D. Ronald Yagoda | Chairman
William A. Hanna | Director
Christopher P. Martin | Director
Ned Scheetz | Director
Sharon Stevenson | Director

D. Ronald Yagoda, Chairman

Ron Yagoda is the Founder and Managing Partner of DryAz Consulting, an investment banking consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and raising capital. Mr. Yagoda has 40 years experience as a professional investor and entrepreneur. He is a former member of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). He has also been a founder and CEO of several successful "start ups" in the orthopedic industry, including Orthopaedic Biosystems Ltd. (OBL) and OsteoBiologics, Inc. (OBI).

Ron Yagoda is a graduate of The University of Oklahoma, and attended the OU Law school. He sits on the boards of University of Oklahoma Price College of Business; The Bizzell Memorial Library; OrthoScan Inc.; Research Corporation Technologies, Inc.

William A. Hanna, Director

William Hanna is a Managing Director with California Technology Ventures, LLC (CTV) and Jacobs Capital Group, LLC (JCG). He brings extensive experience and expertise in the financial and investment industries to the team. Mr. Hanna is the Founding President and Director of Cedars Bank. Under his tenure, the Bank grew from $6 million of assets to over $500 million and achieved consistent profitability in each year. The bank was sold in 2006 for an excess of $125 million, which was 25 times earnings and 4 times book value. This resulted in a return of over 21 times to the original investors.

He served as Vice President of the Corporate Finance Department at Smith Barney & Co. and as Director of Smith Barney International. In these positions, Mr. Hanna was involved in all facets of investment banking, including stock and bond issues, initial public offerings, private placements, mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital. He also worked internationally for Smith Barney in Paris, Tokyo, and Beirut, Lebanon.

William Hanna was awarded a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard University and received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Christopher P. Martin, Director

Chris Martin is currently Sr. Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Research Corporation Technologies, Inc. (RCT). RCT is a technology investment and management company that provides early-stage funding and development for promising biomedical companies and technologies. RCT focuses on technology investments with origins from universities, research institutions and independent inventors worldwide. Along with his management responsibilities, Mr. Martin directs RCT’s medical device team and portfolio of investments.

Mr. Martin has been involved with creating, funding, and managing several startup companies and ventures. He currently serves on the boards of Leto Medical, OrthAlign, ParinGenix, Varix Medical and VasoNova.

Chris Martin earned a BS in Biology from the University of Michigan, an MS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California and an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA.
 

Ned Scheetz, Director

Ned Scheetz founded Aphelion Capital®, LLC in 2005. Prior to forming Aphelion, Mr. Scheetz was a partner and managing director with Piper Jaffray Ventures (PJV) for nearly eight years, focusing on investments in emerging medical technology companies. Mr. Scheetz joined PJV from Janus Capital, where he was a senior research analyst covering medical technology. Before beginning his investment career Mr. Scheetz worked in various product management roles with a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak and in sales with Kraft General Foods.

Ned Scheetz is a graduate of Colby College, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and was a post-graduate scholar at Oxford University. Ned holds the CFA designation, and is a board member of Curant, OrthAlign, OrthoScan, SurgiQuest, VasoNova, and the San Francisco YMCA. Mr. Scheetz is an advisory board member with the Center for Medical Device Innovation, and on the business advisory board of The Epilepsy Therapy Development Project.
 

Sharon Stevenson, Director

Sharon is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Okapi Venture Capital. Prior to founding Okapi, Sharon was the Senior Vice President of Technology and Planning for SkinMedica - a private, venture-backed, commercial stage specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the dermatology and human appearance markets. Prior to SkinMedica, Sharon was a Principal with Domain Associates, LLC - a venture capital fund specializing in life science investments. In addition to performing due diligence and working closely with portfolio companies while at Domain, she also served as President and CFO of Volcano Therapeutics (Nasdaq: VOLC) and lead the company's growth from 1 to 14 employees and from the initial design of the first product to the first clinical trials using the device. In addition, Sharon's board affiliations on behalf of Domain included MicroVention (acquired by Terumo Corporation, OTC: TRUMF.PK), Neuropace, NuVasive (Nasdaq: NUVA), Santarus (Nasdaq: SNTS), SkinMedica, and GenVault. Prior to launching her entrepreneurial / venture capital career several years ago, Sharon was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Orthopedics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She is author of over 132 publications and has made more than 57 presentations to professional audiences. Her clinical training was in veterinary surgery and she is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Sharon Stevenson has been awarded a MBA from the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management; a PhD in Comparative Pathology from UC Davis; and a Master of Science in Veterinary Pathology and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from The Ohio State University.