Board of Directors

Donald R. Parfet, M.B.A. - Chairman of the Board of Directors

Mr. Parfet will oversee the governance of the Company. He is a founding partner and Managing Director of the Apjohn Group, LLC. Prior to founding the Apjohn Group, he was a Senior Vice President at Pharmacia where his responsibilities included all of the Associated Businesses (Animal Health, Diagnostics, Pharmaceutical Commercial Services and Plasma Products). Additionally, he oversaw that company’s investments in Amersham Pharmacia Biotech and Biacore International AB. He also had overall Site Management responsibilities for that company’s operations in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Mr. Parfet received his BA degree in economics from the University of Arizona in 1975 and his M.B.A. degree in finance from the University of Michigan in 1977. He is a trustee of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, trustee and the past Chairman of the Board of Bronson Healthcare Group, Chair of the Board of the Kalamazoo College Board of Trustees and continues as a board member of Biacore International AB. Mr. Parfet is also a board member of MPI Research in Mattawan, Michigan and Southwest Michigan First of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Ron has over 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry and served as the Director of Cardiovascular Therapeutics at Pharmacia & Upjohn from 1990-1998. Most recently, he served as the VP of Pre-Clinical Research for Afmedica, Inc, a Kalamazoo, MI-based biotech start-up that developed a drug-eluting (sirolimus) polymer product which was placed around surgical graft sites to prevent hemodialysis access and peripheral vascular graft failure. Afmedica was acquired by Angiotech Pharmaceuticals in late 2005.  Ron is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Full Professor of Integrative Biology & Physiology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He received his B.S. Degree in Microbiology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison (1976) and Ph.D. Degree in Pharmacology from the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis (1985).

James Baker, Ph.D. – Ex Officio Member of the Board of Directors

Jim Baker is currently the Director of Technology and Economic Development at Michigan Technological University. Jim's current responsibilities include handling University inventions from disclosure, through patenting, and ultimately licensing. He also works on negotiating terms for sponsored research contracts, non-disclosure agreements, material transfer agreements, and other related agreements with industrial partners and interacts regularly with the MTEC SmartZone on regional economic development initiatives including establishment of start-up companies based on University technologies.  Jim is a registered Patent Agent and holds a B.S. in Environmental Engineering, an M.S. in Civil Engineering and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Michigan Technological University. He has been Principle or Co-Principle Investigator on more than $6 million in sponsored research, authored over 20 works in the area of chemical properties and pollution prevention, and was a delegate to a NATO Scientific and Environmental Affairs Division Workshop on Tools and Methods for Pollution Prevention in Prague, Czech Republic in 1998.