As the Internet aggressively changed the way companies interacted with their environments in the late 1990’s, Mr. Mickelsen founded a boutique branding agency. For 7 years Mr. Mickelsen’s agency developed multimedia products and marketing strategies for image and brand identity clients such as such as Coca Cola, Edelman Communications, Ericsson, and the University of California. Mr. Mickelsen left agency work in 2006 to found InteliSea, LLC, a technology manufacturer in the luxury yacht industry. In a difficult economy, Mr. Mickelsen guided the firm through a two year R&D phase and built $3 million in annual revenue within eighteen months of product introduction. After five years, Mr. Mickelsen accepted an opportunity to head the marketing and data analytics function areas for Magnaflow, a $100 million revenue manufacturer in the automotive aftermarket. After being sought out by Transamerican Auto Parts (TAP), the second largest automotive aftermarket company in California, Mr. Mickelsen joined the $700 million revenue manufacturer, retailer and wholesale firm as Director of Marketing. He served on the Leadership Council at TAP and reported directly to the CEO. Mr. Mickelsen’s efforts in team building, process improvement and market analysis resulted in a 10% increase in new customers for the industry-leading 4 Wheel Parts chain, and contributed to double digit revenue growth for the company. His focus on ROI allowed the firm to achieve these results while reducing a $22 million marketing budget by 40%. Recently Mr. Mickelsen joined Schiefer Media, Inc., the largest media agency in the automotive aftermarket, as COO, focused on expanding the firm’s services and expanding into additional markets.

Whether building businesses from the ground up or working within a corporate environment, Mr. Mickelsen’s focus has always been on strategy and supporting tactics, team building, leadership and results. A combination of Marketing and Operations experience has instilled in him a belief that collaboration goes hand in hand with empowerment, process with flexibility, entrepreneurialism with organization.

Beyond work, Mr. Mickelsen is dedicated to teaching his three children that life is experiential and not material. Mr. Mickelsen pursued and achieved a MFA in Creative Writing to improve his communication skills, as a passion project, and as service to his belief that learning should never end. Mr. Mickelsen enjoys cycling, karate, playing soccer, and walking his big dogs.

... and executive level management and outside service providers and in the development of business strategy. While practicing law, she regularly attended and contributed to board meetings for substantially all of her clients.  She currently serves as a director of several companies, provides coaching for executive teams and assists them in refining business strategies.

For over 16 years, Ms. Hunter has been a practicing attorney, 13 years (from 1989 to 2003) of which were with the law firm of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP, focusing on corporate and securities law with an emphasis on technology development and licensing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, sales and divestitures of assets, public and private financings, general corporate counseling and corporate governance issues. Approximately 95% of her practice involved representing venture backed companies in the healthcare industry.  Experience includes approximately: 35 technology transfer, development, licensing and manufacturing agreements, both domestic and international; 75 public offerings; 150 financings for issuers, venture capitalists and investment bankers; and 50 merger and acquisition transactions, including management buyouts, leveraged buyouts and going private transactions.  Ms. Hunter has also formed venture funds.

As a partner with Brobeck, Ms. Hunter regularly attended all board meetings of clients and advised boards on fiduciary duty and disclosure issues.  In that role, most recently, she developed audit and compensation committee charters as well as certification statements for ‘34 Act reports under Sarbanes-Oxley.  She has also sat on the boards of numerous companies, including those of some clients.  From 1999 to 2002, Ms. Hunter was the managing partner of the business and technology practice of Brobeck’s Orange County office.  In that role, she was responsible for all aspects of managing the Orange County corporate practice, including:  hiring, review and compensation of associates and paralegals; developing and managing office group practice budget and office group P & L; training of associates; and interfacing with senior firm management regarding office group performance.  Mrs. Hunter was responsible for implementing a new associate assignment and training program. While on Brobeck’s Associate Review and Development Committee, Ms. Hunter performed annual performance and compensation reviews of associates, and provided recommendations of associates for elevation to partnership.

From 1999-2001, Ms. Hunter was the co-chair of Brobeck’s Life Sciences Practice where she was responsible for developing marketing and client pitch materials; developing a database of life sciences clients; developing and implementing marketing plan for penetrating additional life sciences companies in various geographic areas across the country; and developing data base of attorney expertise.

Representative clients and transactions in the healthcare industry have included such as TheraTx (THTX), Tokos (TKOS), Baxter (BAX), McGaw (MCGW), Quantum Health (QTHR), Birtcher Medical (BRTH), Thoratec Laboratories (THOR), Voxel Corporation (VOXL), Careline (CRLN), Advanced Tissue Sciences (ADTS) and Specialty Medical Laboratories (SPEC).

Ms. Hunter received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Davis, School of Law in 1987 where she was an editor of the UC Davis Law Review in 1986 and 1987 and published an article on tender offers.  She received her Bachelors in Business Administration from the University of San Diego in 1982, Magna cum laude, Beta gamma sigma.  Ms. Hunter is a member of the California and American Bar Associations and the National Healthcare Lawyers Association.

She speaks regularly on topics of interest to the growth company community including financing alternatives, creating investment presentations, drafting effective business plans, technology licensing, protecting intellectual property, Sarbanes Oxley and corporate governance issues, fundamentals of business operations, negotiating techniques, trends in venture capital and other financings.  She also regularly mentors c-level executives and assists them in developing business plans, refining business strategies and presentations to investors.

Ms. Hunter resides in Orange County, California and has been married for 8 years to Jim, a native of Southern California.  She enjoys community service and has worked with Victims of Violent Crimes and has been a group facilitator for siblings of children with chronic and/or terminal illnesses at Children’s Hospital at Stanford.

... of the strategic plan for the company. Caremark enjoyed rapid growth, establishing branch offices across the country and reaching annualized revenues of $225 million within eight years of its founding. After a successful public offering in 1982, the company was acquired five years later by Baxter for $575 million.

Since 1987, Dick has been President of DIMA Ventures, a private firm that provides seed capital and board-level support for start-up companies in the medical device and health care service markets. In this capacity, he has been a board member and founder or early-stage private investor in a number of companies. He co-founded Pyxis Corporation, a manufacturer and marketer of hospital-based automated prescription storage and dispensing devices. Dick helped to define the strategic direction for the company and served on the executive committee of its board of directors. Pyxis grew rapidly to revenues of $200 million and net profit of $35 million within nine years of its founding. After going public in 1992, the company was subsequently acquired by Cardinal Health for roughly $1 billion in 1996.

Dick has played an active board/early investor role for such companies as Menlo Care (I.V. access devices; acquired by Johnson & Johnson), Intraluminal Devices (AAA stent/graft technology; acquired by CardioVascular Dynamics), Flex-Foot (prosthetic devices; acquired by OSSUR North America), Micro Therapeutics (minimally invasive devices for neurovascular diseases; public), Med-Mart (home respiratory therapy services; private), Alteer (internet-based software for physician offices; private), Sub-Q (femoral artery closure devices; private), and IntelliDot (healthcare information technology; private). He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board for Alteer, and is on the board of directors at Med-Mart, Sub-Q, and IntelliDot. Dick was also an early-stage private investor in several other health care companies that went on to enjoy significant success. These include Informed Access (triage information systems; acquired by Access Health), Tropix (diagnostics; acquired by Perkin Elmer), and Genetics Institute (biotechnology; acquired by American Home Products).

Between his Caremark and DIMA experiences, Dick enjoyed a ten-month volunteer stint as the Southern California Regional Director for a U.S. Senate Campaign. He also taught for four years as a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, offering a course in Entrepreneurship to second-year MBAs. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, California. He is a past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Orange County Business Council and a past recipient of the Director of the Year award from the Orange County Forum for Corporate Directors. He and his wife are active in the Orange County chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, an organization focused on raising money to fund diabetes research.

Dick received his B.S. degree (cum laude) from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He was born and raised in Sioux City, Iowa and has been married to his wife, Mary, for 37 years. They live in Newport Beach, California and have two grown children and two grandchildren.

He received his medical degree from Rutgers School of Medicine before he became a resident and eventually chief resident in general surgery at the State University of New York (SUNY) Health Science Center in Brooklyn . He also spent a three-year research fellowship in pancreatic physiology at SUNY and received national and international awards for this work. Dr. Brunicardi’s principal research interests are in the areas of pancreatic cancer, islet cell transplantation, and pancreatic physiology and hormone secretion. He has received both national and international awards for his work, which is funded by two separate grants entitled, “Pancreatic Cancer Treatment Using Surgery and Gene Therapy” and “Intraislet Communication in Surgically-Altered Pancreas,” from the National Institutes of Health. His clinical interests include pancreas cancer, islet tumors, breast cancer, gastroenterology, islet transplantation, and minimally invasive surgery.

In 1989, Dr. Brunicardi began a six-year tenure with UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles . Along with his position as a staff surgeon, he became the acting director of trauma, co-director and director of the Islet Transplantation Program, successively. He was also an Associate Professor of Surgery at UCLA, where he directed a statewide National Institutes of Health-funded program for transplanting human islets of Langerhans, the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. In coming to Baylor, Dr. Brunicardi developed a research program in molecular physiology of the endocrine pancreas, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health. He has developed a basic science research program for the Division of General Surgery, which provides research fellowships for residents in general surgery.

Dr. Brunicardi has received 83 awards and honors since his undergraduate days, including memberships in the Blue Key Honor Society at Johns Hopkins and the Royal College of Surgeons Traveling Fellowship. He was bestowed with the Outstanding Teacher Award at UCLA School of Medicine three years in a row during his teaching career there and the Gene Guinn Outstanding Faculty Award at Baylor College of Medicine. Additionally, he has acted as Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago , at the University of Minnesota , at the University of Washington , at Baylor College of Medicine, at Creighton University , at Tulane University , at the VIIth National Medical Conference in Fortaleza , Brazil , and at the II Meeting of the Brazilian College of Surgeons in Recife , Brazil .

He is also a member of more than 37 professional societies, including the American Diabetes Association. A prolific writer, Dr. Brunicardi has co-authored 154 publications, 21 chapters, and 101 abstracts. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery textbook. Dr. Brunicardi also serves as a reviewer for such publications as Annals of Surgery, Diabetes, Pancreas, Journal of Surgical Research, Surgery, and American Journal of Physiology. He has also served as a reviewer for the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. A widely sought speaker, Dr. Brunicardi has taken part in more than 244 lectures regarding his clinical interests.

Dr. Brunicardi’s personal interests include music, guitar, and golf. He is also a dedicated family man and believes in traditional values of loyalty and friendship. He and his wife, Melissa, have two boys, Isaac and Jackson.