SHERMAN E. DEFOREST, PH.D.

Sherman E. DeForest, Ph.D., has demonstrated management ability and innovation in several areas of high tech with emphasis on medical instrumentation. He has participated in all aspects of starting and running a business, but performs best when managing state-of-the-art projects. He has done his best work with small- to medium-sized teams focusing on challenging projects. His current interests include the application of sensor technology and information/decision theory to medical and security problems to minimize cost while improving the accuracy of critical decisions.

Among other accomplishments, Dr. DeForest has served as the CEO, Vice President of R&D, and Director of Systems Engineering for various medical device companies. During his distinguished career, he has raised funds for three startup companies and completed one initial public offering (IPO). He has also served as a Board Member of several high-tech companies.

As an innovator, Dr. DeForest has been awarded various government grants and patents for computer, video, medical, and sensor technology.

Dr. DeForest earned his doctoral degree in physics from the University of California, San Diego.

THOMAS A. LANE, HeartWorks

Tom Lane is a recognized advisor to cardiovascular service lines and CV-specialists nationally, specializing in cardiac and vascular center growth and development. He is a principal with HeartWorks, which provides cardiovascular support services ranging from market and programmatic assessments to complete cardiac and vascular center development including hospital-physician integration services.

Building on a 12-year successful portfolio of experiences as the administrator of the renowned Indiana Heart Institute, during which time the program grew five hundred percent; Mr. Lane has over 20-years of direct experience in cardiovascular physician relations, strategic planning, organization, business and facilities development, project implementation and operational management.

A graduate of Indiana University with a Masters Degree in Business Administration, Mr. Lane is a special advisor to the Health Care Advisory Board's Cardiology Pre-eminence Roundtable, a board member and past president for the American College of Cardiovascular Administrators, lecturer for the American Hospital Association, and a frequent committee member for the American College of Cardiology.

COLONEL BARRIE VON SMITH, M.D.

Colonel Barrie Von Smith, M.D. is a board-certified family practice physician with four decades of clinical experience spanning various settings including private practice in a non-HMO environment, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Over the course of two decades, Dr. Smith built the Smith Clinic in a suburb of Boise, Idaho, to include a dentist, an orthodontist, three family practice physicians, and a physician assistant. He sold this clinic in 2005 to the other physicians who practice there.

Dr. Smith received his Bachelor of Medical Science degree from the University of California Berkeley and his M.D. degree from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine.

In 1971, Dr. Smith joined the U.S. Army and rose to the rank of Major. While in Army active duty, he completed one and a half years of a surgical residency and then transferred into family practice where he became Board Certified in 1976. He served as a general medical officer from 1972 to 1977, and during this time, he participated in Operation New Life (evacuating Vietnamese from Saigon in 1975). Later, he advanced to the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and participated as a Family Physician in a humanitarian mission to Suriname and in three deployments for Iraqi Freedom.

Dr. Smith was a part-time physician at the Boise Veterans Administration Hospital for a decade and the medical director of Gem County Emergency Medical Services for five years. In addition, over the past four decades, he has also held many leadership positions with the Boy Scouts of America and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

JOHN F. ZACK, JR., PH.D.

Dr. John Zack is an outstanding, dedicated operations professional with 35 years of demonstrated ability in many areas of the healthcare industry. He has extensive experience in the private reference laboratory as well as the hospital-based clinical laboratory. In addition, he has developed automated clinical chemistry analyzers and diagnostic reagents for a major clinical diagnostics company. He also created practice and network management information systems to support the special requirements of HMOs and other managed-care programs.

In all of these areas, he has demonstrated success in applying computer technology to the operational and financial aspects of healthcare and other sectors. He has been a systems analyst, designer and programmer for more than 40 years. He has a broad business perspective and "bottom-line" orientation.