| Howard Louie - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Howard Louie, a co-founder of the company, has served as a founder, director and/or officer in leading the management team of several public companies over the past 20 years. At the executive management level, he has been involved in the process of restructuring and advising both private and public companies regarding mergers and acquisitions, capital and investment financing, international business development, as well as joint venture and market penetration strategies. During his distinguished career, Mr. Louie has successfully implemented business strategies on international market penetration for various business initiatives including the identifying, negotiating and completion of cross border transactions resulting in joint ventures and or licensing agreements with market-dominating multinationals, and bringing together international investment capital. Past non-business directorships include a member of the board for the Sunnyhill Children's hospital and Overseas Council Canada - a privately funded organisation providing for scholarships and facility development for third world country educational development. Mr. Louie continues to be active in the non-profit sector including long standing volunteer work with international aid groups, including a particular focus on needy children. For business and leisure, Mr. Louie enjoys longstanding memberships with the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, and The Vancouver Club. | |
| David Allard, LL.B., B.C.L. - Director David Allard joined the company's Board of Directors in January 2001. David is a partner in the Corporate/Commercial, Securities and Technology Law Groups at the law firm Lawson, Lundell. Prior to this, he practiced for two years with a large international law firm in London, England. Mr. Allard was called to the British Columbia bar in 1987. He holds an LLB from UBC and a B.C.L. from the Oxford University. His professional memberships include: The Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia - Corporate Law Advisory Board, the International Bar Association, and the BC Biotechnology Alliance. | |
| Ron Paton, LL.B. - Director Ron Paton practices business law in association with the Vancouver law firm, Maitland & Company in representing both public and private company clients. He received his law degree from UBC (LL.B. 1988) and was called to the British Columbia bar in 1989. Ron has served as an officer and director of several public and private companies and has experienced the unique challenges and opportunities presented in the early stages of development and commercialization. | |
| Fabio Banducci, M.B.A., CFA - Director Fabio Banducci is a seasoned businessman and wine enthusiast. Mr. Banducci is President of Peer 1 Network Enterprises, Inc. (TSXV: PIX). He previously spent 12 years with Haywood Securities Inc. where he served as a Director and head of the firm's Corporate Finance department. He has been directly involved in numerous financial transactions in the private and public markets, both domestically and internationally, and has advised companies on matters relating to mergers and acquisitions, regulatory compliance and corporate governance. Mr. Banducci obtained a Bachelor of Applied Science degree from UBC, and an MBA from McGill University. He is a CFA charterholder and member of the Vancouver Society of Financial Analysts. True to his heritage, Mr. Banducci's interest in the wine industry extends to his early youth when he worked in vineyards in the Okanagan Valley and then in later years when he studied and worked in Italy. He is also now the proud owner of a fully productive vineyard in the Okanagan. Mr. Banducci's skills in business finance and his working experience in the wine industry will be an asset to the company as it builds its presence in the wine community. | |
| Geoffrey Lee, MBA - Director, VP, Business Development Geoff Lee, co-founder of the company, has served in leading management positions with several private and public companies. His business initiatives have involved concept development, product creation, investment analysis and business development, operations management and implementation, and the internationalization of commercial services and technologies. Geoff has successfully initiated and implemented strategies that have enabled several companies to develop into market leaders in their business sectors. This history includes developing and implementing one of the most progressive restaurant and wine merchandising programs in North America; identifying and securing relationships with market-leading multinational companies to bring businesses, and innovative products and brands, to an international marketplace in the technology sector; internationalizing businesses to enable successful operation in local markets; and raising strategic investment capital. Most recently, Geoff worked with senior management to establish Functional Technologies' wholly owned operating company in Napa Valley, California. | |
| Richard L. Sherman, JD - Director Dick Sherman is Vice President Business Development, Secretary and General Counsel of Hawaii Biotech, Inc., and serves as a consultant to the law firm of Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel, in Honolulu. He spent more than a decade (1976-1989) as Deputy General Counsel of SmithKline Beckman Corporation (now GlaxoSmithKline), was a partner in the Philadelphia law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP (1989-1992), and was founder and managing officer (1992-2001) of QED Technologies, Inc., a life science business consulting firm purchased in 1999 by The Omnicom Group in New York. He currently maintains an independent consulting practice in the life sciences industry, and is a principal in a private SBIC Investment fund, CIP Capital, L.P. in Philadelphia, PA, as well as a Venture Partner of SCP Private Equity Partners and of Vitalife II, venture funds located in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mr. Sherman has served on the Board of Directors of a number of for-profit companies, including CytoMed, Inc., Hawaii Biotech, Inc., IBAH, Inc.; Kenna Technologies, Inc., Mera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Sparta Pharmaceuticals. He has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of Biophage, Inc. in Montreal, Canada. His non-profit and charitable activities have included services on the Boards of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association, the Delaware Valley Chapter of the American Corporate Counsel Association (where he also served as President of the chapter), the American Music Theater Festival (also serving as President), The Sbarro Health Research Organization, the Hawaii Venture Capital Association, and the Hawaii Science and Technology Council. He has also served as a member of the investment advisory committee of the Ben Franklin Technology Center, the Executive Board of the START Technology Partnership, a consortium of Delaware Valley universities, The Technology Advisory Board for Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Advisory Board of the University of Hawaii Medical School. Mr. Sherman graduated magna cum laude from the University of Nebraska in 1968, and as a Root-Tilden Scholar at the New York University School of Law, he received his Juris Doctor in 1971. |