Management

Sam Campbell, President and Chairman

Dr. David Johnston, CEO

Dr. Joesph Fix, Director of Business
   & Corporate Development

Matthew McClorey, CFO

Jahna Howell, Director of Laboratory Operations

Board of Directors

William P. Duncan is President of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute. Prior to joining the Life Sciences Institute, Dr. Duncan was Vice President of Technical Operations for Midwest Research Institute, providing oversight for MRI's six technical divisions. From 1995 to 1999, Dr. Duncan was responsible for MRI's Strategic Marketing Program and the activities of MRI regional marketing representatives. From 1988 to 1995, Dr. Duncan was President and Chief Operating Officer of Oread Laboratories, Inc. He received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Oklahoma State University in 1972. He is a member of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, American Chemical Society, International Association of Radiopharmacology, International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics and International Isotope Society (IIS), where he served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board and on the editorial board of the Jounrnal of Labelled Compounds and Radiopharmaceuticals. He is a member of the Board of Directors of The University of Kansas Center for Research, Inc. (CRINC), the Missouri Biotechnology Industry Organization, the Kansas Biosciences Association, the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, and the Kansas City Economic Development Corporation. He has received numerous awards, including the Ernst & Young 1992 Entrepenuer of the Year Award and the MRI Council of Principal Scientists Science Award in 1981 and the Enterprise Award in 1997.

Sam D. Campbell is President and Chairman of CritiTech, Inc. and has over twenty years of experience in managing early stage life science and technology companies. He currently is also the President of Campbell-Becker, Inc., a company that specializes in assisting early stage companies properly organize and finance their growth. He and his associates have provided start-up capital to numerous life science companies and worked with them to develop their company strategy and its implementation. Most recently, Mr. Campbell has been developing the Lawrence Life Sciences Center. The focus of the Center is to commingle life science companies, researchers, university spin-off companies, and technical/IP support personnel in an effort to foster the growth of the life science industry in the Kansas City/Lawrence area. Part of the support effort involves the construction of a sophisticated bio/chem wet lab that houses early stage life science companies.

Matthew McClorey is President and CEO of Lawrence Regional Technology Center (LRTC). Prior to joining LRTC, Mr. McClorey was the Vice President of Business Development and Portfolio Management for the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC), where he evaluated start-up companies for seed capital investments. He also managed a portfolio of high-technology debt and equity investments, drafted and negotiated investment agreements and provided management consulting services to portfolio companies. Mr. McClorey came to KTEC from Deloitte Consulting, where he was employed as a senior consultant in the communications practice. While at Deloitte, he worked with Fortune 500 companies providing strategy and information technology consulting services. Mr. McClorey earned his J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Kansas and his B.A. in Business from Benedictine College.

Bala Subramaniam, Ph. D. is a co-founder of CritiTech. He is currently the Dan F. Servey Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and the Director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis at the University of Kansas (KU). Dr. Subramaniam obtained a Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Madras, India and a Ph. D. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He joined the KU chemical and petroleum engineering department in 1985, and recently served as chair of his department. He has held visiting Professorships at the Institute of Process Engineering, ETH in Zurich (Switzerland), University of Nottingham (UK) and at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Subramaniam's primary research interests are in catalysis, reaction engineering and crystallization, with emphasis on developing sustainable processes.. In recent years, his research has focused on systematically exploiting the tunable physical and transport properties of CO2-based solvents in developing novel catalytic, particle formation and particle coating processes. He has authored 100+ research publications including 12 patents, presented invited seminars at 70+ universities and companies, and delivered keynote/plenary lectures at 20+ international conferences. Dr. Subramaniam has received several awards for his teaching and research, including the Dow Outstanding Young Faculty Award from the American Society for Engineering Education; the Gould Award for Teaching and the Miller Award for Research from the KU School of Engineering; the Silver Anniversary Teaching Award from the University of Kansas, and a Higuchi Research Achievement Award from KU, the highest recognition for research given by the University of Kansas.

Dr. Joseph A. Fix, Director of Business and Corporate Development and a pharmaceutical industry consultant, has over 25 years experience in the drug delivery and pharmaceutical industry in addition to his experience in working in the micro and nanoparticle pharmaceutical arena. Dr. Fix has held a number of executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently he was President and COO of Cydex, Inc. Previously, he was EVP and COO of NanoSystems, Inc., a unit of Elan Corporation. Before joining Elan, he was President and CTO of Yamanouchi Pharma Technologies and Associate Director of Biological Sciences for ALZA Corporation. He began his career with Merck and Company, advancing to Associate Director, Biopharmaceutics for the INTERx research division. Dr. Fix holds a Ph.D. in neurophysiology from the University of Kansas and an MBA from Pepperdine University. He has held adjunct faculty positions at the University of Southern California, Purdue University, and the University of Kansas. He is the author of numerous publications and holds 17 patents in the drug delivery area.

Michele Weigand is the Vice President of Investments & Portfolio Management for the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC).

Before joining KTEC, Weigand worked for GE Insurance Solutions & GE Mortgage Insurance in business development and product development. As VP of Business Development at GE Mortgage Insurance, Weigand led investments into internet opportunities, including Lending Tree.com. Weigand represented GE as the board seat for several equity investments. Prior to GE, Weigand served as Director of Business Development at GEAC, a software company, for 6 years and Controller for a Real Estate firm in Virginia for 9 years. She is a proven business development specialist who is responsible for managing KTEC’s investment funds, creating deal flow through regional and national networking, managing the due diligence process, negotiating deal terms, monitoring the KTEC investment portfolio and assisting invested companies with their growth and development.

Weigand grew up in Derby, Kansas. She received her bachelor’s degree in accounting from University of Kansas and her master’s in business administration from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Weigand is also a Certified Public Accountant.

David Johnston, Ph.D., CEO of CritiTech, is a highly qualified executive with extensive leadership experience in non-clinical chemistry (chemistry, pharmaceutical product development) and clinical development (Phase I through Phase IV), regulatory approval, technology transfer, international operations, sales and marketing, and brand management. With over 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience he has demonstrated the ability to develop, commercialize and market products covering a broad range of dosage forms for use in a variety of therapeutic indications. He serves as an advisor or is on the scientific advisory board to numerous pharmaceutical companies and venture capital groups, and is on the board of directors for AerovectRx and Wilmington Pharma LLC.

Dr. Johnston’s experience includes serving as a board member for AerovectRx, Inc. from January 2008 to present and serving as the company’s interim President and CEO from June 2008 – December 2008. This company is a spin out from the Center for Disease Control and is focused on leveraging proprietary nebulizer technology for the delivery of therapeutic agents for the treatment of a variety of lung diseases. He remains on the board and serves as an advisor to the company. From 2004 to 2007 he served as Sr. Vice President of R&D for Nektar Therapeutics. He held responsibility for Nektar’s research and development activities ($150 million budget) world-wide. In addition to his R&D responsibilities he was Director of Nektar (UK), Chairman of Nektar India (Pvt.) Ltd., and a member of the Joint development committees for Bayer, Novartis, and Pfizer. From 1999-2002 he was President and COO of AAI International directing business in North America, Europe, and Mainland China involving approximately 1000 employees. He previously held leadership positions with Oread, Inc. as Ex. V.P for Drug Development, Sanofi-Winthrop, Research Division as V.P. and Deputy International Group Director of Pharmaceutical Product Development, and Sterling Winthrop, Pharmaceutical Research Division as Executive Director.

Dr. Johnston received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from St. Andrews University, St. Andrews Scotland and did his Post Doctoral Studies at Max Planck Institute, Heidelberg, Germany.