Board of Directors
Expert Guidance
Alnoor Shivji
Chairman of the Board
Mr. Shivji is a co-founder of WaferGen and served as its Chief Executive Officer from April 2003 until October 2011, and as Chairman of the Board since October 2002. Between December 2003 and July 2006, he was the Investment Director at VPSA, Inc. in Paris, France, and between October 2001 and February 2002, he served as President and CEO of Redwave Networks, Inc. From April 2001 to August 2001, Mr. Shivji was President of Metro Switching Division of Ciena Corp. Between August 1998 and March 2001, he was the Founder, President and CEO of Cyras Systems. He co-founded Fiberlane Communications, Inc. and was President of Fiberlane Communications (Canada), Inc. from December 1996 to April 1998.
Mr. Shivji also co-founded Osiware, an enterprise software company sold to Infonet Services Corporation, which was later acquired by BT Group plc. Currently, he is a General Partner with Global Asset Capital, a venture capital firm with which he has been associated since March 2002, and has a long history advising and investing in Silicon Valley startups.
Mr. Shivji holds a B.S. degree from the University of British Columbia.
Robert C. Coradini
Director
Prior to joining of the Board of Directors at WaferGen Biosystems in October 2009 Mr. Coradini was President, New Ventures of Johnson & Johnson Consumer Group of Companies (2004-2009). He joined J&J in 1996 and has served as the Chief Executive and President of various subsidiaries including: Lifescan, Cordis Endovascular, OrthoNeutrogena, Cardiovations (Ethicon), and was the head of Business Development for the Medical Devices & Diagnostics Group. Prior to joining J&J, Mr. Coradini was business manager for GE Medical Systems, Inc.
Mr. Coradini received his MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business with a concentration in Finance, Marketing & International Business and his B. A. in Biology & Economics with High Distinctions from the University of Rochester.
Scott R. Davidson
Director
Scott R. Davidson currently serves as Managing Director at Great Point Partners, Greenwich, CT. As part of his investment functions, he leads Great Point Partners’ medical devices and diagnostics investing efforts. Prior to joining Great Point, he served in various capacities at Piper Jaffray & Co.; Bear, Stearns & Co.; Robertson Stephens & Co.; and Canaan Partners. He holds an A.B. from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
R. Dean Hautamaki, M.D.
Director
Dr. Hautamaki has served as our director since the closing of the Merger. Dr. Hautamaki is a practicing physician and since January 2005 has been the Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Florida State University College of Medicine in Tallahassee, Florida. From September 2003 to December 2005, Dr. Hautamaki was the Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida. From September 1997 through December 2005, he was a partner at Lung Associates of Sarasota in Sarasota, Florida. Dr. Hautamaki has authored over 12 papers and presented in several conferences.
Makoto Kaneshiro
Director
Mr. Kaneshiro has served as director of WaferGen since March 2005. Mr. Kaneshiro is a founding member of Genetic Devices, Co., Ltd. in Japan and prior to that was the Executive Director of Overseas Investment for CSK Venture Capital Co., Ltd., where he had been since 2001. Previously, Mr. Kaneshiro was Executive Vice President of Sega.com and Sega of America. Before Sega, he was with the business development and corporate planning team of Sony Corporation of America. From 2003 to 2004, Mr. Kaneshiro was a member of the Board of Directors of Sega Corporation, a publicly traded company in Japan. He holds an MBA from Yale University.
Joel Kanter
Director
Joel Kanter has been in the financial services industry for over three decades and has focused on providing equity and bridge financing to small- and mid-sized companies, and institutional financing to mature enterprises. He has served as President of Windy City, Inc., a privately held investment firm, and as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Walnut Financial Services, Inc., a publicly traded company. Mr. Kanter serves on the Board of Directors of several public and privately held companies: Aquamatrix, Inc., Echo Healthcare Acquisition Corp., Modigene, Inc., I-Flow Corporation, Magna-Lab, Inc.
Mr. Kanter has a B.A. in political science and a B.A. in psychology from Tulane University.
Joseph F. Pesce, CPA
Director
Joseph F. Pesce has been a Managing Director and Operating Partner of Great Point Partners, LLC since January 1, 2011. Previously, he was the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Thomas H. Lee Partners, whom he joined in 2001, and where he was promoted to Managing Director and Chief of Operations in 2006. Most recently, he has served as that firm’s Chief Risk Officer. Prior to that, Mr. Pesce spent over 25 years in senior financial positions in high technology, healthcare and consulting services companies. Mr. Pesce received an A.B. in Mathematics with honors from Boston College and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants and Financial Executives International.
Timothy J. Triche, M.D., Ph.D.
Director
As Director of the Center for Personalized Medicine at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Dr. Triche manages a large cancer genomics, biology, and nanotechnology laboratory research program funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), Children’s Oncology Group (COG), University of Southern California (USC) Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, and several private philanthropic entities. Until recently, Dr. Triche was Chief of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine for over 20 years. Previously, Dr. Triche was Section Chief and Head of Molecular Diagnostics in the Laboratory of Pathology at the National Cancer Institute. He received his pathology specialty training at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and subsequently did a fellowship at the NCI prior to joining the faculty there. Dr. Triche received his undergraduate degree in physics and biology from Cornell University, where he was a Cornell National Scholar, and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Tulane University, where he was a Medical Scientist Training Program grant recipient.
Dr. Triche is a Beckman Fellow of the Beckman Macular Research Center at the Doheny Eye Institute, and serves on the Board of Directors of publicly traded LTC Properties Corporation and several small private biotech companies. He is also on the board of PROOF, a Vancouver, Canada-based centre for personalized medicine related to organ transplantation. He is a founding member of Children’s Oncology Group, where he has served in multiple capacities, including Associate Chair for Translational Research. He is a standing member of NCI’s Advisory Committees for clinical and basic cancer biology studies, where he frequently reviews grant proposals in cancer biology and treatment, genomics, and nanotechnology.