Speaker Bios

Dr. Michael Browning, President/CEO of PhosphoSolutions

www.phosphosolutions.com

Michael Browning, Ph.D. was born in Dallas, Texas and attended the University of Texas where he received a bachelor's degree in English Literature. He then spent 5 years trying to become a filmmaker in Los Angeles and he sold shoes to pay his bills. He became very interested in how the brain processed visual images and abandoned filmmaking to start graduate school in Neurobiology in 1974. He received a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the University of California at Irvine in 1979. He subsequently did a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale and Rockefeller University from 1980 to 1986 with Dr. Paul Greengard who won the Nobel Prize in 2002. Dr. Browning has a wife and two boys aged 11 and 14.

Dr. Browning is also President of PhosphoSolutions, LLC. PhosphoSolutions makes and sells phosphoprotein antibodies, the nanoscale research tools used in the study of phosphoproteins. These antibodies greatly accelerate drug discovery in cancer and in neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Browning is internationally known for his studies of protein phosphorylation and memory. In addition to his research and development work with PhosphoSolutions, Dr. Browning is also a professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center where he studies the biological bases of memory and how these processes are altered by aging and also by alcohol.

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Dr. Richard Duke, Scientific Founder of GlobeImmune, Inc.

http://www.globeimmune.com/index.php

Dr. Duke is an expert on the mechanism of apoptotic cell death and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-mediated killing. Dr. Duke has published more than 60 publications on apoptosis, cytotoxic T-cell biology and basic immunology. He was the past President and CEO of GlobeImmune and its predecessor, Ceres Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. Dr. Duke remains engaged in the research and development process for the company's products. Dr. Duke is a tenured faculty member of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC) where he is Associate Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and Immunology.

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Russell Farmer, CEO/CFO of ADA Technologies

http://www.adatech.com/

Russ not only serves as ADA's CEO and CFO, but he also leads his own consulting firm, PBC, Inc. His client services include coaching/mentoring client CEOs and senior management, facilitation of strategic/tactical planning process (1st STOPP™) exercises, CFO services, and other senior management functions. Russ has been very involved in the SBIR program for many years and has been an invited speaker for National SBIR Conferences since 2000. To further promote the SBIR program in Colorado, Russ recently formed a new venture called SBIR Colorado. He has been the recipient of the Broomfield Chamber of Commerce Youth and Fitness Award in 1989 and the President's Award for Excellence from an Inc. 500 client in 1994.

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Jill Farnham, Executive Director of Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority

http://www.colobio.com/introduction.html

Colorado's $4.3 billion "square mile of life sciences" has become the launch pad, hub and focus for the biotechnology industry in the Rocky Mountain Region. The Colorado Bioscience Park Aurora is the first university affiliated "biopark" to be developed west of the Mississippi. It is adjacent to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and Hospital Complex, The Children's Hospital, and the Fitzsimons Commons town center. Together, these developments form a stimulating and interactive scientific entrepreneurial community.

The Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority (FRA) is a special-purpose governmental entity created in 1996 under an intergovernmental agreement between the City of Aurora and the University of Colorado Regents.

The FRA leads the planning, implementation and redevelopment effort of the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center into a square mile dedicated to learning, patient care, basic science and bioscience research and development in a manner that maximizes the long-term economic benefits to the Aurora community and the State of Colorado. The FRA also is both the master developer and manager of the 160-acre research park component at Fitzsimons, known as the Colorado Bioscience Park Aurora.

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Duane Knight, Head of Life Sciences Practice of Trinity Capital Services, LLC

http://www.tricapllc.com/bios.html

An expert in financial management with more than 20 years of experience, Duane heads Trinity Capital Services' life sciences practice. He concentrates on financial strategy alternatives, management issues related to growth, and private equity placements, drawing upon extensive work in raising capital, recapitalizations, mergers and acquisitions, and due diligence.

Before joining Trinity Capital Services, Duane served as chief financial officer for Denver Biomedical, Inc., leading the company through an exit provision for a venture capital partner; recapitalization with a private equity partner, refinance of debt to provide shareholder dividend payment; and sale of the company.

As owner of D.C. Knight & Company, Inc. (Denver), Duane provided accounting, audit, forensic investigation, litigation support, and business advisory services for clients. In the Denver metro area, he also has held the positions of treasurer and vice president of finance for Mallon Resources Corporation, accounting manager for both Snyder Oil Corporation and Walker Associates, and audit manager for Hein + Associates, LLP, and Taake and Wieland.

Duane holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Colorado, and Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Colorado State University. He is a member of the Colorado Society of Certified Public Accountants, American College of Forensic Examiners, Association for Corporate Growth, and Financial Executives Institute.

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Dr. Arlen Meyers, Professor of University of Colorado

Arlen D Meyers, MD, MBA, is Professor of Otolaryngology, Dentistry and Engineering at the University of Colorado Denver. He is the faculty advisor of the University of Colorado Denver Alternatives in Science Club.

Dr. Meyers was a cofounder of a biophotonics spin out company and is a consultant to several medical device and biotechnology companies. His research and commerical interests are in the optical detection of cancer and human papilloma virus.

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Stephen Miller, Executive Director of CTEK Stapleton

http://www.ctek.biz/

Stephen Miller is the Executive Director of Denver Ventures at Stapleton (CTEK Stapleton), a business incubator for early stage technology companies. CTEK Stapleton provides advisory services, connections to capital, and other critical support to entrepreneurs and their companies to ensure rapid growth and future success. Stephen also holds a board position for the Colorado Business Incubator Association.

His personal entrepreneurial efforts include RE/Econ Consulting, an economic analysis and development consulting firm with clients such as the City of Lone Tree, Newland Communities, Forest City Enterprises, and HealthOne Sky Ridge Medical Center.

Prior to forming RE/Econ, he was Vice President and Chief Economist of the Southeast Business Partnership, where he led economic development efforts for the south metro Denver region, representing clients including First Data Corporation, Echostar, CH2M Hill, Aspen Bio, Stryker Endoscopy, Time Warner Telecom, Charles Schwab, and Nordstrom.

Stephen has also served as an economist for the Colorado Department of Labor, where he created the Job Vacancy Survey, for which he was recognized by the Denver Business Journal as one of Denver's Forty Under 40 business leaders in 2000. Miller earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Denver, and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Colorado. He lives in the Stapleton community and spends most of his time outdoors skiing, windsurfing, diving, playing (but not always enjoying) golf, and collecting wine (he always enjoys the wine) when he's not off searching for the next great technology entrepreneur.

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Dan Mitchell, Founding Partner of Sequel Venture Partners

http://www.sequelvc.com/

Dan J. Mitchell, Partner, Sequel Venture Partners co-founded Capital Health Venture Partners in 1985, a health care focused venture capital firm based in Chicago and Denver. As a Partner with Capital Health, Mitchell focused primarily on early-stage investments across healthcare. Mitchell's investment career began in 1981 at First National Bank of Chicago. In 1983 he joined the Bank's Institutional Venture Capital Fund where he invested in numerous industry segments including computer hardware and software, networking products, semiconductor equipment and specialty chemicals. Mitchell has served on the board of directors of numerous public and private companies and is currently a director of CardioOptics, Inc.; GlobeImmune, Inc.; Myogen, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYOG); and Replidyne, Inc. Mitchell majored in finance and accounting at the University of Illinois and received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1979. He received an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business at the University of California, Berkley in 1981.

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Robin Phelps, COO of CTEK

http://www.ctek.biz/

Robin Phelps is a consummate technology entrepreneur who succeeds through a combination of energy, creative intelligence and drive. She thrives on taking an entrepreneurial business from idea to vision to launch - developing the strategy, the team, the business model and the capital sources.

After getting her undergraduate degree in Math/Computer Science from Pepperdine University Robin started her professional career as an application engineer but was quickly bored with sitting in a cubicle all day. She moved into sales and excelled as a creative, performance-driven, new business development executive at Force Computers, Wind River Systems, and other emerging growth companies.

In August of 1999 she decided she was ready for a new challenge so Robin along with her "Thelma and Louise" friend and business partner Kirstie co-founded DigitalOwl, a venture-backed software company. Through the efforts of a great team of employees and the help of a true "angel" investor, the company raised a total of $13.1M (most of which came in December after the tech bust of 2000), developed a top-tier list of customers and partners, and became a recognized player in the digital rights management market. Nearly four years later and after struggling to recover from the business fall-out of September 11th, Robin and her business partner chose to proactively close the business and return money to the investors.

Most recently, Robin completed her M.S. in Management from the University of Denver Daniels College of Business where she did her Masters Thesis on the technology transfer landscape and models. She joined CTEK in 2006 to define, build and lead our CTEK Technology Transfer initiative. In addition, she has a key role in the development of our entrepreneurship education degree, certificate and workshop programs.

In addition to her work at CTEK, Robin enjoys IP (In-Person) social networking, driving the mountain roads in her sienna red convertible, challenging herself to run half marathons, and all the advantages of living at 9,000' in the mountains of Colorado. She dreams of one day competing on the Senior Women's Professional Golf tour and of making a significant difference in her community.

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David Poticha, Licensing Associate of Univ. of Colorado Tech Transfer Office

https://www.cusys.edu/techtransfer/

David Poticha, most recently a patent attorney at Myogen (a CU start-up company located in Westminster), became a licensing associate in TTO's health sciences team in March 2006. In this role David focuses on evaluating invention disclosures, protection and licensing of intellectual property developed by health sciences researchers at the University of Colorado, as well new business creation and commercializing that intellectual property.

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Courtney Price, President and CEO of VentureQuest

http://www.venturequestltd.com/

As an entrepreneur for the past 30 years, Courtney Price founded VentureQuest, utilizing her background and experience to lead and direct high-growth organizations toward new and higher revenue streams. To do this, she helps them capitalize on developing people, market opportunities, and commercializing technology. The firm works with high growth companies, federal laboratories, and universities world-wide to better commercialize and extract value from their innovation to produce bottom line impact.

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Dr. Sarah Richardson-Burns, Founder of Biotectix

http://www.biotectix.com/

Biotectix is a University of Michigan spin-out company created in partnership with the founders, the University and Allied Minds, Inc. Allied Minds is a pre-seed investment company creating partnerships with key Universities to fund corporate spin-offs resulting from successful early stage technology research.

Biotectix, LLC will develop and commercialize novel soft, bioactive conductive polymer electrodes and coatings for electrodes specifically tailored to enhance a wide variety of medical devices. This technology will represent a significant gain in terms of biocompatibility and improved electrical performance, resulting in reduced scarring and inflammation, improved biomechanical integration, and extended battery life, among others.

Our patent-pending technology will be marketed to leading medical device manufacturers worldwide.

Biotectix's technology is being developed by Dr. David Martin and Dr. Sarah Richardson-Burns as well as Jeffrey Hendricks from the University of Michigan.

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Dr. Robin Shandas, Professor of University of Colorado

www.colorado.edu/~shandas/" target="_blank">http://me-www.colorado.edu/~shandas/

Dr. Shandas received his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, in 1993. After a post-doctoral fellowship at CalTech, he joined the UCHSC faculty in pediatric cardiology, and now holds a joint appointment between Pediatrics at UC Denver and Mechanical Engineering at UC Boulder. He directs an NIH T32 graduate training program in cardiovascular bioengineering, and is currently leading efforts to develop a formal bioengineering program at the University of Colorado. He has over 90 peer-reviewed scientific papers and over 100 other peer-reviewed publications in cardiovascular bioengineering, and has started up 4 companies, including EndoShape Inc., and Illumasonix LLC. Dr. Robin Shandas, faculty entrepreneur, was the winner of TTO's 2006 Inventor of the Year award.

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Robert Tofe, Founder/Owner of Snoasis Medical, Inc.

http://thunder1.cudenver.edu/bard/incubator.htm

Snoasis was created to commercialize a new class of soft tissue substitutes for use in mucogingival surgery. In this market, the primary indications for use are treating gingival recession and increasing root coverage around a tooth. These dental procedures are aimed at addressing esthetic concerns, hypersensitivity and root caries.

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John Wahl of Greenberg Traurig, LLC

http://www.gtlaw.com/home.aspx

John Wahl is a registered patent attorney with over 20 years experience in patent, trademark and trade secret law, including related prosecution, opinion and licensing matters, litigation support and specializing in strategic client counseling. His technical expertise includes electrical, mechanical, biotech instrumentation, computers and computer peripherals, electronic circuits, lasers, chemical processing, and software technologies. He also has extensive prior engineering expertise in both naval and commercial nuclear power plant design and operation.

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