Board of Directors

Dr. A. Wayne Tamarelli

Dr. Tamarelli has 39 years experience in general management, entrepreneurship, new ventures, mergers and acquisitions, advanced materials, environmental protection products, energy conservation technologies, specialty chemicals, technology transfer, and other business and technological areas. His primary business activity is as a professional venture capital angel investor. He specializes in value-added investments in early stage technology businesses. He has made about 70 investments in over 30 companies since 2000. These investments have been in advanced materials, electronics, information technology, and health care. He is also a limited partner in 4 venture capital funds active in these areas. Dr. Tamarelli is founding chairman of Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network and a member of the Band of Angels in Silicon Valley. In 1983 he purchased Dock Resins Corporation in a leveraged buyout and successfully grew its revenues and profits as Chairman, CEO and sole owner. In 1997 he sold the company at a significant gain and remained CEO until 2000 when he became Chairman Emeritus. He was employed by Engelhard Corporation from 1970 to 1983 (Senior Vice President), and previously by Exxon Corporation. He has BS, MS, and PhD degrees in engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and an MBA in marketing and international business from New York University.

Edwin Thomas

Mr. Thomas is a biotechnology executive and entrepreneur, having been a founder, advisor, and principal in a number of successful life science companies. Prior to joining Provid, Mr. Thomas occupied executive positions with CMI - Centers for Medical Innovation AG (antivirals, Munich and Princeton), Precision Pharmaceuticals Inc. (anti-inflammatories, Gainesville, FL), and Avid Therapeutics (antiviral drug discovery, Philadelphia). He is also a founder and CEO of Eleison Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Thomas was educated at the University of Pennsylvania (B.S., Economics and Biochemistry, 1981) and earned an MBA from The Wharton School in 1984.

Bryan Wood

Mr. Wood is the founder of Alta Berkeley, a European venture capital firm investing in early stage communications, information technology, media and health care companies in Western Europe, USA and Israel. He has invested in 40 companies, resulting in nine IPOs (six on NASDAQ) and fourteen trade sales (mostly cross-border). He served as non executive director of 50 companies, public and private in ten European countries, USA and Israel.

Previously, Mr. Wood has been European Finance Vice President of Gould Inc and held several other European and US finance and operating positions in various companies. Bryan obtained his Bachelor in Science in Industrial Engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and his MBA from the Harvard Business School.

CEO/CSO

Dr. Olson is co-founder, President & CEO of Provid Pharmaceuticals. He received an A.B. from Columbia and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford. He is a leading expert in medicinal chemistry and a pioneer in the fields of drug design and peptide mimetics. Dr. Olson was a research scientist at Hoffmann-La Roche for 26 years where he became Research Director in the Departments of Inflammation/Autoimmune disease and Oncology. In 1998, he joined Praecis Pharmaceuticals as Senior Vice President of Chemistry R&D. He co-founded Provid in 2001 and has led the company's drug discovery services business and internal programs in autoimmune disease and oncology therapeutics. He is also an adjunct Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at Rutgers.

VP Medicinal Chemistry

Dr. Self has broad experience in the pharmaceutical industry and expertise in organic and medicinal chemistry applied in the fields of inflammation, autoimmune diseases, and oncology. He received a B.Sc. in chemistry from Imperial College, London in 1977, and his Ph.D. at the University of London under the direction of Prof. Stephen Ley. Following a postdoctoral appointment at Wisconsin with Prof. Barry Trost, he joined Roche Products Ltd., UK, in 1982 as a senior researcher in the Department of Inflammation, and from 1995 held the position of Research Leader at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., USA in the Department of Inflammation/Autoimmune Diseases. In 1998, Dr. Self became Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry of Praecis' New Jersey division, and became a co-founder of Provid in 2001 where he is currently Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry.