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Mr. Gifford leads The Foundry in all of its activities, including the identification and early development of new technologies, the formation, staffing and growth of new companies, and serving as a board member of the new ventures. Most recently, Mr. Gifford was Vice President of Research and Development at Heartport, Inc.. From 1993-1998, he built and led a 62-person team developing a wide variety of novel devices and procedures for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery that were instrumental in the company's enormously successful public offering in 1996. Heartport's market capitalization at its peak in 1996 reached over $1 billion. In 1992, Mr. Gifford and Professor Dr. Berthold Hoefling co-founded Bavaria Medizin Technologie (BMT), GmbH, to develop innovative drug delivery catheters and to establish a German source for innovation and production of catheters for Interventional Cardiology. During the two-year period following the founding of this business, he served in the role of Managing Director of BMT until such time as he transitioned management of the company to a German national. In 1990, Mr. Gifford and John B. Simpson, MD, Ph.D., founded Cardiovascular Therapeutic Technologies, Inc., a business devoted to the development of innovative local drug delivery catheters for thrombolytic and antiproliferative agents. Eli Lilly and Company acquired this business for its technology in 1991, and it became the original basis for Guidant's Compass organization. From 1985-1990, Mr. Gifford worked at Devices for Vascular Intervention (DVI), where he was the driving force behind the design of the company's first generation Peripheral and Coronary atherectomy systems. In addition, during this period he served in various Clinical Research and Marketing capacities. Before joining DVI, Hanson worked in an engineering role at Oximetrix, Inc., working in the field of intravascular blood gas monitoring
Robert I. Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School, where he is Co-Director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization, an active researcher and cofounder in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, an IDEO Fellow and an Honorary PeopleSoft Fellow. Sutton is also a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Teaching and Learning. Sutton received his Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from The University of Michigan and has served on the Stanford faculty since 1983. He has also taught at the Haas Business School and was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences during the 1986-87, 1994-95, and 2002-03 academic years. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous scholarly publications, and as an editor for the Administrative Science Quarterly and Research in Organizational Behavior. Sutton's honors include the award for the best paper published in the Academy of Management Journal, induction into the Academy of Management Journals Hall of Fame, the Eugene L. Grant Award for Excellence in Teaching, the McGraw-Hill Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award, the McCullough Faculty Scholar Chair from Stanford, and selection by Business 2.0 as a leading "management guru" in 2002. Sutton studies the links between managerial knowledge and organizational action, innovation, and organizational performance. He as published over 90 articles and chapters in scholarly and applied publications. He has also published seven books and edited volumes. His research and opinions are often described in the press and he is also currently writing a bi-monthly column for CIO Insight on organizational behavior. Sutton has been a guest on numerous radio and television shows.
Guy Kawasaki is a founder and Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures. Prior to this position, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. and sits on the board of BitPass Inc. A noted speaker and the founder of various personal computer companies, Guy was one of the individuals responsible for the success of the Macintosh computer. He is also the author of eight books including Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. Guy holds a B.A. from Stanford University and a M.B.A. from UCLA, as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
Before co-founding Fluidigm, as Mycometrix, Mr. Worthington held a variety of engineering, operations and marketing positions at Actel Corporation, which designs, develops and markets field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and associated design and development software and programming hardware. Mr. Worthington served in several departments during his tenure at Actel, including product engineering, R&D engineering management, program management, product planning, and strategic marketing. His last position at Actel was Director, Strategic Marketing and Product Planning. Mr. Worthington received his undergraduate degree in Physics and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Randy Komisar joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers in 2005 as a partner. For several years prior Randy has partnered with entrepreneurs creating businesses with leading edge technologies. He was a co-founder of Claris Corporation, served as CEO for LucasArts Entertainment and Crystal Dynamics, and acted as a "virtual CEO" for such companies as WebTV, Mirra and GlobalGiving. He was a founding Director of TiVo where he is currently chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee. Earlier Randy served as CFO of GO Corporation and Senior Counsel for Apple Computer, following a private practice in Technology Law. Randy holds a BA in Economics from Brown University and a JD form Harvard Law School. He is a Consulting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Stanford University and author of the best-selling book The Monk and the Riddle, as well as several articles on leadership and entrepreneurship. Randy frequently speaks here and abroad on such topics.
David M. Kelley is a California-based entrepreneur, educator, engineer, and venture capitalist. He was featured by Fortune magazine as one of the "People to Watch" and was selected for the "I.D. 40" list of America's leading design innovators. In that listing he was described as "the most sought-after design engineer this side of Thomas Edison." He is the founder and CEO of IDEO Product Development, America's largest independent product design and development firm. In addition to his work at IDEO Product Development, Kelley is a tenured professor at Stanford University in the school's innovative Product Design program. As a faculty member, Professor Kelley is interested in new product development methodology from inception to production with an emphasis on user-centered design. He encourages broad understanding of product design methodologies, exposing his students to a variety of viewpoints in classroom discussions and project work. Professor Kelley's primary involvement is in the product design program, a joint program with the art department which emphasizes the blending of innovation, human values, and aesthetic concerns into a single curriculum. He also teaches in the Human Computer Interface program, which is a joint program with computer science.
Frank H. Levinson founded Finisar in April 1987 and has served as a member of our Board of Directors since February 1988 and as our Chairman of the Board and Chief Technical Officer since August 1999. Mr. Levinson also served as our Chief Executive Officer from February 1988 to August 1999. From September 1980 to December 1983, Mr. Levinson was a Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories. From January 1984 to July 1984, he was a Member of Technical Staff at Bellcore, a provider of services and products to the communications industry. From April 1985 to December 1985, Mr. Levinson was the principal optical scientist at Raychem Corporation, and from January 1986 to February 1988, he was Optical Department Manager at Raynet, Inc., a fiber optic systems company. Mr. Levinson holds a B.S. in Mathematics/Physics from Butler University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Virginia.
John G. Melo is the Chief Executive Officer of Amyris Biotechnologies, a synthetic biology company working to reduce the cost of curing malaria and producing lower carbon, second generation bio-fuels. He was previously president of U.S. Fuels for BP, where he led one of the world's largest petroleum marketing, logistics, and trading businesses. While in this role he successfully grew revenues from $25 billion to $34 billion and increased net cash by $1 billion. During this time his team developed one of the world's most successful ethanol blending and marketing businesses. He also worked on the development of BP's "Helios" re-branding. Prior to his eight years with BP, Mr. Melo was a director with Ernst & Young in San Jose, California, and a management team member for several Northern California start-ups, including Computer Aided Services and Alldata Corporation. John serves on the Board of Directors for U.S. Oil, a $1.6 billion energy company, and Cilion, a leading low-cost ethanol manufacturer. John is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, The Chicago Club, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and YPO. He enjoys visiting his home country of Azores, Portugal, as well as skiing, biking, tennis, golf, and time with his children.
Beth joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in May 2005 to work in life sciences. For the past 20 years, she has focused her career on introducing new innovative treatments for AIDS, arthritis, asthma, cancer, psoriasis, cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological and renal disorders. Seidenberg has introduced 10 innovative products to market and achieved over 40 regulatory approvals, including new indications and formulations, worldwide. These products have been successfully commercialized and provided benefits to millions of patients with grievous illnesses, and they have generated several billion dollars of revenue. Prior to joining KPCB, Beth was Senior Vice President, Global Development, and Chief Medical Officer at Amgen, Inc., the world's largest biotechnology company. During Beth's three years there, her responsibilities included all stages of clinical research, regulatory affairs, safety, health economics/reimbursement and medical affairs. During her tenure, five innovative products were approved for commercial use. Prior to joining Amgen, Beth was a senior executive in research and development at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Merck & Co., Inc. She began her career in basic and clinical research at the National Institutes of Health specializing in immunology and infectious diseases. Beth received her BS from Barnard College magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa; and her medical degree from the University Of Miami School Of Medicine, alpha omega alpha. Her post-graduate training was completed at Johns Hopkins, George Washington School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. She is a member of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Advisory Board and Barnard College Science Advisory Board.
Dr. Larry Brilliant is the Executive Director of Google.org, where he leads major initiatives aimed at reducing global poverty, improving the health of the least advantaged in the world, and working to halt the effects of the climate crisis. Larry is an M.D. and M.P.H., board-certified in preventive medicine and public health. He is a founder and director of The Seva Foundation, which works in dozens of countries around the world, primarily to eliminate preventable and curable blindness. He serves as a member of the strategic advisory committee for Kleiner Perkins (KPCB) Venture Capital and also sits on the boards of The Skoll Foundation, Health Metrics Network, Omidyar Networks Humanity United, and InSTEDD, an organization bringing technological tools to improve disaster response. In addition to his medical career, Larry co-founded The Well, a pioneering virtual community, with Stewart Brand in 1985. He also holds a telecommunications technology patent and has served as CEO of two public companies and other venture-backed start-ups. The author of two books and dozens of articles on infectious diseases, blindness, and international health policy, Larry has worked at every level of government. He was recently a "first responder" for CDC's smallpox bio-terrorism response effort, volunteered in Sri Lanka for tsunami relief, and established an interdisciplinary consultancy to prepare for possible pandemic influenza. Larry lived in India working as a United Nations medical officer for more than a decade where he played a key role in the successful World Health Organization (WHO) smallpox eradication program and has recently worked for the WHO polio eradication effort as well. He was Associate Professor of epidemiology, global health planning and economic development at the University of Michigan. Larry earned a Masters in Public Health in health planning and economic development from the Univ
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