A.J. Kazimi is the Chief Executive Officer of Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc. and has served as the Chairman of Cumberland Emerging Technology’s (CET) Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer since inception. His career includes over 30 years in the biopharmaceutical industry. At Cumberland, he has overseen the development and FDA approval of the company’s Acetadote® and Caldolor® brands, while also leading the acquisition of the Company’s five other commercial products. He was responsible for Cumberland’s initial public offering and listing on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Prior to joining our company, he spent eleven years helping to build Therapeutic Antibodies Inc., an international biopharmaceutical company. As President and Chief Operating Officer, he made key contributions to that company’s growth from its start-up phase through its initial public offering and listing on the London stock exchange. Mr. Kazimi started his career at Brown-Forman Corporation, rising through a series of management positions and helping to launch several new products. Mr. Kazimi serves on the board of directors for the Nashville Health Care Council, an association of the largest concentration of healthcare companies in the U.S., as well as the Gettysburg Foundation which works with the National Park Service to preserve the historic military park, and the Tennessee Historical Society. Mr. Kazimi is also an Advisory Board member for the University of Notre Dame’s new School of Global Affairs and Chairman of the Visiting Committee at Loyola University New Orleans’ College of Business. He holds a B.S. from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management.
Alan R. Bentley currently serves as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property at Vanderbilt University. He joined OTTED in June of 2011, and is responsible for directing all aspects of the office, focusing on faculty service and transactional efficiency. Before joining Vanderbilt, he served for five years as the Director of Commercialization for Cleveland Clinic Innovations’ health care center’s technology commercialization function. Prior to the Cleveland Clinic, he served as the Associate Director of the University of Virginia’s Patent Foundation. Mr. Bentley received his master’s degree in physics from the University of Virginia, and separate bachelor’s degrees in both electrical engineering and physics from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a registered patent agent and a certified licensing professional. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of University Technology Managers.
Kenneth J. Holroyd, M.D., MBA has academic and industry experience as a physician, scientist, and businessman. He is at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) as Vice President for Technology Transfer, focusing on facilitating VUMC’s technology transfer and enterprise development activities, and corporate research alliances. He also represents VUMC on the Board of Directors for Friends in Global Health, LLC, Acuitec, and Launch Tennessee. Dr. Holroyd completed clinical medical training in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, and anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. He has been involved in disease focused immunology, gene mapping, gene discovery, target validation, and therapeutics research and development in academia and industry. In addition, as former Chief Operating Officer of a public biopharmaceutical company, Dr. Holroyd led efforts in business development and licensing, clinical and preclinical research, regulatory affairs, quality assurance, corporate communications, investor relations and human resources over a seven-year period.
Samuel M. Lawrence is the Chief Executive Officer and a Co-Founder of CytoViva, Inc., based in Auburn, AL. Mr. Lawrence led the development of the core, patented illumination technology which is the foundation for CytoViva’s products and continues to lead product development and support sales efforts both domestically and internationally. Mr. Lawrence is also the CEO of Eagle Aquaculture, Inc., an aquatic animal drug development company also located in Auburn, AL. Prior to CytoViva, he was a Director at Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle, WA where he led Supply Chain Transformation for the 737/757 Programs and was Factory Manager. Prior to Boeing he worked with Deloitte & Touche, LLC as a management consultant. Mr. Lawrence holds a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Mississippi State University (MSU). He is co-inventor on two U.S. Patents for innovative insulation materials for commercial airplanes. He has a Masters of Management in Manufacturing from the Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management and completed the International Executive Programme at INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France/ Singapore). In 2011 he was named a Distinguished Engineering Fellow at MSU and in 2014 he was admitted to the Auburn University chapter of the National Academy of Inventors.
Wei Wang (Jack) Wei Wang is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the WinHealth Pharma Group. As the founder of WinHealth, Mr. Wang has established the company as one of the leading organizations for the distribution of international drugs in China. Under his leadership WinHealth has acquired marketing and distribution rights for multiple international brands from leading pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Novartis and Roche. In 2019, Mr. Wang initiated the transformation of WinHealth from a distribution firm to a company with the capability to develop products for the Chinese market. In 2018, WinHealth secured over $80 million through a series B financing round from a group of distinguished institutional investors. Prior to WinHealth, Mr. Wang held positions at JunAn Securities and China Medical Systems, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. He has a Bachelor of Medicine and an executive M.B.A. from Zhejiang University.
Joseph O. Rolwing Cumberland Emerging Technologies, Inc. (CET) announced today the addition of Joseph O. Rolwing to its Board of Directors. Rolwing is Senior Director at CET where he manages its Life Sciences Center, an incubator for early-stage biomedical ventures offering 14,000 square feet of laboratory and office space and equipment. Rolwing has nearly 40 years of health care experience. Prior to joining CET, he was Vice President and Business Manager at Genetics Associates, Inc., a multi-million dollar diagnostic medical laboratory. He has also served as Vice President of Corporate Affairs for the Centerstone Community Mental Health Centers, Inc. as well as Special Projects Director and Finance Director for the Helen Ross McNabb Center. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Southeast Missouri State University and his master’s from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Lindsey Cox is the CEO of Launch Tennessee (LaunchTN), a public-private partnership working to make Tennessee the most startup-friendly state in the nation. LaunchTN provides resources to entrepreneurs including mentorship, accelerators, training and capital access. Cox previously spent six years at LaunchTN prior to rejoining the organization as CEO in April 2022. She previously served as LaunchTN’s finance, accounting and compliance manager, innovation manager, director of its 3686 Entrepreneurship Festival, and director of operations and government affairs. She brings valuable experience in supporting entrepreneurial endeavors. In 2019 Cox worked at the office of innovation and entrepreneurship at the United States Economic Development Administration – a bureau of the Department of Commerce. She then joined CO.LAB – the Chattanooga entrepreneur center, as their CEO. Cox earned both her master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Tennessee Tech University.