Healthcare Professionals

Board of Directors

Curt LaBelle – Chairman of the Board

Mr. LaBelle's biographical information will be posted shortly.

David Blivin

David Blivin is a consummate VC with a long and successful investment and entrepreneurial career. He is a founder and managing director of Cottonwood Technology Fund (CTF). CTF is a seed and pre-seed stage venture capital fund focused on the Rio Grande Technology Corridor, and the southwest region bounded by Austin, Denver and Phoenix. In addition, Mr. Blivin is managing director of Cottonwood Technology Group (CTG). CTG is focused on supporting and creating programs and the ecosystem related to successful technology commercialization in Los Alamos and throughout New Mexico and the region. In this capacity he is producer of the annual Global New Energy Summit.

Prior to moving to Santa Fe and founding the Cottonwood entities Mr. Blivin had a long and successful investment and entrepreneurial career in North Carolina. Dave founded and served as Managing Director of Southeast Interactive where over a five-year period he successfully built the team that established the first and largest information technology-focused fund based in the Southeast. During his tenure, Southeast Interactive raised three funds totaling over $175 million. He was directly involved in leading early stage investments which lead to exit transactions representing in excess of $1 billion in incremental enterprise value. His managed portfolio generated cash on cash returns of over 4X.

Dave holds a MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. In his free time, Dave enjoys the outdoors of Northern NM, golfing and spending time with his family.

Brian Birk, Managing Partner, Sun Mountain Capital

Brian Birk has over 20 years of experience as an operating executive and investor. Mr. Birk co-founded Sun Mountain Capital, a boutique private equity firm focused on the Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions, in 2006. Since that time Sun Mountain has grown to be one of the largest PE firms in the region, and currently manages direct investment funds and fund of funds vehicles. Prior to forming Sun Mountain Capital, Mr. Birk was a Vice President and Director of Private Equity at Fort Washington Capital Partners where he helped the firm establish and manage a number of private equity direct investment funds, secondary investment funds, and fund of funds programs.

Mr. Birk was a founder or senior executive at several high profile start-ups, including MetaWeb (acquired by Google), Applied Minds and BiosGroup. In addition, Mr. Birk held a senior manager position at the Boston Consulting Group and finance manager positions at General Electric and GE Capital. Mr. Birk has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a BS in economics from Carleton College.

Mr. Birk is a Board Member of Sun Mountain Capital portfolio companies Aspen Avionics, American Clay, Exagen Diagnostics, Lumidigm and Puente Partners. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association and the Arizona Venture Capital Association.

Dinesh Patel, Ph.D., Managing Director, vSpring Capital

Dr. Patel is a Managing Director and Founding Partner of vSpring Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund with over $400 million under management (2000 to present).

From 1985 through 1999, Dr. Patel served as co-founder, Chairman of The Board of Directors, President & CEO of TheraTech, Inc., a Salt Lake City, Utah based company that has been a pioneer in the development and manufacturing of innovative drug delivery products. TheraTech went public in 1992 and became profitable in 1997. In January 1999, TheraTech was acquired for approximately $350 million by Watson Pharmaceuticals, a California based company.

Besides vSpring and TheraTech Inc., Dr. Patel has founded or co-founded several life science and technology companies including Ashni Naturaceuticals, Inc., Salus Therapeutics, Inc.(acquired by Genta), and OneCare.

Dr. Patel has been the recipient of numerous awards including; the 2010 Utah Youth Village Helping Hand Award, the 2009 Utah Genius Lifetime Achievement Award, Honorary Doctor of Business Degree, University of Utah (2008), the 2006 Utah Technology Council Hall of Fame, 2006 Pathfinder Award - Edison Showcase University of Utah, 2006 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Business Award, US Small Business Administration's Business Achiever Award, Scientific and Technology Award (State of Utah), Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Mountain West Venture Group) and Scientific and Technology Development Pioneer of Progress Award, to name just a few.

Dr. Patel served as co-chair of Governor Huntsman's transition team and is currently on the board of the Utah Policy Partnership (UPP), the board of the Utah Symphony & Opera, the Chairman of the USTAR Governing Authority board and sits on the Utah Technology Council executive committee.

Born and raised in Zambia, Africa, Dr. Patel received his undergraduate degree in India and his doctorate degree from University of Michigan. Dr. Patel along with his wife Kalpana and children, Ashish and Avni, reside in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dr. Patel is active in the Indian and local community serving on several boards and is an active donor for various charitable causes. The Patels have established graduate fellowships at University of Utah, Utah State University and University of Michigan.

Samuel D. Riccitelli, Exagen Diagnostics Board Member

Mr. Riccitelli has more than 25 years of healthcare industry experience as a senior executive in general management, product development, business development, and operations management for both start-up and large corporations. Most recently, Mr. Riccitelli was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Genoptix, Inc, a $200M in revenue, publicly traded (NASDAQ: GXDX) diagnostic services company focused on the needs of community hematologists and oncologists. Genoptix was sold to Novartis Corp. for $470M in March 2011. Prior to Genoptix, Mr. Riccitelli was Vice President & General Manager for Becton, Dickinson and Company. While at BD, he also served as a board member for BD Ventures, L.L.C. venture capital fund. Prior to BD, he was General Manager at Puritan-Bennett Corporation. Mr. Riccitelli has led the successful development and commercialization of a broad range of diagnostic services, medical devices, and information based product and services. He is a named inventor on eight patents.

Mr. Riccitelli received a B.A. in Biology from Washington and Jefferson College and a M.S. Eng. degree from The University of Texas in Mechanical & Biomedical Engineering.

Ron Rocca, President & CEO, Exagen Diagnostics, Inc.

Ron Rocca comes to Exagen Diagnostics with 26 years of experience building strong market presence and generating record profitability in highly competitive markets in both diagnostics and pharmaceuticals. His specialties include executional strategy, new business development and sales management/training, and he has a proven history of successfully exceeding corporate goals. Before joining Exagen, Mr. Rocca served as General Manager at Prometheus Labs. With Prometheus since 2005, he was responsible for leading the GI sales organization, strategic planning and implementing tactical projects designed to maximize GI brand sales. Prior to Prometheus, Mr. Rocca was the General Manager of Marketing, Sales, Sales Operations, Managed Markets and Contracting at Alpharma Inc. While at Alpharma, Mr. Rocca was responsible for leading 250 sales personnel and overseeing sales analytics, sales training and managed care. Prior to Alpharma, Mr. Rocca was with Elan Pharmaceuticals where he held several senior sales and marketing management positions. Earlier experience includes working for Eisai Inc. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

Mr. Rocca has worked in several specialty areas including Gastroenterology, Neurology, Oncology, Palliative Medicine and Emergency Care and holds his B.A. in Marketing and Personnel Management from Towson State University. Mr. Rocca lives in Carlsbad, California with this wife and two children. He is involved with the San Diego Blood Bank and the Crohn's Colitis Foundation.

Michael Walsh

Mr. Walsh has served as a Director since September, 2010. Mr. Walsh was most recently Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer at Cypress Bioscience, Inc. In this capacity, Mr. Walsh led the creation of a 115-person sales force and established commercial operations to support the launch of Savellaâ (milnacipran), a pharmaceutical product for fibromyalgia, through a partnership with Forest Laboratories, Inc. as well as personalized medicine services focused in rheumatology. Prior to Cypress, Mr. Walsh was the founder, Chairman and CEO of Proprius Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical and personalized medicine company focused in rheumatology and pain management, which was acquired by Cypress in 2008. Before his time with Proprius, Mr. Walsh was the Executive Chairman at Prometheus Laboratories where he also held the positions of President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Executive Officer from the founding of the company in 1995 through late 2004. He is largely responsible for developing the company's unique strategy and business model as well as leading its development into a profitable, integrated specialty pharmaceutical and clinical diagnostics company focused in gastroenterology.

Mr. Walsh has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University.