Speakers

Michael Riedlinger is the founder and president of Technology Sales and Licensing Services and currently serves as the Vice President of Business Development at Diffinity Genomics, Inc., which he co-founded with Rick Richmond and Dr. Lewis Rothberg. He also currently serves as the Director of the RochesterBioVentureCenter.

Technology Sales and Licensing Services was founded in 2002 and specializes in business development programs for organizations that seek new sources of revenue from licensing or selling their technical innovations to others. The company also provides consulting services to support economic development and public/private technology commercialization activities in the Upstate New York region.

Diffinity Genomics, Inc. is a technology development company focused on detection of genetic sequences in DNA and RNA and detection of proteins, other biological markers and contaminants. This company was formed as a result of a Pre-seed Workshop in Fall, 2004 to further develop and commercialize technology licensed from the University of Rochester.

Michael served as the president of NaturalNano, Inc., to November, 2006. NaturalNano, Inc., founded in 2004, is a publicly traded nanomaterials company developing proprietary technologies and processes for providing novel properties for a wide range of applications. These include industrial polymers, plastics and composites; and additives to cosmetics, agricultural, and household products.

Prior to founding Technology Sales and Licensing, Mr. Riedlinger was Chief Executive Officer of Vitalwork, Inc., an organizational development company focused on training and corporate culture change for the telecommunications industry. From 1995 to 2000, Mr. Riedlinger was Director of Sales and Marketing at Metamor Software Solutions, a computer programming services division of Metamor Worldwide with offices in over 20 countries worldwide. From 1993 to 1995 he was Vice President of QSoft Solutions, a provider of quality management software and information to major corporations in North America. From 1986 to 1993, Mr. Riedlinger held several positions, including OEM Products Director and Director of Strategic Planning at Microlytics, Inc. In his tenure at Microlytics, he developed several software products for both consumer and OEM markets and managed licensing relationships with over 100 combined licensees and licensors.

Joel Grover is an entrepreneur, scientist, businessman and a 37-year veteran of many high tech ventures. He is co-founder and CEO of Thermal Gradient Inc, a biotech company developing DNA testing systems for molecular diagnostics, biodefense and molecular research. Earlier in his career Dr. Grover was director of immunodiagnostic programs for Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, a Johnson&Johnson company, where he led teams that developed immuno-assays and major upgrades to the Vitros ECiQ system. During his career at Xerox Corp. he was a senior scientist and later led teams that developed a line of ink jet printer products that sold over one million units. He also helped start that company’s first color printer-copier program. Dr. Grover has published many scientific papers in diverse areas including semiconductor spectroscopy, color imaging processes and fast PCR thermal cycling devices. He holds several patents in the fields of ink jet printing, color imaging and PCR thermal cycling devices.

Ken is an experienced healthcare information technology (HIT) industry executive and entrepreneur, with a broad technical and business foundation. He has almost 25 years of HIT industry experience. Ken co-founded eHealth Global Technologies (eHGT), and is currently its President and CTO. eHGT has experienced ongoing triple digit growth since its founding in 2006, to where it now claims 29 of the top 100 hospitals as its customers. Previously to eHGT, Ken ran worldwide organizations for Kodak of over 100 employees with budgets in the tens of millions dollars. At Kodak, as a worldwide business manager, he led Kodak to a market-leading position in the growing HIT Enterprise Storage and Archiving market. Ken also led Kodak's $80M PACS business to its largest market share ever, and ran Kodak's Healthcare Information Systems' global R&D organization. Previous to Kodak, Ken worked in Silicon Valley in R&D development and management in the medical imaging field. Ken graduated Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelors of Science in Bioengineering and Computer Science.

Kevin J. Parker earned his graduate degrees from MIT and has served at the University of Rochester as Professor, Department Chair, Director of the Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound, and Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His research is in image processing and medical imaging, and he is a fellow of the IEEE, the AIUM, and the Acoustical Society of America. He is an inventor or a founder of a number of enterprises, including the field of elastography and the International Conference series in that area, the Blue Noise Mask, and VirtualScopics, Inc. Professor Parker has over 150 journal publications and dozens of US and international patents.

Thomas Gaborski is a technical entrepreneur who bridges the gap between life sciences, engineering and business operations. He is one of the co-inventors of the SiMPore membrane technology developed at the University of Rochester and currently leads the production, product development and membrane characterization teams. Tom completed a BS in Biological and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Rochester. As a graduate student, he was a university presidential fellowship winner and a National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Fellow. His graduate work initially focused neutrophil recruitment and the biophysics of adhesion receptor interactions. It was during this work that Tom became involved with the life science applications of ultrathin membranes leading to the co-founding of SiMPore. Tom is a co-inventor on five issued and pending patents in bionanotechnology and also has a passion for teaching, for which he was recognized with awards both at Cornell and the University of Rochester.