Burton Ahrens, is President and CEO of The Edgehill Corporation, a venture capital company focused on early stage biotech, drug delivery, healthcare, and systems biology, that works with it client portfolio in strategic and financial planning. Mr. Ahrens is a director and/or strategic consultant to United Premier Medical Group, a company with a joint venture with Johns Hopkins establishing women's hospitals in China; Tyrx, a company that has licensed from Rutgers and developed a polymer from natural resources that is resorbable and has a joint venture with Boston Scientific for the development of a resorbable, coated stent; Bridgetech, a company involved in technology transfer, distribution and manufacturing of healthcare products between the USA and China; and Gene Network Sciences, a company organized by two Cornell theoretical physicists that does medical research electronically and has joint ventures with Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Novartis. Mr. Ahrens has been a director of numerous public and private companies and was a founder of USIR Capital L.L.C. and Maple Leaf Energy Group, L.L.C., two hedge funds. He has a B.A. from Cornell and a J.D. from the Yale Law School, where he was an Editor of the Yale Law Journal and served on the Law School's Executive Committee. Mr. Ahrens began his legal career with Cravath, Swaine & Moore and was a founding and senior partner of Feit & Ahrens. He has been and is involved in numerous pro bono and charitable activities.
Steve Boyko, is President of Global Market Thoughtware, an international consulting company specializing in global markets and governance regimes. He has over thirty years of business, investment, and financial experience that includes emerging market development and governance, investment banking, brokerage operations, regulatory and management audits, industry seminars and publications, teaching managerial finance and entrepreneurship at the graduate level, and formulating securities regulatory policy for the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (“NASD”). Mr. Boyko was a registered managing principal (Series 24) and a financial and operational principal (Series 27). He has recently completed a five-year project to develop the Ukrainian Capital Market. Much of this work has led to the Entrepreneurial Exchange construct that creates micro-cap market value through proportionate governance and scalable sponsorship. He is conversant in French, Russian, and Ukrainian. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of Yorktown University, Public Company Management Corporation, and Banneker Asset Management.
Mark J. Carvlin, Ph.D., is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and consultant. He is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Atherochem, a development-stage company with novel biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of atherogenic coronary heart disease. Since 2000 Mark has been a Venture Partner and General Partner in Mi3 Venture Partners, a venture capital fund pursuing early-stage investments in life science technologies. In addition, he is the founder and Managing Director of Intellectual Capital Development Co, a strategic management consulting company. Dr. Carvlin has more than 10 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry having held positions in business development, clinical development, strategic management, marketing, medical services and planning and government and business affairs with Bracco Diagnostics Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Carvlin received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Roswell Park Cancer Institute. After working as a researcher in the field of cancer, Dr. Carvlin began work in the field of medical imaging. He has been a member of the faculty of the Departments of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania and at Georgetown University. His research has focused on utilizing medical imaging in conjunction with diagnostic and therapeutic pharmaceuticals to evaluate the functional status of organ systems in health and disease. He has served as the principal investigator on a number of Phase 2, Phase 3 and Phase 4 clinical trials as well as for numerous non-clinical GLP toxicology/pathology studies. He has co-authored over 125 scientific publications and is currently working on a long overdue master’s thesis entitled: A New Analytic Methodology Applied to Joyce’s Ulysses.
Anselm Leung, A professional investor for 31 years, Mr. Leung has held executive positions with Merrill Lynch, Shearson Lehman, Salomon Brothers, and Montgomery Securities both domestically and abroad. Prior to becoming a professional investor, Mr. Leung held the position of financial specialist for IBM World Trade Corporation. He is now a General Partner of BioAsia Investments, LLC, which is the adviser to Biotechnology Development Fund. Board of Directors of Chestnut Medical Technologies, (medical device), Conformis Inc. (orthopedic implant), Imaging Therapeutics, Inc. (Diagnostic Device). Biocheck Inc. (Diagnostic reagent), Bioform Inc. (Medical device). Pan Pacific Bank (community bank in California), IMEDD Inc. (drug delivery).
Jules A. Shafer, Ph.D. is the founder and President and CEO of Control Chemicals, an early stage pharmaceutical company. Dr. Shafer also serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Wistar Institute. From 1990- 2001, Dr. Shafter served as, Executive Director of Basic Research at Merck Research Laboratories. Programs under Shafer’s direction resulted in the discovery of several currently marketed drugs including the HIV protease inhibitor Crixivan®, the reverse transcriptase inhibitor Sustiva®, the anti-platelet agent Aggrastat®, the hepatitis A vaccine Vaqta, and the Haemophilus influenza B vaccine PedvaxHIB®. Research on Alzheimer’s disease under Shafer’s direction at Merck showed that the protein presenilin 1 (a protein that contains many of the mutations that can cause early onset familial Alzheimer’s disease) contains the active site of g--secretase – one of the two proteases responsible for production of the amyloid peptide that forms the amyloid plaque found in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Shafer was on the faculty of The University of Michigan Medical School as a Professor of Biological Chemistry. National Institutes of Health grants and Merit Awards continuously funded Shafer’s research spanning 26 years at the University of Michigan. Shafer’s research at The University of Michigan focused on mechanisms for the action of enzymes. While on the faculty at The University of Michigan, Shafer served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Henry Ford Hospital, The Biochemistry Study Section of NIH, The Editorial Boards of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics. In 1990 Shafer left The University of Michigan, where he now holds the honorary title of Professor Emeritus of Biological Chemistry. He holds a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the City College of New York, and a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry at the Polytechnic University, and did a Postdoctoral fellow in the Chemistry Department at Harvard University. He has authored or coauthored over 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is inventor or co-inventor on several issued U.S. patents
Thomas Stagnaro - Mr. Stagnaro is currently president and CEO of Americas Biotech Distributor (ABD). ABD is a company focused on exporting drugs and devices to Latin America. Previously Mr. Stagnaro was president & CEO of Agile Therapeutics, a private company focused on developing women's healthcare products. Mr. Stagnaro formerly was president and CEO of 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals and Univax Biologics. Mr. Stagnaro began his career with Searle Laboratories and has held increasingly important positions during his 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Stagnaro has raised over $200 million for three developmental stage companies and took Univax Biologics public in 1992. Mr. Stagnaro is a director with two public companies and he also holds three patents.
Richard Spangler, a veteran of over 20 years in technology, Mr. Spangler has worked for some of the most successful brands in the industry. He began his career at Compaq Computer Corporation as a product manager for networking products, eventually leading to a senior strategy position in corporate and business development. He was instrumental in several acquisitions that propelled Compaq into the network server markets. Mr. Spangler also helped redefine the wireless application business for IBM, serving as a primary marketing executive for the introduction of the IBM WorkPad and associated mobile software enhancements for Webshere. As the Program Director of Wireless Strategy, he worked with leading carriers to deploy early wireless applications. He also served as Worldwide Brand Manager for the Aptiva consumer product before helping develop a new program for the licensing of the IBM logo on numerous consumer products. After IBM, Mr. Spangler developed a completely unique idea in web merchandising, founded the company under the name of PlanetPortal and secured funding from Deutsche Ventures. Most recently, Mr. Spangler has consulted in various senior sales and marketing roles for successful small and medium companies in healthcare technology, wireless mobile software, and collaborative computing. Mr. Spangler holds an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina.
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