Speaker Bios

Dr. Hector Alila, President & Founder of Esperance Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Alila, a graduate of Cornell University, is a biopharmaceutical industry veteran. He brings over 20 years of management, drug development and research experience in 'big pharma' and biotech industry to Esperance. He served as Senior Vice President of Drug Development at Protalex, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company based in Pennsylvania, where he led the development of a drug currently in clinical trials for treatment of autoimmune diseases. He was Vice President of Product Development at Cell Pathways, Inc, (later acquired by OSI Pharmaceuticals) based in Pennsylvania, a cancer drug discovery and development company, where he was responsible for the development of two new cancer drugs. Prior to that he was the Director of Biology/pharmacology at GeneMedicine, Inc., (merged with Megabios to become Valentis Inc, in Burlingame, California) a Gene Therapy company in The Woodlands, Texas, where he led the research and development of gene medicines to treat cancer, inflammation, cardiovascular diseases and spinal cord injury. He also held several research, development and management positions at SmithKline (now GlaxoSmithKline) in Pennsylvania. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in physiology and endocrinology (with a minor in immunology) and was also a Senior Research Fellow at Cornell. Dr. Alila has published several scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and holds several patents.

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Mr. Thomas Anderson, Interim Executive Director & Director of Development of Stephenson Disaster Management Institute

http://bus.lsu.edu/sdmi

Originally from New York City, Thomas was a lead volunteer and organizer for relief services (ESF-6 Mass Care) at the World Trade Center working with the Seaman's Church Institute and the New York Diocese of the Episcopal Church USA at St. Paul's Chapel (Ground Zero) after September 11th. Thomas Anderson received a special commendation from soon-to-be Mayor Michael Bloomberg on behalf of the Seaman's Church Institute for recognition of his outstanding volunteer service during the World Trade Center Emergency Relief Effort of 2001. Thomas Anderson also worked closely with the East Baton Rouge Office of Emergency Preparedness during activations for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Thomas Anderson has been a guest speaker, panelist or presenter at multiple venues including the Oracle - Sun Microsystems Technology Business Forum in New York; the International Association of Fire Chief's Fire-Rescue conference in Dallas; the Freeman Venture Capital Forum at Tulane University; LSU's Louisiana Business and Technology Center Business Boot Camp, the LSU Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute's Invention-to-Venture Seminar, among others.

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Ms. Patricia Boynton, Invention to Venture Program Associate of NCIIA

Patricia has worked for NCIIA since April 2008. She brings to the position many years of experience working for entrepreneurial companies, both technology and non-technology based. Most recently she provided marketing and sales support for MicroCal, a scientific instrumentation company based in Northampton, MA. Patricia has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

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Mr. Jon Cato of Object9

www.object9.com

Jon Cato is a founding partner of Object 9, a nationally recognized marketing, advertising, graphic design and communications firm with offices in Baton Rouge, LA and Atlanta, GA. Jon recently helped Red Stripe Beer, one of the most decorated beer brands in beverage giant Diageo's award-winning portfolio, develop a new campaign geared toward intensifying Red Stripe as the mega-brand in Jamaica. The campaign includes point-of-sale, merchandising, promotional packaging and TV, radio, outdoor and print advertising. Jon and the Object 9 team also help businesses evaluate and implement marketing and sales processes and communication tools. Jon's other clients have included the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, EATEL, Zatarain's, Pabst Brewing Company, Reily Foods and Café Bom Dia

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Dr. Jeanne Davis, Partner of Taylor Porter

http://www.taylorporter.com

Dr. Jeanne Davis began her law practice after an eighteen-year career as a university researcher and teacher in the area of environmental physiology. Dr. Davis, a registered patent attorney, has a practice both in the intellectual property and toxic tort litigation fields. In the intellectual property field, her work has been related to evaluating technology, prosecuting patent applications, negotiating and drafting licenses, and infringement litigation. She has also been involved in defending toxic tort class actions suits, particularly in the evaluation and defense of scientific expert testimony. Dr. Davis was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America®.

Dr. Davis was a full professor at San Francisco State University before moving to Louisiana in 1986, where she was an adjunct faculty member at Louisiana State University until entering LSU law school. Dr. Davis served as Executive Senior Editor of the Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif. Her published law review paper was a discussion of scientific expert testimony after Daubert. From 1995-96, she was a law clerk to the Honorable W. Eugene Davis, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

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Mr. Bryan Greenwood, Director of LSBDC Technology Center at LSU

As director of the LSBDC Technology Center at LSU an integral part of the Louisiana Business & Technology Center and the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute at LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business, Bryan Greenwood is responsible for working with clients in the areas of strategic planning, business development, technological commercialization, process analysis, financial evaluation, and modeling. He also heads preparatory work for fundraising activities and other financing engagements. In addition to having earned a degree in finance from LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business in 1989, Greenwood is a 2007 graduate of the LSU Flores MBA Program's executive track and often lectures in business classes to young entrepreneurs. Aside from his primary duties, he does an extensive amount of public speaking on behalf of the LBTC. Greenwood plays an active role in community endeavors, providing services and boosting awareness of what the LBTC can offer prospective tenants. He occasionally recruits companies to participate in case-projects, even arranging and managing training events and seminars that promote small business growth and foster the creation of new job markets. Greenwood is a member of several civic and professional committees, including the Louisiana Governor's Conference on Economic Development Planning Committee, Louisiana Purchase Venture Capital Forum, the Louisiana Business Incubation Association, the Louisiana Industrial Development Executives Association, and the Baton Rouge Chamber Small Business Council. He is a certified FastTrac facilitator and belongs to the National Business Incubator Association, the Risk Management Association, and a host of other organizations that speak to his qualifications as an employee and his dedication to commercial expansion in Baton Rouge and in surrounding areas. Before joining the staff of the LBTC, Greenwood was a commercial loan officer who specialized in small business lending and SBA Government Guaranteed loans.

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Mr. Richard Montgomery IV, General Partner of VCE Capital

http://www.vcecapital.com/

Richard Montgomery is a partner at VCE Capital Partners, LLC, a venture capital investment advisory firm with $36 million under management and offices in Shreveport and New Orleans, Louisiana and New York City. Mr. Montgomery runs the firm's New Orleans office. VCE Capital Partners is the general partner of Louisiana Ventures, L.P. and Themelios Ventures, L.P. Prior to joining VCE Partners, Mr. Montgomery was an attorney in the corporate and securities section of the New Orleans office of Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrère & Denègre, LLP. His practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, private equity and venture capital financing transactions and entity formation. He is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association.

Mr. Montgomery earned a J.D. in 1999 from the Louisiana State University of Law, graduating as a member of the Order of the Coif. In law school, he was an associate on the Louisiana Law Review. Prior to that, he earned a B.A. in History from the University of Georgia.

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Mr. Lee Pryor, Chief Executive Officer of Flying Fish Creative Services

Lee has many years of experience as a founder and Chief Executive for start up and late stage entrepreneurial companies. He began his career with Time Warner. He then moved to IBM in mainframe sales. He left to found a computer supply company that grew to 55 sales people, over 300 employees, and $48 million in sales. After selling the computer business, he ran five private and public companies. These emerging and late stage companies were in a variety of industries, including e-commerce, Internet database publishing and marketing, online on demand printing, computer supplies distribution, and technology contract manufacturing. Lee is the author of "The Savvy Entrepreneur, an Insider's Secrets to Managing for Success." He is an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business, is a business executive coach for emerging enterprises, has an entrepreneur column in BIZ News, and is a speaker on the topic of entrepreneurship at venture capital conferences, association meetings, and business schools. He is also on the Board of Directors of CaminoSoft of Los Angeles, a publicly held software company as well as the Board of the Louisiana Technology Council, where he is Director of the LTC Recovery/Incubator Center which is funded by the Louisiana Economic Development Commission.

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Mr. Jarett Rodriguez, Associate Director of Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute

email:jtr@lsu.edu  -  http://bus.lsu.edu/sei

Jarett Rodriguez earned an Executive MBA through the LSU Flores MBA Program. He also holds a Master of Education in Physiology from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. His undergraduate degree, which he received from Louisiana Tech, is in Business Management and Entrepreneurship.

Currently, Rodriguez is employed as the Associate Director for the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute at LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business. Rodriguez serves as a liaison between the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute & the Louisiana Business & Technology Center, bridging the research side with the hands-on side of business education. Additionally, Rodriguez is in charge of special projects and teaches innovation and franchising classes at LSU through the Ruck's Department of Management. He has also taught in the College of Nursing at Southeastern Louisiana University and the College of Education at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Rodriguez has personally founded or co-founded numerous companies ranging from a franchise health club to a construction company to an IT consulting firm to a furniture manufacturing company. He serves on the host committee for the Louisiana Purchase Venture Capital Forum and the Board of Directors for the LSU's MBA Alumni Association.

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Mr. Todd Zirkle, Vice President of Business Services of Campus Federal

Todd is the Vice President Business Services of Campus Federal Credit Union in Baton Rouge. He is responsible for building Business/Commercial Services division for the Credit Union from the ground up, including, but not limited to Business Deposit Products, Merchant Services, and Business/Commercial Lending.

Previously, Todd was the Executive Vice President / Chief Operating Officer of Dow Louisiana Federal Credit Union. He also was the Vice President / Chief Financial Officer of Keypoint Federal Credit Union.

Todd earned his MBA and BS in Finance from Louisiana State University.

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