Board of Directors
| Steve Johns Co-Founder, Ardesta |
Rob Herb Venture Partner, Scale Venture Partners |
Jack Carsten Managing Director, Horizon Ventures |
| William White Executive Vice President, Lurie Investments |
Bruce W. Diamond Discera's President and Chief Executive Officer |
Steve Johns - Co-Founder, Ardesta
Steve brings over twenty-five years of progressive experience in the areas of technology, finance, consumer marketing, and entrepreneurship. In 2000, Steve co-founded Ardesta after a successful capital raise of $103.2 million. Ardesta is the world's first and leading industry accelerator for micro and nanotechnology. As head of Corporate & Business Development for Ardesta, Steve has been responsible for leading the building of the Ardesta portfolio through venture creation, early stage operations, technology commercialization, management and venture investment. He currently is a Senior Vice President of Ardesta and also sits on the Boards of Directors of Micronics, Inc. and XCOM Wireless, Inc. and led the successful negotiation and sales of Ion Optics, Inc. and Mesosystems Technologies. Prior to co-founding Ardesta, Steve was President of MEMS Technology, Inc., MEMSTech, an early-stage technology investment and commercialization company - and the predecessor company to Ardesta.
Steve has been active with the Chicago Micro and Nanotechnology Community ("CMNC"), the University of Michagan Wireless Integrated Microsystems and the University of California, Berkeley Industrial Advisory Boards. He has also served on the Motorola Research Visionary board and is a pioneer member of DePaul's Coleman Entrepreneurship Center Mentor in Residence Program and serves on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Institute of Technology Knapp Entrepreneurship Center. Steve earned a B.A. in Business and Accounting from Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois and is a CPA.
Rob Herb - Venture Partner, Scale Ventures
Rob joined Scale in 2005 to focus on semiconductors, components and systems investments. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Enpirion, Inc., NComputer, Inc., and Siimpel Corporation, as well as MIPS Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS).
From 1983 to 2004, Rob worked at AMD where, for the last four years, he was EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, leading worldwide sales and marketing. He also held additional posts in sales, marketing and general management at AMD.
Rob holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois.
Jack Carsten - Managing Director, Horizon Ventures
Jack Carsten is a semiconductor industry veteran with 20 years of venture experience. Prior to forming Horizon Ventures in 1999, Jack managed Technology Investments, a seed investment firm in Los Altos, California. The fund focused on the formation of seed stage information technology firms, building their management teams and organizing syndicates of professional investors.
Before founding Technology Investments in 1991, Jack was a General Partner at U.S. Venture Partners in Menlo Park, California - a $750M venture capital partnership managing a broad portfolio of medical, retail and information technology investments.
Prior to U.S.V.P., Jack was a Senior Vice President of Intel Corporation who from 1975 to 1987 helped them to grow from a $35M startup to revenue of over $2.5B. Originally hired as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, he was named as the first head of the Microprocessor Group. Subsequently, Jack was named Senior Vice President for the Components Group, responsible for all semiconductor manufacturing and engineering. Prior to Intel, he was a Division Manager at Texas Instruments for their MOS and TTL Divisions.
Jack is a founder of the "Band of Angels" investment club and of the Valley Medical Center Foundation. He holds a B.A. degree in Physics from Duke University.
William White - Executive Vice President, Lurie Investments
Since joining Lurie Investments in 2000, Mr. White has been responsible for managing the investments of the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Family of Chicago, including its portfolio of Life Sciences and Technology investments. Prior to joining Lurie Investments, Mr. White was Managing Director of Corporate Investments at Equity Group Investments, LLC, where he was responsible for a portfolio of companies in a variety of industries. While at Equity Group, he also managed the organization's financing activities, including its relationships with investment banks and other financial institutions. He was also previously the Vice President of Corporate Banking at Manufacturers Hanover. Mr. White is a director of Cernium, Inc., Impact Health, Inc., Joint Juice, Inc., Kionix, Inc., and RenaMed Biologics, Inc. He holds an A.B. degree from Dartmouth College.
Bruce W. Diamond - President and Chief Executive Officer
