Board of Directors

Dr. Bill Freytag, Chairman of the Board of Directors of BiOptix, received a B.S. from Purdue University, a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Kansas Medical Center and completed a post doctoral fellowship at Duke University. He brings over 25 years of research, product development and commercialization experience. Recently Dr Freytag served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aspreva Pharmaceuticals, a global pharmaceutical company focused on identifying, developing, and, upon approval, commercializing evidence-based medicines for patients living with less common diseases. As Chairman and CEO of Myogen, he built a focused cardiovascular biotechnology company with a robust clinical pipeline with sales and marketing capabilities. Dr. Freytag served as a Senior Advisor to Gilead as a result of Gilead's acquisition of Myogen in November 2006. Prior to Myogen, Dr. Freytag was a Senior Vice President at Somatogen, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company where he led corporate and commercial development from 1994 to 1998. He also served as President of Research and Development at Boehringer Mannheim Corporation, an international healthcare company and spent over a decade with DuPont in various research and business management positions. He is a Director of Immunicon Corporation, ARCA Discovery, Inc. and is a member of the Executive Board for the Colorado Biotechnology Association.

Dr. Misha Plam, Founder, President and CEO of BiOptix, has an extensive background in commercializing research and building high tech entrepreneurial companies. Misha previously founded and served as Chairman, President and CEO of Sievers Instruments, Inc., an analytical instrument company now owned by General Electric. Sievers received a number of SBIR awards and developed an instrument to measure water quality on the Russian Space Station MIR. A Sievers instrument is now used on the International Space Station and the product was successfully marketed to the pharmaceutical and semiconductor industries. Misha was selected as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur-of-the-Year (Rocky Mountain Region) in 1997 and was also named Entrepreneur of Distinction at Esprit 97 in Boulder, Colorado. Misha is an Academician of the Russian Academy of Engineering, one of only 77 foreign members of this prestigious organization. He has been widely recognized for his contributions to the American-Russian Space Program and has promoted the US SBIR program in China and Russia. Misha is currently an Adjunct Professor in the University of Colorado's Mechanical Engineering Department and a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado and the US-Russia Center for Entrepreneurship. He is a graduate of Moscow State University in Russia, where he received an advanced degree in Glaciology.

Greg Abbott has been a business executive and attorney in the life sciences industry for almost 30 years, including serving as president and CEO and a board member of a number of biotechnology companies. Currently, Greg provides business strategy advice and is a consulting expert on licensing and intellectual property matters in the biotech industry. Greg was previously president and CEO and a board member of Synergen, Inc., in Boulder, Colorado and led the acquisition of that company by Amgen, Inc. in 1995. He subsequently served as president and CEO and a board member of Darwin Molecular Corporation, in Bothell, Washington, and has been CEO of several other privately held biotechnology companies. He also served as a director of the biotech companies Xencor, diaDexus and Selectide through much of their early development. In addition, Greg has been a life sciences partner at the prominent technology law firm Cooley Godward (now Cooley Godward Kronish LLP) in Kirkland, Washington, and of the large corporate law firm Holme Roberts & Owen in Denver and Boulder, Colorado. Greg is licensed as an attorney in the State of Washington. He received his J.D. with honors from the University of Denver College of Law and holds a B.A in economics from Yale University.

Dr. Bill Coleman came to Boulder after earning his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. He started working for a small chemical company in Boulder that eventually was taken over by Syntex Chemicals Inc., now Roche Colorado. During his stint with Syntex, he managed a new chemical plant in the Bahamas and later served as president of Syntex Chemicals from 1972 to 1979. In 1979, he founded Colorado Venture Management and acquired partners during the following year. This venture-capital company provides early-stage seed funding for business ventures along the Front Range. Over the years, the group has invested in 70 businesses, including BioStar Inc., Hauser Chemical Research, BI Inc., and Horizon Organic Dairy. Recently, the group opened the new CVM Equity Fund V, which is focused on funding similar startup companies. Doctor Coleman has received Boulder's Esprit Entrepreneur's Life Time Achievement Award, and Northern Colorado's Bravo Entrepreneur's Award. Doctor Coleman has also been included into Boulder County's Business Hall of Fame.

Kinney Johnson has been a venture capitalist since 1984. He has a BA degree in Mathematics, Business Administration degree, and MS in Mathematical Computer Science. As a founding partner of Capital Health Venture Partners, Mr. Johnson was involved in approximately 25 early-stage life science/healthcare start-ups. In 1995, he became a founding partner of Sequel Venture Partners, a Boulder, Colorado-based venture firm specializing in start-up technology companies in the IT, Telecom and Healthcare sectors. Sequel has invested in 45 start-ups and currently manages over $400 million in three funds. In 1973, prior to entering the venture capital industry, Mr. Johnson and two partners founded Fischer Imaging Corporation. This venture grew from $1 million in revenue to become a highly profitable public company in the diagnostics imaging industry with revenue of $75 million. Mr. Johnson has served on the public boards of Somatogen, Inc.; The Spectranetics Corporation; Fischer Imaging Corporation and Access Health Systems. Currently he serves on the boards of Evolutionary Genomics, AblaTx Corporation, Noble Molecules, Inc, HomeSphere, IQNavigator, and StrionAir.

Dr. R. C. “Merc” Mercure, Jr. is President of CDM Optics. He earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph. D. in Physics from the Colorado University at Boulder. After working on atomic weapon programs in 1956, he co-founded Ball Brothers Research Corporation in Boulder, which grew to over 2,400 by 1980. He served as Ball’s Group Vice President. He was one of four founders of Colorado Venture Management in Boulder, and has helped many companies grow and prosper. He has served on more than two dozen boards of directors and remains active on the boards of six companies. Dr. Mercure's activities have included serving as commissioner of the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute, as chairman of the American Electronics Association, and on the Governor's Science and Technology Advisory Committee. His Alma Mater honored him with the CU Physics Department’s Outstanding Alumnus, the CU Alumni Association with its highest honor, the George Norlin Award, and the CU College of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award. The Boulder Chamber of Commerce’s Esprit Entrepreneurs awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award, and its 20th Anniversary Award.

Olga Plam graduated from the famous Stroganoff School of Art in Moscow with a degree in commercial design. After working in the industry designing consumer products she came back to Stroganoff School as a professor of design and composition. In 1976, Olga and her family immigrated to the United States. In the US she worked as a graphics designer at University of Colorado at Boulder and then at Henlon Design Group. Subsequently she joined a gift manufacturing company SilverDeer in Boulder where she was Creative Director in charge of design and promotions. She served on the board of directors of Sievers Instruments. Olga is a Signature member of Oil Painters of America.