Video Speaker Bios
John P. Engels-Vice President, Co-Founder AxoGen
Mr. Engels has served as Vice President of AxoGen, Inc. since September 2011. John is a co-founder of
AxoGen Corporation and has served as Vice President since 2006, providing operational and financial
leadership and managing AxoGen's strategic, sales and product development partnerships. From 1999
to 2002, John worked as a consultant for the University of Florida, Saffron Hill Ventures and PA Early
Stage Partners, among other groups. John also worked from 1993 to 1997 for CACM, a boutique
investment banking firm. John holds a MBA in Management and Operations from the Wharton School of
Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Chicago.
Weaver H. Gaines
Chairman of the Board and General Counsel, Nanotherapeutics, Inc.
President, CEO, and Co-founder, OBMedical Company
Mr. Gaines is Chairman of the Board and General Counsel of Nanotherapeutics, an emerging privatelyheld specialty biomedical company with a proprietary pipeline with several products in clinical
development. He also recently co-founded a medtech company, OBMedical, to complete
commercialization of an advanced maternal fetal monitor with technology licensed from the University
of Florida.
Previously, he was a founder and Managing Director of Americas Biotech Distributor, a Latin American
distributor of U.S. products. Prior to that, he was a co-founder of Ixion Biotechnology, an adult stem cell
treatment for diabetes and a treatment for primary hyperoxaluria and recurrent calcium oxalate kidney
stones (also licensed from Florida), where he served as Chairman and CEO. Before Ixion he was a senior
advisor on the national campaign staff of the Bush/Quayle reelection campaign and held executive or
legal positions with the Mutual of New York Life Insurance Company, Indian Head, Inc., and the
Insurance Company of North America. Following service as an Infantry officer with the Army, he began
his career at the Wall Street law firm of Dewey Ballantine. He is a co-founding director of the Florida
Research Consortium and is a co-founder, director emeritus and Chairman emeritus of BioFlorida. He is
also a member of the Industry Advisory Council of the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences
and a Trustee of Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies. He is also a director of Gainesville's
professional ballet company, Dance Alive National Ballet. Mr. Gaines is a 1965 graduate of Dartmouth
College and a 1968 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he teaches a short course
as a visiting professor called “Startup of a Biotech Company,” on the business aspects of starting a
biotech company.
Angela Pate
Angela Pate is the owner and CEO of Focused Management Solutions, Inc., a business strategy and
management firm specializing in industries with complex regulations. FMS serves as the contracted
Administrative Entity to FloridaWorks, the Alachua Bradford Regional Workforce Board in Gainesville.
FloridaWorks has contributed programs and funding to seven other workforce regions across Florida.
Angela’s efforts have brought over $24 million dollars of additional funds to Florida since 2005 to train
and employ the workforce. Over $ 8 million of these funds have gone directly to employers to pay for
on-the-job training.
Prior to joining FMS in 2001, Ms. Pate founded a technology company, MicronGreen, Inc., serving the
Architecture, Engineering and Construction industries, the Navy and Air Force. She globally
commercialized a product known as the Virtual Environment NaviGator and performed structural
analysis and simulations of dozens of large projects including the Orlando and Atlanta Airport
concourses, the Sun Life Stadium in Miami (which was home to 5 Super Bowls), several hospitals and
many sky scrapers along the Miami, Orlando and Tampa skyline, specializing in asymmetric, long span
and high rise structures. She has been published in many technology trade journals, and published the
first PC based architectural rendering in Computer Graphics World in 1989.
Angela has a Master of Science in Entrepreneurship from the University of Florida and has started two
new companies developing software platforms that combine her past work in real-time simulation with
entrepreneurship, business process outsourcing and a contracting marketplace.
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is Assistant Director for Life Sciences at the University of Florida’s Office of Technology
Licensing. She has been at the University of Florida for over 8 years and is responsible for managing
intellectual property, licensing and facilitating the formation of new start-ups from university
technologies in the health care field. Several of the start-ups she has facilitated have received millions of
dollars in investment funding and have brought products into clinical trials or onto the market. Anita has
an MS and MBA and prior to working at the University of Florida, she worked for 12 years in academia,
business incubator and industry settings in technology transfer, marketing research, biotechnology R&D
and teaching.
Randy Scott
Randy Scott founded NovaMin Technology Inc., which developed and commercialized a breakthrough
active ingredient for oral health care products. As CEO of NTI, Mr. Scott raised venture capital financing
for the Company, led it from development to commercial stage and then led the sale of the business to
GlaxoSmithKline in December 2009.
Prior to his position at NTI, Mr. Scott was VP-Marketing, and then President, of USBiomaterials Corp. Mr.
Scott’s career began in marketing and brand management at Procter & Gamble and he has served in
executive marketing positions at other Fortune 500 corporations as well as leading multiple start-ups.
Mr. Scott has a B.S. degree from Georgia Tech.
John Spence
John Spence is currently the managing partner of John Spence LLC, and has owned or been CEO of 10
companies. John has twice been recognized as one of the top 100 business thought leaders in America
and also as one of the top small business influencers in the country along with Seth Godin, Malcolm
Gladwell and Apple. John was named CEO of an international Rockefeller foundation at the age of 26,
CEO of an international strategy/sales strategy firm at 32, and for the last 16 years has traveled upwards
of 200 days a year worldwide to help businesses and individuals achieve more success. He is the author
of "Excellence by Design: Leadership" and "Awesomely Simple: Essential Business Strategies for Turning
Ideas into Action" and has been a guest lecturer at more than 90 colleges and universities including
Stanford, Harvard, and the Wharton school of business. John is also a lead instructor at the
Entrepreneurial Master’s Program at MIT and the Director of Best Practice Innovation at the Best
Practice Institute.
Sue Washer
Sue Washer, President and CEO of Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (AGTC), is an experienced
entrepreneur with a strong scientific and operational background. She has a degree in biochemistry
from Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of Florida where she was one of the first
graduates from the Warrington College of Business Entrepreneurship program. Sue has 10 years of
pharmaceutical management and research experience from Abbott Labs and Eli Lilly. At Abbott’s
Diagnostic Division Ms. Washer was a group leader in technical product development bringing new
products and technologies from the lab bench into the market place. Ms. Washer also has 16 years of
senior management experience with entrepreneurial firms in Florida including three start-ups. At AGTC
Ms. Washer has successfully secured investments of over $91M from nationally recognized VCs and
granting agencies; negotiated and closed on a major collaboration with a top five Biotech company, lead
the company to complete critical milestones and recruited an experienced management team. Ms.
Washer is a member of the Executive Committee of the Boards of UF’s Center for Entrepreneurship,
BioFlorida and SEBIO, and a Board Member for the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, the
Gainesville Area Innovation Network, and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council.
Karen Zaderej
Ms. Zaderej has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of
AxoGen, Inc. since September 2011. Karen has served as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the
board of directors of AxoGen Corporation since May 2010. Karen joined AxoGen in May 2006 and served
as Vice President of Marketing and Sales from May 2006 to October 2007 and as Chief Operating Officer
from October 2007 to May 2010. From October 2004 to May 2006, Karen worked for Zaderej Medical
Consulting, a consulting firm she founded, which assisted medical device companies build and execute
successful commercialization plans. From 1987 to 2004, Karen worked at Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson &
Johnson company, where she held senior positions in marketing, business development, research &
development, and manufacturing. Karen has a MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business and a
BS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.