Atchison's past administrative experience includes more than four years as associate dean for research and knowledge management at the UCLA School of Dentistry and chair of the School of Dentistry Faculty Executive Committee. She is President of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry.

Atchison received her dental degree from Marquette University School of Dentistry in 1978 and her master's degree in public health from Boston University School of Public Health in 1982. Atchison was selected in a nationwide competition to participate in the Robert Wood Johnson Dental Health Services Research Fellowship at UCLA, from 1984–86, and then joined UCLA's faculty in 1987. She was chosen by the UCLA MultiCampus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology to participate in the Bureau of Health Professions Mid-Career Fellowship in Geriatric Medicine and Dentistry in 1991. In 2003, Atchison was a primary health care policy fellow at the Department of Health and Human Services. Her research focuses on quantity and quality of services for the disadvantaged.


Zareh Baghdasarian
President, COO of Chromodyne Networks

Mr. Baghdsarian was one of the founders of Monterey Networks, Inc., a pioneering IT company that developed the industry’s first wavelength router, and was eventually acquired by Cisco in 1999. He is also a Co-Founder and a Board Member of Calisto Medical, and Director/Board Member of myShape.com

Randy Churchill
Director, Business Development, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

A graduate of Indiana University School of Law, Randy has assisted entrepreneurs in various capacities for over 20 years. Mr. Churchill currently sits on the Executive Committee of the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum, the Advisory Committee of the Los Angeles Business Technology Center, and the Advisory Board of USC’s Center for Technology Commercialization.

Bradford Cornell
Senior Consultant, CRA International

Prior to joining the Caltech faculty, Dr. Cornell was the Bank of America Professor of Finance at the Anderson Graduate School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, where he taught for 26 years. He was also the founder of FinEcon, a financial economic consulting firm, that merged with CRA in 1999. CRA International (listed as CRAI, Web address CRAI.COM) is a leading global economics, finance, and management consulting firm.

Bassil Dahiyat
President, Xencor

A Caltech graduate, Dr. Dahiyat founded this leading high tech company in the field of protein design and drug delivery, and is a co-inventor of the company’s core PDA^TM technology

Fred Farina
Assistant Vice President, Office of Technology Transfer, California Institute of Technology

A graduate of Caltech (MS Electrical Engineering) and a registered U.S. patent agent, Mr. Farina also holds a “Diplôme d’Ingénieur” in Electrical Engineering from the Institute National des Sciences Appliquees, Lyon, France. At Caltech, he is in charge of the Office of Technology Transfer, whose responsibilities include evaluating inventions at Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA), supervising patent prosecution and portfolio management, negotiating licensing deals with industry and assisting Caltech/JPL entrepreneurs with the creation of startups.

Michael A. Giardello
Chairman of the Board, Entretech
President & CEO, Materia, Inc.

Dr. Giardello received his B.A. from Grinnell College in 1988 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University in 1993. He has been involved in numerous start-ups and in October 1997 co-founded Materia (then Advanced Sports Materials, LLC) and served as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer from January 1998 until February 1999 when he became President, CEO & CTO.

Krisztina Holly
Vice Provost for Innovation, USC
Executive Director, USC Stevens Institute for Innovation

USC Stevens Institute of Innovation harnesses the creative thinking and innovative work at the University of Southern California's college, 17 professional schools, and research programs to build a multidisciplinary approach to innovation. As executive director of USC Stevens, Krisztina Holly leads the strategic direction, spearheading the development of programs and approaches to help faculty and students bring innovations to the market and develop their skills are innovators. Holly brings to USC her experience as an engineer, serial entrepreneur and the founding executive director of MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, where she oversaw the distribution of $5 million in grants, engaged more than 250 faculty and students, and spawned nine startup companies that successfully raised $40 million in capital. Holly earned master's and bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT.

Richard Jones
Partner, Nixon Peabody LLP

Richard Jones has extensive experience in securities transactions. He represents companies in financing, licensing, corporate governance, executive compensation, mergers and acquisitions, and other matters. Additionally he has significant experience in public finance, having acted as bond, underwriters' and disclosure counsel in numerous transactions.

Richard Jones acts as counsel to a variety of corporations operating in various technology fields. Mr. Jones counsels regarding corporate finance and governance matters, intellectual property licensing, executive compensation, mergers and acquisitions and other related matters.

Mr. Jones' experience in corporate equity financings includes the initial public offerings of Nike, Inc. and Entravision Communications Corp., as well as offerings of preferred stock in private placements, and business formation matters for biotech and life science companies.

In the public finance arena, Mr. Jones has acted as bond counsel for the State of California, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the County of Los Angeles, the City of Los Angeles, many other California counties, and a variety of other local agencies in both general obligation and revenue bond financings. He has also acted as bond counsel for numerous certificates of participation and lease revenue financings for a variety of infrastructure projects.

Mr. Jones has also represented clients in short-term borrowings since 1979, during which time he has acted as bond counsel in connection with the issuance of revenue anticipation notes aggregating several billion dollars.

Mr. Jones has extensive experience as underwriter's counsel in public finance transactions, having served as the lead partner in the $11.3 billion California Energy Bond financings, the San Diego Padres ballpark financing, and many other projects. He has also represented liquidity providers and credit enhancers, as well as providers of interest rate swaps and various other financial products.

Benjamin F. Kuo
Founder, Editor, and Publisher, SOCALTECH LLC

Benjamin F. Kuo is the founder of SOCALTECH LLC, the publisher of socalTECH.com, a widely read newsletter and web site focused on Southern California's high tech industry which tracks venture capital funding, high tech news, events, and runs frequent interviews with local entrepreneurs. Kuo has served on the selection committee of the Los Angeles Venture Association's Annual Venture Capital awards, served as a judge on the Software Council of Southern California's Software Industry Awards, and is active in promoting Southern California's technology industry. Kuo has a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and has worked in a variety of management and development positions at high tech firms in both Southern and Northern California.

Albert C. Schneider
President, Tech Coast Angels LA Network
Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman, Pasadena Angels

Al Schneider is a Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of Pasadena Angels and Vice President of Tech Coast Angels' LA Network, having transitioned to private equity investing after a career in real estate and healthcare property development and investment. He has served on the boards of numerous private companies including Pictage, which provides services to professional photographers and their customers and H2Scan, a leader in hydrogen sensing products.

Louise J. Wannier
Founder & CEO, myShape

Serial entrepreneur and Caltech alumna, co-founder of Gemstar, founder of Enfish Corporation, and myShape, Inc., an online women’s fashion store where 300,000 subscribers create their own myShop with clothing matching their measurements, body shape and style preferences.