Company Leadership
Management
Chris Efessiou
Chairman & CEO
Chris Efessiou is an experienced, forward-thinking executive, entrepreneur, board director, and a partner in the consulting firm Newport LLC. A recognized expert in transforming science-based endeavors into successful commercial enterprises, he has advised, managed, developed and commercialized more than 40 new products and services in the global healthcare, life sciences, and consumer product markets, including Mucinex, Flonase, Zantac, and others. Chris is a founding mentor of the Maryland Tech Council Venture Mentoring Service, and an advisor to the National Institutes of Health Commercialization Acceleration Program.
Bill Loughman
CFO
Bill is a seasoned financial professional with significant CFO experience in both the public and private sector, including ten start-ups. He has raised funds through private equity, IPO and public debt offerings with transaction sizes ranging from $2 million to $175 million. Bill is also a partner in the consulting firm Newport, LLC.
Don Rosenkoetter
Director & Co-Founder
Don has over 30 years in senior life science leadership positions within major corporations, consulting firms, and start-ups. Throughout his career, his focus has been on identifying, assessing, acquiring, licensing, and commercializing technology platforms that address significant unmet medical needs. He has led the launch of over ten consumer healthcare products. Don is also a partner in Newport, LLC and The Co-Investment Partnership, LLC.
Doug Tatum
Director & Co-Founder
Doug is the Chairman of Newport, LLC, a national partnership of CEOs and senior executives that provides advisory and consulting services. He is a member of the teaching faculty at the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship at Florida State University as well as Advisory Board Chairman for the Business Research Consortium at the University of Wisconsin. Previously, Doug was Chairman and CEO of Tatum, LLC, a highly respected professional services firm with 30 offices and 1,000 professionals. Additionally, Doug is the Managing Director of the Co-Investment Partnership, LLC.
Advisors
Ewa Bienkiewicz, PhD
Dr. Bienkiewicz is a noted researcher in the Florida State University College of Medicine with numerous peer-reviewed articles and awards for innovation. The Bienkiewicz Laboratory employs multidisciplinary approaches to understand the fundamentals of protein structure and function relationships and translating these research findings into medically relevant interventions. Previously she served as director of FSU’s Physical Biochemistry Facility at the Institute of Molecular Biophysics.
Kenneth Kirby
Ken is the President and CEO of TDSC. He has been pioneering in topical delivery since 1990 and oversees both operations and technical development and is the co-inventor of the TDSC technology. Additionally, in 2001, he formed the Langford Research Institute and started a fully funded academic and research collaboration with the William Harvey Research Institute at St. Bartholomew’s and Queen Mary’s Medical College, University of London. Mr. Kirby has personally directed the preclinical and clinical research efforts with the Harvey encompassing 19 trials of 17 varied compounds and seven human trials.
James Olcese, PhD
Dr. Olcese is a Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience and Molecular Biophysics at Florida State University College of Medicine. With over 200 peer-reviewed articles he is an acknowledged authority in the circadian clock and related hormones. He has published several comprehensive investigations of specific hormones evaluating their “protective” effects on long-term cognitive performance, brain Aβ levels/deposition, cytokine levels, and expression of antioxidant enzymes. Previously, James was a Professor at the University of Hamburg.