Richard Whitcomb, President and CEO. Rick’s background is in operations, services, and finance. Prior to joining BiOptix, Rick Whitcomb was Senior Manager of the On Site Services business for Agilent Technologies’ Electronic Measurement Group. His background also includes several years of Corporate Development experience for Agilent and Hewlett-Packard Co., and he was formerly Operational CFO for the Communications Network Solutions business unit at Agilent. Rick brings substantial international experience, having spent five years living and working in Europe for Agilent and Hewlett-Packard Co. During his career, he has worked with scientists in Agilent Labs and HP Labs to move promising new technologies from the lab into commercialization, and ultimately into the hands of customers.

Slava Petropavlovskikh, Director of Research and Development. Slava is a dual degree graduate in Applied Mathematics (M.S. – Military Academy) and Applied Physics (M.S. – Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow, Russia, Aerospace Department). He is an expert in applied physics, optical effects and signal manipulation and a former Science and Technology Manager at Ionics Sievers.

Marty Stanton – CSO. Marty has held key leadership roles in biotechnology companies that have translated novel technologies into products to significantly improve patient care.  Previously, Marty was the CSO and COO at SomaLogic, where he led the development of SomaLogic’s aptamer-based biomarker discovery platform. Prior to SomaLogic, Marty co-founded Dexela in 2005 to develop three-dimensional medical imaging for the early detection of cancer.

While at Dexela, he served as the President and Head of Research and Development. In 2001, Marty co-founded Archemix Corp., a biopharmaceutical developing aptamer therapeutics located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While at Archemix, Marty held a number of positions, including President and Executive Vice President. Prior to Archemix, Marty led an applied science research group at Brandeis University that developed a diverse array of applications, including proteomic technologies, x-ray crystallography detectors, and methods and instrumentation for medical imaging. Marty received his PhD from Brandeis University in Biophysics.

Nolan Smith, Vice President of Finance. Nolan brings over twelve years of financial experience in venture capital and consulting, assurance and advisory services to BiOptix.  Prior to joining BiOptix Nolan spent over three years with Boulder Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early stage investments in technology and life science companies.  Prior to his time at Boulder Ventures Nolan served as a Director in the Corporate Finance / Restructuring practice at FTI Consulting, consulting on the strategic, operational, financial and capital needs of distressed businesses. Nolan began his career with PWC, providing assurance and advisory services to both public and venture supported companies in the software, information technology and data storage industries.  Nolan graduated from the University of Kansas with high distinction.

Ken Wilczek, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. In addition to senior leadership and consulting roles both inside and outside of life sciences, prior to joining BiOptix, Ken was General Manager, Research Antibodies for Thermo Fisher Scientific.  In this role, Ken had commercial responsibility for the Thermo Scientific antibody and high content analysis businesses and led the integration of ABR—Affinity BioReagents into the company post-acquisition.  Prior to joining Thermo Fisher Scientific, Ken was the President of ABR—Affinity BioReagents, a manufacturer of research antibodies and custom antibody solutions.  Ken was instrumental in growing the company and led the expansion of both the product line as well as global sales channels, ultimately positioning the company for divestment in 2008.  Ken was also the General Manager for IHS Health Group and related divisions, a SaaS publisher to the life science, medical device and pharmaceutical industries.  In addition, Ken held general management roles at Johnson & Johnson, focusing on international market and business development.

Ken holds a Master of International Management degree from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a Bachelor of International Business Administration from The University of Denver.

Slava Petropavlovskikh, Director of Research and Development. Slava is a dual degree graduate in Applied Mathematics (M.S. – Military Academy) and Applied Physics (M.S. – Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow, Russia, Aerospace Department). He is an expert in applied physics, optical effects and signal manipulation and a former Science and Technology Manager at Ionics Sievers.

Mary Rosendahl, PhD, Director of Biochemistry. Mary earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Illinois and did her postdoctoral research at the University of Colorado Boulder in Dr. Marvin Caruther’s laboratory. She brings to the company over 20 years of biotechnology industry experience in the areas of recombinant protein purification, protein refolding, bioconjugation and process development. Previously, Mary was a Senior Scientist and Head of the Protein Chemistry Group at Bolder BioTechnology. Prior to that, She was employed as a Senior Scientist at Synergen, Inc. and later at Amgen, Inc.

Oyvind Nilsen, PhD, Senior Scientist, Engineering. Oyvind received a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Colorado at Boulder. Prior to that he earned an engineering degree (Høgskoleingeniør) from Vestfold College, Norway and was a Chief Petty Officer and an engineer with the Norwegian Navy. He is an expert in mechanical and optoelectronic-design, development and manufacturing.

Boris Khattatov, PhD, Senior Scientist, Modeling. Boris has a degree of Engineer-Physicist from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Moscow, Russia) and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is an expert in estimation theory, Kalman filters, numerical modeling, and large-scale software development.

Dr. William Freytag, Chairman of the Board of Directors of BiOptix Inc, received a B.S. from Purdue University, a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Kansas Medical Center and completed a post doctoral fellowship at Duke University. He brings over 25 years of research, product development and commercialization experience. Recently Dr Freytag served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aspreva Pharmaceuticals, a global pharmaceutical company focused on identifying, developing, and, upon approval, commercializing evidence-based medicines for patients living with less common diseases. As Chairman and CEO of Myogen, he built a focused cardiovascular biotechnology company with a robust clinical pipeline with sales and marketing capabilities. Dr. Freytag served as a Senior Advisor to Gilead as a result of Gilead’s acquisition of Myogen in November 2006. Prior to Myogen, Dr. Freytag was a Senior Vice President at Somatogen, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company where he led corporate and commercial development from 1994 to 1998. He also served as President of Research and Development at Boehringer Mannheim Corporation, an international healthcare company and spent over a decade with DuPont in various research and business management positions. He is a CEO of BaroFold Inc., Director of Immunicon Corporation, ARCA Discovery, Inc. and is a member of the Executive Board for the Colorado Biotechnology Association.

Sergey Polikarpov, Managing Director – Rusnano

Kyle Lefkoff, General Partner, Boulder Ventures, manages five venture capital funds with over $300 million in committed capital.  Mr. Lefkoff has been the lead or principal venture capital investor in 59 Colorado companies over his 24-year career as a venture capitalist. Mr. Lefkoff received his B.A. in Economics from Vassar College (summa cum laude) in 1981. In 1980, Mr. Lefkoff completed a Fellowship in Economic History at the London School of Economics.  In 1985, he completed his MBA in Finance at the University of Chicago.

Ron Lowy, Independent Director, President and CEO of The RAL Group, an independent consulting group focused on business strategy development and execution, business turnaround, acquisition/divestiture and executive coaching. Ron holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin and executive level managerial experience within companies such as GE Medical Systems, GenTek, KRONE Group and Fisher Biosciences.

Dr. William Marshall received his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Marvin Caruthers at the University of Colorado, Boulder where his research focused on developing chemical synthesis methods and determining the biological properties of oligonucleotide analogs including phorphorodithioates. Until recently William Marshall served as Site Director and Executive Vice President of Research and Operations at Dharmacon. In this capacity, Dr. Marshall oversaw Dharmacon’s daily operations and directed the company’s research and development programs. Dr. Marshall was instrumental in leading the chemistry, biology, and bioinformatics research, which led to the development of the industry’s most effective siRNA design algorithm and novel chemical modifications to enhance siRNA specificity and stability. Prior to joining Dharmacon, Dr. Marshall held several senior scientific positions at Amgen from 1992 through 2002, most recently as associate director of research and head of the Nucleic Acid and Peptide Technology department. Dr. Marshall also led the development of peptide library approaches for lead discovery and development via carrier protein fusion and peptidomimetics. Dr. Marshall is author and co-author of 30 research papers and 10 patents.

Konstantin V. Severinov, Professor, Rutgers University, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, Waksman Institute of Microbiology, seeks to understand defective transcription regulation as the common cause of aberrant growth and development that may also result in malignant transformation. His research focuses on RNA polymerase (RNAP) structure and function as a key element in gene expression in molecular detail. The long-term objective of such research is to uncover the molecular basis of transcription mechanism and regulation through structure-functional analysis of bacterial RNAP and associated proteins.

Richard Whitcomb, President and CEO. Rick’s background is in operations, services, and finance. Prior to joining BiOptix, Rick Whitcomb was Senior Manager of the On Site Services business for Agilent Technologies’ Electronic Measurement Group. His background also includes several years of Corporate Development experience for Agilent and Hewlett-Packard Co., and he was formerly Operational CFO for the Communications Network Solutions business unit at Agilent. Rick brings substantial international experience, having spent five years living and working in Europe for Agilent and Hewlett-Packard Co. During his career, he has worked with scientists in Agilent Labs and HP Labs to move promising new technologies from the lab into commercialization, and ultimately into the hands of customers.