Board of Directors

Dr. Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Dr. Hood’s professional career began at Caltech where he and his colleagues pioneered four instruments, which comprise the technological foundation for contemporary molecular biology. Dr. Hood moved to the University of Washington in 1992 as founder and Chairman of the cross-disciplinary Department of Molecular Biotechnology. He co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Washington in 2000 to pioneer systems approaches to biology and medicine. In 2007, he was elected to the Inventors Hall of Fame (for the automated DNA sequencer). Dr. Hood has also played a role in founding more than 14 biotechnology companies, including Amgen and Applied Biosystems. 

Joe Ashley, Director, has held key management positions in several biotechnology and medical device companies. From 1974 to 1983, he was the President of Beckman Instruments’ Clinical Division, which was acquired by Smith Kline in 1983. From 1983 to 1985, he was the President of Genetic Systems, one of Seattle’s first biotechnology companies, that was then acquired by Bristol-Myers in 1984. He is currently Chairman of Copernicus Therapeutics, a DNA-based drug delivery company in Cleveland, Ohio.

Gordon Gardiner, Director, is a Managing Partner of Swiftsure Capital LLC, a Seattle-based private equity firm. Prior to joining Swiftsure in January 2006, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Delafield Hambrecht, Inc., a Seattle-based full service investment bank, where he managed the investment banking and brokerage groups. Previously, he served as Chief Financial Officer of three technology companies where he was responsible for raising capital and for corporate development. Mr. Gardiner was also Managing Director of Burrill & Company, where he advised health care companies on private capital raising. Prior to 1995, he worked for 15 years with J.P. Morgan & Co. in New York, Milan and San Francisco. Mr. Gardiner completed the Executive Program for Growing Companies at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Harvard College.

Dan Rosen, Ph.D., Director, is CEO of Dan Rosen & Associates. From 2000 till 2006, he was the founding general partner of Frazier Technology Ventures, a technology venture capital firm. Prior to that, he held several executive posts at Microsoft, including General Manager of New Technology at Microsoft Research and General Manager, MSN Network. Earlier in his career, Dr. Rosen was the VP and general manager of AT&T’s first consumer Internet offering and AT&T’s first Managing Director for Northern & Eastern Europe. He is chairman of Clearsight Systems, the Alliance of Angels, and serves on the boards of Modumetal, The Technology Alliance, and the Humane Society of King County. He previously was on the boards of UUNET (now part of Verizon), General Magic, and Individual Inc. He holds a Ph.D. in biophysics from University of California San Diego, and a B.A. in biology from Brandeis University.

David Thacher, Director, was a Microsoft Partner and led the worldwide R&D effort for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Thacher directed the Microsoft CRM business and product group from its inception. He joined Microsoft in 1988 and held various leadership roles within the Microsoft Windows NT®, Publisher, Office and bCentral™ teams. He is a graduate of Yale University.

Steve Wood, Director, is Founder and Chairman of Wireless Services Corporation, a software provider for wireless carriers, based in Bellevue, WA. He was originally on the founding teams of both Microsoft and McCaw Cellular. Mr. Wood was Microsoft's sixth employee and first General Manager. At McCaw Cellular, while he was Vice President of Information Broadcasting, Mr. Wood incubated Notable Technologies, which was spun off to become Wireless Services Corporation. Mr. Wood also founded a number of start-ups, including Asymetrix, Starwave Corporation (now Disney interactive) and Interval Research (an industrial research center devoted to computational genetics). He currently serves on the Board of Directors for INVESTools Inc., a publicly-traded investor education company, and the WSA. Mr. Wood received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Case Western Reserve and his Master of Electrical Engineering degree from Stanford University.

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