With over 25 years experience in Washington D.C. in high-level government affairs positions representing physician specialties, laboratories, hospital systems and health insurers Denise has extensive knowledge of healthcare policy and the legislative and regulatory process. In addition to her work in policy and advocacy, Denise served as a legislative assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives. She joined BioUtah in 2016.

Nate has served as BioUtah’s director of marketing since 2016. With degrees in public relations and public administration, Nate has spent nearly 25 years as a marketing consultant for various agencies and companies. In 2006, he co-founded Serfwerks, a boutique marketing agency specializing in strategic marketing development. His background in strategy development, quantitative analysis and web development make him a crucial part of the BioUtah team.

Josel serves as the office manager for BioUtah. She understands the entrepreneurial spirit having worked as part of a biotech startup company. Josel has the necessary experience to assure BioUtah’s interactions with its members are personal and professional. Josel has been with BioUtah since February 2018.

Kelvyn has three decades experience as a medtech CEO, over a decade on the board of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association and over a decade as mayor of a suburb of Salt Lake City. He brings a unique understanding of industry and policy issues to advance association objectives and help member companies. He has been CEO of BioUtah since October 2018.

Jacey Skinner has held a variety of senior leadership roles in Utah state government and Utah business organizations. Before joining Ballard Spahr, served as General Counsel to Utah Gov. Gary Herbert from 2013 to 2017. In that role, she negotiated legislation, oversaw the Governor's legislative review and bill signing, coordinated litigation with the Attorney General's Office, advised the Governor, his Cabinet, and the Lieutenant Governor on legal, policy, and ethical issues, and oversaw Gov. Herbert's judicial appointment process. She also served as the Deputy State Court Administrator for the State of Utah, where she facilitated policy development and managed relations with the state legislature, executive branch agencies, the Utah Judicial Council, and the Utah Supreme Court.

Dave Hanaman is President, Co-Founder, and Chief Commercial Officer of Curavit, a digital-first clinical trials company.  Dave leads its sales, marketing, product development, and alliance strategies.  He is a proven entrepreneur, operator, and board director with successful, strategic exits to public companies. Dave graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and served as a deployed U.S. Navy intelligence officer.

Chairman and CEO of BlueWind Medical, an innovative medical device company that is transforming neuromodulation therapy for the treatment of overactive bladder. In addition to his work at BlueWind Medical, Dan serves on the board of Globus Medical. Previously, he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of CoreValve, a privately-held company focused on percutaneous aortic valve replacement, from April 2008 until its acquisition by Medtronic in April 2009. From 2005 until March 2008, Mr. Lemaitre was a Senior Vice President at Medtronic, where he led the company’s strategic planning and corporate development. Prior to joining Medtronic, Mr. Lemaitre spent 28 years as an investment analyst in the medical device field. This included 18 years with SG Cowen, where he was a managing director and led the healthcare research team, and six years with Merrill Lynch.

Ted Haack joined LatticePoint in July 2016 and provides advisory services to early-stage companies, including pharma, biotech and the cell and gene therapy space. He has advised on market access and pricing strategy, EMA Adaptive Pathways, international expansion, talent acquisition, and key customer relationships and engagement. Prior to consulting, he spent 17 years working in the pharmaceutical industry and headed the Market Access function for Genzyme’s Rare Disease Business Unit and Pfizer’s Head of Head of Market Access, Primary Care BU. Before joining Pfizer, he spent 7 years at Schering-Plough in various regional and affiliate finance roles.

Ted began his career at Deloitte & Touche, including two years in Frankfurt, Germany and is a qualified SEC Audit Committee Financial Expert and CPA (inactive). He was appointed as an Independent Director of Promethera Biosciences (BE) in April 2019. He has a BS degree in accounting from Villanova University, a Master of Arts in International Affairs from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, and an MBA from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. He speaks fluent German in addition to his native English.

Experienced life sciences leader with extensive general management, marketing, sales management and business development experience across US, international and global markets. Extensive track record of building and leading highly effective teams, driving cross-functional development projects, and developing and realizing commercialization strategies for pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Social impact executive who builds and leads institutions that harness and leverage capital to advance equity, reduce poverty, and improve health.

Sarah Ptach is the President of Canyon Labs, a leader of streamlined medical device & pharmaceutical services.  With vast experience in the medical device and pharmaceutical packaging industries, coupled with expertise in strategy development, Sarah serves as Canyon Labs' ear to the industry.  Currently, she co-leads initiatives for Kilmer Innovations (KiiP), specializing in Aseptic Presentation, while also serving as a board member for the Medical Device Packaging Technical Committee (MDPTC) of the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP). After starting her career at a major advertising agency in Chicago, she had a desire to make a difference in the community with her work.  Following her father's Parkinson's disease diagnosis, she decided to take her talents to the start of a new packaging engineering and testing firm in 2016 with the initiative to help advance the medical and pharmaceutical industries through packaging. After playing a key role in leading that company to sale, Sarah has invested in Canyon Labs with the mission to create a streamlined solution to get revolutionary medical devices and pharmaceuticals to market faster.  Sarah is a continuous student in the field of healthcare innovations and always looks for new opportunities to learn from her mentors, peers, and colleagues.  

Polsinelli is an Am Law 100 firm with more than 1,000 attorneys in 22 offices nationwide. Recognized as one of the top firms for excellent client service and client relationships, Polsinelli is committed to meeting our clients’ expectations of what a law firm should be. Our attorneys provide value through practical legal counsel infused with business insight, offering comprehensive corporate, transactional, litigation and regulatory services with a focus on health care, real estate, finance, technology, private equity and life sciences. Polsinelli PC, Polsinelli LLP in California, Polsinelli PC (Inc) in Florida.

Biopharmaceutical executive experienced at translating scientific breakthroughs into commercial products, and rapidly scaling commercial organizations. Extensive finance, business development, and investor relations experience highlighted by $2.9B in equity, debt, and R&D funding raised as a principal across >30 deals. Deep financial expertise, including five years as Audit Committee Chair for NASDAQ-listed company and 10 years executing leveraged buyouts and VC investments.

Jeremy Buzzard is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Demeter, focusing on transforming outcomes of in vitro fertilization. He did his PhD at Monash and post-doc at Harvard in reproductive cell and molecular biology before joining McKinsey & Company, where he co-led the firm's global healthcare strategy and transactions service line. He is passionate about finding new technologies, then creating and executing the strategies to build them into life-changing treatments. Based in Park City, he collaborates globally to tackle key challenges in reproductive health, improving patient outcomes and expanding access to care.

Dr. Evan Unger is Founder, CEO, and Executive Chairman of Microvascular Therapeutics (MVT), a
clinical stage biotechnology company developing contrast agents and theranostic products. Dr.
Unger has founded four biotechnology companies. His first company, ImaRx Pharmaceutical,
developed 3 FDA approved drugs and was acquired by DuPont yielding > 20x ROI. ImaRx
Pharmaceutical developed Definity®, the world’s #1 selling ultrasound contrast agent, marketed
by Lantheus. When Dr. Unger sold ImaRx Pharmaceutical to DuPont, he retained the
therapeutic rights to Definity and launched his second company, ImaRx Therapeutics, which went public and performed clinical trials using innovative new technology - microbubbles with ultrasound to treat ischemic stroke.
Dr. Unger founded MVT in 2009 to develop a new, improved ultrasound contrast agent, MVT-100 and theranostic products. MVT is developing products for treatment of vascular disease and detection and treatment of diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s and inflammatory diseases. Based upon his pioneering work on microbubbles, Dr. Unger discovered that microbubbles carry far more oxygen than liquids. Therefore, Dr. Unger co-founded NuvOx to develop NanO2, the world’s most effective oxygen therapeutic. NanO2 is in the late clinical stage for brain cancer as a radiosensitizer and in stroke as a neuroprotectant. Dr. Unger is inventor on over 120 issued US patents. He is a board-certified radiologist and is Professor Emeritus of Medical Imaging at the University of Arizona. He is
author on over 140 peer reviewed publications and has served as Member and Ad-Hoc Member of multiple study NIH study sections. Dr. Unger completed his residency in diagnostic radiology at the Washington University St. Louis. He graduated Alpha Omega Alpha from the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine.

Brian has over two decades of commercial lending experience, focused primarily in venture capital and private equity backed life sciences, technology and health care services companies. He has completed in excess of $4 billion in loans and is an expert in structuring and negotiating growth capital, asset and equipment-based, subordinate and mezzanine financings.  Before joining Think Equity, Brian was a founding partner at Armentum Partners (a debt advisory firm), prior to Armentum Brian was Head of Life Sciences for Comerica Bank’s national life science lending practice.  Prior to Comerica, he was a Director at Oxford Finance LLC and headed their Northern California office.  Brian also held various positions at Silicon Valley Bank and Accenture Technology Consulting.  He holds a B.S. in both finance and economics and an M.B.A, all from Santa Clara University.

Alyse has deep expertise in the strategic, financial, operational, and organizational issues facing both global and regional health care institutions, allowing her to advise her clients on capabilities and talent required for the near and longer term future. She has placed and assessed some of the most senior talent in the healthcare industry across a variety of health care subsectors, including biopharma and healthcare services. Her areas of focus are Executive Search, Board Consulting, CEO Succession, Leadership Development, Team Effectiveness and Coaching. Previously, Alyse led Egon Zehnder's North American Leadership Advisory practice and Health Practice.

Currently Executive Chairman of Uniquity Bio and CEO & Executive Chairman of NexEos Bio. Career in life sciences spans more than 30 years and includes numerous Chairman, CEO, and founding credits, with 11 biotechnology companies. Also currently serve as the Managing Member of Nexstone Innovation, designed to build new biotech companies, a successor entity to the Co-founded NeXeption 2011, focused on building biotech organizations designed to identify and advance programs with significant unmet medical needs. Previous chairmanships include, Onspira Therapeutics, acquired by Sumitomo Dainippon in 2019, Aclaris Therapeutics, (NASDAQ: ACRS), Ralexar Therapeutics., Velicept Therapeutics, and Vicept Therapeutics, acquired by Allergan in 2011. In addition, was President, CEO & Chairman of Ceptaris Therapeutics until its acquisition by Actelion in 2013, and co-founder of Ception Therapeutics, as President and CEO until its acquisition by Cephalon in 2010. First Biotech entrepreneurial effort was co-founder of Trigenesis Therapeutics 2004, acquired by Reddy Laboratories in 2005. Prior to Biotech career path @ SmithKline Beecham/GSK 1989-2004.

Alex Koretz has almost two decades of experience practicing law at the world’s leading technology companies, including Amazon and Meta, and elite law firms. He provides sophisticated, experienced and calibrated legal advice to technology and biotech clients of all sizes and on a variety of issues, including capital-raising, artificial intelligence, compliance and corporate development.  Alex received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his law degree from Emory University.

Spent 40 years in diagnostics first with large global companies.  I founded Veraycte in 2008 and built it into a global >$3B company.  Retired twice, lost my husband of 25 years to COVID in 2020 and started PinkDx, Inc. a women’s healthcare company focused on gynecological cancers, in 2022 raising a $45 million Series A in September 2023.  Living part time in Park City.  Have two married children and 5 grandchildren in Montana and Florida.

Nathan Robinson is a partner in the Salt Lake City office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and advises companies on general corporate matters, including formation and operation, corporate governance, debt and equity financings, including initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and securities-related matters. He works with life sciences and technology companies, both public and private, as well as investment banks, venture capital funds, and private equity firms.

Jed Black, MD: Yale and Stanford trained neuroscientist. Stanford faculty/medical director Stanford Center for Sleep Science and Medicine. Medical device and drug developer. Led development of 3 blockbuster drugs. Founder/cofounder of 8 life-science companies (medical services, medical devices, therapeutics). 300+ peer-reviewed scientific publications. CEO of Neuropharma, Inc., Utah-based CNS drug discovery and development start-up with a clinical-stage asset and a deep preclinical small-molecule pipeline.

With over 20 years of work experience in the commercial real estate industry, I am the Vice Chairman and Western Region Life Sciences Co-Lead at Savills, a global real estate services provider. I specialize in leases, mergers and acquisitions, and real estate strategies for corporate tenants in the life sciences sector, helping them achieve their business goals and optimize their real estate portfolios. Prior to joining Savills, I was the Executive Vice President and Senior Vice President at Hughes Marino, the leading firm in San Diego County representing corporate tenants exclusively. My core competencies include negotiation, market analysis, contract management, and client relations. My mission is to provide exceptional service, value, and trust to my clients, and to contribute to the growth and innovation of the life sciences industry. I have a dual master's degree in engineering from Stanford University, and I am passionate about applying my technical and analytical skills to the real estate field. I am also committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and I seek to bring diverse perspectives and experiences to my team and my industry.