D. Elliot Parks, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Richard L. Sherman, JD
Vice President, Business Development and General Counsel
Jennifer Murata, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
Alan Johnson, Ph.D.
Director of Chemistry
Sean O’Malley, Ph.D.
Director of Botulinum Antitoxin Therapeutics Program
David Clements, M.S.
Director of Vaccine Research & Development
D. Elliot Parks, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Richard L. Sherman, JD
Vice President, Business Development and General Counsel
Jennifer Murata, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
Alan Johnson, Ph.D.
Director of Chemistry
Sean O’Malley, Ph.D.
Director of Botulinum Antitoxin Therapeutics Program
David Clements, M.S.
Director of Vaccine Research & Development
Debra Beresini
Director
Debra is an experienced leader, manager, investor, and entrepreneur. In 1997, she co-founded invencor, inc. based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has since served as its CEO. Over the years, invencor has managed debt and equity funds and consulted with lending institutions on credit facilities for startup companies. While invencor continues to serve in that role, its primary focus is to support women entrepreneurs and those rising through the ranks of their companies. In 2013, Debra was named one of the “100 Most Influential Women in Silicon Valley” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. She was on the Board of Trustees for VentureCapital.org (VCO) for 17 years with 5 of those years as Chair. During her time at VCO, she and the team founded WeROC (Women Entrepreneurs Realizing Opportunities for Capital). Through VCO, women are coached on their presentation skills in order to raise money from investors at the WeROC conferences. She was previously Senior Vice President and Manager of the National Division at Silicon Valley Bank. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Dominican College (now Dominican University) and has an MBA from the Jack Welch Management Institute, Strayer University.
Debra also runs a family-owned vineyard, Beresini Winery, with her husband, Steve, in Carneros, Napa producing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir Rose. Recently, they opened a Winery and Tasting Room for their award-winning wines in Glen Ellen, California.
Mark Bogart. Ph.D.
Director
Mark is a highly successful biotech entrepreneur. He discovered and commercialized a key part of the maternal serum triple test for Down’s Syndrome carried out on pregnant women. The test became part of the standard of care for pregnant women in the first world. Dr. Bogart is an investor in over a dozen biomedical and technology companies and has served on the Boards of Genetic Information Management Systems, Kuehnle Agrosystems, Kona Blue Water Farms, and Hawaii Biotech, Inc. He did his post-doctoral training in Genetics at UCSD and is Board Certified in Clinical Cytogenetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics and was a founding member of the American College of Medical Genetics. During his academic career in clinical and research genetics Dr. Bogart published over 50 scientific articles and received three patents. Transitioning from academics to business he started a patent management and licensing company (Biomedical Patent Management Corp.) and a diagnostic genetics laboratory (Mid-Pacific Genetics) which was subsequently sold to the Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu. He has served on a number of State committees and non-profit Boards in both California and Hawaii. He received a BA from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and a PhD in a joint program between UCSD and San Diego State University.
Enrique J. Carrazana, M.D.
Director
Enrique has over 25 years of experience in drug development and the pharmaceutical industry. In addition to Hawaii Biotech, Dr Carrazana is a member of the board of directors of Marinus Pharmaceuticals. He currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer for Neurelis, Inc., where is responsible for the management of the drug development and safety programs. Previously, he was the Chief Medical Officer of Acorda Therapeutics. He also held various medical leadership roles at Novartis, where his last role was Vice President, Global Head Development Established Medicines Franchise based in Basel, Switzerland. He was Director of the Epilepsy Center of Excellence at the Miami Veterans’ Administration (VA) Hospital and Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. He has presented and published a wide range of research on various neurology topics. He received his medical degree from the Harvard Medical School and completed his residency in neurology and fellowship in neurophysiology at the Harvard Longwood Neurology Program; and is a board-certified neurologist.
D. Elliot Parks. Ph.D.
Director, President, and CEO
Elliot brings 30 years of experience in academic research, biomedical product development, executive management, and life science investing to company. He also has broad experience and personal knowledge of best practices in corporate governance, and brings this background to the Company Board. He has served on the board of several venture-backed companies. Additionally, he has served on the boards of nonprofit medical and research institutions and governmental bodies, including the Whittier Institute for Diabetes, HiBEAM, the Hawaii Science and Technology Council, the SDSU BioScience Advisory Council, and BIOCOM. He has served in key leadership positions in academic research at The Scripps Research Institute, in technology acquisition and product development at Johnson & Johnson, in technology funding and commercialization as Managing Director at two Southern California venture firms. He holds more than a dozen US patents and is the co-author of multiple peer-reviews scientific papers. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington School of Medicine and completed an executive MBA program at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Robert J. Robinson, Ph.D.
Director
Rob Robinson co-founded Topaz Management in 2010, Kolohala Ventures in 2006, is founder / president of Hawaii's angel investor network, Hawaii Angels (2002), and serves as a senior mentor at Blue Startups, Hawaii’s premier tech accelerator. He is co-author of Angel Investing: Matching Startup Funds with Startup Companies (2000), and is a charter member of the Angel Capital Association out of Kansas City. The various funds and organizations that he has headed have invested over $120MM in mostly Hawaii-based companies since 2001.
Dr. Robinson grew up in South Africa, earning a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1991. He spent ten years on the faculty of Harvard Business School, and in 2001 was recruited to the University of Hawaii as Entrepreneurship Chair and the Director of the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship. He serves on the board of the Hawaii Venture Capital Association, as well as on the boards of other non-profits and a number of startup companies that his funds have invested in.