Board of Directors
Chairman of the Board
James N. Wilson
Mr. Wilson is Chairman of the Board of NuGEN Technologies, and has served in this capacity since 2004, also serving as Chairman of the Board of Corcept Therapeutics since 1999. He was a director of Amylin Pharmaceuticals from 1996-2001, and Chairman of the Board of Amira Medical from 1996 to 2001. Mr. Wilson served as President and Chief Operation Officer for Syntex Corporation from 1990 to 1994. Prior to that he served as Chief Executive Officer for Neurex Corporation and LifeScan Inc. Mr. Wilson received his B.A. and M.B.A from the University of Arizona.
Director
Jeff Bird, M.D. Ph.D.
Dr. Bird is Managing Director at Sutter Hill Ventures and represents investments in Acceleron Pharmaceuticals, Barrx, Ameritox, and Pacific Biosciences. He also serves on the board of directors at Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Restoration Robotics, Portola Pharmaceuticals, Virobay, Horizon Pharmaceuticals, Drais Pharmaceutical, and Verinata Health. Prior to joining Sutter Hill Ventures, Dr. Bird was Senior Vice President of Business Operations at Gilead Sciences, primarily responsible for forming strategic alliances with major pharmaceutical companies, as well as direct sales in the US and Europe. Dr. Bird received a degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford in 1982, a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology in 1988 and a M.D. in 1992 from Stanford Medical School.
Director
Elizabeth (Liz) Dávila
Ms. Dávila has served on the board at NuGEN Technologies, Inc. since 2001. She is the former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of VISX, Incorporated, which was acquired by AMO on May 31, 2005. Prior to joining VISX Ms. Dávila worked for Syntex Corporation from 1977-1994, where she held several senior management positions in its medical device, medical diagnostics and pharmaceutical divisions. Ms. Dávila serves on the board of directors at Advanced Medical Optics, and Cholestech Corporation. She holds a M.S. in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Stanford University.
Director
Michael Hunkapiller, Ph.D.
Dr. Hunkapiller has served on the board at NuGEN Technologies since 2006, and joined Alloy Ventures in 2004, after 21 years at Applied Biosystems (NYSE: ABI), which he helped grow from startup to almost $2 billion in annual revenues supplying instrument and reagent systems for life science research. At ABI, he held President and General Manager positions. He was also a founder of ABI's sister company Celera Genomics (NYSE: CRA) and Senior Vice President of Applera Corporation (their parent company). Prior to joining ABI, Mike was a senior research fellow in the Division of Biology at the California Institute of Technology. He received a B.S. in chemistry from Oklahoma Baptist University in 1970 and a Ph.D. in chemical biology from the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech in 1974. He has authored more than 100 scientific publications, is an inventor on more than two dozen patents, has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, and has received several awards for his contributions to life science research. Mike is currently on the board of directors of Codon Devices, Fluidigm, and Pacific Biosciences.
Chief Executive Officer
Elizabeth A. Hutt, M.S.
Ms. Elizabeth Hutt brings years of leadership experience in diversified sales, marketing, business development, technical support, and a strong track record of achieving significant sales and market share growth. Her forward looking vision enables NuGEN to build global market share for our expanding Ovation® System product line, and enhances the Company's commitment to providing world-class customer care. Ms. Hutt joined NuGEN in 2004 as VP of Commercial Operations to establish NuGEN in the marketplace. In 2005, she became CEO. Prior to joining NuGEN, she was VP of Sales and Service, North America and Pacific Rim for Tripos, Inc.. She has also held U.S. and European management positions with Affymetrix Inc., and spent nearly a decade in sales, marketing and channel management at Life Technologies, Inc. Prior to the transition to her commercial career, she was a research associate at the University of Michigan. Ms. Hutt received her M.S. in business administration from Central Michigan University and a B.A. in chemistry from Michigan State University.
Co-founder
Nurith Kurn, Ph.D.
Dr. Kurn is the primary inventor of NuGEN's portfolio of technologies and is a former Research Director at Dade-Behring Diagnostics and The Syva Company where she directed research in the areas of nucleic acid technologies, novel disease markers, assay detection technologies and novel instrumentation systems. Dr. Kurn earned her Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, and has numerous scientific publications and issued patents in the field of nucleic acid amplification and detection.