Wallace H. Coulter Center (WHCC)

Projects are submitted in response to an annual RFP and are reviewed from a business perspective, including how the innovation would be protected, the disruptive potential of the proposed product, pathway to commercialization (regulatory pathway, who would invest, who would buy) and clarity/feasibility of the milestone driven plan. Projects are selected by the Coulter Oversight Committee (COC). The COC membership includes venture capitalists, angel investors, entrepreneurs, corporate experts and clinicians with extensive clinical and clinical resaerch expertise. Awarded projects receive funding and business development expertise. The close interaction of WHCC with the entire U Innovation team is key in driving the projects toward a commercial exit.

• Bob Buchanan, Partner, Ventac Partners

  

  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, Senior Vice President, Intercept Pharmaceuticals

   

  Jason Campagna, MD, PhD
  Senior Vice President
  Intercept Pharmaceuticals

  ---

  Jason Campagna is currently Senior Vice President and Global NASH Lead at Intercept Pharmaceuticals in New York City. Prior to joining Intercept, he was at The Medicines Company where he was SVP of the Surgery and Perioperative Care Global Innovation Group. In this role, he was responsible for portfolio development and management, pre-clinical and clinical development programs, quality, scientific, regulatory and medical affairs for drugs and devices on a worldwide basis. Previously he served as VP and Global Medical Lead for Surgery and Critical Care where he led worldwide clinical and scientific development for acute procedural and non-procedural blood pressure and acute hypertensive heart failure. He has led or served on teams responsible for multiple NDA and MAA approvals of drugs, biologics and devices and for the commercialization of 5 products in over 25 countries. He was previously a founding director for Annovation Biopharma, was managing director for ProFibrix B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Medicines Company, and served on the Board of Directors for the Neuroscience Research Institute in Santa Barbara, CA.

  Prior to joining the Biopharma industry, he served on the senior leadership team at Cottage Health System as the Chief Medical Quality Officer, and held faculty appointments at UC Santa Barbara (Neuroscience) and Stanford University (Anesthesia and Critical Care). He graduated from the combined MD/PhD program at The University of Miami and then completed his post-doctoral fellowship at the Neural Plasticity  Research  Group  and  his  Anesthesia  and  Critical  Care residency and fellowship all at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He has been Diplomat of The American Board of Anesthesiology since 2002.

• Steve Glover, Cofounder, CEO, Chairman, ZyVersa Therapeutics

  

  Steve Glover
  Cofounder, CEO
  ZyVersa Therapeutics

  ---

  Mr. Glover has over 30 years of executive, operational, and commercial leadership experience in biopharmaceuticals and life sciences, encompassing Fortune 100, start up, and entrepreneurial companies. His transaction experience totals over $10 billion, covering more than 25 transactions with several international companies and major U.S. banks.

  Mr. Glover’s demonstrated success in leading public companies, increasing market capitalization, increasing shareholder value and taking companies public is highlighted below in his accomplishments at Coherus Biosciences, Insmed, and Andrx.

  As former Co-founder and Chief Business Officer of Coherus Biosciences, Mr. Glover’s strategic focus on key product development initiatives and partnership opportunities, such as that with Baxter International (up to $246 million in upfront and milestone payments) and international agreements with Daichi Sankyo and Gador ($50M in upfront payments and over $200M in milestone payments). Mr. Glover was instrumental in taking Coherus public on the NASDAQ. The initial public offering in 2014 was priced at $85 million and the IPO was led by JP Morgan, Credit Swiss and Cowen. Coherus currently has a market cap of around $1.1B.

  As President of Insmed, a NASDAQ public company, Mr. Glover’s strategic insights led to creation of Insmed’s biosimilar business unit. Within two years, Mr. Glover was able to leverage clinical advancement of several biosimilar products to achieve divestiture of the business to Merck, a $130 Million cash deal. As President of Insmed Incorporated, Mr. Glover’s negotiations for a high value, late stage asset led to the merger of Insmed and Transave, significantly increasing shareholder value. Imsmed currently has a market cap of $1.4B

  As Senior Vice President and General Manager at Andrx Laboratories and Andrx Therapeutics, divisions of Andrx Corporation, Mr. Glover was responsible for business strategy and operations. Andrx Labs developed and marketed products in metabolic diseases and Men's Health. Andrx Therapeutics developed and marked high value, specialized sustained-release products, and served as a contract manufacturer. Mr. Glover was the executive in charge for the sale of Andrx. Andrx , a NASDAQ company was acquired by Watson for $1.9 Billion in 2006.

  Early in his career, Mr. Glover held positions encompassing sales, marketing and operations at Hoffman LaRoche, Amgen Inc. and IMS Health.

  Mr. Glover currently serves on the Board of Directors of InflamaCore, Incon and Asclepius Lifesciences. Mr. Glover received his B.S. in Marketing from Illinois State University in 1982.

• Norma Sue Kenyon, Chief Innovation Officer, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine & Vice Provost for Innovation, University of Miami

  

  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., Martin Kleiman Professor of Surgery, Microbiology and Immunology and Biomedical Engineering, became the University of Miami’s Vice Provost for Innovation and the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine’s Chief Innovation Officer in June 2012. Under the umbrella of U Innovation, Kenyon leads a team that includes the UM Office of Technology Transfer, the 'Cane Angel Network, The Launch Pad, Converge Miami and the Miller School's Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research. 

  Kenyon and her diabetes research team have focused on ways to transplant insulin producing islet cells without the need for life-long anti-rejection drugs, including the incorporation of stem cells into transplant protocols to enhance islet engraftment and survival. Kenyon has received research funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), 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 Chair for Immunology in the NIH funded Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet and the Clinical Islet Transplant consortiums and is a member of the NIAID Council and the NIH Council of Councils. In addition to her academic pursuits, Dr. Kenyon has served as a scientific advisor to the Food and Drug Administration and as Senior Associate Dean for Translational Science at the Miller School of Medicine. 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. She left academics to work for Coulter Corporation early in her career but ultimately returned to pursue type 1 diabetes research.

• Erin Kobetz, Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship, University of Miami

  

  Erin Kobetz, MPH, PhD

  Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship
  Professor of Medicine, Public Health Sciences and Obstetrics & Gynecology
  Associate Director of Population Science and Career Disparities, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center 

  ---

  Dr. Erin Kobetz is a Tenured Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Public Health Sciences, and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Miami (UM) Miller School of Medicine. Additionally, she is Associate Director of Population Science and Cancer Disparities at UM’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (SCCC), as well as, the Chief of Population Health and Cancer Disparities for UHealth Oncology Service line. Dr. Kobetz also serves as Program Director for the Community Engagement and Multidisciplinary Team Science Components of UM’s Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSA) and is the University’s co-Vice Provost for Research (VPR).

   She earned a Master's in Public Health from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University (1999), and joined the University of Miami in September of 2004, after completing her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Public Health. Soon after, Dr. Kobetz established Patnè en Aksyon (Partners in Action), Sylvester’s first ever campus community partnership in Little Haiti, the largest enclave of Haitian settlement, and remains committed to integrating diverse stakeholders into the translational research continuum. 

  Dr. Kobetz currently works as the Principal Investigator of multiple grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparity (NIHMD,) to support collaborative science with numerous South Florida communities. Collectively, they have garnered over 25 million dollars in extramural funding and serve as the University’s model for stakeholder engagement. Dr. Erin Kobetz has also partnered with South Florida Firefighters - similarly characterized by excess cancer risk - and leads the Firefighter Cancer Initiative (FCI), a University-wide interdisciplinary strategy to address disparity from “bench” to “bedside” to “community.” Such efforts have been locally and nationally recognized and serve as an important approach to develop new community-based models for cancer prevention and achieve sustainable health and social change in underserved communities.

   

• J. C. Lopez, Healthcare Principal, NEA

   

  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.

• Brett Naglreiter, President & VP of Marketing and Sales, Naglreiter Medical Device Development Organization

  

  Brett Naglreiter, MSME
  President & VP of Marketing and Sales
  Naglreiter Medical Device Development Organization

  ---

  Brett is at the helm of Naglreiter with over 24 years of medical device experience working with large organizations to startups. Brett has leveraged his extensive development expertise to create an industry-leading medical device development organization, which possesses the passionate expertise, professional experience, and proven processes to deliver unsurpassed medical device development services. A clear and decisive leader, Brett is known for building and leading teams, developing talent and delivering results.

  Over the course of his professional career, Brett has held several roles. Brett was the VP of Engineering and Interim COO for Apollo Endosurgery, Inc. – a venture-backed medical device company focused on developing flexible therapeutic surgical products. At Apollo, Brett turned an initial investment of $40M into $137M. Prior to Apollo‚ Brett served as VP of R&D and interim COO for VeinRx, Inc.‚ a venture backed medical device company developing advanced catheters for drug delivery with supporting software solutions. While at the helm of VeinRx, he managed the product development process from concept through completion. Before joining VeinRx, Inc.‚ Brett managed the completion of the LifeStent technology transfer‚ a Syntheon project for Edwards Lifesciences.

  Additionally, Brett served as the program manager and lead designer for both the Orbit and the Trufill Detachable Coil systems at Cordis Neurovascular. During his tenure, Cordis Neurovascular’s annual revenue grew from $5‚000‚000 to $63‚000‚000. Brett holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University. He currently consults for companies across the US in various technical, strategic and leadership capacities.

• Mara Neal, Director of Marketing and Engagement, Cook Biotech

  

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

  ---

  Mara has over 30 years’ experience in laboratory diagnostics and medical device industries as well as sales and marketing management. She is a medical technologist specializing in hematology with experience in both hospital and reference laboratory.

  After working for Coulter Corp. and then Beckman Coulter for 18 years, Mara joined the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, where she served for 13 years as Director, Research Awards for the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation. At the Coulter Foundation, she was involved in the operations of the Translational Research Partnership in Biomedical Engineering, the Complete Cellular Analysis Program, and the Legacy Programs. Mara was the Coulter representative for 10 of the Foundation’s University Partnerships. She continues to serve on the Oversight Committees at the University of Miami Wallace H. Coulter Center and the University of Louisville KYNECT program.

  In January 2017, Mara left the non-profit sector and joined the Cook Group Life Science division, serving as Director of Global Sales and Marketing at Cook Regentec. She then joined sister medical-device company Cook Biotech Inc. as Director of Marketing and Engagement in September 2019. Mara is often recruited to teach the “Coulter Process” to organizations that have an interest in translating innovation to the marketplace.

  Beginning her career as a bench technologist, Mara ended her laboratory career as Hematology Laboratory Manager at MetPath, Inc., Teterboro, New Jersey, the world’s largest Hematology laboratory at that time. Mara joined Coulter Corporation and spent 18 years with Coulter Corporation and Beckman Coulter.

  Mara received her B.S. in Medical Technology from Michigan State University, an M.S. in Education from the University of Michigan, and her M.B.A. from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. 

  Mara currently sits on two start-up boards of directors: Quuery Inc., San Francisco, California, and the Medical Innovation Collaboration, Irving, Texas. 

• John Newcomer, President and CEO, Thriving Mind South Florida

  

  John W. Newcomer, MD
  President and CEO
  Thriving Mind South Florida

  ---

  John W. Newcomer, M.D. is President and CEO of Thriving Mind South Florida (a.k.a., South Florida Behavioral Health Network) in Miami, Florida, the non-profit organization that oversees safety net mental health and substance abuse services for Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, with annual funding of over $90 million from Florida's Department of Children and Families as well as other federal and private sources. Dr. Newcomer is also an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He previously served as Vice Dean for the medical school and Vice President for Research at Florida Atlantic University, and prior to that was Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. During more than two decades at Washington University School of Medicine, he served in leadership positions related to the NIH-funded General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) and the Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA), as well as the Center for Clinical Studies. Dr. Newcomer has been a Principal Investigator on research grants funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for over 25 years. He has served as an editorial board member for journals that include Obesity, Neuropsychopharmacology and Schizophrenia Bulletin, as a member of numerous Data Safety Monitoring Boards, and since 2007 as a member of the Metabolic Disorders Steering Committee of the Biomarkers Consortium of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. In the public sector he was Chair of the Medicaid Drug Utilization Review Board for the State of Missouri for 13 years. In 2014 he was named to the Thomson Reuters List of Highly Cited Researchers

• Len Pinchuk, Founder, InnFocus, Inc., a Santen Company

  

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

  ---

  Dr. Pinchuk has 128 U.S. patents, 90 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.

  His inventions are used in hundreds of millions of patients with a financial impact well over $100 billion. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2012, was awarded the 2017 Society for Biomaterials Innovation and Technology Award, San Antonio’s BIOMED SA Award (2017) and the National Academy of Engineering 2019 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize. He received a B.Sc. in chemistry from McGill University (1976) and a Ph.D. interdisciplinary in Engineering and Chemistry from the University of Miami (1984). Dr. Pinchuk co-founded Corvita Corporation (1987) which went public in 1994, was acquired by Pfizer, Inc. (1996) and then sold to Boston Scientific (1998). He then founded Innovia LLC (2002), which spun-out InnFocus, Inc. (2004) which was acquired by Santen Pharmaceuticals in 2016. Dr. Pinchuk also enjoys an appointment as Distinguished Research Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Miami.

• Jackson Streeter, Director, University of Florida Ventures

  

  Jackson Streeter, MD
  Director
  University of Florida Ventures

  ---

  Dr. Jackson Streeter is currently the Director at University of Florida Ventures.  Most recently, he served as the Senior Vice President for Corporate Development and Strategy at Quanterix, Inc.  Quanterix has developed an ultra-sensitive digital immunoassay platform to detect very low concentrations protein biomarkers, currently marketed for research applications.

  Dr. Streeter was the CEO and Executive Director of the Florida Technology Seed Capital Fund a seed stage venture fund investing in companies commercializing technologies developed from state of Florida Universities, Colleges or research Institutes. Since inception, the fund has created over 50 companies with private investment matching Florida state funding at a 9:1 ratio.

  Dr. Streeter served as the CEO of Banyan Biomarkers San Diego, CA. During his time the company received over $110M in contracts and grants with the NIH and Department of Defense and raised $20M in private capital for the development of a first ever blood test for traumatic brain injury which received FDA clearance in 2018.

  Prior to serving as CEO of Banyan Biomarkers, Dr. Streeter founded and served as CEO for PhotoThera, Inc. where he raised over $120M in private capital and was responsible for the design and management of five U.S. and international clinical trials for the treatment of stroke. He was also the co-founder of American Veterinary Laser which was acquired in a private transaction.

  Dr. Streeter is the inventor of over twenty patents and author on multiple scientific publications. Dr. Streeter has served on the following boards and executive committees: Florida Research Consortium, Governor’s Life Science Task Force for the State of Florida, FBI counter terrorism south east working group, Walter H. Coulter Center Committee at the University of Miami, Department of Defense Grey Team in Afghanistan, Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator advisory board and the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

  Dr. Streeter served as an Officer in the U.S. Navy, completing a general surgery internship at Naval Regional Medical Center Portsmouth, Virginia and then primary Flight School at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. During his military service, he was the first Naval Flight Surgeon selected as a TOPGUN staff instructor, served on several overseas deployments and was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal. He earned his B.S. degree in Biology from the University of Nevada Reno and his M.D. from the University Of Nevada School Of Medicine.

• Steve Viti, Consultant: pharmaceutical regulatory and product developoment for complex drug products

  

  Steve Viti, PhD, MBA
  Consultant

  ---

  Steve Viti, Private Consultant specializing in US Pharmaceutical Regulatory and Product Development practices for Complex Drug Products such as Metered Dose Inhalers, Dry Powder Inhalers, Nasal Spray and Sustained Release Drug Products. Prior to consulting, Steve was with Teva Pharmaceuticals and IVAX Pharmaceuticals for 21 years leading their Regulatory efforts in these complex new drug products as well as some complex generic drug products. Prior to Teva/IVAX, Steve led analytical development teams for over ten years with three other companies responsible for regulatory submission support. Steve has been involved with the development of over 25 new drug products approved for sale in the US, Canada and or the European Union.

  Steve holds a Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from MIT and an MBA from Santa Clara/FIU.

• Robert F. Williamson, III – Founder, La Salle Venture Advisors

  

  Robert F. Williamson III, MBA
  Founder
  LaSalle Venture Advisors

  ---

  Robert F. Williamson, III has been active in starting and building private and public biotechnology companies throughout his career.  He currently works in his consultancy, LaSalle Venture Advisers and is on the Coulter Center Board.  He was the CEO of privately held PharmAkea, an oncology and fibrosis drug development company, and its spin-out, ATXCo, financed through a partnership with Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) until both companies were successfully sold by the end of 2019.  Previously, as an early Director, he helped finance, grow, take public and sell Pharmasset, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRUS), which was bought by Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD) for $11B.  He was also on the board of Progen Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PGLA) after he sold CellGate to Progen, and has been on numerous private boards.  Earlier, Mr. Williamson was CEO of Arriva Pharmaceuticals, President and COO of Eos Biotechnology, which he sold to Protein Design Labs (NASDAQ: PDLI), and COO of DoubleTwist, Inc., acquired in part by Merck (NYSE: MRK) and Hitachi (NYSE: HIT).  Before managing life sciences companies, Mr. Williamson was a partner with The Boston Consulting Group.  Mr. Williamson started his career as a research assistant for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., supporting monetary policy.  He received a B.A. in Economics from Pomona College and an M.B.A. from Stanford GSB

• Peter Young, Venture Partner, Pappas Capital

  

  Peter Young, MBA
  Venture Partner
  Pappas Ventures

  ---

  Peter is an experienced life-science industry executive and a Venture Partner with Pappas Capital, where he is leading initiatives to expand the firm’s role in translational medicine and provides business development and due diligence support to its venture funds and portfolio companies. He is also an Executive in Residence at the Center for Biotechnology at Stony Brook and at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

  He has well over thirty years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, spanning all areas of the business from sales to country-level general manager and CEO and companies ranging from multinationals like Abbott and Glaxo to start-up biotechs. As VP and Therapy Area Head at Glaxo Wellcome he led the global introduction of combination HIV therapy that revolutionized HIV treatment and quintupled GW’s global HIV portfolio sales, while keying industry leadership on global access policy. Peter subsequently served as CEO of two private start-up enterprises, AlphaVax, a viral vector vaccine company that raised over $80 million in NIH HIV and biodefense vaccine grants, and Ikano Therapeutics, a specialty pharmaceutical company he led to a strategic transaction and exit. He currently supports several early-stage companies in a consulting and advisory capacity. 

  Peter is a past member of the BIO board and chairman of the North Carolina Biosciences Organization, and was a director of Memory Pharmaceuticals from 2004 until its sale to Roche in 2009. He has lived and worked in the US, Greece and the Middle East, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, and London, and currently lives with his family in New York. He has a BA in History from Indiana University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, as well as an MBA in marketing.

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• Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Observer: Susan Racher

  

  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.

• Michelle Gomez

  Michelle Gomez
  Manager, Business Operations
  U Innovation
  Email: m.gomez@med.miami.edu

• Gillian Johnson

  

  Gillian Johnson
  Executive Assistant
  U Innovation
  Email:  gmj25@med.miami.edu

  Gillian Johnson is the increasingly rare Miami Native. After receiving her degree in communications for Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles she returned to Miami and worked in the non-profit sector with The United Way and Alonzo Mourning Charities. She continued her work in marketing and communications up north in Manhattan where she worked briefly at Vayner Media. It was in New York that she was introduced to academia, assisting the Vice Chancellor of NYU’s satellite campus in Abu Dhabi. Three winters in she and her husband were ready to return to the sunshine state where she began and continues to work with Dr. Kenyon as her executive assistant.

• William Silverman

  

  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.

• Robert F. Williamson

  

  Robert F. Williamson, Jr., MBA
  Entrepreneur-in-Residence
  U Innovation
  Email:  r.williamson2@med.miami.edu

  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.

• Bryan Caffrey

  Bryan Caffrey
  Licensing Associate
  Email: bkc67@med.miami.edu

• Tiffany Disney

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

• Amanda Gladu

  Amanda Gladu
  Contract Specialist
  Email: agladu@miami.edu

• Peter Gutenberg

  

  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.

• Jennifer Tiel

  

  Jennifer Tiel
  Senior Administrative Assistant
  Email:  j.tiel@miami.edu

  Jennifer Tiel is a professional administrative professional providing high-level administrative support to C-level executives for over 20 years.  Jennifer is experienced at arranging complex domestic and international travel. She has served as an Executive’s liaison to all the diverse external and internal constituencies of an organization. Jennifer is a self-motivated professional with excellent communication skills, and is able to grow positive relationships with clients and colleagues at all organizational levels. Jennifer speaks fluent English, Spanish and Portuguese.

• Jeff Camp

  

  Jeff Camp
  Managing Director
  Email: j.camp@miami.edu

  Mr. Camp is an accomplished finance professional with over 30yrs investment experience. He started his career as an investment analyst and rose to Managing Director at Morgan Stanley where he was the #1 ranked analyst by Institutional Investor for his work on Internet Infrastructure Services companies. In 2000, he was the most widely read analyst worldwide according to First Call/Thompson. After leaving Morgan Stanley, he joined Andor Capital, a $9.5BN long-short equity hedge fund, as its CEO for Andor Europe and was based in London where he directed the firm’s investments across all sectors. He later co-founded Partner Fund Management, a $4.1BN hedge fund where he was its CEO for PFM Europe again based in London. More recently, he found is the Managing Partner of JC Venture Capital LLC, a family office that invests in early stage companies. He has active investments such areas as digital health care, digital marketing, business services, insurance and real estate. He is widely regarded as an expert on investing in Opportunity Zones, and recently was the keynote speaker on this topic at the SBIR Tour, a US Federal Government backed program for funding early stage businesses across America. Mr. Camp has worked on over 50 deals in his career and has extensive experience with public company research, Initial Public Offerings, M&A transactions, corporate and government advisory and private company investments.

  Mr. Camp graduated from the University of Michigan with distinction with a BA in Economics and Japanese. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Miami Graduate Business School where he is currently its Managing Director of the ‘Cane Angel Network.