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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sesh Commuri

Dr. Commuri is a professor of electrical and biomedical engineering. Prior to joining the University in January 2016, he worked at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., where he was the Gerald Tuma Presidential Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He holds a bachelor’s degree from JNT University in Hyderabad, India; a master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India; and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Arlington, all in the area of electrical engineering.

He is the past editor-at-large of the International Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems and has served on the editorial board of International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks and as a member of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) Task Force on Intelligent Compaction.

Dr. Commuri has over 30 years’ experience in the areas of embedded controls, automotive control and control of off-road equipment. Prior to joining the University of Oklahoma in 2002, Dr. Commuri held positions at Motorola, Vermeer and Xerox and consulted for leading Fortune 500 companies including Ford Motor Company, Mitsubishi, Emerson Electric, Caterpillar and John Deere.

Commuri holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Jawaharla Nehru Technological University, a Master of Technology in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas, Arlington.

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.