Board of Directors
Robert Chess — Chairman
Rob currently serves as Chairman of Nektar Therapeutics, in addition to his work at OPXBIO. Nektar Therapeutics is a publicly listed company (NASDAQ: NKTR) that develops improved pharmaceutical products using its innovative drug delivery platforms. Rob joined Nektar in 1991 as its first non-founder employee, and was the company's CEO through 1999. Since 1999, he has served as Nektar's chairman and was also the acting CEO in 2006. Rob was previously the co-founder and president of Penederm, Inc., a publicly traded dermatological pharmaceutical company that was sold to Mylan Laboratories. He has held management positions at Intel Corporation and Metaphor Computer Systems (now part of IBM), and was a member of the first President Bush's White House staff. Rob is chairman of Bio Venture for Global Health and a member of the Board of Directors of Metabolex, and is on the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology and the Committee for Economic Development. He is a member of the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he teaches courses in entrepreneurship and management of health care innovation, and is an adjunct fellow at Stanford's Center for Health Policy. Rob received his B.S. degree in engineering from the California Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Harvard.
Charles (Chas) R. Eggert — President and CEO
Chas is applying more than 30 years of experience in the global specialty-chemical industry to the leadership of OPXBIO. Prior to joining OPXBIO in September 2008, Chas was president of the Specialty Polymers Group, a $500 million revenue division of Akzo Nobel. Earlier, he held top management responsibility for the Food Ingredients - Europe and global Personal Care business units of ICI prior to the acquisition of ICI by Akzo Nobel. While at ICI, he was a board director of the American Chemistry Council. Chas began his career with Monsanto Company, progressing through roles in technology, manufacturing, business development, marketing, and general management. His work at Monsanto included an assignment as vice president of Monsanto Venture Capital. Chas is a board director of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), as well as a founding director and vice chairman of the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association. Chas earned an MBA in marketing and finance from Washington University in St. Louis and an M.S. in biochemical engineering from the University of Minnesota. He also holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Washington University.
Ryan Gill, Ph.D. — Senior Scientific Advisor
Ryan is the Patten Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the managing director for the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2). Ryan has more than a decade of experience in the development and application of new genomics tools for metabolic and strain engineering purposes. Ryan has been at CU since 2001, after doing postdoctoral research at MIT from 1999 to 2001 and Ph.D. research at the University of Maryland from 1995 to 1999.
William D. Lese
William is a co-founder and managing director of Braemar Energy Ventures, a venture capital firm headquartered in New York City that focuses exclusively on investing in early- to mid-stage energy technology companies, primarily in the United States and Canada. Mr. Lese has more than 24 years of research, operating, and venture capital experience in energy and environmental businesses. Prior to co-founding Braemar, Mr. Lese was a partner with Mantis Holdings, Inc., a venture capital firm focused on investing in environmental and energy efficiency companies, where he concentrated on emerging technologies for converting industrial waste streams into value-added products. Prior to Mantis Holdings, he was the director of business development for NPS Industries, Inc., an international manufacturer of engineered equipment for the power industry. Mr. Lese's business development activities included managing a joint venture with Consolidated Edison Co., and managing other key customer relationships. Prior to joining NPS Industries, he was one of the original employees of Sithe Energies, Inc. (an affiliate of Vivendi, SA), which became one of the world's largest independent power producers. At Sithe Energies, Mr. Lese had project and technical oversight responsibilities, including managing several power projects. Mr. Lese has both chaired and participated on numerous panels focusing on energy technology investment opportunities and major energy issues. He currently serves on boards of directors of EnerNOC, Celunol, Coaltek, and Utility Associates. He is chairman of the board of Solicore and serves as a board observer for Stion, Enerkem, and Fractal Systems. Mr. Lese has both a B.A. in physics and an M.S. in energy science from New York University.
Cory Steffek
Cory is an investment manager at Altira Group, a venture capital firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Altira focuses exclusively on investing in energy technology companies in both the traditional and renewable sectors. Cory brings to Altira extensive experience in material science and clean-tech product development and leads the team's efforts in energy technology assessment. In addition to OPXBIO, Dr. Steffek serves on the Board of Directors of Varidigm and as a board observer for eps Corp., EcoPower Solutions, and Amended Silicates. Cory actively supports renewable energy, clean-tech, and entrepreneurial endeavors in higher education and the business community. He is on the Board of the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association and serves on the Advisory Board of the Colorado School of Mines Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development. Prior to joining Altira, Cory directed multiple energy efficiency technology portfolio development projects at PPG Industries. Areas of focus included optical thin films, nanotechnology, catalysis, and polymer synthesis and processing. While at PPG, he initiated and directed several new clean technology portfolio development projects to successful product launch. He has authored 18 U.S. patents that are in various stages of progress. Cory has a Ph.D. in materials chemistry from the University of Michigan and an MBA in finance from the Kellogg School of Management.
Erik Straser
Erik leads Mohr Davidow's Cleantech investment team and applies his expertise in areas of solar, biofuels, energy storage, industrial biotech, and clean coal. Prior to Mohr Davidow, Erik worked at Interval Research Corp., a technology incubator funded by Paul Allen, and at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as a technical staff member. He also consulted to several seed and early-stage venture capital firms. While pursuing a Ph.D. in engineering at Stanford, Erik led an interdisciplinary project between the electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering departments to develop a next-generation monitoring system for critical facilities. He holds a U.S. patent from his research work. Erik serves on the advisory council of the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency, as well as on the advisory boards of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), Stanford's BASES, NVCA Cleantech Council, and Cleantech Venture Network. He is a winner of the 2006 World Technology Award for Finance, presented by the World Technology Network in association with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Dow Chemical, Cisco, Time magazine, Fortune magazine, Science magazine/AAAS, Red Herring, and CNN. Erik earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Harvey Mudd College and both doctoral and master's degrees from the Stanford University School of Engineering.