Management
Executive Chairman and CEO
Garrett Gruener
Co-Founder, Director, Alta Partners
Mr. Gruener is a co-founder of Alta Partners, and was formerly a Partner at
Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. He has more than two decades of experience in
software development, systems engineering and corporate development.
He founded Virtual Microsystems, a communications software company that was later
merged with a larger corporation, and Ask Jeeves, a leading Internet search engine. A
specialist in information technology, Mr. Gruener is on the boards of directors of several
companies, including Ask Jeeves and Nanōmix. He earned a Masters Degree from the
University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science from the University of
California, San Diego, both in political science with a focus on technology policy.
Board Member
Marvin L. Cohen, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, Nanōmix
Professor Cohen is a preeminent figure in the field of theoretical con-
densed matter physics. He is a founding scientist of Nanōmix and also serves as a
Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is a member of the
National Academy of Sciences, a member of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a
Fellow of the American Physical Society, and the recipient of numerous scientific
awards, including the National Medal of Science and the Foresight Institute Feynman
Prize.
Board Member
Guy P. Nohra
Co-founder, Managing Director, Alta Partners
Mr. Nohra is a co-founder and managing director of Alta Partners, and was
also a partner at Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. He has been involved in the
funding and development of notable medical technology and life science companies,
including Cutera, Innerdyne, R2 Technology, deCODE genetics, and Vesica.
Previously, Mr. Nohra was Product Manager of Medical Products with Security Pacific
Trading Corp., responsible for a multi-million dollar product line. He serves on the
boards of several companies, including AcelRx, ATS Medical, Carbylan Biosurgery,
Coapt Systems, Paracor Medical, PneumRx and Vertiflex, and is the Chairman of the
Board of USGI Medical. He also serves on the board of the Medical Device
Manufacturing Association and is the President of the Silicon Valley chapter of The
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. He holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago
and a B.A. from Stanford University.
Board Member, Audit Committee Chairperson
Gregory Schiffman
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Dendreon Corporation
Mr. Schiffman was previously Executive Vice President and Chief
Financial Officer at Affymetrix. Before that he was the Vice President Controller at
Applied BioSystems and managed their global financial operations. He headed up a
variety of global assignments at Hewlett Packard including international finance projects
in Europe and Asia, and a U.S. manufacturing operation. He also worked for IBM in
several financial positions. He serves on the board of Xenogen Corp., a leading
biotechnology company offering an integrated suite of biophotonic real-time in vivo
imaging and transgenic technologies. Mr. Schiffman received an M.B.A. from
Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Board Advisor
Alex Zettl, Ph.D.
Nanōmix Co-Founder; Professor, Department of Physics, University of
California, Berkeley
Professor Zettl is a founding scientist of Nanōmix Inc. and also leads the
Superconductivity and the sp2 Nanoscience Programs at the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory. He is a renowned expert on condensed-matter experimental
physicists, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Professor Zettl's primary
expertise is in the synthesis and characterization of novel materials and nanostructures.