Featured Speaker: Sean Roddy
Sean P. Roddy, CPA, CMA, CGMA and MBA, has 25+ years of experience, including executive level experience as a CFO, COO and Board Member. He is adept at shaping long-range business vision and direction for organizations using his exceptional skills in strategic planning and financial analysis. He is experienced in building top-performing operational and financial teams.
Sean P. Roddy, CPA, CMA, CGMA and MBA, has 25+ years of experience, including executive level experience as a CFO, COO and Board Member. He is adept at shaping long-range business vision and direction for organizations using his exceptional skills in strategic planning and financial analysis. He is experienced in building top-performing operational and financial teams. Sean has developed excellent communication and presentation skills working with a variety of financial institutions, Wall Street investors, and global business partners. He has negotiated and executed transactions involving M&A/divestitures, private equity, venture capital, joint ventures, and global partnerships. He has big four experience, PWC, and has his MBA, CPA, CMA, and CGMA. His experience in strategic planning, M&A, the C suite, as a CFO, COO and Board Member have enabled Sean to assist his clients in achieving their goals. Recently he has completed the due diligence for an M&A transaction for a publicly traded company on the Tokyo Exchange in their acquisition of a division of a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ. The acquired entity was located in Hyderabad, India. He also recently completed a JV with a major cancer center in the U.S. and a U.S. Company in Beltsville, Maryland. Prior to working for himself Sean served as the Chief Operating Officer of Watkins Meegan, a top 60 CPA firm (now CohnReznick) from 2007 to 2014. From 2005 to 2007 Sean was the CFO for Sceptor Industries, which was the 16th fastest growing company in the country. His responsibilities included, drafting the S1 registration statement for the IPO, audit the three prior years financial statements, amend the prior years’ tax returns, become Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, develop the strategic plan and work with the primary underwriters, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan. He also managed accounting, finance, HR, IT and legal. From 1998 to 2004 Sean was the CFO for Pace Global, an affiliate of the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA). Sean assisted the company with opening offices in six countries that managed contracts in over 36 countries. He assisted in raising $220-million through Private Placement Memorandums and he led the M&A/divestiture activity for the company. From 1994 to 1998, Sean was the Corporate Controller for Overlook Systems Technologies. Overlook is an engineering services company that supports the federal government in GPS, Radio Navigation and electronic warfare. Sean’s responsibilities included managing the accounting and tax functions, preparing for and supporting both external and governmental audits, preparing the DCAA submissions and managing all sub-contracts. Sean began his career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers where he was a staff accountant. Sean became an adjunct professor of finance at John’s Hopkins University, where he has taught graduate courses in two of its Colleges. He taught Mergers and acquisitions in the MBA program for the Carey School of Business and he taught Finance for the Masters of Biotechnology in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Sean has also sat on numerous boards. He is on the board of directors for Censeo Consulting Group, a for profit government contractor located in Washington, DC. He was on the board of GreeNewIt, a for-profit energy company located in Howard County Maryland. He was a past board member and audit committee member for the Maryland Association of CPA’s. He is also the past Finance Committee Chairman and Board Member for Jr. Achievement of Greater Washington and past executive committee member of the Maryland Technology Council. Sean is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Management Accountant and Chartered Global Management Accountant, with a Masters of Business Administration degree from George Washington University, and a BS in Accounting from the University of Maryland at College Park.
Sohel Ahmed
Sarah Bates
Sarah Bates is the media officer for the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Directorate, where she directs communications strategies and develops partnerships that disseminate research breakthroughs. Prior to joining NSF, she was a science writer and media officer for the Society for Neuroscience (SfN). She also managed content and partnerships for the website BrainFacts.org, a public information initiative of The Kavli Foundation, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and SfN. Before that, she developed multimedia content for the Federal Aviation Administration, and was a freelance science writer for Discover magazine and several newspapers. Sarah has a master’s degree in magazine, newspaper and online journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She also has a master’s degree in astronomy from New Mexico State University, as well as an undergraduate degree in physics from Hendrix College.
Janelle Hollingsworth
Janelle Hollingsworth is an investigative attorney with the National Science Foundation Office of Inspector General (NSF OIG). Besides her current work with grant fraud investigations, she practiced a variety of laws in her prior experience at both private and non-profit law firms. She is a past presenter at the National Leadership Development Training for Equal Justice Works and the national Rural Summer Legal Training, and a recipient of a Virginia legal aid award for outstanding case work. Janelle received her B.A. from the University of Virginia and J.D. from the University of Richmond.
Albine Martin
Albine Martin brings over 20 years of operating and product commercialization experience within 3 three public companies representing the biotechnology, diagnostics and life sciences sector. Currently she holds roles as Executive in Residence at Johns Hopkins University and Biohealth Innovation and has successfully translated academic innovations towards tangible commercial outcomes and follow on funding. She has served as COO of Precision Biologics, where she formulated a virtual business model and negotiated agreements to advance towards Phase 2 clinical trials. The company has subsequently secured $50million investment. As Vice President at Compugen (CGEN), she built a consumable/data driven revenue model and managed strategic alliances to advance both diagnostic and therapeutic candidates. During her tenure at Life Technologies [LIFE] she was responsible for the global portfolio as Senior Business Director and managed Joint Ventures and expansion within the Asia-Pacific region. She has collaborated with FDA/CBER to develop compliance standards and commercialization strategies for ancillary products within the Cellular Therapy arena. Dr Martin was the first senior member during the startup of Digene Diagnostics and part of the core team that led the BLA approval and commercialization of the HPV molecular diagnostic test commercialized by Digene Diagnostics. She has been a long-standing member of the NSF commercial reviewer panels for SBIR Phase 1/2 proposals and serves as a sector expert and member with New Dominion Angels. Dr. Martin holds a PhD from the University of Maryland and served as a Staff Fellow at the National Institutes of Health and holds a Certificate of Financial Management from Cornell University and is a graduate of the Program on Leadership and Strategy in Pharmaceuticals and Biotech at the Harvard Business School.
Kelly Monterroso
Kelly Monterroso joined the National Science Foundation in April 2016 as the Communications Specialist for the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships. She manages the strategic communications, marketing and outreach for America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF, I-Corps, Partnerships for Innovation and the Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers programs. Prior to NSF, Kelly was the Lead Public Affairs Specialist for the Peace Corps’ Office of Recruitment and Diversity where she oversaw strategic communications and directed national marketing campaigns. She also was a Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Office and the Office of Communications at the Peace Corps. Kelly served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the western highlands of Guatemala from 2007 to 2009. Before joining the Peace Corps, Kelly was a reporter for The Hill newspaper, where she covered Congress, writing both news and features stories for several years. Kelly graduated from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA with a double major in Political Science and Spanish and holds a Master of Public Administration and International Management from George Mason University.
Kerstin Mukerji
Kerstin Mukerji is a Staff Associate in the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) at the National Science Foundation (NSF), Directorate for Engineering (ENG). Prior to joining IIP, Kerstin served as a Program Manager in the ENG Office of Emerging Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Activities (EFMA) and Acting Operations Specialist for the ENG Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems Division (ECCS) Division. Before coming to NSF in 2011, Kerstin served as a faculty member of Northeastern University’s Engineering Cooperative Education (Co-Op) Program, and later as the Assistant Director of the Women in Engineering and NSF-funded Connections Programs at Northeastern. While at Northeastern, she led university/industry outreach activities as well as taught introductory engineering courses for the College of Engineering. Kerstin holds graduate degrees in both Biological Engineering from Cornell University and Instructional Design and Evaluation from Syracuse University and has been funded by NSF and NASA. She also spent time in industry as a practicing engineer for Weston Solutions managing abatement and remediation activities for the New England United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Hazardous, Toxic and Radioactive Waste (HTRW) Division.
Antigone Peyton
Antigone Peyton leads the Intellectual Property and Technology Law practice at Protorae Law, a Virginia law firm. Antigone’s clients range from technology start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations and she works with companies that develop pharmaceuticals, analytic instruments, medical devices, software, data analytics, AI, and aerospace technologies. Before law school, Antigone conducted clinical and pre-clinical biophysics and magnetic resonance studies at a large university medical center. She is currently piloting a STEM program that pairs middle school students with professors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and technology lawyers to develop innovations and train the next generation of scientists and tech business leaders and has been recognized among the Virginia Legal Elite and a SuperLawyer for her work involving intellectual property law and support of science in the community. You can connect with Antigone on Twitter @AntigonePeyton and check out her technology law posts, podcasts, and livestream shows at decodingip.com.
W. Mae Powell
Michael Pritchard
Michael Pritchard is a Special Agent with the National Science Foundation Office of Inspector General (NSF OIG). He co-founded a multi-agency SBIR Investigations Working Group in 2010 and has worked numerous cases involving SBIR/STTR fraud since that time. Prior to joining NSF OIG in 2007, he worked as a Program Specialist in NSF’s Office of International Science and Engineering and as an Alcohol Labeling Specialist with the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau. Mike received his B.S. in Information Systems and Finance, with a minor in History, from Salisbury University.