Mr. Palay is a founder or early stage investor in genomics and stem cell-based companies. He was a founder and chairman of NimbleGen Systems, Inc., a molecular biology tools company, serving as its CEO prior to its sale to Roche for $272.5 million in August 2007. Mr. Palay is a founder and principal of Tactics II Ventures, LP and Tactics II Stem Cell Ventures, LP. Since 1991, Mr. Palay has served as the Chairman of Tactics II Group, a merchant banking and investment partnership with significant investment activity in next-generation biotechnology companies. From 1986 until 1991, Mr. Palay was Vice President, Acquisitions for Sam Zell’s Equity Group, where his focus was on acquiring distressed assets. Prior to joining Mr. Zell’s organization, Mr. Palay practiced law at Rudnick & Wolfe in Chicago. Mr. Palay earned a JD from Northwestern University and an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a BA.

In 1998, Dr. Thomson’s isolation of human embryonic stem cells created a new field of study and changed how people think of treating diseases. In addition to his roles at CDI, Dr. Thomson is the Director of Regenerative Biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research and the John D. MacArthur Professor of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He is a member of The National Academy of Sciences. His seminal work on stem cell isolation received many awards, including Science Magazine’s “Breakthrough of the Year” in 1999, and he was the cover feature in TIME Magazine’s “America’s Best in Science and Medicine” in 2001. In November 2007, Dr. Thomson published another groundbreaking paper describing how differentiated cells can be reprogrammed into a pluripotent state. This isolation of human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells was listed among the most significant scientific advances of 2007 in Science, Nature, TIME, NBC News, USA Today, The Independent, and Wired Magazine, and Dr. Thomson was named one of TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” this same year. Dr. Thomson has published over 112 scientific, peer-reviewed papers and been an inventor on 14 issued patents. Dr. Thomson received his VMD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Snyder brings over 15 years of experience as a CFO in rapidly growing companies to CDI. Prior to joining CDI, Mr. Snyder was Site Vice President and CFO of Roche NimbleGen. Mr. Snyder came to NimbleGen Systems to lead the company’s IPO, a process that eventually led to the sale of the company to Roche for $272.5 million. Prior to NimbleGen Systems, Mr. Snyder held broad strategic and financial roles in a number of entrepreneurial businesses. Among them, Snyder was CFO of Cobalt Group, a $100+ million NASDAQ-traded Internet software company. He also was CFO of Strategic Hotel Capital, a $3 billion hotel real estate company sponsored by Goldman Sachs; CFO of Mark Controls, a $100+ million manufacturer of industrial equipment, traded on NASDAQ; and Vice President of Finance and Strategic Planning for Eagle Industries Inc., a $1.5 billion manufacturing company sponsored by Chicago entrepreneur Sam Zell. Snyder received an MBA with high honors from the Harvard Business School and was designated a Baker Scholar. He received his BA summa cum laude from Ottawa University.

Mr. Parker is responsible for sales, marketing and business development. Mr. Parker brings more than 20 years of experience in the life science industry to CDI. As a Vice President at Affymetrix, he managed all aspects of sales and marketing for the Global Pharmaceutical Business Unit. Mr. Parker led the sales efforts that grew Affymetrix to over $350 million per year in revenue within 8 years. Prior to his position in the Global Pharmaceutical Business Unit, Mr. Parker was responsible for market development of Affymetrix's genetics business and flagship products, establishing key contacts and key applications that drove the growth of the genome scanning market and chromosomal copy number applications. Mr. Parker's professional background also includes serving on the drug discovery services team at Amersham Pharmacia and over a decade of research in molecular and cellular biology in the Department of Human Oncology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Comprehensive Cancer Center. While there, he worked with notable investigators, including V. Craig Jordan, to develop important cancer drugs such as Tamoxifen.

Dr. Nuwaysir is responsible for research and development, manufacturing, and quality systems. Prior to joining CDI, he served as Senior Vice President of Program Management and Business Development and Chief Technology Officer within Roche Diagnostics at the Roche NimbleGen business unit. He was responsible for overall management of the R&D portfolio and product life cycle, as well as outward-facing licensing and business development activities. Prior to Roche, Dr. Nuwaysir served in various scientific and managerial capacities at NimbleGen Systems, including Vice President of Business Development; Head of Sales, Marketing, and Technical Services; and R&D Group Leader. Prior to NimbleGen, Dr. Nuwaysir was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Human Genome Research Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, where he conceived and helped establish new methods for safety and toxicology testing based on molecular profiling. Dr. Nuwaysir holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Molecular Toxicology and a bachelor's degree from the University of Delaware.