Zack Lynch, Founder, Executive Director

Zack founded NIO to give the neurotechnology industry a collective voice. He is the founder of NeuroInsights, a market research firm covering the neurotechnology industry, and a social forecaster advising global organizations on the impact of neurotechnology on business, government and society. Mr. Lynch serves on the advisory boards of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, Center for Neuroeconomic Studies, Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, the Institute for Global Futures and Socialtext, a software company.

He is the publisher of the investment newsletter, Neurotech Insights, editor of Brain Waves, an industry weblog providing commentary on the intersection of neuroscience and society, and co-author of NeuroInsights’ annual report on The Neurotechnology Industry Report. Previously, he was an executive and founder of several enterprise software companies in profit optimization and collaborative forecasting. Zack received an MA in Economic Geography and double BS in Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Science, all from UCLA.

Frank Eeckman, Director of Regulatory Policy

Dr. Frank Eeckman is the Director of Regulatory Policy at The Neurotechnology Industry Organization and co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Centient Biotech. He is also an analyst and consultant at NeuroInsights helping companies and investors identify and vet opportunities in neurotechnology. He writes indication and company features for Neurotech Insights, the neurotechnology industry newsletter published by NeuroInsights. Dr. Eeckman was an early innovator in the genomics revolution, leading Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories’ bioinformatics team on the Human Genome Project. He has helped launch three biotech startups and headed discovery groups at Parke-Davis and Pfizer. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of several biotech companies, and provides investment analysis to venture capitalists and fund managers as well as consulting to both large and small companies.   

Dr. Eeckman holds an MD cum laude from the University of Ghent Medical School, Belgium, where he was trained as a neurologist. He also earned a PhD in Neurophysiology at the University of California Berkeley, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.

NIO's Board Members

Dan O'Connell, Partner, NeuroVentures Capital

Dan is a founding member and partner of NeuroVentures Capital LLC, a specialty venture capital firm, established in 2000 to invest in emerging biopharmaceutical and medical technology companies dedicated to developing better treatments for Central Nervous System diseases. Currently, he represents NeuroVentures on the board of Setagon and is an observer with Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Concentric Medical and Rivanna Pharmaceuticals. He was previously a board observer to Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems. Dan’s experience with neuroscience-related medical technology companies includes co-founding MedSpecialists, Inc., a venture-backed clinical applications service provider, and Surgical Solutions, LLC, a company which developed neurosurgical products licensed from leading research institutions. Prior to attending business school, Dan worked as an Associate in the investment banking group at Advest, Inc. He holds a B.A. from Brown University and M.B.A. from the University of Virginia.

David Summa, President and CEO, Acumen Pharmaceuticals

David Summa is currently the President and CEO of Acumen Pharmaceuticals, a pre-clinical drug development company that is developing the first effective therapeutics and diagnostics that prevent Alzheimer's disease. Prior to joining Acumen, Dave was the President and CEO of Mendel Biotechnology, a successful genomics company that was the first to functionally characterize all the transcription factors in arabidopsis thaliana. Mendel's traits now form the core of the Monsanto product pipeline. Before joining the ranks of Bay Area biotech entrepreneurs, Dave was a Vice President at Monsanto where he created Renessen, the joint venture between Cargill and Monsanto.Prior to joining Monsanto, Dave was a partner at McKinsey & Company, Inc. where he was the global leader of the Innovation Practice. Dave received his BS and MS from MIT in the department of Chemical Engineering.

Casey Crawford Lynch, Managing Director, NeuroInsights

Casey Lynch is the managing director of NeuroInsights. She is co-author of The Neurotechnology Industry Report, a comprehensive market analysis and strategic investment report on the brain industry and is the Managing Editor of Neurotech Insights, the neurotechnology investment newsletter. Previously, Casey was the co-founder and CEO of Aspira Biosystems, a venture backed drug discovery platform-company, which was acquired by Nanomune Inc. in 2004. Prior to the four years building Aspira, Casey oversaw toxicology screening and evaluated new product opportunities at Centaur Pharmaceuticals. There, she established disease model testing paradigms for multiple sclerosis, uveitis, and other neurological disorders. Casey conducted primate preclinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease treatment at the Wadsworth Medical Center in Los Angeles and researched the neurological basis of schizophrenia and epilepsy at UCLA. Her graduate work on neurotrophic factor cell biology and neurodegenerative diseases was carried out in the Mobley lab at UCSF/ Stanford University and was funded by the NSF and an Alzheimer's Association Zenith Award. In addition to a BS in neuroscience from UCLA, she has an MS in neuroscience from UCSF and has completed the Management Development for Entrepreneurs (MDE) program of the Anderson School of Business.

NIO's Advisory Board Members

Mark Cochran, Executive Director & CEO, Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute

Mark is the CEO and Executive Director of the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute. Dr. Cochran joined the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI) as the CEO and executive director in April 2006. He has an extensive background in life sciences that includes roles in research, drug development, business development and venture capital. Before coming to BRNI, Dr. Cochran was the managing director of NeuroVentures Fund based in Charlottesville, Va. Over the past six years, the group invested in companies developing drugs, devices, and other medical technologies for clinical neuroscience.

Dr. Cochran holds a doctorate in microbiology and immunology from Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario; a master's in microbiology from the University of Guelph, Ontario, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Toronto. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Cochran sits as director on the boards of Kadmus Pharmaceuticals (Irvine, CA), NeurAxon Pharmaceuticals, Microbix Biosystems (Toronto, Canada), Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Rivanna Pharmaceuticals, and is an observer on the boards of BrainCells Inc., and Saegis Pharmaceuticals.

Prior to NeuroVentures, Dr. Cochran worked with MDS Capital Corporation, a Toronto-based healthcare venture capital group where he was responsible for MDS' San Francisco venture business and several MDS invested companies. His previous experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry includes Bayer Pharmaceuticals, most recently as vice president of business development, biotechnology, in Berkeley, California. Other positions held during his tenure at Bayer included project director of Recombinant Factor VIII, and head of molecular biology and biochemistry in Wuppertal, Germany. Before joining Bayer, Dr. Cochran co-founded MicroGeneSys, Inc., a Connecticut-based vaccine company. He is listed as the author on 22 scientific papers, 66 abstracts and six patents.

Lawrence S. Hoffheimer, Founding Chair of the Parkinson Research Foundation

Lawrence S. Hoffheimer is an attorney in Washington, D.C., specializing in health issues relating to neurological and behavioral research and clinical applications affecting patients, providers, researchers and pharmaceutical companies. He has represented numerous Voluntary Health Agencies throughout his career including the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, National Heal Injury Foundation, National Parkinson Foundation, and the National Headache Foundation.

Beginning in 1977 he formed the National Coalition for Research in Neurological Disorders that consisted of more than sixty voluntary, professional and scientific societies. His efforts focused on obtaining more research funding from the Congress for the National Institutes of Health. In 1989, Mr. Hoffheimer sought and obtained passage of a congressional resolution and Presidential Proclamation the declared the 1990s as the “Decade of the Brain”. In 1990 he founded the National Foundation for Brain Research, a not-for-profit educational foundation dedicated to informing the public and scientific communities about the rapid advances in research and therapeutics in the brain disorders.

Mr. Hoffheimer currently serves as the Founding Chair of the Parkinson Research Foundation which supports innovative medical research into the causes and cure for Parkinson’s disease. The PRF is also one of the nation’s leading information sources for patients, caregivers and physicians about Parkinson’s disease. Throughout his career, Mr. Hoffheimer has worked with many of the Nation’s leading pharmaceutical companies who have collaborated to raise awareness of brain disorders that their therapeutics improve. He is a graduate of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Prior to entering private law practice in 1972, Mr. Hoffheimer was a federal prosecutor with the United States Department of Justice.

Roger Quy, General Partner, Technology Partners

Roger has been responsible for the life science practice of Technology Partners since 1989. Before joining the firm, Roger was a member of the founding management team of Hewlett Packard Laboratories in Europe. Previously he led the development of ambulatory neurological monitoring devices for the Oxford Instruments Group in England. Roger began his career at the Institute of Neurology in London, where he was a post-doctoral Research Fellow of the British Medical Research Council. During his research, he developed new techniques and devices for the diagnosis and treatment of neurological, cardiac and sleep disorders. He has published a number of scientific papers and contributed to a textbook on epilepsy. He holds five issued patents.

Roger earned a BA with honors in psychology and law and a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Keele, England. He received an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He gained a commercial helicopter pilot’s license for fun. Roger is a Director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii and a former member of the Advisory Council of the Entrepreneurial Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously he served on the Steering Committee for the Hiller Aviation Educational Institute.

Christine de los Reyes, Founder and Managing Director, BiotechPartnering Solutions, LLC

Christine de los Reyes is founder and Managing Director of BiotechPartnering Solutions, a consulting firm that helps biotech and pharma companies search, evaluate and negotiate licensing transactions of pre-clinical through marketed compounds.

Christine has over twenty years of experience in academic, medical and Fortune 10 pharmaceutical industries. Most recently she was Executive Director of Licensing & Development at Pfizer, where she spent twelve years in their licensing group with a focus on in-licensing in several therapeutic areas including the neurosciences, infectious diseases, dermatology, and ophthalmology areas. She also was responsible for external search activities for new opportunities and led multidisciplinary teams conducting technical evaluation, due diligence, and financial valuation for licensing and co-promotion deals with biotech and big pharma firms. While at Pfizer, she also held senior positions in their US and international marketing and medical groups.

Christine began her career as Assistant Professor of Pharmacology teaching undergraduate and graduate level courses in clinical pharmacy at the University of Texas. From there she became Director of Clinical Research at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, before joining Pfizer in 1989. Christine earned her Doctorate in Clinical Pharmacy from the University of Texas, a Masters in Business Administration from St. Joseph’s University, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Wayne State University.

Daniel Ritter, Partner, Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP

Daniel Ritter is a partner in the firm of Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP. His government relations practice involves advocacy of policy positions with federal legislators and administrative agencies for a variety of technology, media, telecommunications and non-profit interests. Between 1993 and 1996, Mr. Ritter served as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Education, Arts & Humanities, advising Committee Members on education and cultural policy issues. Prior to joining Preston Gates, Mr. Ritter served as Executive Director of the Center for Arts and Culture, a nonprofit grant-making organization concerned with public policy and culture. He is a graduate of the Yale Law School.

Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP was founded in 1973, as the Washington, DC office of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, an international law firm that has served clients for more than 118 years. The firm has 400 lawyers practicing in ten cities including Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Anchorage and Hong Kong.