Brook Byers has been a venture capital investor since 1972. He has been closely involved with more than fifty new technology based ventures, over half of which have already become public companies. He formed the first life sciences practice group in the venture capital profession in 1984 and led KPCB to become a premier venture capital firm in the medical, healthcare and biotechnology sectors. KPCB has invested in and helped build more than 110 life sciences companies which have already developed hundreds of products to treat major underserved medical needs for millions of patients.

Byers was the founding president, and then chairman, of four biotechnology companies, which were incubated in KPCB’s offices and went on to become public companies with an aggregate market value of more than $8 billion. He is currently on the board of directors of nine companies, most recently joining CardioDX, Crescendo, Genomic Health Incorporated, Five Prime Therapeutics, OptiMedica, Pacific Biosciences Inc., Tethys, Veracyte and XDx Inc. He was formerly a director of Idec Pharmaceuticals (chairman), Athena Neurosciences (chairman), Signal Pharmaceuticals, Arris Pharmaceuticals, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Hybritech (chairman), Genprobe and others. These companies have pioneered the medical use of molecular biology, monoclonal antibodies, personalized medicine, molecular diagnostics, genomics and sequencing.

Byers was president and a director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. He is currently a board member of the University of California at San Francisco Medical Foundation, the New Schools Foundation, Stanford’s Bio-X Advisory Council and the Stanford Eye Council. He was co-chair of the five year, $1.4 billion UCSF Capital Campaign. In 2007, he was awarded the “UCSF Medal” as the organization’s honorary degree equivalent. In 2008, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2009, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Venture Capital Association. In May 2010, he received an honorary Ph.D. from Georgia Tech.

Byers was formerly a director of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, the California Healthcare Institute, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council, That Many May See (UCSF) Vision Research Foundation (chairman) and the Georgia Tech Advisory Board. He was also a founder of TechNet.

Raised in Atlanta, Byers graduated in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech and received an MBA from Stanford University.

Craig C. Taylor has been an active venture capitalist since 1977, and he co-founded Alloy Ventures in 1996. At Alloy, he focuses on investments in laboratory instrumentation, diagnostics and cleantech, especially green-focused companies that sit at the intersection of biotech, nanotech and IT.

Taylor is a veteran venture capital investor with a focus on technology transfer from leading research institutions. Before co-founding Alloy Ventures, he worked at Asset Management Co., which he joined in 1977. Previously, Taylor worked in the Office of Technology Licensing at Stanford University from 1975 to 1977. He is a past member of the board of directors of the National Venture Capital Association and serves on the board of advisors of the MIT/Stanford Venture Laboratory.

Taylor has led successful investments in, and served on the boards of, dozens of leading life science companies. In addition to OptiMedica, he currently serves on the board of directors of ForteBio, Zyomyx, Veriwave and KFx Medical. Taylor was also a founding board member of Applied Biosystems, the pioneering biotechnology company created in 1981 that later became a division of Applera and was recently sold for $6.7 billion to Invitrogen Corp. He was also a founding board member of Adeza Biomedical, a woman’s health company that completed a public offering on Nasdaq in 2004 and was later acquired by Cytec. He also served on the board of Lynx Therapeutics, a provider of genetic analysis tools for biological research that completed an IPO on Nasdaq in 2000 and later merged with Solex Ltd. before it was acquired by Illumina for $600 million in 2006.

Taylor earned a BS and an MS in physics from Brown University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Mark S. Blumenkranz, M.D., is Professor and Chairman of the Byers Eye Institute and the Department of Ophthalmology at Stanford University. He received his Baccalaureate, Master of Medical Science in Biochemical Pharmacology, and M.D. degrees at Brown, a Residency in Ophthalmology at Stanford, and a fellowship in vitreoretinal diseases at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami. He completed the Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2004. Dr. Blumenkranz is the author of more than 140 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and multiple patents in the area of vitreoretinal diseases, with special interests in ocular pharmacology and new microsurgical and laser techniques. He is currently Vice President of the Macula Society and President of the Retina Society, and is a past President of the American University Professors of Ophthalmology (AUPO) and a Fellow of the Corporation of Brown University, where he serves as chairman of the Medical School Committee.

Dr. Blumenkranz has a longstanding interest and expertise in university corporate technology transfer and early stage biomedical company development having either founded or served on the Boards of Directors of a number of successful medical drug and device companies including Peak Surgical, OIS, Midlabs and Oculex Pharmaceuticals over the past sixteen years in addition to being a co-founder of OptiMedica Corporation and a member of its board of directors.

Thomas Brunner has more than 30 years of experience in the medical laser industry. Currently president and CEO of the Glaucoma Research Foundation, he previously spent 23 years with Coherent Inc., where he was most recently vice president of the company’s Ophthalmic Business Unit. Prior to Coherent, he served as the vice president of marketing and sales for Cooper LaserSonics and as the president and CEO of Laserscope. He is currently on the board of Abilities United, a non-profit serving those with developmental and other disabilities.

Brunner received a BS in electrical engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from the University of Delaware.

OptiMedica President and CEO Mark J. Forchette has more than two decades of experience in ophthalmic sales, marketing and business unit management. Immediately prior to OptiMedica, he served as vice president of global marketing and sales for the vitreoretinal business unit of Alcon. In this position, he led the vitreoretinal unit through a period of substantial portfolio enhancement, infrastructure development and a significant increase in market share.

Prior to Alcon, Forchette was vice president of sales and marketing at Grieshaber & Co., where he led the privately held Swiss company’s domestic operations through major infrastructure and revenue expansion. Grieshaber, which was acquired by Alcon in 1998, remains a significant contributor to Alcon’s successful vitreoretinal portfolio of products.

Forchette received a BS in marketing from Auburn University and completed the Harvard Program for Management Development.

Sallie Shuping-Russell is managing director of BlackRock in its Private Equity Partners group. She was previously a principal at Quellos Private Capital Markets until it was acquired by BlackRock in October 2007. From 2001 to 2004, she served as a general partner with Intersouth Partners, evaluating and working with venture capital investments primarily in life science companies. From 1986 to 2001, Shuping-Russell was responsible for Duke University’s private investments, including venture capital, buyouts, restructurings, energy and timber. She was a founding member of Duke Management Company, where she served most recently as vice president. Upon her departure from DUMAC, its assets exceeded $3.5 billion. From 1985 to 1986, Shuping-Russell was vice president of McMillion/Eubanks Capital Management, following several years as a consultant with Cambridge Associates, where she advised colleges and universities on overall financial management.

Shuping-Russell is a member of the board of trustees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is also a trustee of the investment funds at UNC. In addition to OptiMedica, she is on the board of directors of Medivance and PharmatrophiX.

Shuping-Russell earned a BA in English and political science from the University of North Carolina and an MBA with a concentration in finance and economics from Columbia Business School.