Principal Advisors

Bob Austrian
Senior level technology executive, analyst and investor with P&L, management, startup, Board, finance, software and strategy expertise spanning 25 years and the full lifecycles of companies. Unique success synthesizing corporate strategy, finance, technology, and operations to attain competitive advantage and drive enterprise value. High energy team player and innovative puzzle solver known for out-of-the-box idea generation, detailed analysis, execution and excellence in public speaking, media coverage. Recognized by The Wall Street Journal in 2001 as the #1 Software Analyst, "Best on the Street" survey.

Most recently engaged in their broad field as co-Founder and Managing Director of SBIR Ventures.  Please see www.SBIRVentures.com for more details and contact information.

Joel Balbien, CFA, Ph.D.
Joel is an accomplished and visionary executive with a proven success in managing the commercialization of CleanTech, Life Sciences, Semiconductor technologies in both Fortune 500 and Hi-Tech startup companies. His investment and management background spans more than two decades including financial and strategic planning positions of increasing responsibility at Unocal Corporation (NYSE:CVX), and Pacific Enterprises, (now Sempra Energy NYSE:SRE). He was a co-founder and Managing Member of a Los Angeles based venture capital fund, and from 2005 - 2007 served as CEO of Kreido Labs and Biofuels. Joel has served on the board of directors of several successful startups including Transilica, Sonics, Clean Energy Systems, and was a Board and CEO Advisor for Continuous Computing Corporation and Clinical Microsensors.

Two of his clients are members of the 2009 Global 100 Most Sustainable companies in the world. Joel is currently serving in an interim CFO role at two wireless startups, (i.e., Tensorcom, Inc. and HIPO, LLC), which are pushing the frontiers of low power and high performance wireless communications.  Over the past 3 years he has served as an advisor at Larta Institute, where he has developed & managed commercialization assistance and professional services programs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation, and Department of Energy.   He has also mentored numerous NIH, USDA, NSF, and TATRC SBIR grantees including several cutting edge health care and CleanTech companies.  

Dr. Balbien is a Distinguished Lecturer at the Marshall School of Business at USC. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. from Caltech, Chartered Financial Analyst credential from the CFA Institute, and BA from the University of California, San Diego. Joel is an active member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Specialties:
• Advising Clean Technology and Life Sciences companies on Technology Licensing, Sustainability Initiatives, Financial and Business Planning, Investor Presentations, recruitment of the team, R&D management, prototype and/or pilot plant development, business partnerships, M&A, raising capital, and executing on strategic partnerships
• Market Research
• Competitive Intelligence
• Assisting companies in Technology Licensing, Litigation support, Administrative Law and Regulatory Proceedings

Luis Barros
Luis Barros is the Founder and CEO of Exeter Science and Technology Group (Exeter STG), which through a networked organization offers a fully-integrated commercialization assistance platform, including advisory services and access to  capitalization for investors' and organization's portfolio co’s.

Mr. Barros has more than 21 years of private and public sector experience with expertise in venture and economic development as an investor, entrepreneur and manager in the science and technology industries.

Mr. Barros is the immediate past SVP of Investments and Industry Development for Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC), the state’s $1B/10 yr Economic Development Investment Initiative.

His prior roles include: EVP and Digital Intelligence Officer of I.C. Sciences Corp & where he served as President of the Endovascular Forum Division, a healthcare technology holding company formed by the family that co-founded Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX); Principal at e.Lilly Ventures, the venture capital arm of Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY); on the compliance staff that regulates the asset management industry at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); and successive roles in business development at early stage, venture-backed companies entities respectively acquired by TIBCO (NASDAQ (GS):TIBX) and Microsoft (NYSE: MSFT).

Mr. Barros has an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a BBA as a W.E.B. DuBois Scholar from UMASS-Amherst’s Isenberg School. He also completed the Harvard Business School’s Program on Corporate Governance and Board Leadership.

He is a Director and Advisor at several non-profit and for profit entities.

Mr. Barros is fluent in Portuguese, Kriolu, and conversational Spanish. Mr. Barros a recipient of the 2009, DMBA Magazine's Top 100 Under 50 Executive Leaders.

Stephanie Bottom
Stephanie Keller-Bottom is an international strategy and innovation advisor with over fifteen years global experience developing and leading innovative new organizations. Stephanie has lead client engagements with corporate and government clients at the intersection of foresight/futures, strategy, technology and research focused on mobile communications, financial services, payments, and healthcare.

Stephanie is passionate about identifying future technology trends and partnering with entrepreneurs, university/research organizations, governments, and corporations to build sustainable value within those trends. Her experience as an entrepreneur and as an corporate innovation executive have taught her that working with open innovation models and strong teams adapting intelligently to change is the only way to create and sustain long term business value.

Stephanie has worked with three Fortune 500 companies in various executive roles under the common theme of identifying new technologies and markets for strategic investment. She was the Director, North America Nokia Venturing Organization and Founder of Nokia/Innovent, Director of Marketspace Creation for Hewlett-Packard on the President’s staff, and VicePresident at Electronic Commerce.

Ms. Keller-Bottom has a Master of Science Degree in Psychology from San Diego State University with continuing education at Harvard Business School, Yale, University of Chicago School of Business, University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business and Stanford University. She is a sought after speaker and educator working with Stanford Entrepreneurs’ Program, University of California Berkeley Technology and Haas Schools, University of Edinburg Scotland, University of Texas at Austin, and MIT.

Jim Cooper
Jim Cooper's career has been all about assisting company's access markets, understand the market dynamics, and has facilitated business development. Jim grew up in Sydney, Australia. After migrating to the United States, he has found market research and economics ideally matched to his greater goals of facilitating a company's ability to make informed decisions while mitigating risk and exposure in the market. Educated in Political Science and Economics, he has lived and worked in the Los Angeles area since the mid-1990's. Jim's interests include learning more about game theory, growing fruit trees and Jack Russell terriers.

Alan Creutz
Alan Creutz is the Vice President of Operations for Cerius Interim Executive Solutions. With over 20 years experience with both national and international companies, Alan focuses on business strategy and planning, internal operations, company positioning and product marketing. Since joining Cerius, he has successfully coached companies through business planning, product strategy and definition, corporate re-structuring, organizational development, and fund raising. Alan is on the Board of Directors for the San Diego Tech Coast Angels, currently serves as Advisor to, and on the Boards of Directors for, several startup and early-stage companies, and works in Europe as an advisor to several groups that are encouraging entrepreneurial activity in the eastern Mediterranean. Dr. Creutz was named San Diego Businessman of the Year in 1998 and in 1999 was honored by Accenture for best practices in "motivating and retaining employees." He holds a BA from Columbia College, Columbia University, a MS and Ph.D. in Intellectual History from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D in Education Administration from the University of Michigan. Alan was a Reactor Officer in the Navy aboard the USS Bainbridge.

Vivian Dullien
Vivian's experience includes: Principal, Senior Management Consultant- Dullien Associates; CEO/President - Biex, Inc.; Regulatory Affairs Manager - Abbott Laboratories.

Education: Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts - Received the Ph.D. degree in Physiology. University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire - Received a B.A. degree cum laude in Zoology.

Robert Dullien
Robert (Rob) Dullien has over twenty-five years’ experience commercializing diverse technologies, products and services, as well as teaching business, communication skills, teamwork, design and engineering. His participation has helped his clients to solidify their strategies, attain visibility in their markets and obtain funding.

Rob's career started with work in engineering research and development at Heat Transfer Research, Inc. and the Procter & Gamble Company. He then developed a model of energy production and consumption for Data Resources, Inc. (now Global Insight), and analyzed scenarios for the Department of Energy and many others. After his MBA, Rob joined Arthur D. Little, Inc. and consulted to business leaders in the areas of CAD/CAM, manufacturing automation, image processing, projection, medical imaging and other fields.

Rob then established Dullien Associates, a consulting company which assists companies in commercializing new products. The firm completed a large number of multi-client report projects for Frost & Sullivan, Inc., including on computer-aided design and image processing. The firm's consulting activities are focused on bringing technology & science-based products to market, including meeting regulatory requirements.

Rob co-founded a product company in the food & beverage area in 2000. The firm developed, patented and commercialized a beverage for superior hydration.

Rob teaches at the Colorado School of Mines as an adjunct professor. He has been researching issues affecting future energy production, transmission, storage and consumption. He maintains professional contacts at various major research and educational institutions. He also maintains an international perspective by visits to and contacts in Germany, Spain, Japan, China, New Zealand, the UK, Hungary and Canada.

Rob received a Bachelor of Science degree Engineering & Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology, a Master of Science in Structural Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard Business School. At Harvard, Rob focused on new business activities, marketing and business planning.

Frank Eeckman
Frank Eeckman has led research, discovery and development teams at two national laboratories and in several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He has over 15 years of experience as a scientific advisor and due diligence expert  working for venture funds, angel investors, investment bankers and biotechnology companies. As an independent strategic consultant he has acted as CEO, President, and VP of Business Development for biotech startup companies and helped them negotiate R&D partnerships, mergers and acquisitions and fundraising. He works with NeuroInsights a market research firm focused on neurotechnology.

-Helped launch three startup companies
-Negotiated numerous collaborative R&D, licensing, and M&A agreements
-Scientific and technical diligence for over 100 fundraising events from seed financing to mezzanine rounds


Frank H. Eeckman holds an M.D. from the University of Ghent Medical School in Belgium and a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He has lived in the US since 1983.

Meri Gruber
Meri is the VP of Business Development at Decision Management Solutions. Decision Management Solutions provides consulting and implementation services in all aspects of Decision Management, predictive analytics and business rules.

Meri is an accomplished Business Development professional with proven experience in delivering high value solutions to customers and partners. Most recently Meri advised enterprise software and technology companies on their positioning, partner, marketing, social media, go-to-market and commercialization strategy and implementation. Meri was Director Business Development for Intel’s flat panel display venture, Investment Manager for Intel’s New Business Investments, and consultant to venture capitalists and private investors.

Meri also has extensive international operating experience with Intel, Total SA, Schlumberger and Ernst & Young Management Consulting including 14 years working in Europe and Asia - Norway, France, Brunei, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. She is a Principal Advisor for the LARTA-NSF CAP1 program, advising National Science Foundation SBIR grantees on their commercialization plan. She holds a BSEE with honors from the University of Washington, Seattle and an MBA from INSEAD.

Carlos Gutierrez
Carlos E. Gutierrez is the Chief Strategy Officer at Larta Institute, overseeing all aspects of the organization's strategic focus and business development efforts with clients, including U.S. federal agencies, universities, industry partners, and regional economies around the world.

Prior to joining Larta, Carlos served on the management team of FirstLook.com, an Idealab company and venture-backed start-up in the online entertainment and media space. Carlos also previously held senior management and marketing positions with the Los Angeles Times Online (latimes.com) and Mecklermedia Corporation. Carlos graduated from California State University, Northridge with a degree in Business Management.

Kaare Holm
Kaare Holm possesses over 20 years entrepreneurial and advisory experience in the science, technology and renewable energy industries. He has founded several companies, has performed market assessments and developed business strategies for multiple technologies in functional areas spanning energy, software, hardware, medical equipment, bio-tech, clean-tech, and agriculture.

As a senior strategy consultant he has supported leading institutes, university foundations and government sponsored technologies, including: National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), LARTA, Stanford University's Department of Bioengineering, University of Southern California at San Bernardino (USCSB), University of Southern California (USC), Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technologies (CCAT), and Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization (OTTC).

His hands-on approach has yielded a successful track record of market entry and growth strategies for innovative advanced technologies for many of the leading national labs: NASA, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U S Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) and Naval Facilities Engineering (NAVFAC).

As an entrepreneur, Kaare co-founded several start-up companies, including a renewable energy development company in Spain, which he lead to exit over a four year period; a compliance testing equipment company, which now has global distribution; and a strategy consultancy firm focusing on advanced technologies, where he currently leads one of the practice groups.

Kaare has been on several panels, both as moderator, presenter, and expert. He is regularly called upon as an evaluator for grant applicants. He has received national recognition from the Federal Labs Consortium (FLC), winning a 2011 award for technology transfer, and he has honorably served as founder and chairman of a standards committee under ASABE, with an approved standard issued in 2010.

Kaare holds a Bachelor of Science degree in International Marketing from the Niels Brock International Business College, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1987, and completed studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Business to earn an International MBA from I.E.S.E., Barcelona, Spain, 1991. I.E.S.E. is the oldest and most prestigious MBA School in Southern Europe, a Harvard Business School affiliate, ranking in the top 5 in Europe.

Peter Hong
Peter is a versatile leader with over 30 years experience in manufacturing.  His work experience has provided opportunities to be at many extremes that have helped him understand the points of view of those who might otherwise find themselves on opposite sides of a problem or negotiation.  This experience has given Peter the skills to bring order and solutions out of chaos.  

In his early career, he worked on the shop floor as co-operative education student at a Fortune 500 agricultural equipment manufacturer while earning his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering performing many hands on tasks.  This led to positions of increasing responsibility in manufacturing and product engineering where his experiences led to positive solutions between internal customers on the shop floor and in the management offices.  

Similarly, after leaving to serve as president of a small custom-engineered material handling equipment company, Peter used his experience as a former customer to transform this company from an entrepreneurial start-up into an ISO-certified customer centric division of a large multi-divisional corporation.  There, he used his previous customer relationship experiences to grow the annual sales four-fold without adding personnel through training and a shift to participative quality team management.  He was involved with the growth of the corporate parent organization in public offerings activity, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, new product development, and strategic planning.

After orchestrating a leveraged buyout of a material handling division and successfully running it for four years, Peter has turned his attention to using his experience as a business development consultant and CEO coach to small and mid-sized companies.  He uses his hands on approach to help them grow to the next level by focusing their goals, reorganizing them for effectiveness, and helping them navigate the complex network of assistance from local, regional and state business programs and venture capital groups.  He has also served as a Principal Advisor to SBIR Phase II grant recipients to develop their commercialization roadmap.  He is also serving as COO of New Tech Ceramics.

Peter also devotes time to influencing and improving the social, economic, and political environment around him.  Peter devotes time to local, regional, state, and national positions of leadership.  Locally, he served eight years as mayor, twelve years as county board of health chair, fifteen years as a member of the Laurens Industrial Foundation,  six years a board member of the Iowa Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), twelve years as the Ergonomics Council Chair for the Material Handling Institute of America, six years as a member of the ANSI B30 committee, three years as the ISU Extension  business representative to the board, and three years as the chair of the Iowa Department of Economic Development Advanced Manufacturing Council, board member of the state’s Technology and Commercialization Committee and now serves on the newly formed Iowa Innovation Council.

Greg Horowitt
Gregory Scott Horowitt
Founding Partner & Managing Director, T2 Venture Capital
Kauffman Fellow, Class XV
Co-Founder and Director, Global CONNECT

Greg is the co-founder and Managing Director of T2 Venture Capital, a venture fund focused on the commercialization of the most promising technologies spinning out of government and academia.  He is a Kauffman Fellow, a member of a selective program to groom leaders of the venture capital industry. He is a sought after consultant, speaker, and advisor to governments, universities, and entrepreneurial development organizations around the world on topics of economic development, venture capital formation, and public policy related to innovation and entrepreneurship.
Mr. Horowitt is also the co-founder of Global CONNECT , a think tank based at the University of California, San Diego, focused on the development and growth of successful innovation based clusters worldwide.   Under his leadership, Global CONNECT has grown to encompass a network which now includes more than 40 programs in 20 countries, all focused on accelerating global technology commercialization.  Mr. Horowitt’s views and vision on global innovation systems and the mechanisms by which they scale has led to extensive public speaking engagements and media references, including the New York Times, Forbes, New Scientist, and Entrepreneur Magazine.   His recent public talks have included the US Department of State, the National Academies of Science, and the World Bank.  
Greg was formerly the interim Managing Director of CONNECT, an organization which is generally credited with San Diego’s success as a technology leader and which helped launch over 300 companies that raised over $600 million in early-stage funding and achieved over $12 billion in market capitalization. Greg has personally been involved with and/or mentored more than 200 companies.  

Prior to CONNECT, Greg served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for SK Global, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.  His career in technology started when he was President and CEO of the Praetorian Group, a venture-backed enterprise software company providing e-business solutions to law enforcement and public safety agencies across the country. For nearly 20 years before that, he was with a Berkshire Hathaway company, Flying Cross by Fechheimer Uniforms, where he finished his tenure as Vice President of Regional Sales
Greg currently serves as a board member of the CONNECT Foundation, and UC San Diego Entrepreneurship Challenge.  He is an international judge for the IBM Global Entrepreneur program, an advisor to the UCSD Rady School of Management and serves on the investment committee for The Rady Venture Fund.   He also serves as a mentor and advisor to the University of California’s Discovery Fellows Program; is a Senior Advisor to the Larta Institute; reviewer for the Kauffman Foundation’s e-Venturing Program;  Advisory Board Member of the San Diego Science Festival;  Industrial Advisory Board member, Life Sciences-IT Global Institute; and the past Chairman of Project Inform, one of the nation’s leading HIV treatment information and advocacy organization.  
Greg holds a degree in Biochemistry and minors in Economics and Music Performance from the University of California, San Diego, and received a prestigious President’s Undergraduate Fellowship Award for his work studying the links between nutrition and breast cancer.  

Mark Juergensen
Experienced energy project and technology executive with over 20 years of success in energy technology commercialization and energy project development. He has supported all technologies including; simple and combined cycle gas turbine, coal PC and gasification, wind, solar thermal, solar PV, geothermal, and other alternative energy technologies. On the product side, oversaw commercialization of multiple clean energy technologies including; solar  PV, solar thermal, solar plasmonics.

Judge- Von Liebig Center advanced technology completion , 2008
Reviewer- Connect Most Innovative Products in Clean Technology, 2008
Reviewer- CleanTech San Diego SCRUB for new clean technology, 2008
Finalist- California Clean Tech Open- 2008
Judge- California Clean Innovation Conference May 2009
Advisor- Light Source Renewables- Key advisor and shareholder with this 130 MW ($530m)  solar PV project in development in Southern California.
Founding Board Member (inactive)- CleanTECH San Diego, nonprofit to promote clean tech firms.
Board of Directors- Clean Venture, nonprofit clean tech incubator
Board of Directors- Pacific Integrated Energy
Board of Directors- Los Angeles Power Association, a non-profit power association.
Board of Directors- Sea Spray Research Foundation,  nonprofit company to determine the viability of utilizing cloud albedo for global warming mitigation.

Neven Karlovac
Neven Karlovac is a Principal Advisor for Larta's National Institutes of Health Commercialization Assistance Program (NIH-CAP) and the Founder & CEO of Holomic LLC, a startup company commercializing digital holographic microscopy for diagnostic and sensing applications. President of Palitek Consulting, a firm providing strategic business advice and management services to emerging growth companies. He is the immediate past Vice President, Technology Commercialization Programs at Larta Institute, in which capacity he built and led the NIH-CAP in its first three years. He has over thirty years of experience in technology and business management for companies ranging from early-stage startups to Global 500 corporations.

Neven started his career designing instrumentation for nuclear radiation measurement and life sciences at EG&G ORTEC, an early developer of electrophoresis systems and PET imaging equipment. Recognizing early the potential of optical fibers, he switched to this new field, and led the commercialization of fiber optic and optoelectronics technologies in positions of increasing responsibility, reaching the position of Executive Vice President of Alcatel Network Systems. At Alcatel he managed over 3,000 employees and a $515 million budget.

Neven came to California in 1994 as the CEO of Accuwave Corporation, an early-stage venture-funded startup, where he commercialized a new technology for volume holography and launched in the market a pioneering laser frequency control product. Accuwave also achieved success in obtaining many research grants including SBIR, BAA, and ATP. Since then, he has been involved with a number of startups (including Authentix, Fiberspace, Aprisa, Litropy, and LuxN Corporation,) as a co-founder, executive, or consultant. His consulting activity has focused on technology commercialization and product development management.

Neven holds BS & MS degrees from the University of Zagreb in Croatia, a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and has attended executive courses at Stanford and Oxford Universities.

Ron Kent
Ron Kent is the Technology Development Manager, Major Demonstrations, for the Southern California Gas Company. In this capacity, Ron helps to develop and commercialize new energy technologies that minimize energy consumption, emissions, climate impacts and water consumption.

Ron’s current projects include the development of a wide variety of innovative new technologies, including oxy-fuel power plants for carbon capture and sequestration, digester gas clean-up, petcoke and biomass gasification, algae energy cycles, microbial generators, advanced microwave devices, chiller and flue gas energy and water conservation and smart systems for building fault detection, diagnostics and optimization.  

Ron has an extensive management background in finance, equity investments, energy efficiency, natural gas vehicles, energy markets and regulatory affairs.

Prior to joining the Sempra Energy utilities he was a Peace Corp volunteer and a science teacher.  He holds a B.S. degree in biological science from San Diego State University; an M.S. from the University of Kentucky; and an MBA from CalPoly, Pomona.  

Mark Klopp
Mark Klopp is a Managing Director with Coronis Medical Ventures, an accelerator and seed fund focused on medical devices. Klopp is also an independent consultant and expert advisor on corporate venturing, intellectual property and innovation. He is a Fellow with the Bell-Mason Group which provides management consulting for innovation best practices. He is an active angel investor, co-founder, advisor for private companies and serves on the board of several charities.

Mark is a former Board Member of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and served as Chairman and a member of the Executive Committee for the Corporate Venture Group. Formerly Managing Director of Eastman Ventures, Eastman Chemical Company's corporate venture capital arm, Mark started up and led the company's efforts to invest in and partner with private companies, providing early access to emerging technology and growth options to Eastman. He and his team forged relationships and co-investments with premier venture capitalists and corporations. Eastman invested with a top-quartile IRR track record in 25 ventures and 5 venture funds in areas spanning Information Technology, Life Sciences, Advanced Materials and Clean Technology.

Mark has extensive operating experience in international business management, sales and marketing with Eastman. Previous assignments included: Assistant to the CEO and Chairman; Regional Business Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa and several Marketing and Sales executive positions.

Mark earned a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA in Management from Roosevelt University.

Ron Kosage
Ron Kosage is and independent consultant providing consulting services to the industrial, municipal and private sectors relating to water, wastewater, recycle/reuse, zero liquid discharge, waste to energy and biodiesel industries. Mr. Kosage has over 40 years of experience in the management, supervision, environmental analysis, research, design, construction, start-up and operation of water and wastewater systems in the following sectors: power generation; chemical processing; refining; mining and metals; food and beverage; municipal water and wastwater projects. He has served on the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Research Committee on Environmental and Power Plant Chemistry and is a Leader (top5%) in the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG). Mr. Kosage has authored and presented numerous technical papers at the International Water Conference, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) workshops and ASME seminars.

H.S. "Duke" Leahey
Duke Leahey, is President of LSA, LLC, a consulting company focused on moving technology from the laboratory into the marketplace, and a Founding Member of the Nidus Investment Partners a partnership with Monsanto Company, Bunge International and Novozymes.  Duke brings significant entrepreneurial, technology licensing and intellectual property management expertise to the Partnership and his consulting clients. The breadth of his experience in negotiating agreements in academia as well as the corporate world ensures success for all parties.  

With more than 35 years of experience in contracts and licensing at organizations as varied as Monsanto, Washington University in St. Louis, Emerson Electric, Science Applications Inc, and Pfizer, as well as a variety of small technology-based companies, Duke has successfully assisted dozens of companies, universities and early stage companies in the negotiations of literally hundreds of licenses and partnering agreements before moving into an entrepreneur’s role in 2005 with the founding of LSA.  As a St. Louis Biogenerator "Star Award" winning consultant, he helped companies engineer strategic alliances with major agriculture, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

Duke was formerly a board member of Competitive Technologies, Inc. (CTT-AMEX), vice president, president and board member of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), co-chair of LES University-Industry Committee, Executive Director of the original Missouri Biotechnology Association, co-founder of the Washington University Masters Program in Biotechnology and senior lecturer on strategic partnerships for Arthur Anderson Consulting.

Duke holds a B.S. in Industrial Management from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts and an M.A. in Business Administration and Procurement Management from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri and has completed a number of graduate level courses at Washington University in Competitive Strategy and in Negotiations at Harvard University.

Donald Leonard
Summary of Qualifications:  Donald C. Leonard

Don Leonard is President & CEO of D.C. Leonard & Associates, Inc., a management consulting firm providing strategic planning, business development and product development guidance and assistance to clients nationwide.  He has managed and performed consulting engagements for major corporations, financial services organizations and high-tech start-up companies for more than 40 years.  As a management consultant, Don has specialized in the areas of strategic planning, business opportunity development, financial analysis, acquisition and investment due diligence, market research, product development, intellectual property development, risk management and operations process reengineering, for clients in the retail, banking, telecommunications, utility, entertainment, healthcare and renewable energy industries.  He has contributed directly to the design and development of a number of successful financial services products and their delivery systems including general purpose bank and private label credit cards and debit cards, regional and national ATM networks, electronic payment transaction systems and fraud control systems.  

Over the past ten years, Don has focused his consulting efforts on “clean tech” technology and business development, and has extensive knowledge and expertise in the alternative energy field including biomass gasification, thermal chemical waste-to-energy conversion, and fusion power.  He also has acquired substantial technical and operating experience in the field of electric utility energy efficiency and demand response programs and strategies, as well as in the field of sustainable communities and “green” building systems.

Prior to founding his present consulting firm in 1990, Don was a partner and principal of Madison Consulting Group, Inc. (subsequently the Banking Industry Practice of Ernst & Young).  He was Senior Vice President and principal of Payment Systems, Inc. (subsequently the Electronic Payments Research Division of American Express), and was a principal of ICS Group, Inc. where he participated in the leveraged buy-out, consolidation, management and subsequent sale of a number of privately held information technology businesses in California.  Don founded his first consulting firm in 1973, after serving as Director of Special Projects at TRW Systems Group where he assisted in TRW’s commercial business diversification initiatives including: acquisition and assimilation of Credit Data Corporation (subsequently Experian) and Credifier Corporation; development of the TRW/Validata nationwide point-of-sale authorization system serving the travel and lodging industries; facilitation of MasterCard’s national electronic authorization network; and design of Visa’s national electronic authorization network.  Previously at TRW, Don had both project management and business management responsibility for multiple contracts to perform the guidance and targeting of a series of early NASA interplanetary space missions.  He also contributed to TRW’s major Mission Control Software Development Project with NASA in support of the Apollo Program

Don holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Carnegie Institute of Technology, with post-graduate studies in astrodynamics, statistical analysis and business administration at USC and UCLA.  He is a seasoned entrepreneur and early member of the Tech Coast Angels, a private investment group in Southern California.  Over the past ten years, Don has served as CEO and director of a number of hi-tech startup companies.  He is the former Chairman of Perfect Point EDM Corporation in Huntington Beach, California, and former CEO of Environmental Energy Systems Incorporated of Golden, Colorado.  Don is currently Chairman of BioSIPs, Inc. and Clean Engines, Inc. of Boulder, Colorado.

Lance Manning
Lance Manning is a strategy consultant, author, and editorial director assisting technology firms with thought leadership initiatives.  He also is a principal advisor with the Larta Institute, mentoring companies funded by government agencies.  Lance has experience in technology commercialization as a consultant at the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency and in enterprise software sales at EDS.  He lives in Dallas, is active in the startup community, and writes on research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.  Lance received his MBA from The George Washington University.

Neel Master
Vice President of Strategic Development
Prior to Petra Solar, Neel Master founded a gasification company based on breakthrough plasma technology. He recruited a world class team with executives responsible for $1B product lines, and an advisory board consisting of senior executives at leading energy and chemical companies. He secured a contract with a major U.S utility and licensed IP from a leading research institution. Previously he was a venture capitalist for 8 years most recently with TL Ventures. He led and worked closely with successful investments in semiconductor and software companies. He co-founded Holochip, a company that designs and manufactures affordable, durable and high quality adaptive lenses for consumer, military and scientific applications. He was on the original management team for Xavient an enterprise software company. Neel spent 5 years as a researcher in the Lab for Computer Science at M.I.T where he worked on a large scale computer vision and machine learning project which led to several peer reviewed publications. He was a research intern at Microsoft Research. He is the author of several patents pending in energy efficiency and generation.

Robert Morris
Robert (Bob) Morris is a Principal Advisor at Larta Institute. In this capacity, he provides one-on-one business mentoring to the innovative companies that participate in the Larta-managed USDA Commercialization Assistance Training Program, Malaysian Biotech Commercialization Assistance program, and the NSF SBIR/STTR Phase I Commercialization Assistance Program. An accomplished executive with extensive operational, financial, and international business experience, Mr. Morris has proven success in identifying strategic opportunities and executing global programs that drive growth and expansion. Practiced in conducting business in diverse cultural environments, Mr. Morris has established himself as a forward thinking industry advocate, a liaison among large multinational corporations, associations, non-government organizations, and international government agencies.

As immediate past president of The Sulphur Institute, a multinational industry association including Fortune 500, energy, natural resource, fertilizer, and logistics companies, Mr. Morris led the successful promotion and growth of sulphur as a viable investment and commercial product in agricultural and industrial markets worldwide and served as a business partner in marketing, expanding, and safeguarding sulphur. The partnerships he established with the Chinese industry and government helped to stimulate growth of Chinese sulphur imports from zero to nearly ten million tons. In India, the initiatives Mr. Morris established positioned sulphur as an essential crop nutrient with the Indian government and key industry stakeholders, a strategy that provides the platform for commercial development of a two million ton market for sulphur fertilizers. Mr. Morris also established programs that saved member organizations millions of dollars in additional insurance and transportation costs by preempting regulatory action by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and other regulatory bodies. His reputation and knowledge established him as a sought-after public speaker, having delivered more than 250 presentations to groups worldwide.

Mr. Morris is currently principal of AndMore Associates, LLC, a global business development and consulting firm focused on agriculture, energy, and the environment. With a B.S. from Rutgers University and an M.S. from Pennsylvania State University, Mr. Morris serves on the Panel of Experts of TechCast LLC, a global technology think tank that produces authoritative forecasts for industry; the Industry Advisory Board for the Masters of Business and Science degree program, Rutgers University; the Wilson Council at the Woodrow Wilson International Center; and on the Advisory Council of the Center of Plant Nutrients Management, Jaipuria Institute of Management in India.

Heath Naquin
Heath's passion is the commercialization of new innovations through targeted research as a means to affect change on a global scale. He is actively working to raise awareness of issues related to green/clean technology adoption as it pertains to organizational efficiency, economic development and international competitiveness. In addition he is working with various countries to help target research resources towards more commercially viable innovations while modernizing their technology transfer processes. It is his goal to develop significant policy through vetted innovation process improvement on a national level.

Heath's past professional experience includes positions such as Commercial Reviewer at National Science Foundation and New Business and Technology Implementation Consultant at Mirus Services.

He received his Masters of Science in Science and Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas at Austin.

Don Oparah
Don Oparah, PhD. is the founder and CEO of VAI Global, an online Innovation Community that connects entrepreneurs, innovators, investors and others active in building high growth, high impact companies and organizations.

He has a range of experience in technology business, consulting, research and education as well as very specific knowledge about accelerating start-up ventures and building innovation communities. Prior to starting VAI Global, Don developed the vision for, launched and successfully grew the UCSB Venture Acceleration Initiative to accelerate university spin-off ventures. He also spent several years working in information technology and strategy consulting in the United Kingdom. Don has acted as a speaker, panelist, judge, guest lecturer and author on the topics of start-ups, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Dr. Oparah holds a PhD in Computer Science from Cambridge University (Trinity College) and an MBA with Entrepreneurship Focus from UCLA Anderson. He was elected as an inaugural fellow of the UC Discovery Fellowship program created by the University of California Office of the President.

Susan Preston
Susan Preston is General Partner for the CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund. Susan has spent most of her career in senior management positions in public and private companies, from general counsel to CEO.  She has also been a partner in two national law-firms and is a patent attorney.  Susan is a world-recognized expert in angel financing, and is the author of numerous articles, white papers and books on angel financing. Her most recent book, Angel Financing for Entrepreneurs, was released by Wiley Publishing.  She has been and continues to be a national and international speaker on economic development, angel and venture financing. She was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with the Kauffman Foundation for six years focusing on initiatives related to angel investing, angel organizations and women entrepreneurs.  She is the architect of the Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs Act, a bi-partisan federal income tax credit bill for private equity investing, which will be re-introduced in Congress this session.  Ms. Preston received her JD, cum laude, from Seattle University and her BS, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in Microbiology and Public Health from WSU.

Charlie Ramos
Charlie Ramos has over 15 years of engineering experience. He is the CEO and Founder of BioGreen Engineering LLC, a carbon market company specializing in assisting institutions and companies involved in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction and renewable energy projects with developing, implementing, fine-tuning, and executing business plans that maximize business profitability while reducing harmful emissions.

Prior to BioGreen Engineering, Mr. Ramos was the technical expert and pillar for AgCert International, the largest mass producer of GHG emission credits from agricultural sources. He gained vast amount of biofuel and renewable energy expertise while serving as the Engineering Director, Pilot Program Director, and Global Asset Management Manager. While working at AgCert International, Mr. Ramos provided corporate guidance, vision, leadership, management, and problem-solving efforts for over 600 worldwide biofuel producing sites. He was also in charge of determining the commercial and economical viability of renewable energy technologies/products as well as the performance improvement programs.

Mr. Ramos has over 9 years of Chemical/Environmental R&D experience working on US government sponsored programs. He has co-authored several technical articles, and is a co-inventor on 8 patents. Mr. Ramos received his bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of South Florida.

Lina Ramos
Ms. Ramos is a veteran entrepreneur with 16 years of success in planning, operating & financing the growth of newly formed and spin-off divisions of both Fortune 1000's and private equity companies in the USA and Internationally. Ms. Ramos currently leads EMERGING GROWTH Enterprise's new venture practice, working with Sr. Management and Founding Teams to turn proven products & services into profitable, high-growth businesses including a USAMRIID Medical Device (spin-out), SAIC (spin-out) and 3E Company Management Buyout) where she led business planning which successfully closed on $25 Million in equity financing. Prior to Founding Emerging Growth Enterprise LLC, Ms. Ramos held P&L responsibility at the division, category, and products & services levels for Monsanto, Procter & Gamble and Booz Allen Sales Estimating System. Ms. Ramos has led strategic alliance relationships involving co-branding, distribution, product development and internet-based marketing with partners including: Nestle, Mr. Video, Pfizer and the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). Ms. Ramos was awarded an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and earned a Bachelor of Science in Business, double majoring in Marketing and Finance, from the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley.

Joyce Reitman
Joyce Reitman directs strategies and programs for start-ups and growing businesses looking to overcome the many obstacles that inhibit the establishment of a venture.

A management leader with over twenty years of expertise founding and building organizations across an array of markets, Joyce has had multiple successes in transforming concepts into companies. Her specialties include, implementing new business enterprises, developing and leveraging strategic relationships to create growth opportunities and helping the CEO and executive team stay on track to ensure progress.

Jim Rose
Jim has enjoyed success in the health care technology field for over 20 years as an entrepreneur and investor. Jim co-founded VitalSpring Technologies in 2000, which has grown to a recognized position of leadership in the health care analytics field. Jim serves as an advisor on new health care ventures to the Commonwealth of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. Jim also founded Angel Scrum Investment Network, based in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area which seeks early stage investments in health care services and technology companies.

Jim is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Boston University Graduate School of Management.

Lou Scarmoutzos
Dr. Scarmoutzos is a Principal Advisor for the NIH Commercialization Assistance Program at Larta Institute. Dr. Scarmoutzos has worked extensively with startups and established companies in the area of new venture creation, business development, technology commercialization, equity funding and related. Dr. Scarmoutzos has over 20 years of scientific and business experience in the biotech, high tech, medical technology and related industries.

Dr. Scarmoutzos is also President and Founder of MVS Solutions, Inc., a consulting company and President & CEO of Kollodis BioSciences, Inc., a startup biotech company. Dr. Scarmoutzos serves as a Board Member and Advisor to several small companies. He is an author of numerous peer-reviewed technical and non-technical articles and holds several U.S. and International Patents. Dr. Scarmoutzos also writes a monthly column for BioExecutive International.

Dr. Scarmoutzos received his B.S. cum laude in Chemistry from Boston College, a Ph.D. summa cum laude in Physical Organic Chemistry from the Pennsylvania State University and was a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. His continuing education includes pharmacology, quality systems, management, entrepreneurship and intellectual property.

Shahid Shah
Shahid N. Shah is the CEO of Netspective Communications, a software consultancy whose actionable advice and disciplined approach delivers custom software for in-house, outsourced, or offshore solutions. For the past 15 years Shahid has held the positions of CTO, VP of Technology, Chief Software Architect, or Enterprise Architect at large enterprises. Shahid's an expert at discovering practical technology solutions to real-world business initiatives, especially in the healthcare and financial services industries. His technology expertise includes service-oriented and event-drive architectures, Java/JEE, .NET, and agile development and his healthcare focus starts with an emphasis on e-health, EMRs, data integration, and legacy modernization. He is also a HIMMS Enterprise IT Committee Member.

Over the last 15 years the health IT positions Shahid has held include Virtual CTO for CardinalHealth's CTS unit, CTO of a Electronic Medical Records (EMR) company, a Chief Systems Architect at American Red Cross, Architecture Consultant at NIH, and SVP of Healthcare Technology at COMSYS. Shahid runs three successful blogs. At http://shahid.shah.org he writes about architecture issues, at http://www.healthcareguy.com he provides valuable insights on how to apply technology in health care, and at http://www.hitsphere.com he gives a glimpse of the health-care IT blogosphere as an aggregator.

Carolyn Siegal
Carolyn has extensive business development and
new product strategy experience in the pharmaceutical industry and over 10 years of working with emerging and start-up companies,  Carolyn was president of Janus Pharmaceuticals Inc. and an executive at Xencor and Cell-Matrix.  She has obtained funding, entered into strategic alliances and achieved key research and business milestones. Earlier in her career, she was VP Business Development at Alpha Therapeutic, Manager New Product Marketing at Pfizer Inc., and a marketing research manager at Roche.
Carolyn has a masters of science in public health from UCLA.

Brian Taylor
Brian Taylor combines a strong technical background with extensive experience in life science product marketing and strategy development. Before becoming associated with Larta, he founded Growing Company Solutions, Inc. a consulting firm assisting companies with commercialization of life science products and services. The firm works with laboratory products, molecular diagnostics, and other bioscience companies to identify and accelerate product commercialization and market penetration strategies. Previously, he was Director of Strategic Marketing with QIAGEN N.V., a worldwide leader of products for nucleic acid and protein purification. In this position, he analyzed global research products markets, worked with senior management to formulate corporate strategy, and served on the QIAGEN Technology Council, overseeing technology development for QIAGEN R&D. He also managed a North American tactical marketing group for QIAGEN for seven years, launching numerous products and achieving a >40% organic CAGR. Dr. Taylor has an MBA from the University of Maryland, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Washington, and fifteen years of molecular biology research experience, including postdoctoral work with the CSIRO in Canberra, Australia and a faculty appointment at Texas A&M University.

John Vassiliades
John M. Vassiliades is Of Counsel in the Phoenix, Arizona office of Ballard Spahr where he is a member of the firm’s Patent, Life Sciences, Intellectual Property, Technology Transactions, and Corporate/M&A/Public Companies practice groups. Mr. Vassiliades represents domestic and international Fortune 500 corporations, emerging companies and start-ups involving a wide range of technologies, but mostly in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare and computer software related industries. As a patent, technology transactions and general corporate attorney, Mr. Vassiliades counsels clients on how best to develop, manage, commercialize, evaluate potential encumbrances, protect and enforce worldwide patent portfolios and handle patent proceedings, including how to structure and value R&D commercialization deals; how to license, make, distribute, promote and market high-tech products; and how to purchase, acquire, or sell a company’s proprietary technology or high tech business.

Bridging the gap between patent and corporate law, Mr. Vassiliades has patent law, freedom to operate, patent infringement/validity, patent licensing and litigation experience, general transactional experience in structuring and negotiating high-tech collaborations and related corporate/commercial transactions, domestic/international M&A experience, strategic alliances and other partnering structures involving the creation, protection and commercialization of jointly developed technology. As part of his general business law experience, Mr. Vassiliades has counseled clients as their general counsel on a variety of intellectual property matters, commercial deals, corporate compliance, disclosure, governance and regulatory compliance issues, including biomedical product regulations, executive compensation, private equity offerings, employment, advertising, privacy and IP antitrust issues. Mr. Vassiliades also has a technical scientific background within the Life Sciences industry, having received a Master of Science degree in the field of biotechnology with expertise in molecular/cell biology, immunology, virology, neurobiology, genetics, biochemistry and organic chemistry, including the product development and regulation of drugs, biologics and medical devices.

Mark Wisniewski
Mark Wisniewski is an accomplished Bio-Medical Executive, Entrepreneur and Scientist with 20 years industry experience.  He is a Principal Advisor to the National Institutes of Health SBIR Commercialization Program which provides business strategy, fund raising and strategic partnering guidance to biotech and medtech companies.  He is the Chief Operating Officer of Louisville Bioscience which is commercializing a molecular diagnostic platform for cancer monitoring and autoimmune differential diagnosis.  Mark has extensive management experience from his 13 year tenure at Baxter Healthcare where he held positions in business development, strategic planning, marketing and R&D. Mark received his MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and his Masters of Immunology and Microbiology at the UCLA School of Medicine.

Xiao-Wei Zhu
Xiao-Wei Zhu is a dynamic global executive with 15+ years of experience in P&L management, strategic alliance, corporate development, marketing and sales. She held executive positions in a wide range of commercial entities from multi-billion dollar publicly traded corporation, mid-size growth company to early stage start-up firms, including EMC, Genuity, Polaroid, Novell, Kendall Square Research, Cytel and Omni-ID. With success in commercializing technologies originated from defense research and SBIR funding, some of her accomplishments include:

• Built product category and brand name into industry recognized leader with global reach and 35%+ annual revenue growth.
• Achieved 30+% channel/OEM/ISV revenue growths annually in US, Europe and Asia Pacific.
• Grew profitable P&L business from $0.5m to $30m in three years.
• Successfully acquired and integrated AOL Japan with profitable P&L within the first year.
• Recruited private equity investors pursuant to A- and B- round venture financing.
• Negotiated and established joint venture operations in Asia and Europe.

Xiao-Wei holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from The Johns Hopkins University, and completed the executive programs in Business Analysis and Valuation at Harvard Business School.