Board of Directors
Ephraim “Eph” Lindenbaum
Board Member and Director
Ephraim Lindenbaum is a founder and Managing Director of Advance Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture investment fund and venture accelerator that invests in seed and early-stage start-ups across three core sectors; Sustainability (AgTech, CleanTech, FoodTech) Communications (Mobility & IoT) and Information Technology (Enterprise & Verticals: DigitalHealth, FinTech). Founded in 1999, Advance Ventures has consistently achieved meaningful exits with its portfolio companies across its core market sectors.
Mr. Lindenbaum has served as a board member, board advisor and/or investor: Alpha Foods, Acerro, Agnitia Networks (acquired by LeadingEdge), BonTriage, BPG Worldwide, Bright Light Systems, Corvigo (acquired by NASDAQ: TMWD), eSports (acquired by Ositech), EVAOS, Front Range Biosciences, Grazix, iLoopMobile (acquired by Archer), Inertia Beverage Group (now WineDirect), Kite.io (acquired by Quixey) LandSonar (acquired by Triangle) MerchEngines (acquired by NASDAQ: DLX) MycoTechnology, Ooba Beverages (acquired by HealthyBrands), Parago (acquired by NASDAQ: HAWK) Realta, Sitebase, SkillGigs, Smaato (acquired by Spearhead), SnapMD, Solaireo, TerraFusion, Tunewear, Workout.com and YouVoice.
Prior to founding Advance Ventures, Mr. Lindenbaum was the co-founder of interactive media pioneer Broadcast Production Group and served as CEO until its acquisition in 1999 by Parago (acquired by NASDAQ: HAWK), a leading global financial engagement management company.
Jon Trauben
Board Member and Director
Jon Trauben is a partner in Altitude Investment Management. Altitude is an investment fund that invests domestically and internationally. Jon is an investor, association member, mentor and board member to several of his funds’ portfolio companies. He brings a wealth of experience and management expertise with a 25-year record as a seasoned commercial real estate, capital markets, and finance executive. Jon has held senior positions on Wall Street while at Barclays, Credit Suisse, Cantor Fitzgerald and Hunt Companies where he was a business leader, lender, trader and investor.
While at Barclays and Credit Suisse he was a Managing Director and senior member of the real estate finance groups and was involved in more than $50 billion of transactions. Jon earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Rutgers University and he attended New York University’s Masters of Science Real Estate Program. Jon holds FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses.
Neal Patel
Board Member and Director
Neal Patel is a healthcare and biotechnology entrepreneur in both the Pharmaceutical and Biomedical marketplace. Neal founded his first clinical diagnostics company, at the age of 23. Armed with a passion for enhancing the accessibility to healthcare for disparate communities, Patel launched a private R&D Laboratory, responsible for engineering disruptive, cost-effective diagnostic tests focused on several cardiovascular indications. Over the next 3 years, Patel had developed one of the largest dedicated Cardiology networks for molecular diagnostics and clinical research on the east coast.
Ramie A. Tritt, MD
Board Observer
Dr. Ramie A. Tritt is a physician entrepreneur whose 40-year investment career has involved leadership roles in private and public companies in multiple industries, including healthcare. Over the past six years Dr. Tritt has founded and managed two investment funds, most recently as Managing Principal of The Panther Opportunity Fund. Dr. Tritt sits on the boards of multiple companies providing critical advice to hypergrowth-focused companies.
Dov Szapiro
Board Observer
Dov Szapiro is Co-Founder, Managing Partner & Principal of Entourage Effect Capital. Together with the other co-Founders of the firm, Mr. Szapiro is responsible for overseeing the firm’s strategy, governance, and business operations in partnership with the executive team. He is also responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the firm in tandem to shepherding the Fund’s portfolio companies looking to exit. He has more than 20 years of experience as a senior executive, investor, advisor and board member in companies across multiple industries and different growth phases.
Previously, he co-founded and acted as CEO of AFS Acceptance, which provided financing for the purchase of cars for consumers with limited or poor credit histories. During his 16 years there, he steered the company through credit cycles, a successful turnaround and a complete business model transformation. In 2010, he structured a spinoff and leveraged buy-out of AFS’ other two operating partners, consolidating full ownership and control. In 2015, he negotiated a sale of AFS to Credito Real SAB de CV, Mexico’s largest non-bank financial institution listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange. Mr. Szapiro was a director of business development for GovWorks, Inc., an internet start-up in the e-government sector, whose story was documented in the film Startup.com. Mr. Szapiro started his career in equity research before moving to private equity. He attended The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
Eric Lachance
Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder
Eric Lachance has 25+ years leading programs and companies. Recently, Eric served as COO for Metris LLC, a startup, and as a leadership/contracts consultant for multiple organizations serving both corporations and Federal and Local governments. Eric served in the US Army for 20 years, culminating in managing advanced research and development programs in US Special Operations Command. Eric has extensive experience in organizational structure, contracts, negotiations, business strategy, business development, and supply chain management. Eric has an MBA from Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and MS in Structural Engineering and Construction Engineering from Stanford University.
Michael Hogan Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Michael Hogan is an expert in the microarray field. Prior he was Co-Founder and CSO of GMSbiotech, and he has founded three companies that were funded by first-tier venture capital in oligonucleotide therapeutics, microarray and applied genomics arena. Dr. Hogan has had extensive interaction with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other relevant government agencies. He has 27 years experience in the area of physical biochemistry. He founded and co-founded five additional companies in the biotechnology and biopharma arena including Triplex Pharmaceutical (antisense and antigene oligonucleotide technology) and Genometrix, Inc., (DNA microarray services & technology).
He served as Member of Scientific Advisory Board and Director of Genometrix Inc. He has been the Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine since 1994 and a Professor at Baylor’s Center for Biotechnology since 1987. From 1981 to 1987, Dr. Hogan was an Assistant Professor at Princeton University. Since 1987, he served as a tenured professor at Baylor College of Medicine and University of Arizona, where he developed pioneering surface chemistries that enhanced the rate and specificity of nucleic acid hybridization on solid supports. He published extensively and is a co-author of numerous patents and patent applications in the area of DNA based technologies for pharmaceutical discovery and genetic analysis. He is the inventor of 11 issued patents in DNA chips and therapeutics. He has 25 awarded patents, 12 pending patents and 93 publications in biophysics, applied genetics & biotechnology. Dr. Hogan holds a B.S. in biology from Dartmouth College, a Ph.D. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University and received post-doctoral training at Stanford University.
Milan Patel
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
Milan has over 25 years of experience with large public, to small private and entrepreneurial companies in numerous industries from life sciences, biotechnology, government services and automotive. Previously, Milan Patel was COO/CFO of GMSbiotech. He also was CFO of 2020 Company, LLC -a leading premier professional services firm that delivered business and technology solutions to the government, in the areas of health, education and science.
Prior to that, Milan worked at Intel Corporation in Sales & Marketing, Finance and Manufacturing. Milan has extensive experience in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, business strategy and planning, infrastructure and organizational development, and controls, compliance and audit.
