MISSION STATEMENT
To research, pursue, and realize market opportunities made possible by the Liquidia Material Platform and Liquidia’s expertise in materials sciences.
TYPE OF COMPANY: R&D, B2B, Nano-Tech
ADDRESS: PO Box 1211, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
PHONE NUMBER: 1-888-259-6056
WEB SITE:
MANAGEMENT TEAM MEMBERS:
Joseph M. DeSimone, Ph.D
Acting CEO, Consultant, Chair of Board of Directors, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board
Professor DeSimone led the research that resulted in the discovery and development of the Liquidia Material Platform in late 2003. DeSimone is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, and he is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in fluoropolymers, the basis for the Liquidia Material Platform. Prof. DeSimone holds almost 100 patents and has published over 200 research papers, and was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering. In 1992 DeSimone demonstrated the synthesis of fluoropolymers in carbon dioxide which has led to an exclusive license agreement with DuPont for the production of Teflon; which subsequently resulted in an investment of $40 million in DuPont’s Fayetteville Works plant in eastern North Carolina and a planed total investment of almost $300 million. In 1996, he launched Micell Technologies to commercialize the use of carbon dioxide as a solvent, and as a result of their work, the first carbon dioxide-based dry cleaning business was established in 1999. Micell is now focused on providing CO2-based processes for the manufacture of semiconductors and other advanced materials. Liquidia Technologies has been his most recent endeavor.
Bruce Boucher, President of Liquidia was most recently General Manager and CFO for Cardinal Health’s Pharmaceutical Development business. Formerly Magellan Laboratories, an entrepreneurial-based high growth business headquartered in RTP, NC, was sold to Cardinal in 2002. The company offered drug development expertise on an outsourced basis including proprietary products. Prior to that, Bruce was actively involved with the expansion of the ClinTrials Research business in various corporate and operational rolls that provided clinical trial testing and data services to the pharmaceutical industry. Bruce was also a practice manager with Price Waterhouse in areas of audit, business valuations, transaction support and international tax servicing high tech, petrochemical and financial services organizations.
Ashok K. Mendiratta, Ph.D. Chief Operating Officer, is a business and technology leader recognized for his ability to grow businesses through technology commercialization. Ashok has consistently distinguished himself by achieving business growth with different technologies in various market and business segments. His expertise stems from extensive technology and business leadership experience with diverse global corporations like General Electric (16 years), Honeywell (2 years) and PolyOne (6 years). His most recent position was with Reichhold where he was Vice President of Technology. Ashok earned his BS, MS and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering, and received Six Sigma Champion training at GE. He has been issued 21 US patents, 6 of which are in commercial use in GE operations.
BOARD MEMBERS:
Business Advisory Board
Buck Goldstein
Entrepreneur in Residence, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Mr. Goldstein has practiced law and founded several companies, including Networth, a venture capital fund focused on Internet-based enterprises, and Information America, an online database company providing hundreds of information products developed from a national database of public records. Most recently, Goldstein was a partner in Mellon Ventures, a billion-dollar venture capital fund with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Pittsburgh. One recent investment was STI Knowledge, Inc., and Atlanta-based information services company.
Mr. Goldstein has served on the board of directors of numerous public and private companies and a variety of nonprofit organizations.
He is founding chair of UNC’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities. Goldstein has undergraduate and law degrees from UNC, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Golden Fleece. He has a master’s degree in education from the University of Massachusetts.
Scientific Advisory Board:
Joseph M. DeSimone, Ph.D, Liquidia Scientific Founder, S.A.B. Chairman
Rudolph L. Juliano , Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Research in Dr. Juliano’s laboratory centers on the biology, biochemistry and molecular biology of the integrin family of membrane receptors which mediate cell-matrix interactions. Dr. Juliano served as chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at UNC for 16 years, and previously spent nine years as Associate Professor or Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston, TX.
Edward T. Samulski, Ph.D, Liquidia Scientific Founder
Dr. Samulski is the Cary C. Boshamer Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Samulski focuses on understanding structure-property relations, especially how rather modest structural changes at the molecular level are manifested in the supramolecular arrangements adopted by liquid crystal (LC) molecules and polymers. Dr. Samulski brings to Liquidia an in-depth expertise in LC technologies and their applications, and is currently working with the Liquidia research team to establish the feasibility of using the Liquidia Material Platform in LC applications.
Jude Samulski, Ph.D.
Dr. Samulski’s research focuses on the study of the dependent parvovirus adeno-associated virus as a alternative viral vector for gene delivery. He has established successful and long term gene expression over a year, which directly addresses the issue of molecular therapy required for genetic disorders.
One of Dr. Samulski’s current goals of research is to continue to derive delivery systems for use in gene therapy, which relates directly to the materials capability that Liquidia enables. Dr. Samulski will work with Liquidia to extend its technology into gene delivery arena.
Paul Resnick, Ph.D
Dr. Resnick is a DuPont Fellow employed by DuPont Fluoroproducts. He is an organic chemist whose research focuses on fluorine chemistry. Dr. Resnick received his B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1955 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Cornell University in 1961. He is past chair of the Fluorine Division of the American Chemical Society and has received the American Chemical Society’s Award in Fluorine Chemistry.
J. Michael Ramsey, Ph.D.
Dr. Ramsey holds the Minnie N. Goldby Distinguished Professor of Chemistry chaired professorship in the Department of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Ramsey is the co-founder of Caliper Technologies while he was a member of the technical staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. He is a leader in the field of microfluidics.
The Liquidia Board of Directors includes:
Joseph M. DeSimone, Ph.D, Liquidia Scientific Founder
Lowry Caudill, Ph.D.
Dr. Caudill was the co-founder, and Co-President of Magellan Laboratories Incorporated, a leading full-service contract pharmaceutical development organization with facilities in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and San Diego…two of the country’s most important pharmaceutical and biotechnology communities. Magellan’s client roster consisted of more than 200 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including nine of the top ten pharmaceutical manufacturers. The company had over 500 employees, including more than 80 analytical and synthetic chemistry and pharmaceutical research Ph.D.’s, offering clients extensive expertise in early stage drug development. Magellan has seven strategic divisions: Analytical, Inhalation, Microbiology, Structural Chemistry, Synthesis, Research and Bioanalytical, and Pharmaceutics. Magellan was acquired by Cardinal Health in 2002.
William N. Starling
Chief Executive Officer, Synecor, LLC
Mr. Starling is Chief Executive Officer of Synecor, LLC, a business generator of new medical device companies based in the Research Triangle Park, N.C., Santa Rosa, California, and Silicon Valley, California. During nearly 3-decades in the medical device industry, Mr. Startling has founded and managed many leading firms, including American Edwards Laboratories (Edwards Life Sciences), Advanced Cardiovascular Systems (Guidant), Ventritex, Inc (St. Jude Medical), and Cardiac Pathways Corporation (Boston Scientific Corporation). Mr. Starling serves on the Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Board of Visitors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Kenan-Flagler Center for Entrepreneurship’s external advisory committee, and the external advisory board at the Stanford Stroke Center at the Stanford University Medical Center. Mr. Starling received his BS degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his MBA degree from The University of Southern California.
Josh Green
Legal Architects, Inc.
Josh Green is currently serving as a Board member and Corporate Development Officer in a selected number of startup companies. A lawyer by background, Josh has worked closely with emerging growth companies and venture capital firms in Silicon Valley for the past 25 years. He has completed hundreds of initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital transactions, including some that rank among the largest and most successful in Silicon Valley history. These include the largest startup technology merger in history, Cerent’s sale to Cisco for $7 billion in 1999. Additionally, he has architected numerous complex spin-offs, spin-ins, technology licensing and corporate partnerships. Josh was recently named to the 2005 Forbes Magazine Midas List as one of the top technology dealmakers in America. He has also been named one of the leading lawyers in the United States for many years by numerous publications, including Chambers’ Best Lawyers in America 2004. Leveraging his 25+ years of corporate law expertise and board level counsel, Josh founded Legal Architects in 2004. Previously, Josh was instrumental in growing Venture Law Group from 14 lawyers when he joined in 1995 to over 110 lawyers at its peak and assisted in the successful merger with Heller Ehrman in 2003. Josh practiced law at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP from 1980 to 1995, and developed the Palo Alto office from approximately 10 lawyers to over 100 lawyers. He graduated magna cum laude from UCLA in 1977 and the UCLA School of Law in 1980 where he was on the Law Review. In June 2001, he was commencement speaker at UCLA’s largest undergraduate graduation ceremony.
INVESTORS: To be announced
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2004
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 6
