Board of Managers

The Board of Managers elected James C. Powers as Chairman and interim Chief Executive Officer in August 2008 and he became full-time CEO in February 2009. Prior to joining HemoShear, Mr. Powers spent 20 years as an executive in the pharmaceutical R&D services sector. He spent 18 years in executive management at PRA International, a global clinical research organization serving pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies. 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 being U.S.-centric to becoming global. 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 annual sales of less than $1 million to more than $450 million and from a few employees to a global work force of more than 3,000. He was recently a board member of CellzDirect, Inc., a leading provider of drug metabolism and hepatotoxicity testing products and services, which was acquired by Invitrogen, and was a board member of Averion International, an international contract clinical research organization. He was an advisor to Tall Oaks Capital and the Coulter Translational Research Partnership in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia. Mr. Powers received a BS in Administration and Management Science from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Dr. Campbell has been an entrepreneur and an economic consultant throughout his 40-year business career. He began in 1968 with an aviation consulting firm in New York and was promoted to Vice President in charge of the firm’s Washington office. In 1977, he was co-founder of Midway Airlines, Inc., the first new, scheduled start-up carrier after airline deregulation. At Midway, he served as CFO and participated in raising $5.7 million of venture capital to fund Midway’s start-up. He returned to the aviation consulting business in 1983 and has been founder and co-founder of two specialized consulting firms. He recently retired from his position as Chairman of The Campbell-Hill Aviation Group, headquartered in Alexandria, VA. Throughout his consulting career, he has assisted numerous start-up companies with business plan preparation, financial forecasting, detailed market analyses, and strategic planning studies. Currently he serves a Vice Chairman, investor, and acting CFO of Dynamic Literacy, LLC; advisor to Targeson, LLC, a University of Virginia (UVa)-based biotechnology company; acting CFO and investor in BioMotion Analytics, LLC; is a member of the advisory board of UVa’s Heart and Vascular Center, and of the UVa Patent Foundation Advisory Panel. He earned a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University, an MBA from the University of Western Ontario, and a PhD in Business Administration from Columbia University.

Mr. Thompson is of counsel to the law firm of Woods Rogers PLC and specializes in corporate law representing companies in diverse fields including biotechnology, information technology, and oil and gas exploration. Mr. Thompson is Secretary of Insmed Incorporated, a publicly traded biotechnology company and is a member of the boards of Mestena Inc., an oil- and gas-exploration company, and Foundation Energy Management, LLC, which acquires oil- and gas-producing properties. He is a member of the investment advisory board of Tall Oaks Capital, a venture capital fund based in Charlottesville, and has represented many biotechnology companies in the Charlottesville area. He is a member of the advisory board for the University of Virginia’s (UVa) Heart and Vascular Center and general counsel to, and immediate past chair of, the board of the UVa Curry School of Education Foundation. Mr. Thompson graduated from Yale College in 1969 and UVa Law School in 1972.

Dr. Blackman is co-inventor of the HemoShear technology and co-founder of HemoShear. He is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia (UVa). Since August 2002, Dr. Blackman has led an NIH-funded research program investigating the role of the hemodynamic environment in regulating vascular endothelial cell biology in atherosclerosis. Prior to joining UVa, Dr. Blackman spent more than three years training as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Vascular Research Division of Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. There he developed the first cell-culture-based model to simulate human hemodynamic flow patterns on isolated human endothelial cells, which laid the foundation for current research identifying the importance of precise hemodynamic conditions for regulating arterial vascular biology. Dr. Blackman has published more than 17 peer-reviewed articles, serves on UVa’s School of Engineering and Sciences Dean’s Research Advisory Committee, is a member of the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center, is a peer reviewer for more than 12 scientific journals, and is a standing member of the American Heart Association Bioengineering & Biotechnology study section. Dr. Blackman obtained a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University and a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Brooks is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. He has a consulting practice for life science companies that seek strategic advice and access to capital to initiate, develop, and grow their businesses, and he is a founding partner of Prism Ventureworks. Prism has raised over $1.25 billion and is based in Needham, MA. Mr. Brooks sits on the boards of Carmell Therapeutics, Noxilizer, Reflectance Medical, Inc. (where he is the CEO), and EndoScope Surgical. Mr. Brooks was formerly a General Manager at Pfizer/Valleylab in Boulder, CO, where he developed and executed a minimally invasive surgery and emerging businesses strategy. Prior to Valleylab, he led the growth of a rapidly evolving vascular access medical device business at Pfizer/Strato Medical. Mr. Brooks has co-founded three paradigm-shifting life sciences companies: Songbird Hearing, Locus Pharmaceuticals, and Insulet (PODD). He is a biotechnology advisory board member for Draper Labs and the Kansas Heartland Bioventures Fund. In addition, Mr. Brooks is a member of M2D2, an early-stage medical technology accelerator and a board member of Mass Medic’s Ignite entrepreneurial center as well as the CIMIT and MTTC advisory boards. He holds an MS in Business and a BBA cum laude from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Financial Planner.

Dr. Sackier trained as a surgeon in the United Kingdom, was recruited to the United States in the 1980s, and helped lead the laparoscopic surgery revolution. As a Professor at George Washington University in Washington, DC, he founded and funded the Washington Institute of Surgical Endoscopy, a center for education, research, and technological innovation. He retired from clinical practice and full-time academic pursuits in 1999, but continues his associations with academia as a Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia’s Departments of Medicine and Surgery. Dr. Sackier remains active in basic and clinical research, being supported by a number of grants. His work has led to more than 120 publications, seven books, and chapters for 36 medical textbooks.

Dr. Sackier has collaborated extensively with the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. He developed multiple technologies that have been licensed and brought to market with partners such as Valleylab, Pfizer, Karl Storz, Applied Medical, and Pall. In the mid-1980s, his team discovered and patented a line of amniotic stem cells and the resultant company, Genethics, licensed the rights to a publicly traded British pharmaceutical company, Proteus LLC (now Protherics; symbol: PTI). Dr. Sackier also helped develop Computer Motion’s AESOP robotic device, which led to a successful IPO in 1997. He is a consultant to health care companies, sits on several corporate and scientific advisory boards, advises the financial community on angel and venture funding, and assists with due diligence on merger and acquisition and IPO activity.

A frequent commentator in the media, Dr. Sackier has been a guest on radio and television to discuss a range of health care issues. He has served the National Committee of the Steppenwolf Foundation, is a Trustee of the First Star Foundation, and previously chaired the board of the Larry King Cardiac Foundation.

Dr. Wamhoff is co-inventor of the HemoShear technology and co-founder of HemoShear. He is a tenure-track Associate Professor at the University of Virginia (UVa) and leads an NIH-funded laboratory that studies vascular disease at the Cardiovascular Division of UVa’s Department of Medicine. Dr. Wamhoff began his fellowship at UVa to develop rodent models to investigate the molecular mechanisms of genes underlying vascular disease. During this time, he was also employed by Setagon, Inc., a Charlottesville start-up, as lead scientist to develop a novel drug-eluting stent for the treatment of blood vessel stenosis in humans. While at UVa, he has obtained several million dollars in funding from Pfizer, the American Heart Association, NIH, and other organizations to study the fundamental mechanisms that regulate smooth muscle cell phenotypic switching in vascular disease.

Dr. Wamhoff obtained a BS in Biology with a minor in Business Administration from Rhodes College and obtained his PhD from the University of Missouri, where he developed swine models of diabetes and atherosclerosis. Dr. Wamhoff has filed more than 15 patents related to regulation of smooth muscle cell phenotypic switching in vascular disease, leading to licensing of the technology in 2007 to a major device company. He has authored or coauthored 32 publications, two book chapters, and three commentaries. Dr. Wamhoff serves as peer reviewer for more than 10 major scientific journals and is a grant reviewer for the American Heart Association. He has been the recipient of multiple awards, including the Robert M. Berne Trainee Achievement Award, the American Physiological Society Young Cardiovascular Investigator Award, the 2008 Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB) Irvine Paige Award, and the 2010 American Physiological Society New Investigator Award for Cardiovascular Research. Dr. Wamhoff devotes philanthropic time to the community by promoting health awareness as a local member of the board of directors for the American Heart Association.

Mr. Woods began his business career at General Electric in the marketing of industrial process computers and later served as Director of new aircraft development and purchasing for Eastern Airlines, concentrating on the design, purchase, and financing of the DC-9, B-737, B-727, and L-1011 fleets. He then joined Butler Aviation International to manage a corporate turnaround that became the subject of three Harvard Business School case studies. He led Butler through a major restructuring without any loss to banks or bond holders, or any dilution of the original public shareholders. The Butler companies all experienced significant growth and profitability through acquisitions in their respective industries. Butler International was listed on the NYSE and was later sold to a financial buyer for cash at an attractive valuation. Mr. Woods returned to turnaround consulting, and later co-founded a merger and acquisition practice specializing in the insurance industry. He was a founding shareholder and Director of the New York investment banking firm of Benedetto Gartland & Company, which specializes in raising capital for private equity funds. He currently serves as Chairman of Dynamic Literacy, LLC, and is a Director of Scitent, Inc., and DeHayes Consulting Group. He also serves on the board of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville, the advisory board of the University of Virginia’s Heart and Vascular Center, and is co-founder of the Keswick Community Foundation. He earned BS and MS degrees in Engineering and an MBA from Cornell University.