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Robert W. Coy (bcoy@cincytechusa.com | 513-263-2721) is president of CincyTech. He leads a 10-member team that works to drive capital into high-growth companies in Southwest Ohio. He and his team serve a wide range of constituencies – entrepreneurs, investors, economic development partners, research institutions and community stakeholders – in fulfilling CincyTech's mission of accelerating the growth of start-up bioscience and technology companies.

Coy was recruited to Cincinnati in October 2005 from St. Louis, where he served as senior vice president for entrepreneurial development at the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association. He led the development of the St. Louis Arch Angel Investor Network, which invests in early-stage companies in the St. Louis region.

Coy’s career has included in-depth experience in economic development in Pennsylvania and Delaware as well. In Delaware, he held the state cabinet position for economic development from 1993-98, leading initiatives to establish two venture capital funds and a pre-seed fund. In Pennsylvania, his responsibilities included serving as executive director of the Ben Franklin Partnership Program, a national best-practice model. There he oversaw the operations of the state’s four regional technology centers, which make seed capital investment in promising technology companies.  

Coy also worked with the Pennsylvania Legislature and pension funds to develop an investment strategy that has resulted in well over $1 billion invested in Pennsylvania-based venture capital funds.  Coy also served as special assistant to the Pennsylvania secretary of education from 1992-93.

Coy received a master’s degree from University of Notre Dame and a bachelor of arts degree from Pennsylvania State University.

 

Dorothy H. Air, Ph.D., (airdh@ucmail.uc.edu | 513-263-2723) is associate senior vice president for entrepreneurial affairs at the University of Cincinnati and vice president of operations for CincyTech. At UC, she serves the regional community as an advocate for transitioning scientific breakthroughs into market opportunities. Her work has included creation of a commercialization infrastructure for UC, regional educational programs and networking systems and university-industry collaborations.

She developed and runs the UC Launch Pad, which provides gap funding and mentoring to advance the most promising research technologies. She is a co-founder of Sounding Board and serves on the boards of directors of BioStart, Edison Materials Technology Center (EMTEC), Hamilton County Business Center and the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association. Air was the initiator of the Ohio Valley Affiliates for Life Sciences (OVALS), a consortium of five universities in Ohio and Kentucky, and the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, to create university-industry networking opportunities. She also manages the Southern Ohio Pre-Seed Fund, a Third Frontier award, on behalf of UC and its investment partners.

In 2005, she was appointed by UC to serve on a part-time basis as a loaned executive to CincyTech. She serves on the board of directors of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. She is the recipient of the 2007 Leading Women of Greater Cincinnati for Entrepreneurship and in 2006 was recognized by Women’s Business Cincinnati as one of the Top 10 Women in Technology in the region.

She received her doctorate in speech pathology from the University of Cincinnati and her bachelor’s and master’s in speech pathology from Marquette University.

 

Rick D’Augustine (rdaugustine@cincytechusa.com | 513-263-2734) is an executive-in-residence in life sciences for CincyTech, evaluating opportunities for investment and advising companies on their growth strategies.

He has three decades of medical-industry experience in general management, venture capital investing and technology and business development in both public and private companies. Since 1999, he has been president, CEO and a director of UMD Inc., a venture-backed drug-delivery company focusing on women’s health issues. Prior to joining UMD, he spent five years as a group director at Senmed Medical Ventures, a private medical venture capital and business development firm.

D’Augustine spent 16 years with Johnson & Johnson and was a founding board member of Cincinnati-based Ethicon Endo-Surgery, initially serving as vice president of administration and CFO. He was a founding board member of Enable Medical Corp., a private, high-technology medical device company. He also was a founding board member of Atricure Inc., an Enable spinoff focused on surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation that has gone public. He also has served on the board of directors of endoVia Medical Inc., a venture-backed surgical robotics company that was sold to Hansen Medical prior to its public offering in 2006.

He has a bachelor’s of science degree in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA in finance from Seton Hall University.

 

Toya Gatewood (tgatewood@cincytechusa.com | 513-263-2731) is program manager for CincyTech. She provides office coordination and supports program and service elements including the Imagining Grant process, the performance measurement system and the process through which new companies apply for investment.

Gatewood also assists in the development of new CincyTech systems and procedures. She comes to CincyTech with a background in quality assurance and compliance, having also worked for a local economic development nonprofit organization.

She is working toward a bachelor of science degree in management information systems with a minor in process and project analysis at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.

 

Phil Huff (phuff@cincytechusa.com |  513-263-2730) is an entrepreneur-in-residence at CincyTech. He brings strong business management and technology experience and is working with three companies, including BrandWatch Technologies in Portland, Ore., and several CincyTech portfolio companies.  He also served for five years as president and CEO of eLynx, which he co-founded in 1994. At eLynx he successfully built the sales and marketing organization, resulting in more than $10 million in yearly recurring revenue contracts. Additionally, he acquired the company's nearest competitor and expanded the company's product suite and vertical focus.  He also secured more than $40 million in outside investment, including the sale of the company to American Capital in 2004. From 1994-1999 he served as both chief technology officer and vice president of business development for eLynx. He earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Miami University of Ohio.

 

Carolyn Pione (cpione@cincytechusa.com | 513-263-2728) is communications director for CincyTech and is responsible for outreach to government, business and civic partners, portfolio companies and entrepreneurs, the media, investors and the community.  

Prior to that, Pione served as business editor for the Enquirer, where she oversaw a staff of 10 covering economic development, real estate, banking, the city’s Fortune 500 companies including Procter & Gamble Co., Federated Department Stores and Kroger Co., retail, manufacturing, the economy, workplace practices and other regional business topics.  She also wrote a weekly column profiling key business people and issues. At the Enquirer she served on a number of organizational strategic planning committees, including new business development and digital initiatives.

She came to the Enquirer in 2004 from Baton Rouge, La., where she was managing editor of the business journal Baton Rouge Business Report.  She also has served as managing editor of Country Roads magazine, a South Louisiana lifestyle magazine, and as an adjunct professor of mass communication at Louisiana State University.

Pione began her career at The Associated Press. She received her master’s in mass communication from LSU in 1996 and bachelor’s degrees in history and literature from Miami University of Ohio in 1991.

 

Jan S. Rosenbaum, Ph.D.,  (jrosenbaum@cincytechusa.com | 513-263-2733) is an executive in residence for life sciences for CincyTech and founder of BRK-1 Technical Advisors Inc. a pharmacology and technical due diligence consulting services practice supporting the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology communities. She is a molecular/receptor pharmacologist with broad preclinical and early-development pharmacology experience in the pharmaceuticals industry as well as grounding in business development and technical risk evaluation for in-and out-licensing.
She founded BRK-1 Technical Advisors Inc. after 23 years as a principal scientist at Procter & Gamble.   At P&G, she collaborated with leading academic investigators and biotech companies in order to accelerate the timelines for the discovery and development of novel drug therapies. She also worked on a variety of receptor and signal transduction systems in the health and personal-care technology, corporate biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and new business development divisions. Her research integrated the disciplines of Molecular Pharmacology, Cell & Molecular Biology, Structural Biology, Pharmacokinetics, and Pharmacodynamics to address business needs in the analgesic/anti-inflammatory, bone/developmental biology, hair growth, cardiovascular, urology, and women’s health therapeutic areas.   She brought strong technical leadership that resulted in the granting of five U.S. patents in the bone and angiogenesis areas.  

She holds a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of California at San Francisco and a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical pharmacology from Stanford University.  She is the author of more than 50 original papers, short communications and abstracts in peer reviewed journals and has been an invited speaker at numerous international meetings.

She holds an adjunct professor appointment in the Department of Pharmacology at The Ohio State University.

 

Justin Thompson (jthompson@cincytechusa.com | 513-263-2726) is an investment associate for CincyTech focused on analyzing market opportunities for potential portfolio companies in the information technology field. He manages deal screening, company and industry due diligence, valuation, and modeling.  

Prior to joining CincyTech, he was a business development analyst at a life sciences startup, where he worked on the development of intellectual property portfolio and strategy, new products and strategic partnerships.  

Thompson received his master’s of science in finance from the University of Cincinnati and his bachelor of science in business administration, specializing in finance and marketing, from Washington University in St. Louis.

 

Mike Venerable (mvenerable@cincytechusa.com | 513-263-2727) is an executive-in-residence for information technology at CincyTech and a member of the CincyTech investment committee. He evaluates investment opportunities, advises startup companies and helps them prepare to receive venture capital.  

Venerable has more than 20 years of experience as a software industry entrepreneur and executive.  He was co-founder and CEO of Talus, a leading data warehouse consultancy, from 1993-1998. Talus was then acquired by Sagent Technology, where he led the company’s services organization through the company’s successful IPO in 1999.  He has specific experience in raising angel and venture capital, software business design and operation, software product management, business valuation, financial analysis and intellectual property.
As an industry practitioner, Venerable is an expert on data warehouse design, business intelligence and analytic applications and software development processes.  He has consulted with a variety of large organizations and software companies on product development and strategy.  He is also the co-author of Data Warehouse Design Solutions (Wiley & Sons).  Venerable has consulted on strategic product development initiatives for leading technology companies, including Siebel, Advent and Micros.

Prior to joining CincyTech he was a managing director of Scius Capital, a NY-based boutique investment bank focused on early-stage capitalization and liquidity strategies for intellectual-property owners in biosciences, information technology and industrial technology.  At Scius he assisted in raising capital for companies in the life sciences, software and advanced manufacturing markets.

 

Linda Q. Young (lyoung@cincytechusa.com | 513-263-2725) is an investment associate for CincyTech, focusing on analyzing market opportunities and modelling investment scenarios for potential portfolio companies in the life sciences field. She critiques the business plans of companies applying for funding and evaluates their prospects through due diligence and technical review.

Young has more than 10 years of experience in the medical industry.  She had previously served as a senior analyst in the licensing and acquisition group at Cincinnati-based Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a Johnson & Johnson company, where she evaluated medical device start-ups for investment.

Her experience also includes product development and project management in medical imaging and health-care information technology. She spent six years with Siemens Medical Solutions in Germany and the U.S. focusing on systems integration and international standardization. During her time in Germany, she served as co-chair of the technical committee of an international health-care consortium with more than 20 member corporations.

Her technical training is in biomedical engineering, with a bachelor’s of science from Duke University and a master’s of science from University of Virginia. She also holds an MBA from Duke University. She is fluent in Chinese and German.

Staff Photos by Paula Norton Photography, www.paulanortonphoto.com