Wallace H. Coulter Center (WHCC)

Maria Alcaide, MD

Dr. Alcaide is an Infectious Diseases physician-scientist, and faculty member of the University of Miami for over 15 years. Throughout her career as a clinician and researcher, Dr. Alcaide has provided scientific and administrative oversight to numerous multidisciplinary research studies focused on HIV and other emerging infections in the US and other international settings.

Dr. Alcaide has served as a principal investigator on a large number of NIH-funded studies. Her research portfolio in 2022 was over $10 million, and she is among the top-funded NIH scholars. She has provided exceptional leadership as Director of Clinical Research since 2020 at the Miller School of Medicine. She is also the director of the Miami CTSI and the Miami Center for AIDS Research mentoring programs and plays a critical role in mentoring junior investigators, with a focus on women and underrepresented groups.

As the Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship, she will oversee the University’s burgeoning research portfolio under the Office of the Vice Provost for Research Administration, and the development of university-wide scholarship initiatives.

Kirk Barnes
Co-Founder and President
TransPharMed

Kirk is the Co-Founder and President of TransPharMed, a sales excellence firm that uses coaching and connections to accelerate the sales cycle for digital health innovation. TransPharMed is a current member of the American Medical Association Physician Innovation Network (AMA - PIN). Kirk has a background in globally commercializing
pharmaceutical, biotechnology, nanotechnology, diagnostic, digital health and medical device technologies, including several billion-dollar products. Kirk has held a broad range of positions encompassing leadership, sales, sales excellence coaching and training, business development, global marketing, lobbying and market access. Recently, Kirk served as a Start-Up Catalyst for new and emerging healthtech and digital health start-ups at the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) incubator housed at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA, where he recently raised the funds to launch its inaugural Healthcare Technology Program.
Kirk served in various positions of increasing responsibility for the following companies: Syneos Health (formerly Inventiv Health), Zogenix, Johnson & Johnson, Takeda and Pfizer. Throughout Kirk’s career, he operated and developed competencies in the following therapeutic categories: endocrinology, cardiology, respiratory, neurology, pain management, central nervous system disorders, oncology and hematology. During his time in the pharma/biotech sector, Kirk helped to launch several blockbuster drugs in the diabetes, oncology, respiratory and neurology therapeutic areas.

Kirk was also a Global Business Development Executive for the NanoProfessor & NanoGuardian divisions of NanoInk, a private equity funded start-up company commercializing research-based nanotechnology from Northwestern University. Kirk marketed innovative anti-counterfeiting solutions to pharmaceutical, defense, consumer and medical device companies in the US, EU and Asia. Furthermore, Kirk led lobbying efforts that contributed to the first draft of the FDA REMS for Long-Acting Opioids, US Health Import Safety Legislation and the E.U. Falsified Medicines Directive. He served as a Board Member of the International Authentication Association (IAA), which monitored and provided guidance regarding authentication techniques and counterfeiting trends.

Kirk continues to serve as a Together.Health Steering Committee Member (Founded under leadership from ONC/HHS), Board Member of the Institute for Health Information Technology (IHIT), ATDC Healthcare Vertical Advisory Board, Coulter Foundation Oversight Committee Member, GA BIO Commercialization Committee Member, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce BioScience Council Member, and a Board Observer for Patientory (Blockchain Digital Health Company). Kirk holds a B.A. in Economics from Florida A&M University.

Bob Buchanan, PhD, JD
Partner
Ventac Partners

Robert L. Buchanan is a partner at Ventac Partners, an investment, company building and consultancy firm. He recently spun a company, Ambulero, out of the University of Miami. The company is focused on commercializing gene & cell therapies discovered by Dr. Omaida Velazquez to treat limb ischemia.Robert has over 20 years of experience in executive level management roles. He is General Counsel for Avexxin AS: a clinical stage Ventac Partners’ portfolio company developing anti-inflammatory agents. Other past executive level positions include CEO of Regenesance BV (now Complement Pharma BV), a company Robert co-founded. In 2018, Complement Pharma announced a partnership with Alexion (NASDAQ:ALXN) to co-develop drugs treating neurodegenerative disorders worth a total of EUR 14M.Prior to joining Avexxin AS, Robert was Associate General Counsel at Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) where responsibilities included oversight of the company’s early stage hemophilia patent portfolio and strengthening its R&D collaboration pipeline in gene therapy and gene editing projects. He was lead or co-lead IP counsel for a broad range of transactions in which total upfront and future milestone payments exceeded USD $1.25B. Robert is a board member of Ahram Biosystems (PCR diagnostics) and is a co-founder of Idogen AB (tolerogenic cell therapies): a company listed on the Swedish stock exchange in (IDOGEN:ST).Robert is a past law partner of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge (now Locke Lord) in Boston.Robert received a BS from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Biochemistry), a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles (Biochemistry), and a JD in law from Suffolk University, Boston. He is a past Biology Fellow with the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. He is a registered patent attorney with the USPTO and is licensed to practice law before state courts in Massachusetts and the US District Court of Massachusetts.

Jason Campagna, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer

Q32 Bio

Steve Glover
Cofounder, CEO
ZyVersa Therapeutics

Mr. Glover has over 35+ years of business experience in biopharmaceuticals and life sciences. Before founding ZyVersa Therapeutics, Mr. Glover was Co-Founder and CBO of Coherus Biosciences where he was focused on the business strategy, partnerships, product development efforts and capitalization of the company. Prior to Coherus, he was the President of Insmed Therapeutic Proteins, a biosimilar company, as well as Chief Business Officer of Insmed Incorporated.

Prior to Insmed, Mr. Glover held the position of Senior Vice President and General Manager at Andrx Laboratories and Andrx Therapeutics, both divisions of Andrx Corporation. At Andrx Mr. Glover was responsible for the strategy and operation of Andrx Labs which developed and marketed products in metabolic diseases and Men's Health and Andrx Therapeutics which was focused on the development of new controlled release products and contract manufacturing. He earlier held multiple sales, marketing and operational roles at Hoffman LaRoche, Amgen Inc. and IMS Health.

Mr. Glover has multifaceted experience in Fortune 100, start up and entrepreneurial environments. He has demonstrated results in start ups, large cap and turnarounds with a focus on business strategy, commercial execution, product development, business transformation and corporate development. He has over 25 life sciences transactions in licensing and M&A and has raised over $350M in capital. His strategic and operational experience includes strategic planning, corporate development, operations management, product development, product marketing and sales management.

Currently Mr. Glover serves on the Board of Directors of ZyVersa Therapeutics and The Coulter Foundation at the University of Miami, and he is Chairman of the Board at PDS Biotechnology and Chairman of the Board at Ambrx Biopharma.

Whitney Hough, PhD, MBA
Director, Office of Technology Transfer
University of Miami

Whitney Hough has PhD in Chemistry and MBA in Strategy from The University of Alabama. During her time as an undergraduate researcher, she synthesized a new class of ionic liquid compounds that resulted in her first patent application, which later granted as a patent and was licensed to a Fortune 50 company.  Experiencing the transition of her invention from the laboratory to the marketplace energized Whitney and her interest in Technology Transfer. She first entered the field as a Venture Development Associate at The University of Alabama’s Office for Technology Transfer where she streamlined the invention disclosure process to decrease the length of time between invention disclosure and a filed patent application. These process changes increased the number of invention disclosures and inventor engagement. These achievements resulted in her promotion to Assistant Director at The University of Alabama’s Office for Technology Transfer. In this role, she implemented and ran three different internship programs that allowed students from business, STEM, and law to work together on the management of new technologies.

She then relocated to Cincinnati, OH for her husband’s job and joined TreMonti Consulting, LLC, an innovation and technology transfer consultancy. Whitney primarily worked from home with travel all over the country to work her 20+ clients that ranging from academic institutions to national laboratories to research hospitals. In this role, she performed all duties related to technology transfer and innovation management including managing of financials/royalty distributions, database management, and contract/license negotiation. She was recruited by Procter & Gamble to be the Program Leader for their new Oral Care Monograph Reform program. This position integrated information from all functions to successfully communicate and submit an application to the FDA. In addition, she served as Technical Readiness Leader for several front-end innovation projects, thereby ensuring all tasks were on time for product graduation from R&D. She also managed the budget for Monograph Reform which spanned five different projects. It was wonderful to see a commercial process and product come to life, but she has missed the excitement and passion of inventors. Whitney is looking forward to working as a partner to commercialize University of Miami technology with inventors from all backgrounds and levels of experience.

Norma Sue Kenyon, PhD
Martin Kleiman Professor of Surgery, Microbiology & Immunology, and Biomedical Engineering
Diabetes Research Institute
Chief Innovation Officer, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine
Vice Provost for Innovation, University of Miami
Executive Director, Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research

Norma Sue Kenyon, Ph.D. is Vice Provost for Innovation at the University of Miami and Chief Innovation Officer of the Miller School of Medicine. Under her leadership, the U Innovation team, including the Office of Technology Transfer and the Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research has successfully increased the number of licensing agreements and startups emanating from faculty innovations from across the university. The Launch Pad provides mentoring for emerging student, alumni and faculty entrepreneurs throughout the university community, and Kenyon established the ‘Cane Angel Network to provide investment opportunities to all startups connected to the university.

The Martin Kleiman Professor of Surgery, Microbiology & Immunology and Biomedical Engineering at the Diabetes Research Institute, Dr. Kenyon and her research team have focused on ways to transplant insulin producing islet cells, in both clinically relevant transplant models and in clinical studies, without the need for life-long anti-rejection drugs. Kenyon has received research funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation and several industry collaborators. She has served as a member of both the National Advisory Allergy and Infectious Disease Council and the NIH Council of Councils.  Kenyon was a scientific advisor to the Food and Drug Administration and has participated in several panels involving islet transplantation and stem cells. 

Kenyon earned her undergraduate degree from Duke University and her Ph.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University, followed by post-doctoral positions at UCLA and the University of Miami. Subsequent to post-doctoral training, Kenyon was a Senior Scientist and Lab Head at Coulter Corporation, holding positions in both research and product development. 

J.C. Lopez, M.D.

Principal, Healthcare, New Enterprise Associates

J.C. is a Principal on the healthcare team at NEA with a specific focuse on biopharma investing. He is a Director of Centrexion Therapeutics and a board observer for 858 Therapeutics, Pionyr Immunotherapeutics, Qpex Biopharma, and Stablix.

Prior to NEA, J.C. led Global Search and Evaluation for Neuroscience, Ophthalmology, and Rare Diseases for Roche/Genentech. While at Roche/Genentech, J.C. sourced, led, and closed Genentech’s collaboration with Clover Therapeutics and was involved with Genentech’s collaborations with Convelo Therapeutics and Atalanta Therapeutics. As Global Search and Evaluation Lead, he was responsible for the sourcing, triaging, and initial diligence of opportunities in neuroscience, ophthalmology, and rare diseases. Prior to Roche/Genentech, J.C. held various roles as an intern at Militia Hill Ventures, where he focused on biotech company creation and as a Tech Transfer Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Tech Transfer Office.


J.C. received a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University, an MD from The Perelman School of Medicine at The University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from The Wharton School where he was a Joseph Wharton Fellow.

Mara Neal, MT(ASCP)SH, MS, MBA
Former Director of Marketing and Engagement (retired)
Cook Biotech

Len Pinchuk, PhD, DSc (hc), NAE
Founder
InnFocus, Inc., a Santen Company

Dr. Pinchuk has 141 U.S. patents, 110 publications and founded 10 companies. His major accomplishments include the invention of the Nylon 12 angioplasty balloon, the helical wire stent, the modular stent-graft, a drug-eluting stent (TAXUS®), several biomaterials (Bionate® and SIBS), a novel glaucoma tube (the InnFocus MicroShunt®) and the next generation intraocular lens.

Jackson Streeter, MD
Director
University of Florida Ventures

Robert F. Williamson, Jr., MBA
Entrepreneur-in-Residence
U Innovation
Email:  robert.f.williamson@gmail.com

Bob Williamson is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Miami and a founder and Treasurer of New World Angels. During his career he has founded, managed, and / or funded over 30 startups. He has extensive experience in public and private technology companies and is qualified under NYSE and NASDAQ rules to be chair of the audit committee. He was the founder of Data Net Corporation that pioneered the use of personal computers to automate data collection in factories and warehouses. He was a Director and then VP Finance, CFO, Secretary and Treasurer of Equinox Systems, Inc. and managed it successful acquisition by Avocent Corporation.

He has additionally served on numerous corporate, civic, government and education boards. Bob is a published mystery writer. His first novel, The Seriously Pink V, was published in 2001. He is an Active member of the Mystery Writers of America and is Treasurer and a Member of its Board of Directors.

He earned his B.S. degree in Engineering, with Distinction in 1966 and an MBA in 1968 from Stanford University.

Robert F. Williamson III, MBA
President & CBO
Triumvira Immunologicals

Robert F. Williamson, III has been active in building biotechnology and related technology companies for over two decades. He currently is President and CBO of Triumvira Immunologicals, a cell therapy company, a board member and Director of Perspective Therapeutics (formerly Isoray NYSE: ISR), a radiopharmaceutical company, and senior adviser to SyntheX, a protein interaction and degrader company. Previously, he was the CBO/CFO of OncoMyx, an oncolytic virus company and CEO of BioTheryX, a protein degradation therapeutics company, raising a $100M crossover round and preparing the company for an IPO. Prior to BioTheryX, Mr. Williamson served as CEO of both PharmAkea and ATXCo, oncology and fibrosis companies financed through a partnership with Celgene, until PharmAkea’s acquisition by Galecto and ATXCo’s acquisition by Blade Therapeutics. Prior, Mr. Williamson was CEO of Arriva Pharmaceuticals, President and COO of Eos Biotechnology, which he sold to Protein Design Labs, and COO of DoubleTwist, Inc. through its acquisition by Merck and Hitachi. Mr. Williamson also serves on the Coulter Oversight Board for University of Miami, FL, is a qualified financial expert and has chaired both Compensation and Audit Committees. Notably, Mr. Williamson served as an early Director of Pharmasset, Inc., where he helped finance, grow, and advance the company into the public markets and through its acquisition by Gilead in 2011 for $11 billion. Earlier, Mr. Williamson was a partner with The Boston Consulting Group and a research assistant for the Federal Reserve Board. He received a BA in economics from Pomona College and an MBA from Stanford.

Susan Racher
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Wallace H. Coulter Foundation 
susanracher@whcf.org

Susan is Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, which she joined in 1998. Susan is in charge of the endowment’s investment portfolio, including a portfolio of health care venture capital investments. She also oversees the tax; accounting; and compliance and is part of the grant team.

Prior to joining the Foundation in 1998, Susan was a Senior Managing Director of Bank of America’s Florida Group, in charge of the bank’s $4 billion in capital committed to Florida corporations. Susan was named as “Small Foundation Investment Manager for 2013” by Institutional Investor Magazine. She has a B.A. from Smith College in English and Economics, and an M.B.A from the University of Chicago in Finance and Accounting.

William Silverman, PhD, MBA
Executive Director, Coulter Program and New Ventures
Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research
Email:  w.silverman@miami.edu

Dr. William Silverman is an ion channels biophysicist by training, with over a decade of experience supporting startup companies. His dissertation focused on the molecular mechanisms of activation in voltage-gated potassium channels involved in cardiac repolarization. As a post-doc, he studied cyclic nucleotide-gated channels in synthetic liposomes and planer lipid bilayers and subsequently, the role of the Pannexin 1 channel in activating the inflammasome complex in neurons and astrocytes after traumatic brain injury.

After earning his MBA, he began a second career supporting entrepreneurs and advising startup companies at The Launch Pad at the University of Miami. While there, he advised on the launch of nearly 300 companies, and trained staff at 17 universities across the United States to open their own entrepreneurship centers, known as the Blackstone Launch Pad. In 2018, Will joined U Innovation at the UM Miller School of Medicine as the Executive Director, Coulter Program and New Ventures, where he works with promising biomedical technologies and medical innovators and advising medical school faculty on translational research projects. In addition, Will is the co-founder of Accredify, Inc., an angel capital-supported fintech company serving online capital markets.

Past volunteer work includes serving on the Educational Advisory Board of Refresh Miami, the Southeast Chapter Leadership Committee of BioFlorida, and the Advisory Board of the Entrepreneurship Program at the Miami Herbert Business School.  He holds a B.S. from UC San Diego, a Ph.D. from UCLA Geffen School of Medicine, and an M.B.A. from Miami Herbert Business School.

Tiffany Disney
Licensing Associate
Email: tad26@med.miami.edu

Tiffany-Ashley Disney is a. Licensing Associate at the University of Miami’s Office of Technology Transfer. Prior to arriving at the University of Miami, Tiffany-Ashley represented and defended businesses of all sizes throughout all phases of litigation in a wide range of disputes involving intellectual property infringement, breach of contracts, partnership disagreements, and various other business claims. Her background also includes drafting and negotiating contracts as well as resolving pre-suit conflicts through alternative dispute resolutions.

Tiffany-Ashley holds a J.D. from the University of Miami and a master’s in business administration from the University of Florida as well as B.S. in business from Florida International University. She is a member of the New York Bar and Florida Bar. Her background in business and litigation brings a unique prospective to the table for serving all your Technology Transfer needs.

 Amanda Gladu
Contract Specialist
Email: agladu@miami.edu

Amanda Gladu is a contract specialist at the University of Miami’s Office of Technology Transfer. She received her B.A. in Business from St. Petersburg College with a focus on management and leadership. Amanda previously worked in customer service and management developing skills in communication, problem solving, and team development. She is excited to learn and grow in this role with Tech Transfer.

Peter Gutenberg, JD
Manager, Intellectual Property Licensing
Email:  pxg372@miami.edu

Peter Gutenberg is a Manager, Intellectual Property Licensing at the University of Miami’s Office of Technology Transfer. Prior to arriving at the University of Miami in 2018, Peter ran a solo law practice assisting entrepreneurs and small businesses in protecting their intellectual property and food and drug regulation. His expertise includes the drafting and prosecution of U.S. patents and trademarks; preparation and review of transactional agreement agreements; managing foreign IP counsel; preparation of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) premarket notification applications; review of vitamin, cosmetic and nutraceutical labeling for compliance with FDA regulation; and supporting patent litigation. He has been invited to speak to various bar associations on the basics of patenting, the FDA regulation of medical devices, and intellectual property and food and drug regulation issues in legal and medical marijuana.

In addition to his legal background, Peter spent over nine years in the biopharmaceutical and medical device industry, working in a variety of fields, including: research & development, quality, regulatory affairs and manufacturing.

Peter holds a J.D. from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, CA, an M.S. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Florida and B.S. degrees in Biochemistry and Microbiology from Michigan State University. He is a member of the California Bar and registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Ernesto Pino Mesa
Financial Analyst
Email: eim33@miami.edu

Ernesto is a Financial Analyst at the University of Miami’s Office of Technology Transfer. Before joining the OTT department, Ernesto was a Students Accounts Advisor at UM responsible for providing high-level assistance regarding detailed financial analysis of all student accounts' processes to students, parents, and all University partners. Additionally, he was responsible for processes that support departmental operations focused on tuition discounts.

Prior to joining UM, Ernesto worked as a Line Services Representative at Fontainebleau Aviation where he handled customer accounts and resolved client services issues. Ernesto was also a professional baseball player for the Spain National Team and earned a Master of Science from Saint Thomas University.

Mayla Quesada
Sr. Manager, Finance
Email: m.quesada1@umiami.edu

David Richart
Manager, IP Licensing
dsr129@med.miami.edu

David is a Manager of IP Licensing at the University of Miami’s Office of Technology Transfer.  Prior to the University of Miami, David worked at the technology transfer office of the University of Kansas protecting and commercializing innovations and research assets.  He managed university technologies emerging from various university departments and especially in the areas of chemical and materials engineering, aerospace engineering, and biomedical devices.  Preceding the University of Kansas, David worked at IBM in upstate New York drafting and prosecuting U.S. patents for software innovations, which emanated from IBM researchers based domestically and internationally.

David holds a J.D. from Syracuse University and a B.A. in Biochemistry from the University of Kansas.  He licensed to practice in New York and registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Alexandra Vargas
Licensing Associate
amh72@med.miami.edu 

Alex Vargas is a Licensing Associate with the UM Office of Technology Transfer. Before joining UM, Alex worked in the UNC Charlotte Office of Tech Transfer where she analyzed prior art for new invention disclosures, prepared provisional patent applications, and created intellectual property summaries for business development spanning the fields of biology and engineering. Prior to working in tech transfer, Alex was a biologist whose research centered on using genomics, computational simulations, phylogenetics, transcriptomics, statistics, and bioinformatics to understand evolution and horizontal gene transfer.

Alex holds a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Florida and a B.S. in Biology from the University of South Florida.

Sonja Markova
Executive Director, 'Cane Angle Network
Email: smarkova@miami.edu

Sonja Markova is Executive Director of the University of Miami ‘Cane Angel Network, which brings together entrepreneurs and investors from the University of Miami community to provide early stage funding and a network of advisors (Hurricane = 'Cane).

Previously, Sonja was Executive Director at Band of Angels, the first high-tech angel investment group in the United States that has served as the model for many angel groups world-wide. Since 1994, the Band has invested in over 400 companies with 97 profitable M&A exits and 17 IPOs. She was a key person on the Keiretsu Forum team for 12 years and was instrumental in Keiretsu Forum's growth into the largest worldwide angel investment network with 54 chapters on 4 continents. Sonja was Vice President of Point Reyes Management, an asset management firm for a family office where she invested in seed startups from the firm's super angel fund.

She is an Advisor at the Berkeley SkyDeck and Mentor at the Alchemist Accelerator, where she works with early stage founders on their preparedness for Seed funding. Sonja is also an Advisor of Camp BizSmart, an innovative summer business academy that provides teen students development of skills in entrepreneurship, finance, business plan preparation, presentation, and execution. Sonja began her career as an Investment Associate at the International Cooperation and Development Fund (Taiwan ICDF) in her home country Macedonia.

Sonja holds an MBA in Finance and New Ventures Management from California State University East Bay and BS in Management from the University of St. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, Macedonia. She was the youngest recipient of a full scholarship from the U.S. Department of State under the Ron Brown Fellowship program that supports professionals from Central and Eastern Europe.