Management
James D. Merselis, Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Merselis graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology. He continued his education at Harvard Business School where he received an Advanced Management Program Certificate. Before joining Alverix, Mr. Merselis served as President and CEO of HemoSense, Inc. (AMEX: HEM), a POC diagnostics company focused initially on providing patients and physicians with rapid test results to help manage the risk of stroke with the drug warfarin or Coumadin. HemoSense was acquired by Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. (AMEX: IMA) in late 2007 for $265 million. Prior to his tenure at HemoSense, Merselis served as President and CEO of Micronics, Inc., a microfluidics company that develops near patient in vitro diagnostic products for disease diagnosis, prognosis and treatment monitoring. In addition, he held a number of positions over twenty-two years with Boehringer Mannheim Diagnostics (now Roche Diagnostics). He currently serves on the board of Chembio Diagnostics, Inc. (OTCC/BB: CEMI), a developer and manufacturer of proprietary rapid diagnostic tests. Merselis is also Chairman of Akrotome, Inc., a newly-formed business with the mission of advancing surgical cancer treatment with new imaging agents that give surgeons rapid and direct visual differentiation between diseased cells and normal tissue during surgery.
Patrick T. Petruno, Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Petruno received his BSEE and MSEE degrees in Electrical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1976 and 1978 respectively. He has 30 years experience in the electronic and opto-electronic industry, developing new businesses utilizing opto-electronic technologies. In 2004, within Agilent Technologies’ Semiconductor Products Group, Mr. Petruno developed the concepts to form a business initiative developing and marketing highly sensitive, inexpensive, handheld optical based instrumentation for medical diagnostic applications. In 2005, the newly formed business initiative was divested along with the Semiconductor Products Group to form Avago Technologies, where the business became an independent operation, Rapid Diagnostics. In 2007, he led a successful spinout of Rapid Diagnostics to form Alverix, Inc. Mr. Petruno’s extensive track record for developing new businesses includes high speed digital transmission systems, digital cellular radio modulation, GaAs IC’s, IRDA physical layer, Fiber Optic Transceivers, and Silicon ASIC’s. Collectively these new businesses have resulted in over $1B in new revenue for Hewlett Packard and Agilent Technologies.
Tong Xie, VP Research and Development
Dr. Xie received his Ph.D. degree in optical sciences from the University of Arizona. He has over ten years experience in R&D and technology management. Dr. Xie was a R&D Section manager at Avago Technologies and held various technical and management positions in Eastman Kodak, Kaiser Electronics and Agilent Technologies. His expertise and experiences span consumer electronics, high speed communication systems, and test and measurement technologies. Dr. Xie holds more than 30 patents and patent applications, including the invention of the Laser Mouse.
Beverly Cormier, VP Business Development
Ms. Cormier graduated Cum Laude from the University of Cincinnati with a BS degree in Health Science Education and did her graduate work at Miami University in Health Care. She has more than twenty years experience spanning genomic, medical diagnostic and medical device industries. Ms. Cormier served as President of BioScience Business Solutions, an executive consulting firm she founded in 2000 and has held a variety of senior executive management roles with early stage and mid-stage companies, assisting two in moving from the private to the public sector. In addition, she has provided interim executive management for six companies and assisted two companies with restructuring that resulted in successful acquisitions. Ms. Cormier has been a Board member of AACC and authored “Raising Capital from the Private Sector.”
Bill Bilobran, VP Quality and Regulatory Affairs
Mr. Bilobran has a Masters degree in Physics from Kent State University. He has 30 years of experience with Hewlett Packard Company, Agilent Technologies, and Avago Technologies, including roles as Software Engineer, Product Engineer, R&D Product Engineer and 2 years as Applications & Product Engineering Manager stationed in Penang, Malaysia. Mr. Bilobran has completed 160 hours of Six Sigma Black Belt Quality training by Motorola University and 100 hours of FDA cGMP training through American Society for Quality. Mr. Bilobran has a wide range of product experience including managing the Agilent Technologies Product Engineering department associated with the introduction of Optical Mouse Navigation Products.
Pin Chai Chen, VP Manufacturing and General Manager of Alverix Malaysia
Mr. Chen graduated from University of Alberta, AB, Canada with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He currently resides in Penang, Malaysia, site of Alverix’s manufacturing operation. Mr. Chen is responsible for manufacturing, test, contract manufacturer management and order fulfillment. Mr. Chen has a total of 16 years manufacturing experience, including 10 years in Operations Management supporting high volume product shipments ranging from Flash Memory IC’s, Hard Disk Drives and various optoelectronics products such as Optical Transceivers, Navigation Sensors and Camera Modules.