Aron Anderson, PhD is currently Chief Scientific Officer at SurModics. Aron has worked at SurModics since 1991, where he has contributed to the development of technology for blood-compatible coatings and drug delivery platforms. Dr. Anderson also serves on the Board of Directors ofUniversity Enterprise Laboratories, a partnership between the University of Minnesota, the city of St. Paul, and local industry that functions as atechnology company incubator. Aron received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1985. He receivedhis M.S. in 1987 and Ph.D. in 1991, both in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University.

Sarah received her Bachelor of Science degree from the State University of New York at Upstate Medical Center in Medical Technology, Master’s of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Boston University, and her PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands. Sarah also received a Master’s in Business Administration in 2008.  Sarah has worked in the area of sensor and emerging technology design, development, and manufacture since 1990 at several companies including AT&T Bell Labs, Princeton Gamma-Tech, Motorola, and Medtronic. Sarah is currently the Director of Technology Planning at Medtronic, where she has worked since 1997.

Richard Bergenstal, MD is an endocrinologist and Executive Director of the International Diabetes Center at Park Nicollet.  He is Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Minnesota and currently serves as President Elect, Science & Medicine of the American Diabetes Association. In 2007, Dr. Bergenstal was named the ADA’s Outstanding Physician Clinician of the Year.  Dr. Bergenstal received his MD and endocrine training from the University of Chicago where he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine before joining the International Diabetes Center in 1983.  His clinical research has focused on glucose control and diabetes complications as a Principal Investigator of two NIH trials the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) in type 1 diabetes and the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risks in Diabetes (ACCORD) study in type-2 diabetes.   Dr Bergenstal’s clinical efforts have been directed toward improving systems of care for patients with diabetes by translating new research findings in to practice. He teaches nationally and internationally on the importance of patient-centered team care, has been listed in Best Doctors in America since it began in 1992, has published over 100 peer reviewed scientific articles in diabetes and has co-authored the best selling Betty Crocker Diabetes Cookbook.

Dr. Alvin Berger is the Cargill Nutrition Leader in Global Food Research-NA, advancing nutritional research.  Alvin has 25 years research experience in nutritional sciences and holds MS, Ph. D. and Post-doctoral degrees. While at Nestle (Lausanne), he headed lipid and plant sterol activities leading to the ACTICOL™ ingredient. Alvin first embraced “omic” technologies when studying transcriptomic and lipidomic effects of dietary lipids. Thereafter, he directed analytical-, biochemistry-, and metabolomic departments at three companies, commercializing metabolomic product offerings. He recently published a Nature paper using metabolomics to identify prostate cancer biomarkers. Alvin is an Adjunct Professor of Nutrition, Univ. MN.

Fariborz co-founded Exos Corporation in 2007 and serves as its President and Chief Executive officer. As an entrepreneur, he has co-founded three medical device companies and has served in executive level positions for two private and one public company.  He has over thirty years of experience in business creation, growth and management. Fariborz holds a B.S. degree in Chemistry and Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire.

Kent Bottles, MD is the President of the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement. Trained as a pathologist, Dr. Bottles has been a medical school professor, a health plan medical director, a president of a genomics repository, a chief knowledge officer of a biotechnology company, and the president and CEO of an educational and research consortium. A prolific author, Dr. Bottles has written more than 100 articles for publications like Cancer, Annals of Internal Medicine, The New York Times op-ed page, and The Physician Executive. Dr. Bottles is frequently called upon to deliver keynotes about the future of medicine, disruptive technologies, the doctor/patient relationship, transparency, and community-based medicine. In 2006 and 2007, Dr. Bottles has presented to the state hospital associations of Minnesota, Utah, Colorado, Mississippi, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, Oklahoma, Maine, Virginia, and Arizona.

Beth A-S. Brown, PhD., R.Ph. is the Director, Pharmaceutical Development (PD) at Upsher-Smith Laboratories (USL), Minnesota’s only pharmaceutical company with a 90-year history. USL has had success with its branded generics business focused on women’s health, dermatology, and cardiology. Beth leads the PD group at USL in its current evolution to develop novel drug products for CNS disorders. With over 14 years in the pharmaceutical business, Beth has held business development and technical positions with drug delivery and pharmaceutical companies. She earned a PhD in Pharmaceutics from the University of Michigan and a BS in Pharmacy from Purdue University.

Bill Brown's recent appointment as interim CEO of VitalMedix marks the resumption of a long running business partnership with John MacDonald, Ph.D., who was simultaneously appointed interim Chief Scientific Officer. They worked together at MGI Pharma for over a decade where they helped create very significant value for the shareholders of this publicly traded pharmaceutical company based in Bloomington, Minnesota, when it was sold in January 2008 for nearly $4 billion to Eisai Co., Ltd. Their combined four decades of experience includes: multiple drug marketing approvals; drug discovery through Phase 4 management; product acquisions; partnering relationships; and company acquisions.

Michael Chambers is the President and CEO of Aldevron, LLC. With facilities in Fargo, ND; Madison, WI; and Freiburg, Germany, Aldevron manufactures proteins, antibodies, and DNA for preclinical, clinical, diagnostic and agricultural applications. Among Aldevron's accomplishments is the production of the world's first DNA vaccine to be used outside of a trial setting. Aldevron has also developed a novel quality system to accelerate the production of biologicals for phase I clinical trials. Michael is a graduate of North Dakota State University and plays an active role in developing the state's academic and industrial biotechnology infrastructure.

Wally Danielson has been CEO of Impres Medical since May 2000.  Prior to joining Impres, he was VP of Sales and Marketing at Promethean Medical, a start-up focused in gynecology and urology.  At Ferring Pharmaceuticals he helped introduce a new infertility injectable into the US Ob/Gyn and fertility market from 1997-1999. He was President and CEO of Spectrum Medical Inc., from 1990-1997.  In 1996 he was a Founder of Northstar Medical.  In his early career, he was a Sales Representative for Orthomet  and Pfizer Pharmaceutical. Mr.Danielson received a BS in Chemistry and Business from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Ativa Medical is currently developing an in vitro diagnostics platform device that delivers a full Complete Blood Count (CBC) test at the point-of-care. David Deetz successfully founded two earlier companies in the medical diagnostics space: PPG Biomedical and Diametrics Medical – first point-of-care blood gas systems with multiuse and disposable single-use cartridges, respectively.   These products continue be marketed globally.  Mr. Deetz also formed MulitLogic Inc, an expert systems company, by initially acquiring a proven technology platform. The Company developed software tools and solutions to rapidly optimize situations involving a large number of interactive variables and marketed them through strategic partners (HP, Citigroup, JP Morgan).

Peter DeLange is President and CEO of Devicix, a multi-disciplinary engineering firm providing a full range of product development services for medical product companies. During his six years at Devicix, the firm has provided engineering services to more than 50 medical device companies with products in orthopedics, respiratory therapy, dental, trauma, urology, and other medical specialties. Before founding Devicix, Peter was Director of New Product Development at Acist Medical Systems, a cardiovascular capital equipment company.  Peter is active in a number of roles in the medical device community including serving on the Industry Advisory Board for the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Engineering in Medicine, a board member of Excelen, Center for Bone and Joint Research and Education, and executive roles at DGIMed Orthopedics, and ActiveLock Surgical, Inc. Peter received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics Engineering and holds an MBA from the University of St. Thomas.

Ross D’Emanuele is a Partner in Dorsey & Whitney’s Health Care Department, and Co-Chair of the firm’s Life Sciences Group.  He counsels a wide variety of public, private, nonprofit and for-profit entities in the health care field, with specific emphasis on regulatory compliance matters and food and drug law, including health care fraud and abuse, drug and medical device approval and post-market regulatory matters, health data and privacy matters, Medicare/Medicaid and private payor reimbursement, corporate compliance programs, medical and pharmacy practice act matters, and technology transfer and clinical trials. 

Gail Dennison is the Development and Public Relations Director for The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic Research Partnership. She is responsible for fundraising development, marketing and public communications for The Hormel Institute. Gail serves as a director on the following boards: Development Corporation of Austin, Austin Area Foundation, Greater Rochester Advocates for Universities and Colleges (GRAUC), Austin Area Chamber of Commerce, Austin APEX Diversity Group and the Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau. Gail has been with The Hormel Institute since 2006.

Jay Desai, MPH is an epidemiologist with the Minnesota Diabetes Program (MDP) and the Minnesota Department of Health. Since 1995, Jay has been responsible for statewide diabetes surveillance activities and designing and evaluation MDP programs. Jay was Minnesota’s principal investigator for the CDC-sponsored Diabetes Primary Prevention Initiative (2005-9) which focused on developing state-based diabetes preventions surveillance systems, interventions, and strategic planning resources like system dynamics modeling. Jay also has an interest in physical activity and dietary intake assessment. Mr. Desai is currently completing his doctorate in Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Drewes is Professor and Head of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Minnesota Duluth. He is a graduate of Capital University (B.S., Columbus, OH) and the University of Minnesota (Ph.D.).  Dr. Drewes publishes in the areas of brain metabolism, blood-brain transport, and hibernation and serves on journal editorial boards.  Dr. Drewes is co-inventor of a hemorrhagic shock therapy licensed to VitalMedix, Inc. and is co-founder of MRT, LLC.  He received the Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award (NIH), Alumni Achievement Award (Capital University), Frederick C. Goetz Award, and Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Fellowship and is President, International Brain Barriers Society.

Mark Ellinger is a Managing Principal at Fish & Richardson P.C., an international intellectual property law firm. He focuses his practice on patent prosecution, opinions, due diligence investigations, licensing, and counseling in the medical biotechnology, agricultural biotechnology, diagnostic, pharmaceutical, and medical science fields.  He is also the author of 19 scientific publications, is a Faculty Member for the Patent Resources Group course, “Pharma & Biotech Strategies for Patent Prosecution, Hatch-Waxman, Litigation and Licensing,” and is a frequent lecturer on biotechnology and patent law.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Developmental Biology and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Daryll Emery, MS, PhD, is Chief Science Officer and Director of Discovery at Epitopix. Dr. Emery is the co-founder of both Epitopix and Syntiron; Minnesota based companies. He has over 25 years of research experience in microbial pathogenesis. His career has encompassed the full spectrum of product development and manufacturing disciplines with a wide range of microbial target antigens, product formulations and manufacturing processes for vaccine development. He is the inventor/co-inventor of over 25 U.S. and International Patents and the commercially successful SRP® vaccine technology. He received his graduate degrees from the University of Minnesota.

John Freshley is an experienced life-sciences entrepreneur having recently served as President and CEO of Genetics Squared, Inc., an oncology therapeutic development company. In this role, Mr. Freshley led the closure of the Series A financing, recruited a world-class management team with more than 35 years of pharmaceutical industry experience and an industry-leading oncology-focused Scientific Advisory Board. Prior to his term at Genetics Squared, Mr. Freshley served as Director of Corporate Development and Marketing for STATPROBE, a clinical research company. Earlier in his career, Mr. Freshley served in a variety of management roles with operational and business development responsibilities, including Director of Business Development for a start-up cancer discovery and development company and as a founding employee and Director of Marketing for an enterprise software company, Grapevine Technologies, that was sold to Sun Microsystems in 1999.

Joy Frestedt is the President / CEO for Frestedt Inc., a consulting group of over 50 experts providing services in the broad areas of clinical trial development and execution, as well as US and international regulatory compliance, medical writing and management of corporate quality systems.  Dr. Frestedt has over 25 years experience running clinical trials, conducting laboratory analyses and assisting firms with strategic decisions involving clinical research programs, regulatory strategies and the development of quality systems to compete globally.  Frestedt Incorporated is a novel virtual network of highly skilled staff meeting specific needs for large and small projects.

Joe Galatowitsch has over 27 years of experience in medical business management, marketing and market development. Joe co-founded Dymedex Consulting and has quickly established Dymedex as the leader in med. tech. market development consulting. Joe has personally led or orchestrated over 100 unique medical technology adoption assessments in over 20 different countries. He pioneered and codified the discipline of market development and institutionalized his concepts and methods company-wide at Medtronic. Based on his pioneering work, Joe has identified and statistically validated the factors that predict and drive success of medical technologies.  Joe holds two patents and is the recipient of numerous awards in marketing and market development. Joe has a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Marquette University and an MBA from St. Thomas University.

Kevin Graham, MD, is President of the Minneapolis Heart Institute and Director of Preventive Cardiology and the Outpatient Clinical Laboratory at the Minneapolis Heart Institute.  Dr. Graham completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center and fellowship at the University of Minnesota in cardiovascular disease.  Dr. Graham has been actively involved in development of practice guidelines and development of computerized interfaces regarding cardiovascular diseases in both the specialty and primary care settings. He has authored numerous articles in areas of both preventive cardiology and managed care, especially with regards to maintenance of quality care in managed care settings.

Adam Gunther is a Managing Director and member of the Health Care Investment Banking Group at Piper Jaffray & Co, a leading global growth company investment bank. He has over twelve years of experience in the full range of investment banking activities, including sell-side and buy-side merger and acquisitions advisory, and public and private equity and debt financings. Gunther co-leads Piper Jaffray’s Healthcare Information Technology practice and is also focused on select ancillary healthcare services verticals. Prior to joining Piper Jaffray, Gunther worked with the Health Care Corporate Finance team of John Nuveen & Co., where he specialized in providing merger and acquisition advisory services to non-profit health care organizations. Gunther graduated from Colorado College with a bachelor of arts degree in American Political Economy.

Ralph Hall has extensive experience in the areas of FDA, health care law and corporate compliance, including the application of those regulatory systems to the medical device industry. He has extensive experience in the design and implementation of regulatory compliance programs and with FDA enforcement actions. Ralph also has experience in managing complex patent litigation and licensing matters and in general corporate counseling. Prior to rejoining Baker & Daniels, Ralph was with Guidant Corporation where he served as Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel – Litigation and Compliance. He also served as Special Counsel to Guidant’s Board of Director’s Compliance Committee and to Guidant’s Compliance Office. Earlier, Ralph was General Counsel of Guidant’s Cardiac Rhythm Management group. Prior to joining Guidant, Ralph was with Eli Lilly and Company where he served in a number of legal roles, including chief environmental counsel. Ralph also serves as a Distinguished Visiting Practitioner and Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School where he teaches courses in FDA law, corporate compliance, negotiation and alternative dispute resolution. Ralph has spoken frequently at legal seminars on a variety of subjects.

Paul Hansen is Business Development Officer for the Consulate General of Canada in Minneapolis with responsibility for the Life Sciences, Energy and Environment sectors. Prior to joining the Consulate, Mr. Hansen served as co-founder of three medical device and biotechnology companies based in Minnesota and California. Mr. Hansen served for five years as adjunct instructor at the Center for Entrepreneurship in the Opus School of Business at the University of St. Thomas. He holds a BA from Luther College, an MBA in Marketing from the University of St. Thomas,and is a Fellow in Entrepreneurship Education at Babson College in Boston.

Darlene Hardie-Muncy is Director of Nutrition and Regulatory Affairs, Worldwide at Cargill. Recent successes are Truvia™ rebiana, the natural zerocalorie sweetener (ingredient and table-top), and US Health claims for Barliv™ barley beta fiber (Cholesterol Reduction). Other Cargill functional ingredients include Corowise™ plant sterols (Cholesterol Reduction), Zerose™ erythritol zero sweetener and Regenasure™ glucosamine. Earlier at J&J, as VP of Research, McNeil Nutritionals, Hardie-Muncy directed research for products with positive health benefits such as the Benecol™ line (lower cholesterol), Splenda® sweetener, Viactiv® calcium chews and Lactaid® supplements. Hardie-Muncy led development at Nabisco, Inc. of new nutritional benefits - reduced fat and calories (Snackwells® and Less Calorie Newtons®) and directed development with Slim-Fast Foods, after early years at General Mills. Hardie-Muncy earned BS/MS Food Science and Nutrition at University of Delaware.

Timothy Hearn is a partner in the Corporate Department at Dorsey & Whitney and Co-Chair of the firm’s Corporate and Securities Law and Corporate Governance and Compliance Practice Groups.  Mr. Hearn works primarily with small and mid-cap public companies, providing advice to boards of directors and management on corporate governance and fiduciary duty issues, public and private offerings of debt and equity, and mergers and acquisitions. He has also represented underwriters, placement agents, investment partnerships and venture capital investors in various transactions.  Mr. Hearn holds a BA in History from Brown Unive rsity and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Jon Hjelm is a Vice President involved in providing corporate finance and M&A advisory activities within the Clean Technology and RenewablesInvestment Banking team at Piper Jaffray. Hjelm is a founding member of the team and works across a number of sectors that Piper Jaffray covers, including Biomass, Biofuels, Wind,and Solar. Hjelm received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University and received a Master of Business Administration degree from Kellogg School of Management.

Christine Horton has spent 17 years working in the Minneapolis medical device industry on the development and sales and marketing of many paradigm changing medical technologies.  She is the Founder of CoreSpine Technologies, an emerging spinal device company, and was recently named the Chief Executive Officer.  Ms. Horton is not only a company Founder but also an inventor of CoreSpine’s technology.  Through Christine’s leadership the company has funded research and development and achieved significant milestones; including FDA Clearance -to-Market for the company’s first product, a strategic licensing agreement and several patent submissions.

Rob Janzen’s professional experience ranges from research on the biological and physical controls on the cycling of carbon and nitrogen in soil to managing a swine farm.  With this mix of technical and practical background, Rob joined the greenhouse gas management field as a partner in ClimateCHECK.  Rob specializes in quantifying the emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide from agricultural and environmental systems, and in supporting innovative strategies to decrease these emissions.  Rob develops and validates quantification protocols, and helps agri-businesses across North America to monetize the greenhouse gas emission reductions associated with novel practices and products.

Dr. Marie Johnson is the Founder and President of AUM Cardiovascular.  She has 17 years of experience in product development, manufacturing and management working for Fortune 500 Corporations.  She holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship as the Simon Stertzer Fellow in the Stanford Biodesign program.  She is currently head of the Medical Device Innovation Fellows Program at the University of Minnesota – a program dedicated to the disciplined development of translational medical devices.   She holds multiple patents and patents pending in the United States and abroad in orthopedic, cardiac, diagnostics, glaucoma, stroke and fetal medicine.

Lee A. Jones, Chief Administrative Officer of the Schulze Diabetes Institute at the University of Minnesota, and the former President and CEO of Inlet Medical, has over 25 years of medical device experience.  In her current role, she is responsible for commercializing diabetes treatment technology.  Inlet Medical, a company focused on providing surgical solutions for women’s health, was sold to CooperSurgical in 2006.  Prior to joining Inlet Medical, she spent 14 years at Medtronic.   Ms. Jones graduated from the Executive Program at the Carlson School of Management and received a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Shaun Kennedy is Director of the National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD), and Director of Partnerships and External Relations of the University of Minnesota's College of Veterinary Medicine. At the University, he has taken a leadership role in facilitating and coordinating research on animal health, food safety, and food-system biosecurity. Mr. Kennedy received the Food and Drug Administration Commissioners Special Citation, “For leadership in fostering effective partnership in international food safety capacity building programs to improve the safety of food imported into the U.S. and consumed globally.”  Prior to his work at the University, he held global executive positions with Ecolab and Procter & Gamble.

Denise Kettelberger is special counsel for Faegre & Benson LLP. A member of the intellectual property law practice, Denise is particularly focused on biotechnology patents. In addition to her J.D. from the South Texas College of Law, Denise holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. With technical expertise in the chemical and biotechnology arts, including plant and animal genetics, Denise advises biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device clients on strategic patent portfolio management and performs intellectual property due diligence for her clients. She also counsels clients on emerging law and developments for follow-on versions of successful biotechnology drugs, including proposed regulation of biosimilars.

Dr. Raj Khankari is CEO of Bioenergy, Inc. Bioenergy is a biotechnology company with more than 45 patents based on Ribose and its effect on restoring energy. Dr. Khankari joined Bioenergy in 2008. Prior to Bioenergy, Dr. Khankari was General Manager at CIMA LABS INC. He has over 18 years of industrial experience. Dr. Khankari holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Carlson School of Management. Additionally, he has 2 Masters and a Bachelors degree in Pharmacy. Dr. Khankari has authored several publications and has 15 patents in his name.

Gary Kobinger obtained his Ph.D. with honours from the University of Montreal in 1998 before completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. In March 2005, Gary was recruited by the National Microbiology Laboratory where he is heading the Vector Design and Immunotherapy Unit of the Special Pathogens program and has an appointment of adjunct professor at the University of Manitoba. Gary was granted several awards including the most promising young Canadian investigator. He currently holds funding from several agencies and has been elected by the World Health Organization to co-chair the international outbreak response and the human/animal interface working groups.

David Land has over nine years’ biotech experience in the pharmaceutical, food ingredient, dietary supplement and animal health industries as President, CEO of Medisyn Technologies. He has also worked in various senior executive level positions for over 25 years, with diverse experience in general management, business development, marketing, customer care, IT and operations. David Land’s biotech experience includes research and license collaborations with top tier pharmaceutical, food ingredient and animal health companies for functional design and discovery of bioactive compounds. Before joining Medisyn, Mr. Land was Vice President with Jostens, Inc. and held executive roles with Lenox, Inc.

Wayne Lautt received his early training (BSc) in physiology from the University of Alberta, MSc and PhD in Pharmacology and Therapeutics from U of Manitoba, a post doc in Toxicology from U of Montreal. He held the first Canadian Liver Foundation scholarship as faculty in the U of Saskatchewan where he rose to professor prior to being recruited to U of Manitoba in 1984. He served as department head (1989-94). He received the prestigious Michael Smith award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, awards from the Canadian Physiological and the Pharmacological societies and from the Portuguese diabetes association. In 2000 he cofounded DiaMedica Inc based on discovery of a new paradigm to explain insulin resistance in diabetes and has developed a therapeutic and preventative for insulin resistance, obesity, syndrome X, and type 2 diabetes. He serves as consultant to DiaMedica.

Jorge Leon is a well known expert and pioneer in the field of development and commercialization of clinical molecular diagnostics.  Dr. Leon has a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from NYU and completed his post doctoral studies at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany and Columbia University in NYC.  Dr Leon’s post doctoral and subsequent academic work at Columbia focused on the early development of monoclonal antibody based tumor marker assays, circulating tumor cell detection and radio-immuno imaging devices, today in the market. Dr Leon transitioned into industry in 1990 and played an integral role in the founding and growth of the molecular diagnostics laboratories at Quest Diagnostics Incorporated.  As director of molecular diagnostics, senior director of Biotechnology development and Vice president of Applied Genomics Dr. Leon spent twelve years helping build the menu and driving the molecular diagnostics strategy at Quest which is today the largest molecular diagnostics service laboratory in the world with over 1.2 billion in revenues. In 2003 Dr. Leon founded Leomics Associates, Inc. a consulting firm that is engaged in an aggressive agenda to help catalyze the development of molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine (pharmacogenomics) in the US and globally. 

Betsy Lulfs is the Director of the Office of Science and Technology newly created in 2008 by the Legislature. She is leading efforts to create synergies between government, industry and academia and bring federal funding opportunities to Minnesota and link small to larger companies for technology transfer and commercialization.  She worked in Ohio's SBIR Program in the early 90s, initiated the City of Toledo's grant program, coordinated all levels of proposal development/submission at a private college, served as community liaison/grant writer for a non-profit cancer center and held a marketing position for a home care and hospice organization.

Shawn Lyndon is founder, Chief Executive Officer and President. Most recently, Mr. Lyndon led the due diligence effort for the University of Minnesota from July 2006 until March 2007 that culminated in the spinout of Orasi Medical. From March 2000 until January 2006, Mr. Lyndon held several key roles with ePredix Holdings, Inc., including Chief Technology Officer and CEO, successfully growing the company from a start-up to a leading provider of online psychological assessments in the United States. As CEO, Mr. Lyndon led the sale of ePredix to Previsor (formerly Qwiz) in August 2005. Prior to joining ePredix, Mr. Lyndon worked for Sun Microsystems and Oracle Corporation. Mr. Lyndon holds a Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology from Griffith University, Australia and a Master's Degree in Information Technology from Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Jennifer Marrone is a Co-founder, Executive Vice President and Senior Principal Consultant in regulatory affairs with the Regulatory and Clinical Research Institute, Inc. (RCRI).  RCRI is a leading contract research organization (CRO), specializing in regulatory affairs, clinical research, quality systems, reimbursement, health outcomes research and biostatistics for medical devices, bioscience and combination products.  She has 30 years experience in the medical product industry and interacting with regulatory bodies (e.g., FDA and Competent Authorities).  She has held adjunct faculty positions at St. Cloud State University, Masters Program in Regulatory Affairs, St. Thomas University and North Hennepin Community College.   Jennifer has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from St. Thomas University. 

As Partner, Gerry McDougall serves the top 50 Academic Medical Centers, major research universities and health systems, biotech organizations and pharmaceutical and device companies. He is responsible for leadership of the broad range of basic, translational and clinical research strategic and business planning and is a lead spokesperson on PwC’s personalized medicine initiative and has worked on the development of large-scale research centers of excellence and consortia globally. Gerry co-authored the firm’s recent Diagnostics 2009 report: Moving Towards Personalized Medicine, the first edition of an annual review of deal activity in the in vitro diagnostics sector.

Mac McKeen has over 20 years of experience in the medical device industry in a variety of roles and is currently the Director of Regulatory Management for the St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division.  In this role Mac and his team are responsible for worldwide regulatory approvals and regulatory compliance activities.  Previous to joining SJM Mac held a variety of leadership positions at Cardiac Science, Medtronic, and Guidant.  Mac is active in a wide range of industry associations and is currently co-chair of the LifeScience Alley Regulatory SIG and the Government Committee as well as serving on a variety of AdvaMed committees, and frequent presenter at industry conferences. Mac also is instructing a course at the University of Minnesota on Regulatory Compliance.

Steve Mertens is currently Sr. Vice President of Research and Development for Boston Scientific.  Steve has been with Boston Scientific for the last eighteen years in a variety of positions including research and development, quality and manufacturing.  Before joining Boston Scientific, Steve was in the electronics industry working in both research and manufacturing.  Steve’s current responsibilities are the technical and people management of the global R&D organization for the Cardiology division.  Steve has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.B.A. from the University of St.  Thomas.  Steve has served on the board of directors for LifeScience Alley for the last couple of years and is currently Chair.  Boston Scientific is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices whose products are used in a broad range of interventional medical specialties.

Carla Monacelli is a Managing Partner for Argenta Reimbursement and Argenta TEC. She has worked in the field of reimbursement, healthcare policy, and government relations for nearly 20 years. In addition to her role at Argenta Advisors, Carla is currently a co-lead instructor for the Health Policy and the Medical Technology Industry course for the Master of Science and Regulatory Affairs and Services at St. Cloud State University. She is also the current chair of Life Science Alley’s Reimbursement Special Interest Group and a member of the Women’s Health Leadership Trust. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Minnesota.

Eddie Moradian is a founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Morwell Holding AG group of companies. This group includes the MD Biosciences companies in Switzerland, Scotland, Israel and the US as well as MD Doctors Direct GmbH, a Swiss distributor of clinical diagnostic products. In 1987, Dr Moradian established Biotech Consultants, with activity in spin-off and start-up consulting and member of the Swiss Venture Capital Association. In 1991, he established Morwell Diagnostics GmbH, an international distributor and manufacturer of clinical diagnostic products followed by the MD Bioscience companies since 1998.

Lee Anne Murphy serves as a first point of contact for groups and individuals seeking to connect with Manitoba’s vibrant functional food and nutraceutical network, MAHRN. A graduate of the University of Manitoba, Lee Anne combines a solid technical background with “one the job” credentials gained in public and private companies. Prior to joining MAHRN, Lee Anne provided strategic communications counsel to public, private, not-for-profit association and government clients. In addition to raising two sons, the Murphy’s operate a small farm in Fort Whyte, Manitoba, where they keep busy with small plot research; growing the world’s best garlic and involuntarily feeding thousands of Canada Geese during their fall migration.

Dr. Murtaugh received a PhD in entomology from Ohio State University in 1980, then spent 5 years at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston as a postdoctoral fellow in cell and molecular biology. In 1997-98 he studied gene therapy vectors at the Institute for Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria. Since 1985 he has directed at the University of Minnesota a research program in molecular mechanisms of disease resistance, primarily in swine, and a biotechnology education workshop for students and professionals. He is an expert in porcine immunology, and the interaction with pigs of two significant viruses, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus and porcine circovirus.

David Peterson, a native of Minnesota with 25 years of bioscience business experience, started his career out of an interest and passion for renewable materials.  David was elected CEO of NaturNorth Technologies, LLC in 2000.  NaturNorth made bioactive cGMP compounds with large-scale international production capabilities using patented technology.  NaturNorth built a novel pellet production facility, developed a sample library of over 1,000 new bioactive compounds and had sales into agricultural and pharmaceutical markets.  In April of 2008, NaturNorth was sold to a pharmaceutical company that it was supplying cGMP-grade product. David holds a B.S. in Engineering and an M.B.A. David now serves as President at Cedar Rock Consulting, LLC.

Sabrina Peterson, PhD, RD, received a BS in dietetics from Brigham Young University in 1995 and is a registered dietitian. In 2005, she received a certificate in public health genetics from the University of Washington in Seattle and a PhD from the University of Washington in nutritional science. Dr. Peterson is presently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota.  Her research interests are the effects of bioactive food compounds on carcinogen metabolizing enzymes. She is also interested in how genetic variation may alter response to bioactive food compounds (nutrigenomics). 

Jim Pomonis is the Director of Technical Development at Algos Preclinical Services (formerly Algos Therapeutics) in St. Paul, where his responsibilities include management, development, and expansion of the scientific portfolio/offerings of the company.  Dr. Pomonis has over 12 years of experience in basic, applied, and clinical research in pain management, covering the pharmaceutical and medical device fields.  He served as Senior Research Investigator/Program Manager at Purdue Pharma in Cranbury, NJ and as Director of Clinical Programs at Empi, Inc., in Shoreview, MN.  Dr. Pomonis received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota.

Andrew Potter is a graduate of Carleton University (Canada) and the University of Otago (New Zealand) and has worked at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, University of Saskatchewan, for the past 25 years serving as a research scientist, Associate Director (Research) and more recently, Director. He is also the CEO of the Pan Provincial Vaccine Enterprise (PREVENT). His primary research interests are in the areas of the pathogenesis of bacterial respiratory diseases and the development of vaccines for zoonotic diseases.

Thomas Reeves joined Interface Biologics in November of 2008 as President and Chief Executive Officer. Tom brings a wealth of experience in running different companies in a variety of industries through various stages of growth. Most recently, he was President and COO of OccuLogix, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCCX) a medical device company focused on age related eye disease where he was instrumental in their 2004 IPO which raised over $100 million. Prior to OccuLogix, Mr. Reeves was the President of Borderfree, an international e-commerce service provider which was sold to Canada Post in 2004. Previously, Mr. Reeves spent 12 years in the wholesale computer products industry in various senior positions including President of Merisel Canada and Managing Director of Merisel Europe.  Mr. Reeves started his career with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in San Francisco. He holds a BA in Economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard University and an MA in International Relations from the Australian National University.

Curtis Rempel has a BSc and MSc from University of Manitoba and PhD and MBA from University of Guelph. Curtis worked as a research scientist for Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, with Monsanto Corp. in various roles including science, finance, marketing and business strategy & development, and for Meyers Norris & Penny – focusing on commodity marketing, renewable energy, intellectual property protection and enterprise software applications. Curtis is currently an Adjunct Professor and Research & Development Manager, Richardson Centre for Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals, at the University of Manitoba. Curtis also has a farming enterprise in Southern Manitoba. His current research interests include “green” extraction technology, characterization of anti-inflammatory bioactives from pulse crops, berry pomice, cereals, dairy whey, and boreal medicinal plants and food, beverage, and nutraceutical product formulation using these bioactives.

Kenneth Riff, MD, FACP is Vice President of Strategy and Patient Data Management.  He is responsible for facilitating CRDM/s business strategy and strategic planning. He is also responsible for managing and utilizing the extensive data in the CareLink database. Having joined Medtronic is 1988, Riff has managed a variety of research and venture organizations. He was instrumental in the conception and development of the Patient Management Business from 2000 – 2005.  Prior to joining Medtronic, Riff practice hospital-based internal medicine in Denver, CO. He received his BS in Physics from the University of Michigan in 1973, an MD from the University of California at San Francisco in 1977, and a MS in Electrical Engineering for the University of Colorado in 1988.  He holds eleven patents in the field of implantable medical devices.

Bruce Ringrose leads ClimateCHECK’s management of solutions development, commercial partnership programs and client management. Bruce has established two start-up companies in Canada with a mandate of international technology partnerships. Bruce’s experience includes 9 years of private sector and 4 years of public sector in undertaking multi-stakeholder initiatives and strategically managing technology to the market. Bruce has over 13 years experience in commercializing clean technology from R&D concepts through to market entry.  His management of a $5million R&D program led to a $90M acquisition of a company operating division.  Furthermore,  Bruce was instrumental in developing 17 clean technology demonstration projects valued in excess of $85 Million and managed a portfolio of an additional 28 projects valued at $145 Million during his tenure at the Government of Canada Technology Investment fund.  These strategic investments and partnerships during 2002 – 2005 enabled the technology stakeholders to attract follow on investment and now achieving global market deployment.

For almost 20 years, Barb Rummel has been counseling boards of directors, executive officers and owners of public and privately held businesses in making critical business decisions involving strategic objectives, corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions. Barb has completed numerous M&A transactions involving public and privately held businesses, ranging in size from $5 million to over $1 billion. Her experience covers various industries, with particular emphasis on the life sciences, including medical device and biotechnology companies. Barb currently serves on Lindquist & Vennum's management committee and is past chair of the firm's Life Sciences industry group.

Mathias Samuel, a principal in the Minneapolis office of Fish & Richardson, is a trial lawyer whose practice emphasizes high technology litigation. He represents clients in a variety of technologies and industries, and has particular expertise in medical devices.  He has extensive experience leading trial teams on behalf of Fortune 500 companies in significant patent infringement cases across the United States.  Mr. Samuel graduated from North Dakota State University (B.S. Electrical Engineering, Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu) and earned his law degree from the University of San Diego School of Law J.D.

Jeff Saunders is a Partner in Dorsey's Corporate and Healthcare Innovations Groups, focusing on advising high growth companies in the life sciences, health care and information technology industries. He has a strong background in technology transactions,securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance. He regularly represents companies and venture capital and private equity funds in capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, technology development and licensing agreements, and corporate governance matters.

Stephen Schaefer is a Principal in the intellectual property law firm of Fish & Richardson.  His practice focuses on the medical device industry, where his electrical engineering and physiology backgrounds are put to work for large and small technology companies and the venture funding community.  His expertise includes patent portfolio strategy and development; licensing; patent landscape and freedom to operate studies; due diligence in connection with acquisitions and investments; and managing patent infringement litigation.  Mr. Schaefer holds bachelor and masters degrees in electrical engineering and engineering management, and graduated cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Richard Schifreen, PhD, is currently president and CEO of Platypus Technologies, LLC in Madison, WI. Prior to that he managed the research products business for Mirus Bio Corporation. He specialized in new business and product development for emerging technologies in cell biology and molecular diagnostics at Promega, Life Technologies and the Du Pont Company. Dr. Schifreen is a founding faculty member in the Masters of Science in Biotechnology Program at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He earned his doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Georgia and is a Diplomate Emeritus of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry.

After 7 years of trading securities in the financial markets, Ottar shifted his focus to medical research and development in 2003.  He then joined The Integra Group to develop the firm’s marketing infrastructure and has been charged with building resources devoted towards developing new technologies—the Aurora Fund. With his experience in the financial markets as a foundation for commercialization, Ottar complements his creativity in marketing, communications, and brand development. He holds an MBA from the University of St. Thomas - Graduate School of Business and an undergraduate degree from Augsburg College.

James Sieben began his professional career at 3M which sparked his interest in product development and innovation. He then took an opportunity to work for IXI Corp. where his accomplishments led to a patent. James accepted the position as VP/GM for Nova Tech Engineering (NTE) in 1995. Since then, one of their products progressed from startup to more than 90% market share in US, Canada and Europe. In 2005, James had the vision of what MinnWest Technology Campus could be. He led all negotiations for the Campus purchase by working directly with the local EDC, City, County, and State. Along with his duties at NTE Sieben is the President of MinnWest Technology Campus and MinnWest Foundation, and Owner of Sieben Enterprises. James also serves on the board for the Willmar Chamber, LifeScience Alley, Feed Logic Corp and is a committee member for Grow Minnesota.

Paul Sommers co-founded – with Jay Cohn, MD – the Rasmussen Center, which has screened over 2,000 patients, documenting the earliest known evidence of cardiovascular disease among asymptomatic women and men. Cohn Prevention Centers (CPC), LLC, is establishing a patent-pending protocol for the earliest identification of cardiovascular disease with prototype operations in Minnesota, Florida and Louisiana. Previously, Sommers led establishment of the Wisconsin Heart Institute at Gundersen Clinic/LaCrosse Lutheran Hospital (WI) and was honored for founding a Patient Satisfaction System now commercialized and doing business as “Truth Point.” He has a PhD in Educational Psychology & Management from Southern Illinois University.

Chad, a partner in Lindquist & Vennum’s Mergers and Acquisitions group, counsels clients on corporate and securities matters, with an emphasis on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures, securities disclosure and compliance, corporate governance, and corporate finance. He regularly represents private and public companies, private equity funds, and venture capital funds. He has closed numerous transactions in a number of industries, including the retail, medical-device, biotech, technology, insurance, insurance-brokerage, healthcare, food-products, data-processing, consumer-goods, recycled-products, manufacturing, plastics, printing and graphics, and media industries.  Chad volunteers with a number of organizations in the Twin Cities community, including the Advocates for Human Rights and the Plymouth Youth Center.

Ryan Stewart joined TripleTree in mid-2009 as a Senior Principal, bringing more than 15 years of extensive banking and operational experience to the firm's Healthcare practice. Previously, Ryan was a senior healthcare services banker with Lazard, with lead responsibility for the firm’s healthcare technology and care management practice. Prior to Lazard, Ryan was a corporate strategy executive at UnitedHealth Group; Managing Director and Senior Healthcare Equity Research Analyst at Piper Jaffray; and Founder/CEO of a venture-backed HCIT company and healthcare strategy and operations consultant with Arthur Andersen. Ryan began his career in Business Development with Horizon BlueCross BlueShield of New Jersey.Ryan has a B.A. in Government & Law from Lafayette College in Easton, PA.

As CEO for Segetis, Jim Stoppert’s primary role is to build a world-class organization while rapidly commercializing Segetis’ renewable chemical technology.  He has been a leader in building biobased businesses, three of which won the Presidential Green Chemistry Award. Before Segetis, Jim led Cargill’s Industrial BioProducts Business which generated two standalone businesses: Elevance and BiOH.  As president and CEO of Cargill Dow LLC, Jim led commercialization of a plastic made entirely from renewable resources. Jim serves as a commercial advisor for several bio-based business start ups and is a board member for the BIO industry organization. 

Katherine Swanson is Vice President of Food Safety at Ecolab, Inc. the leading provider of cleaning, food safety and infection prevention products and services. In her current position, Dr. Swanson identifies emerging food safety trends and new control strategies.  Dr. Swanson received her Bachelor of Science degree in Dietetics from the University of Delaware, and her Master of Science and Ph.D. in Food Science from the University of Minnesota.  She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the 2003 NFPA Food Safety Award and the 2008 National Center for Food Safety & Technology Food Safety Award.

For the past ten years, Bob Thompson has directed the Reimbursement, Economics and Health Policy Department in the CRDM Division of Medtronic.  It is the third reimbursement function he has helped to establish while at the company.  The goal of the department is to support Technology Assessment organizations and third party payers worldwide, through strategic reimbursement planning, clinical and cost effectiveness research. Bob’s background includes a Masters of  Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina, a Masters of Public Administration, experience in government and eighteen years of device industry experience in reimbursement.

Robert L. Thompson is a corporate lawyer and head of the life sciences group at the Minneapolis-based law firm, Lindquist & Vennum PLLP.  Prior to joining Lindquist & Vennum in 2006 he worked in life sciences industries for more than 30 years as a lawyer and as a business executive with Novartis in Minneapolis, New York, Boston, and Mumbai, India.  He holds law degrees from New York University (LL.M.) and the University of Oregon (J.D.) and a B.A. from Macalester College.  He is licensed to practice law in Minnesota and New York.

Fredrik Tolin studied chemical engineering at the University of Kentucky, and completed his medical degree at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine. He started his residency in surgery at Louisiana State University School of Medicine, finishing at the University of Chicago. Dr Tolin was in private practice of surgery in the Chicago suburbs, where he concentrated on the management of breast cancer and advanced laparoscopic surgery, prior to a career change to administrative medicine. Currently, Dr. Tolin is the Medical Director for Humana’s Chicago Commercial Market, and is also involved with policy development and implementation.  He has maintained his clinical appointment at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the Department of Surgery.

Scott Tongen is the medical director for Clinical Documentation, Quality and Care Optimization at United Hospital, in St. Paul.  He earned his medical degree from the University of Minnesota and is Board Certified in Family Medicine.  He has worked as a hospitalist at United Hospital since 1991 in one of the country’s first hospitalist programs.  He served from 1994 to 2002 on the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice and found a passion for quality.  With a background in computer programming he was the physician champion for Allina’s implementation of the Epic EMR at United Hospital in 2007.

Mark Walinske is the CEO of BoundaryMedical, Inc.  Mark has over 25 years of technology business experience ranging from Fortune 100 to start-ups across eight vertical markets. His expertise includes knowledge of many automation technology platforms, global business and acquisitions/divestitures. He was recently President/Principal of Andcor and co-founder of a venture group. He has held various senior-level operating positions at Advantek, CyberOptics, ScoreCast, Emerson Electric (Rosemount), Rockwell Automation and Diversified Energies. He has also been a private consultant and director at various start-ups. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University (1984).

Fiona Wilmot, MD, MPH is a Medical Director for Argenta TEC, a subsidiary of Argenta Advisors.  In her role at Argenta she advises in matters of health coverage, reimbursement and marketing strategy for the life science industry.  Prior to joining Argenta, Dr. Wilmot ran the Glas Group, a healthcare consulting firm whose clients included Biotech companies, Technology Assessment bodies, and University based organizations.  She also recently served as the Medical Director of Policy, Pharmacy and Therapeutics for Blue Shield of California using Evidence Based Medicine to develop medical and medication policies for 2.7 million covered lives.  Additionally, Dr. Wilmot has held positions at Aetna, a Northern California IPA, and has worked clinically as a Hospitalist as well as in the outpatient setting. Dr. Wilmot graduated from Stanford University with distinction in English Literature and proceeded to earn her medical degree from the Boston University School of Medicine.  She received an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine.

Luca Zullo holds a Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Padua, Italy and a Ph.D. also in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London, United Kingdom. He worked at Shell Research in The Netherlands as a Research Engineer. He joined Cray Research in Minneapolis, Minnesotato lead the effort to apply high performance computing applications to the petrochemical and oil refining industry.There among the others, he led a project aiming to integrate large scale process simulation with 3D visualization to provide a fully dynamic and immersive simulation environment for training, design and process improvement. This project was a finalist for the Smithsonian-Computerworld award for innovation in Computing. After joining Cargill, he focused on biofuels and bio-energy in plant operations with an emphasis on “waste” to energy and second generation biofuels. He led the technical effort of a group that developed domestically and internationally methane capture projects in agricultural operations to harvest renewable energy and carbon credits. He is the principal of VerdeNero LLC, a green energy consulting firm, co-founder of BioCee, Inc.a firm devoted to commercialize a novel bio-coating technology developed at the University of Minnesota and Chief TechnologyOfficer of JetE, a renewablejet fuel company. He’s an appointed member to the Minnesota’s Governor PawlentyClean Energy Technology Collaborative.