George Emont (Chairman) – Mr. Emont is a partner with Triathlon Medical Ventures and a Managing Partner of the Kentucky Seed Capital Fund.  Mr. Emont’s two decades of health care industry experience include 12 years in venture capital. Prior to joining Triathlon and KCSF, Mr. Emont was the Director of Venture Capital for Humana Inc. where he managed a venture capital fund that made investments totaling over $75 million in 11 portfolio companies and three venture funds. George’s resume includes service with Baxter Healthcare Corporation and IAI Venture Capital Group, followed by the successful launch and eventual sale of oncology-focused biotechnology start-up OncoTherapeutics.
 
Rahul Aras, Ph.D. – Dr. Aras is the President & CEO for Juventas and has raised nearly $10 million in venture capital and grant funding to transition the company from concept to its current stage.  Prior to Juventas, Rahul was the Director, Life Science Commercialization at Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI) where he is managed commercialization of all biotechnology and pharmaceutical related technologies.  During his career, Rahul has been responsible for negotiating and managing dozens of partnerships resulting in several million dollars of revenue including the two largest biotechnology deals at Cleveland Clinic.  He received a B.S. from Tufts University and a Ph.D. in biomedical research from New York University and has held research positions at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital publishing articles in several leading scientific journals.  
 
Mike Bunker – Mr. Bunker is a Managing Director with Early Stage Partners and leads their life-science investment group.  He joined ESP after a five-year stint at C.R. Bard, where he was director of corporate business development. He also was district manager for Bard Access Systems, the Salt Lake City company that makes medical devices to deliver chemotherapy, blood products, antibiotics, drugs and food to patients intravenously.   Prior to C.R. Bard, Bunker was senior marketing manager for the Global Defibrillation Systems business of Medtronic, the medical device maker in Minneapolis. He also was senior associate of corporate development there, vetting more than 30 investments.

Joydeep Goswami, Ph.D. – Dr. Goswami is the Vice President of Stem Cell & Regenerative Biology for Invitrogen Corporation.  Invitrogen is a $4.2 Billion biotechnology company that develops and sells research reagents for the life sciences market.  Joydeep started the new Regenerative Medicine Division after having led their Global Licensing group.  He leads a global team responsible for development, marketing, and sale of stem cell and regenerative technology-related products worldwide, including a novel stem cell-based drug screening program.  Prior to Invitrogen, Joydeep worked with McKinsey & Co. where he served major clients primarily in the pharmaceutical industry.  He received a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and an M.B.A. from MIT.
 
Roger Newton, Ph.D. – Dr. Newton is President & CEO, and a director of Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to his current role, he was Senior Vice President, Pfizer Global R&D and Director, Esperion Therapeutics, a Pfizer, Inc. company. He was co-founder, President & CEO of the original Esperion founded in July 1998. Under Roger's leadership and the team's effort, Esperion raised more than $200 million in funding, building a portfolio of biopharmaceuticals and small molecule product candidates, and was acquired by Pfizer for $1.3 billion in February 2004. Pfizer then divested Esperion in May 2008 and Roger restarted the company as an independent enterprise with $23 million in venture capital funding. Prior to founding the original Esperion, Roger was with Warner Lambert/Parke-Davis (now Pfizer) from 1981-1998. As a Distinguished Scientist and Chairman of the Atherosclerosis Drug Discovery Team, he co-discovered and was the product champion of what is now the most prescribed cholesterol-reducing drug in the world, atorvastatin (Lipitor®).
 
Matthew Pollman, M.D. – Dr. Pollman is a cardiologist and cardiovascular molecular biologist with over 10 years of experience leading R&D initiatives in the biotechnology, diagnostics, and medical devices healthcare arenas. He is currently a Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of CV Ingenuity, an early stage startup company developing a novel combination drug/device therapy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Prior to this latest venture, he served as Medical Director, Research and Development, Abbott Vascular. In this role, he was the principal medical and scientific strategist and advisor for the R&D pipeline and Business Development portfolios; guiding both internal and external technology investments.  Prior to Abbott’s acquisition of Guidant Corporation, Dr. Pollman was Guidant’ s"intrapreneur", directing the New Ventures group, a 30+ member in-house start-up incubator responsible for identifying, exploring and incubating significant new business opportunities utilizing emerging device or combination product technologies. Dr. Pollman received his medical training at the University of California San Francisco, Stanford University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has served as a full-time faculty member at Harvard Medical School and Morehouse School of Medicine.
 
Linda Tufts–Ms Tufts is a Founding Partner in Fletcher Spaght Ventures, and is also Vice President and head of the Healthcare Practice Group at Fletcher Spaght, the firm’s consulting business. Prior to joining Fletcher Spaght in 1989, Linda was affiliated with the Sony Corporation of America as an internal consultant, participating in a worldwide effort to streamline the process to commercialize new products and technologies. Previously, Linda was a Manager with Bain & Company in their Boston office. At Bain, Linda managed assignments in healthcare and service industries and was also affiliated with a Bain-Baxter joint program, Travenol Management Services. Before joining Bain, Linda was a Consultant with Strategic Planning Associates, now Mercer Management Consulting, in their Washington, D.C. office, where her work included strategy and financial consulting assignments in many industries. Prior to business school, Linda worked as an Electrical Engineer.