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John Bacich Jr.
Chairman of the Board
Mr. Bacich has been involved in the biopharmaceutical industry for 38 years. Most of that experience was with Baxter Healthcare beginning in 1968 and retiring in 1998. He held a variety of positions including quality management, research and development, global manufacturing operations, and general management leading to the presidency of what is now called the Bioscience Division of Baxter Healthcare.
In his capacity as president he was responsible for the plasma products worldwide and the development of the recombinant proteins business. He was also a charter board member of Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association, which is the only industry association for plasma products producers and their recombinant equivalents.
Mr. Bacich remains active in the industry as a consultant and as a board member on various commercial firms. He is also a director of the Southern California Hemophilia Society. He attended the University of Southern California and holds a BS degree in Microbiology from California State University at Long Beach.
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Frank H. Foster
Chairman Emeritus
Mr. Foster is the Managing Director of the Gideon Hixon Fund, the venture capital investment vehicle for the Hixon Family and a venture partner of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Frontier. The Gideon Hixon Fund and its predecessor entities (HixVen and Southwest Venture Partnerships) have a long history in venture capital beginning in the 1970s. The group's venture capital investments include Apple Computer (NASDAQ & NYSE: AAPL) and Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) as well as more recent successes including CORSolutions (acquired by Matria), Medior (acquired by AOL), Security Dynamics (acquired by RSA), WebCal (acquired by Yahoo) and Xiotech (acquired by Seagate). Prior to that, he was a General Partner of Allen & Buckeridge PTY LTD, a leading Australian venture capital firm with approximately $250 million under management. At Allen & Buckeridge he led investment efforts into Hitwise, eKit, Wishlist and Next Generation Entertainment.
Mr. Foster also has extensive operational experience through his roles at Virtual Music Entertainment (sold to NAMCO), Contexture Systems and Prophecy Development Corporation. Recently, he acted as an independent director and consultant to YellowPages.com where he helped guide the company through its successful sale to SBC Communications (NYSE: SBC) and Bell South (NYSE: BLS) in November 2004. He was also a director of Cogent Data technologies through its successful sale to Adaptec Inc (NASDAQ: ADPT) in June 1996. Mr. Foster is currently a member of the board of directors for Prolacta Bioscience, eKit.com, Hixon Properties Incorporated, and Our Happy Child Productions. He received his MBA from The Harvard Business School and a BA cum laude from Harvard University.
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David Cremin
Board Member
David Cremin, is a founder and Managing Director of DFJ Frontier, a Draper Fisher Jurvetson affiliate and venture capital fund focused on seed and early stage technology companies in California . At Frontier, he leads fund management, fundraising and portfolio management efforts. Mr. Cremin has significant entrepreneurial and venture capital experience. He was a founding partner of Zone Ventures in Los Angeles. Before Zone Ventures, he served as Founder and CEO of Vis-ŕ-Vis Entertainment, a music publishing and digital media company.
Mr. Cremin worked for a short period in strategic planning at Citicorp Credit Services. He also spent several years touring as a professional musician and recording artist for RCA Records, Atlantic Records, Elektra Records and EastWest Records. Mr. Cremin is a board director of OnTech, Prolacta Bioscience, Digital Campaigns, MusicSystems and The BizWorld Foundation. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.
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Alison de Bord
Board Member
Ms. de Bord joined Alta Partners in 2001 to focus on later stage life sciences investments. She serves on the board of directors for Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Insulet Corporation, Prolacta Bioscience, Sierra Surgical Technologies and SurgRx.
Prior to Alta Partners, Ms. de Bord was a Senior Associate in Robertson Stephens' Life Sciences Investment Banking Group with primary responsibilities for the execution of corporate finance transactions including IPOs, follow-on equity and convertible preferred offerings. Previously, she was an Associate in Robertson Stephens' Equity Research Group where she focused on growth medical technology companies. She began her career in the business development group at Geron, a biotechnology company.
Ms. de Bord earned a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in history from Colgate University.
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Scott A. Elster
Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Elster has over 20 years of experience in the biosciences and financial sectors. His experience encompasses planning, finance and strategy development, supply chain, and operations. Most recently, Mr. Elster was director of operations and supply chain at Clinical Micro Sensors (CMS), a Motorola Company. There, Mr. Elster successfully prepared operations for the company’s first commercial launch, including FDA approval of the GMP manufacturing facility. He led the quality control function, the manufacturing team, and operational strategy development. His team was also responsible for materials and inventory management, as well as distribution and warehousing.
For over 13 years at Baxter, Mr. Elster’s management work was focused directly on plasma products worldwide. His roles included manager of strategic planning, business development, finance and strategy for the hyperimmune business unit, and director of global supply chain. Mr. Elster began his career at Deloitte and Touche as a financial statement auditor, and is a current board member and past chairman of the board for Monrovia Growers.
Mr. Elster received a Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Northridge, and a Master of Business degree from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at University of California, Los Angeles.
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Tiffany Humphreys Foster
Board Member
Ms. Foster joined Prolacta's board in September, 2005. She brings relevant experience in operations, strategic planning, and entrepreneurial finance. She is also a strong advocate for breast feeding and children's health issues.
Ms. Foster began her business career working for The L/E/K Partnership, (a strategy consulting firm), doing business unit profitability, new product introduction and expansion strategies for large multinational companies. After graduating from Harvard Business School, she worked for Reebok International as manager of strategic planning, where she assisted with strategic direction, positioning and branding, followed by a role as business unit manager of Reebok's Women's Sports and fitness division.
Ms. Foster's more recent focus has been working as an investor/manager of early stage ventures. In 1996, she founded AFC Sportz, Inc., (a network of cycling training centers), which she ran for 4 years. She then worked as the Director of international expansion for BT LookSmart, a JV between LookSmart and British Telecom, to start an internet search and directory company, which expanded into eight countries across Europe and Asia. Currently, Ms. Foster is a private investor overseeing a portfolio of six investments.
Ms. Foster serves on the Board of the Storyteller Children's Center, a pre-school and daycare center that serves homeless children in Santa Barbara and is actively involved in fundraising for this organization, her childrens' schools and other local non-profit organizations. Ms. Foster holds a Bachelor of Science in Organic Chemistry with First Class Honors from the University of Sydney and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
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Stephen H. Watkins
Board Member
Stephen Watkins is a founding partner of Arcturus Capital, an early stage venture capital firm focused on Southern California companies. Mr. Watkins is a board member for Ondax, Inc. and Prolacta Biosciences, and a board observer at SupplyFrame.
Prior to working in the venture capital industry, Mr. Watkins worked for Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He participated in the launch of their first commercial product, Agenerase™, which is for patients with HIV infection. Before Vertex, Mr. Watkins worked for Amgen Inc., (the nation's largest biotechnology company), in a variety of capacities in the sales & marketing and executive departments. Mr. Watkins earned a Master of Business Administration from the Anderson School at University of California Los Angeles, and received his undergraduate degree at the University of California at Berkeley.
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