Board of Directors

Ronald Henriksen joined Semafore Pharmaceuticals in December, 2004. He currently serves as Chairman of the company. He is also Founder and President of EndGenitor Technologies, an adult stem cell company, and Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Twilight Venture Partners (TVP), a closely held Indianapolis-based life sciences venture fund. Since its formation in 2002, Twilight has invested in eleven early-stage life science companies. Its investment performance places it in the top 20% of U.S. life science venture funds.

From 1999 to 2002, Mr. Henriksen served as the President and CEO of the Indiana University Research and Technology Institute. IURTC owns and licenses all technology developed within the University. Under Mr. Henriksen’s leadership, licensing income grew more than 250%, and two successful software companies were founded.

From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Henriksen was CEO of Itasca Ventures, a Minneapolis life science incubator founded by Crescendo Ventures, Vanguard Venture Partners, Medtronic and Imation to create new medical device and biotechnology companies for later-stage investment by the Partners.

In 1993, Mr. Henriksen became President and CEO of Khepri Pharmaceuticals, a California biopharmaceutical company developing innovative protease inhibitors. Following three rounds of venture funding and development of a strong inhibitor platform, Khepri was acquired by Arris Pharmaceuticals in late 1995. This combined company was later acquired by, and is an operating division of, Celera Genomics.

Mr. Henriksen began his life sciences career at Eli Lilly in 1970. He held U.S and International executive positions in finance, marketing and general management. In 1982, he became Lilly’s first Director of Business Development. In this role, Mr. Henriksen identified and negotiated 52 research and development collaborations with, or acquisitions of, biotechnology, diagnostic and medical device companies for Lilly. He also managed a $180 million internal venture capital fund which made equity investments in more than twenty of these Lilly alliance partners.

In addition to his Chairman’s role at Semafore and EndGenitor Technologies, Mr. Henriksen serves on the Boards of Directors of two public life science companies. He is Chairman of the Board of Cytori Therapeutics, a medical device company (San Diego), and is Chair of the Compensation Committee of PreMD Inc., a medical diagnostics company (Toronto). He is also a Board member of two Indianapolis companies, BioStorage Technologies, a privately-held life science service company, and ANGEL Learning, Inc., an educational software company, which he co-founded in 2000 and serves as Chairman of the Board.

Mr. Henriksen received his BS in Industrial Administration from Iowa State University in 1961 and an MBA (with distinction) from the Harvard Business School in 1967. He served as a U. S. Navy officer on Pacific Fleet ships between 1961 and 1965.

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Dr. McKeever has over 40 years of industrial experience with a record of significant achievement in both senior technical and business management positions. He served as Senior Vice President of Research and Development for the Chemicals and Plastics Departments of The Dow Chemical Company overseeing a 5000 employee organization and managing a budget exceeding $500 million per year. During his 29-year tenure at Dow, Dr. McKeever also held the positions of Vice President of Research and Development, Dow North America and was a member of the North American Operating Board; Vice President of Polyolefins and Elastomers Business Unit (Dow Plastics, U.S.); Director of Technical Service and Development and R&D Director for two large business units; Chemicals Department Manager (Dow Chemical Latin America) and also held diverse bench level R&D assignments (Central Research).

From 2000-2006, he served as Chairman of the Board of SYM Financial Corporation, which then had $600,000,000 in assets under management. He has served on numerous boards and is currently President of McKeever Ventures, providing broad-based strategic advisory services to a diverse client base.

Dr. McKeever is member of the Board of Directors at Ariel Savannah Angel Partners, LLC, and was a founding director of Dexco Polymers and the American Plastics Council. He previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Executive Service Corps of Indianapolis and the Indiana Medical History Museum. He is currently the Treasurer and a board member of the Rotary Club of Savannah South.

Dr. McKeever received his B. S. in Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh, in 1962 followed by a Ph. D. in Physical Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine in 1966.

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Mr. Sima has 20 years experience in science based companies and is currently chief operating and financial officer of Semafore. In 2006-2007, Mr. Sima became interim CEO of Semafore, raising capital and overseeing the company’s operations and strategic direction, as well as the initiation of its first clinical trial. He has been an executive at Semafore since 2003, when he became chief operating officer and vice president of contract services, while also joining Semafore’s Board of Directors. As Semafore’s COO, Mr. Sima has led the operational, human resources and financial activities for the company.

Previously, Mr. Sima was founder and president of SIMALABS International, an environmental contract analytical services company, which he started in 1991 and which provided start-up Semafore with its initial offices and infrastructure when the company was first established. Mr. Sima grew SIMALABS to over 70 employees and had four operations in three states when he sold the company in 2003. Mr. Sima holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Iowa.

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Dr. Garlich has over 20 years experience as a scientist, successful inventor and director of drug discovery and development. He co-founded Semafore Pharmaceuticals (then called ComChem Technologies) in 2000 and has since directed all of the company’s scientific research activities, including scientific strategy, drug discovery and preclinical drug development efforts. Dr. Garlich has served as the principal investigator for six peer-reviewed grants awarded to Semafore totaling over $4.5 million. Until 2007, Dr. Garlich also served as president of the company. Previously, Dr. Garlich worked for 11 years in the pharmaceutical division of Dow Chemical, where he invented and developed multiple drug candidates, including the bone cancer drug Quadramet®, approved by the FDA for hematological and other bone-related disorders.

Dr. Garlich is an inventor on 23 United States patents and author of numerous publications and presentations. In addition to multiple industry memberships and organizational affiliations, he has been a reviewer for the National Cancer Institute’s SBIR Grant program on multiple occasions, and is adjunct professor at Purdue University School of Pharmacy. Dr. Garlich received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the University of Missouri and was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Florida's School of Pharmacy.

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Dr. Longa was newly elected as a Director in April of 2007. Dr. Longa is the President and co-owner of Terre Haute Medical Laboratory, Inc., a Midwest regional medical laboratory based in Terre Haute, Indiana. He practices pathology, laboratory and nuclear medicine for Pathology Associates of Terre Haute, LLC, a professional corporation for which he is also President and co-owner. Dr. Longa is a native Indiana Hoosier graduating from the Indiana University School of Medicine. He completed Pathology residency training at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill followed by a Clinical Pathology post-doctoral fellowship in the division of Clinical and Radioisotope Chemistry and Toxicology at UNC Chapel Hill. He is board certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and is a licensed NRC authorized user of radioisotopes. He serves on the medical staff of several hospitals in and around Terre Haute, Indiana and works primarily out of Union Hospital, Terre Haute, Indiana where he is Chairman of the Department of Pathology. Additionally, Dr. Longa is currently Clinical Associate Professor of Pathology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He is a member of the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology Board of Associates and in addition to serving on the boards of Terre Haute Medical Laboratory and Pathology Associates of Terre Haute has been a board member of BioStorage Technologies, Inc. a provider of advanced biomaterials storage, inventory management and worldwide cold chain logistics, and Griffin Analytical Technologies, Inc., a high tech start-up company that provides portable mass spectrometry for military, government, commercial and academic applications. Dr. Longa is a fellow of the College of American Pathologists and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists.

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Christopher J. Garlich, has served as a Director since October 2004. He is the Executive Vice President and member of Bancorp Services, LLC, a Missouri limited liability company, specializing in the development, administration and distribution of life insurance products to the corporate and high net worth market place. Mr. Garlich, also serves on the Board of Trustees of Maxus Realty Trust Inc., a diversified Real Estate Investment Trust (“REIT”) that is publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol “MRTI”.

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