Team
Executive Officers & Board of Directors
Robert R. Guerrero
Founder, CEO & Board Chairman
A founder of ProteoNova and Board Chairman. He oversees all corporate activities and has co-authored one issued patent and is co author on two of ProteoNova’s pending patents. Dr. Guerrero has over 30 years experience in the biotech arena, has started four different biotech companies, directed the R&D program in three of them, and also conducted original research. He has also directed one large genetic toxicology contract laboratory at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Research Institute. He has authored over 25 peer reviewed technical articles. Dr. Guerrero is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Fountain Valley Cancer Center. Dr. Guerrero received his bachelors degree and masters degree, both in biology, from California State University Long Beach, and holds a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Northern Arizona University. He has also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Cell Biology and Genetics at the Pasadena Foundation For Medical Research, now the Huntington Medical Research Institutes. He also received additional cytogenetics training at the City of Hope.
Richard B. Williams
Founder, President, VP of Research & Development
A founder of ProteoNova and the inventor of the Company’s technology. He is also the President, a Board member, and is responsible for leading the research effort. He has authored or co-authored 25 patents. Until recently, Dr. Williams was also a practicing physician, licensed and Board Certified in Internal Medicine in the state of California. Dr. Williams received his bachelors degree from the University of California San Diego and his M.D. degree from the University of Southern California. He also holds a Ph.D. in Physiology, also from the University of Southern California.
Barry McAvoy
Investor, Board Member & Advisor
An investor in the Company, and is also a Board Member, and advisor. He has provided organizational and executive business advice to the Company on an informal and uncompensated basis. Mr. McAvoy has more than 20 years of technology experience in the public and private sector, with more than 18 years of management experience. He was previously Executive Director of Strategic Security Services at Kaiser Permanente, where he oversaw multiple management and security programs and budgets. Prior to his tenure at Kaiser Permanente, Mr. McAvoy served as Vice President of two major banking institutions, overseeing the Project Management Office, the Systems Development Group, online banking, and foreign exchange and interbank trading departments. Mr. McAvoy has also been involved in local government, developing telecommunications technology for the City of San Francisco. Mr. McAvoy received his BA degree from San Francisco State University and received additional training from the Universitat de Barcelona.
J. Michael Brown
Investor, Board Member & Advisor
An investor, Board Member and advisor for ProteoNova Inc. He has provided organizational and executive business advice to the Company on an informal and uncompensated basis. Mr. Brown has been a Senior Executive, Board Member and Investor with over 45 years of experience in medical devices with both major corporations and startups. He has executed business plans and made eight successful exits for some of the largest healthcare companies. Mr. Brown is currently invested in and on the Board of 5 healthcare startups. He was educated in Marketing and Business Management at Western Kentucky University with further study at Columbia University Executive Management program and training in Human Resources at Princeton University Executive Management program.
Dann Hughes
Investor, Board Member & Advisor
An investor, Board member and advisor for ProteoNova. He has provided the company with executive business advice on an informal and uncompensated basis. Mr. Hughes has more than 35 years of management and investment experience in the private sector. He is the owner operator of three successful automotive dealerships. Mr. Hughes also founded, and is President and CEO of two additional businesses: Hughes Acceptance Company, an automobile finance company, and Hughes Investments, Inc, an investment company. Mr. Hughes was previously on the Board of Directors of First Bank and Trust Company, Caldwell – Lyon Partnership, Paducah Airport, and Olive Medical Health Care. He is currently on the Board of Directors of Rock West Medical Devices, LLC, a private biotechnology company in California. His wide and varied experience and insight provides a valuable asset to ProteoNova.
Advisors
The following individuals have provided advice to the Company on an informal and uncompensated basis. They have had no decision making authority.
Tim L. Kitchen
Investor & Advisor
An investor in the Company. Mr. Kitchen has provided intellectual property advice to the Company on an informal and uncompensated basis. He is a registered United States patent attorney with over 20 years of experience in the legal profession. He has worked for seven years as in-house counsel for Guidant Corporation (now Abbott Laboratories), where he oversaw all aspects of intellectual property for its vascular intervention business. This included developing and implementing strategies for building the company’s international patent portfolio and participating in the company’s investment and acquisition activities. He has also managed a large number of IP litigation matters in the U.S. and Europe. Mr. Kitchen also has extensive experience in negotiating and drafting technology transfer and license agreements. Mr. Kitchen received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from University of the Pacific and his J.D. from Santa Clara University.
Mario J. Paniccia
Investor & Advisor
An investor in the Company. Mr. Paniccia provided business advice to the Company on an informal and uncompensated basis. Dr. Paniccia is currently the CEO of Versalume Inc. Dr. Paniccia previously spent over 20 years at Intel Corporation where he was an Intel Fellow and Chief Technology Officer for Silicon Photonics Solutions Group. During his tenure at Intel he served in various roles from research and development to strategic direction setting to driving the development and commercialization of technologies needed to enable optical communications and/or optical interconnects in and around Intel platforms. Dr. Paniccia started Intel’s research in the area of Silicon Photonics and drove silicon photonics to product commercialization. He has experience ranging from small stage entrepreneur startup/incubator to running R&D and business unit organizations as well as driving strategy. He has over 67 patents issued or pending. He is a fellow of the IEEE, SPIE and OSA. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1988 from the State University of New York at Binghamton and a Ph.D. in solid state physics from Purdue University in 1994. In May 2009 Dr. Paniccia was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Binghamton University.