Sara Lafrance

Sara Lafrance is currently Chair of the Board of Directors for the Nevada Research & Innovation Corporation. Previously, she co-founded and served as president of Century Analysis, Inc., a software manufacturer that provided integration solutions to large enterprises from 1975 until its sale to New Era of Networks, Inc. (NEON) in 1998.

As an alumna, she he has been actively involved with the University of Nevada, Reno, serving on the Foundation Board of Trustees, the College of Engineering Advisory Board and the College of Liberal Arts Advisory Board. Lafrance was named Alumna of the Year in 2011 and received the University of Nevada President’s Medal in May 2019.

Lafrance has served on and chaired many local boards including KNPB Public Television, the Reno Philharmonic, Classical Tahoe, and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare. In addition, she is a member of Sierra Angels, a Northern Nevada investment group that focuses on promising early-stage companies and has been involved at an advisory level with several early-stage local businesses.

An avid believer in the transforming power of higher education, Lafrance and her husband Leonard established in 2006 Educational Pathways International, a charitable foundation that provides comprehensive university scholarships for gifted students of need in Ghana. The organization also provides scholarships for select National Merit and Presidential Scholars enrolled at the University of Nevada, Reno in engineering and computer science disciplines.

Lafrance holds a B.A. in English/Journalism from the University of Nevada, Reno, and an M.A. in Organizational Change from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY.

David P. AuCoin

David AuCoin is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR MED). His primary research focus is to develop antibody-based diagnostics and therapeutics for neglected tropical diseases and biothreat pathogens. He is also the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of DxDiscovery (2012), a UNR MED “startup” focused on translating diagnostic research into FDA approved products.

AuCoin received a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst followed by a M.S. and Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. AuCoin completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University.

James Behnke

James Behnke served as the worldwide chief technical officer of the Pillsbury Company from 1979 to 2000 with overall responsibility for a technical organization that in 2000 had 582 employees and a $90 million budget. This organization included research and development, process engineering, strategic technology development, food safety and regulatory affairs, scientific services (chemistry and microbiology), environmental affairs and consumer response. In addition, he served on the Pillsbury Board of Directors from 1992-2000.

Behnke received a B.S. in Chemistry, an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Scott Minick

Scott Minick served as President and Chief Executive Officer of BIND Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company (NASDAQ: BIND), from 2010 to 2015. From 1998 to 2010, he was Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners, a leading venture capital firm, and was instrumental in the startup, development and financing of numerous ARCH biotechnology portfolio companies, including BIND, Chiasma (NASDAQ: CHMA) and Xenoport (NASDAQ: XNPT). From 1995 to 1998, Minick was Director, President and Chief Operating Officer of SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals, (NASDAQ:SEQU), a biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by ALZA Corporation and subsequently J&J. He was formerly an executive at Baxter International, Inc. and Eli Lilly & Company. 

Minick has also been active in not-for-profit organizations including serving as a Director of California Pacific Medical Center, including Chairman of the Board, Trustee of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (a Harvard teaching hospital), Director of NatureBridge, a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, the advisory board of INVO at Northwestern University, the Technology Transfer Advisory Council or UCSD and a Trustee of Ross School.

He received his postgraduate training in neurobiology at the Salk Institute, an M.B.A. from Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, San Diego.

Mick Hitchcock

Mick Hitchcock is currently Chair of the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Foundation and Adjunct Professor of Microbiology at UNR Medical School.

His career in pharmaceutical research & development spanned 40 years, initially with Bristol-Myers Squibb in infectious disease research and project planning roles for 12 years. He then joined Gilead Sciences, Inc. in 1993 and helped it grow from only 100 employees and no products or revenues to more than 11,000 employees and greater than $20B annual revenue. Over 27 years, he held a variety of positions, including Vice President roles with responsibility for project and portfolio management, alliance management, strategic planning, medical affairs and specific areas of research. He was Senior Advisor from 2009-19. During his career, he was involved in the development and commercialization of a number of anti-infective agents, primary antivirals for treatment of HIV, HBV, influenza, CMV and other diseases.

Hitchcock received his Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Melbourne, Australia and B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in biochemistry from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, England. He did post-doctoral research at Georgetown University and NIH prior to joining industry.

Robert Goldberg

Robert Goldberg is a managing partner at GTG Capital Partners, a multi-stage venture capital firm, as well as an operating advisor to Palladium Equity, a private equity investor. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, technology leader, and investor with more than 30 years of experience building companies from early-stage startups to established publicly traded enterprises.

Goldberg has advised and been a board member on several early to late-stage companies including: Tapingo, Udacity, Transforce Group, Kars Nuts, Venture Beat, and Sidecar. He has invested in numerous technology companies including Alibaba, Uber, Spotify, Zoom and Duo Security.

Goldberg is a member of the board of EDAWN (The Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada), served on Governor Sisolak’s GOED Director Search committee and is an active participant in GOED’s strategy.

Goldberg holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering and Applied Science from Columbia University in New York City.

Bill Payne

Bill Payne serves as the  Dean of the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Natural Resources and Director of the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Nevada Reno. His research interests include: crop physiology, systems agronomy, soil physics and hydrology, soil fertility and plant nutrition, international agriculture, sustainability, agroclimatology, modeling, alternative crops, and crop diversification.

From 2012 to 2014, he worked for the International Center for Agricultural Research as Director of a $150 million research program based in Ethiopia aimed at improving food security and livelihoods in the dry areas of the world. Prior to this, he served as a Professor of Crop Physiology at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, and is a former Research Director of the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture.

Payne has been named Fellow of five international scientific societies and has held numerous leadership roles at the state, national, and international levels.

Payne received a B.A. in chemistry from Wabash College and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Texas A&M in Soil Science.

William Dally

William Dally, is the Chief Scientist and Senior Vice President at Nvidia, a world leader in artificial intelligence computing.

Dally is an inventor in the fields of energy-efficient computing, domain-specific computer architectures, and networking. He has authored more than 250 papers and 4 textbooks, and is the holder of 120 patents. Hardware architectures he invented powers parallel computing, modern supercomputers, and artificial intelligence as we know it today.

Dally is the former Chair of Stanford University’s computer science department, often ranked #1 in the U.S., is a member of U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He has acted as a consultant to many government agencies in defense and intelligence on high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. Since 2021, Dally has been a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

Dally received a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech, a master’s in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from CalTech.

Manthi Nguyen

Manthi Nguyen, is an active angel investor and entrepreneur in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is one of the most active deal syndicators in Silicon Valley, putting together investments across the Band of Angels, Sand Hill Angels, and Sierra Angels. She is also a venture partner for Portfolia Inc., leading the firm’s Rising Tide Fund, Portfolia Consumer Fund, Portfolia Enterprise Fund, and Active Aging and Longevity Fund, and currently owns and manages two manufacturing service companies in San Jose and Sunnyvale, California.

Nguyen previously served on the board of directors for Sand Hill Angels and the executive committee for Sierra Angels. Nguyen was also involved in a series of early startups developing routing and networking technologies that were later acquired.

In the early part of her career, Nguyen was part of General Motors’ Advanced Manufacturing Research group, where she worked on developing technologies for office and factory automation. She participated in developing international standards for Open System Interconnect with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). These technologies laid the foundation for the Internet. Nguyen also worked on modeling business processes, information flow, and supply chain management for the General Motors enterprise. Her experience at General Motors was invaluable in helping her build the foundation of understanding for how technologies are applied to solving real-life problems.

In the past 20 years, Nguyen has focused on small businesses, mentoring entrepreneurs, and angel investing. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.