business Unit. In this role, he oversaw all pulmonary business including research and development, manufacturing and strategic partnerships. Mr. Elam was responsible for the sale of Nektar’s pulmonary business to Novartis for $115 million in 2008.

Richard Hawkins

Richard J Hawkins – Chairman & CEO at id2 Innovations in Drug Development

Mr. Hawkins founded Pharmaco in 1983 and as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, he facilitated the growth of the company to over 700 employees. Pharmaco eventually became PPD Pharmaco, one of the largest clinical contract research organizations in the world. After Pharmco, Mr. Hawkins has served in various capacities in numerous startup companies, including Sensus Drug Development Corporation, which was sold to Pfizer, Covance Biotechnology Services, which was sold to Akzo Nobel and LoopOne, which was sold to Neopost. He currently serves as a Director of SciClone Pharmaceuticals and Cytori Therapeutics. Most recently, he co-founded and acted as President, CEO and Chairman of Austin-based LabNow.

shirleygee

Shirley Gee

Ms. Gee previously served as Executive University Officer and Department Head at Stanford University and is currently an active investor with the Keiretsu Forum and a strategic consultant to start-ups in life science and other industries. She has extensive experience and background in strategic business planning, due diligence assessments, term sheet negotiations, operational assessment, intellectual capital alignment, conflict resolution and mediation, human resource management, financial management, sustainability, governmental and regulatory compliance, and pre-litigation investigations.