Board of Directors

Brian N. Burns, Director
Scott Edelman, CEO
David B. Garcia, Ph.D., Director
Donald W. Grimm, Chairman
Henry Newman, Director
James C. Powers, Director
Holly Sparkman, Secretary

Brian N. Burns

Brian Burns is a founder and partner of GVP Investments I, LLC, the general partner of Grayhawk Venture Fund I, LP, a Phoenix-based small business investment company (SBIC). A CPA for more than 20 years, he has been in the private investment arena for the past 18 years and has evaluated hundreds of potential venture capital investments in a variety of sectors, including life science, technology, retail, distribution, media and healthcare.

Mr. Burns began his career at Arthur Andersen & Co. and became a senior manager in the Audit Division before holding senior positions as vice president and CFO for several companies making private equity investments. Before Grayhawk, he served as vice-president and CFO of the investment subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corp., a $3 billion NYSE company. Mr. Burns also serves on the boards of several other firms, including a healthcare IT company, a software and services company, an educational game company, another life science company and a California steel contractor.

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Scott Edelman, CEO

As CEO, Scott Edelman offers CellzDirect unique skills as an innovative thinker, strategic planner and results-oriented manager. He has successfully managed numerous small- to intermediate-sized technology companies with a variety of domestic and international distribution channel strategies.

Prior to CellzDirect, Mr. Edelman was president, CEO and board member of GroupSystems.com in Tucson, Arizona, a collaborative tools software vendor specializing in group dynamics and collaborative team decision-making. Mr. Edelman was acting president of PictureTalk, Inc., an early entrant in web presentation services technology. He was co-founder, CEO and board member of Intermezzo Systems, Inc., a web-based middleware and messaging software company for the hospitality and travel industries, and president of Hotel Information Systems (HIS), a property management software vendor to more than 3,000 hotels and resorts worldwide. In addition, Mr. Edelman occupied senior management positions with Integral Systems, Nixdorf Computer Corporation, and Dun & Bradstreet Computing. Mr. Edelman graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a BS in business administration.

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David B. Garcia, Ph.D.

Dr. David Garcia possesses an intimate and direct knowledge of contract research services as it relates to the healthcare industry. Dr. Garcia is president and CEO of CEDRA Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary CEDRA Clinical Research, LLC, which provide chemistry-based services and clinical research services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Prior to CEDRA, Dr. Garcia was employed by Radian Corporation, an environmental contract organization, where he directed Radian’s entry into the pharmaceutical services business. Dr. Garcia also was a senior research scientist with Alcon Laboratories and taught at the Idaho State University College of Pharmacy. Dr. Garcia earned both a BS in Pharmacy and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin, where he currently serves as an adjunct professor of pharmacy and is a member of the Pharmaceutical Foundation Advisory Council for the College of Pharmacy. He also serves on UT’s Commission of 125, which is engaged in a two-year process of examining the current state of the university and setting goals and priorities for the next two decades. A former U.S. Marine, Dr. Garcia serves on the boards of the Fund for Child Care Excellence and the Hispanic Chamber Educational Foundation and assists in raising scholarship funds for needy Hispanic students.

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Donald W. Grimm

Donald Grimm’s distinguished career has spanned the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. In addition to CellzDirect, he serves on the boards of Invitrogen, Angstrom Pharmaceuticals, HTG, and ACS, and numerous cultural and civic boards such as the Green Cancer Center at Scripps Clinic, the UCSD Cancer Center Foundation and Scripps Clinic Advisory Board. Mr. Grimm is also a Director with Hamilton BioVentures in San Diego.

During his 23-year career with Eli Lilly & Company, Mr. Grimm was director of Worldwide Pharmaceutical Pricing, director of Pharmaceutical Market Research and director of Sales, eventually being named president, CEO and chairman of Hybritech, Inc. after its acquisition by Lilly. At Hybritech, he orchestrated the development of Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test, the most significant cancer diagnostic test ever developed for men. Hybritech went from $50 million to $150 million in annual revenues under Mr. Grimm’s leadership. After retirement from Lilly, Mr. Grimm was president, CEO and board member of Telios Pharmaceuticals in San Diego. He also established Strategic Design, LLC, a consulting service where he continues to serve as chairman and president. Mr. Grimm has a BS in Pharmacy and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.

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Henry Newman

In addition to CellzDirect, Henry Newman is a director of CodeRyte and Lipton Corp Childcare, and a former director of Proton Energy Systems, Inc. He also serves on the Investment Advisory Committee of Commons Capital LLC, a positive impact venture fund.

Mr. Newman has more than 35 years of experience in venture capital investing, operations and public accounting. He is a co-founder of Solstice Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm that has raised two funds with total capital commitments of $79 million. For seven years, Mr. Newman was a vice president of BancBoston Ventures Inc., a venture capital subsidiary of the Bank of Boston. Prior to BancBoston, he held several financial management positions at the Bank of Boston and was a CPA at Coopers & Lybrand. Mr. Newman graduated from Bowdoin College and received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

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James C. Powers

James Powers is an independent business strategy consultant focusing on services for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. He is a member of several boards in the pharmaceutical services sector and an advisor to Tall Oaks Capital, the Coulter Translational Research Partnership in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia and the University of Virginia’s Nursing Ventures initiative.

In 2006, he retired from PRA International (NASDAQ:PRAI), a global clinical research organization serving pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, after 18 years in executive management. He oversaw PRA’s growth from a niche data management services provider to a full service clinical trials management organization, and expanded its operations and customer base from US-centric to international. Mr. Powers launched PRA’s oncology therapeutic focus, a market in which PRA continues to be a leader, and he was instrumental in strategic planning and eight acquisitions. During his tenure, the company grew from less than $1 million to more than $450 million in annual sales and a work force of more than 3,000 employees. Before joining PRA, Mr. Powers was responsible for identifying and managing medical technology startup businesses for University Technology Corporation. Mr. Powers received a BS in administration and management science from Carnegie-Mellon University.

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Holly Sparkman, Secretary

Holly Sparkman oversees CellzDirect's financial, legal affairs and administrative management. She specializes in cash management, audited financial reporting to investors and lenders, internal budgeting and management reporting, tax compliance and research, acquisition analysis and due diligence execution, corporate contract management and management of professional and clerical staff.

Ms. Sparkman spent more than eight years in the public accounting arena, including a focus on corporate and individual taxation and auditing with KPMG Peat Marwick. Ms. Sparkman's bioscience industry experience includes seven years as the chief financial officer for CEDRA Corporation. Before CEDRA, she served as chief financial officer for Public Strategies, Inc., an international political and public affairs consulting firm. Ms. Sparkman graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor’s of business administration degree in accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant.

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