Board of Directors

Mark Wan – Three Arch Partners

Mark is a founding General Partner of Three Arch Partners. Prior to co-founding Three Arch Partners, Mark was a general partner at Brentwood Associates. Since starting in venture capital in 1987, Mark has emphasized working with entrepreneurs in very early stage companies. He has often assumed temporary operating responsibility, managing key functions during a company’s young life. He has served on the boards of many private and public medical companies including Biopsys Medical, Odyssey Healthcare and Perclose. Mark has a BS in Engineering and a BA in Economics from Yale University. He also holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Steve Sullivan – Skyline Ventures

Steve has been involved managing and investing in healthcare companies and in practicing medicine since 1981. He was Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at Stanford in 1985, and then for a decade had one of the largest medical practices in Silicon Valley, during which time he became intimately involved with the venture capital community. He completed the Program in Management Development at Harvard Business School in 1995. Shortly thereafter, he became the first clinician and one of the original employees of Eclipsys (NASDAQ:ECLP), a healthcare information technology company where he served in sales, product management and business development roles. He has had clinical faculty appointments at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Stanford University Medical School. He received a BS Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University, and an MD from New York University Medical School. He also sits on outside advisory boards for the University of San Francisco School of Business, as well as the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke and New York University’s Catherine Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship. He served as an internist for the National Hockey league's San Jose Sharks during their inaugural season in 1991-1992.

Guy Nohra – Alta Partners

Guy is a co-founder of Alta Partners, and was also a partner at Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co., which he joined in 1989. He has been involved in the funding and development of notable medical technology and life science companies such as Cutera, Innerdyne, R2 Technology, deCODE genetics, and Vesica. Previously, Guy was Product Manager of Medical Products with Security Pacific Trading Corporation. He was responsible for a multi-million dollar product line and traveled extensively in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Southeast Asia. Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Medical Device Manufacturing Association. Guy holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Stanford University.

Howie Rosen - Independent Member

Howie Rosen is a consultant and serves on the board of directors of AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., CNS Therapeutics, Inc., PaxVax, Inc. and Pearl Therapeutics, Inc. From 2004 to 2008, he was Vice President, Commercial Strategy at Gilead Sciences, Inc. where his responsibilities included strategic marketing, global brand management, health economics, competitive intelligence, market research and Gilead’s overall portfolio and business planning. Prior to joining Gilead Mr. Rosen was President of ALZA Corporation where he was responsible for all aspects of managing ALZA as an independent 1000-person operating company within the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies. Previously at ALZA as Vice President, Product Development, he was responsible for product development activities, portfolio management and corporate and new product planning. Over his 10 years at ALZA, Mr. Rosen also had responsibilities for mergers and acquisitions, R&D planning, and technology ventures. Prior to joining ALZA, Mr. Rosen managed the west coast practice of Integral, Inc., was Director, Corporate Development at GenPharm International, Inc. and was a consultant in the San Francisco office of McKinsey & Co. Mr. Rosen is a member of the Stanford University Advisory Council on Interdisciplinary Biosciences and was a member of the Stanford School of Engineering Advisory Council from 2004 to 2007. Mr. Rosen is also a member of the Biomedical Engineering Advisory Board at City College of New York and the BOD of the MIT Club of Northern California. Previously he was a member of the BODs of CoTherix, Inc and Pharsight Corporation. Mr. Rosen is a lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and co-inventor on 7 US patents. Mr. Rosen received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he graduated first in his class as the Henry Ford II Scholar. Mr. Rosen has an MS in Chemical Engineering from MIT and he graduated with distinction from Stanford University with a BS in Chemical Engineering.

Thomas Schreck - AcelRx

Tom served as founding President, and then Chief Financial Officer and Director of DURECT Corporation, an emerging specialty pharmaceutical company he co-founded in 1998. During his tenure there he raised approximately $200 million to launch and build DURECT into a NASDAQ listed company with a strong financial position and a robust, diversified pipeline. Prior to founding DURECT, Tom held various investment banking positions in the San Francisco Bay area and London, including Montgomery Securities and Manufacturers Hanover Limited. Tom is a graduate of Menlo School and Williams College.

Pamela Palmer - AcelRx

In addition to her role as the CMO for AcelRx, Dr. Palmer is also a Professor of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care at the University of California, San Francisco and Director of UCSF PainCARE - Center for Advanced Research and Education. Dr. Palmer specializes clinically in treating acute and chronic pain and also is a leader in opioid and serotonin receptor research, as well as peripheral pain and inflammation mechanisms. Dr. Palmer received her MD from Stanford University and her PhD from the Stanford Department of Neuroscience. Dr. Palmer is also a co-founder of Omeros Medical Systems, Inc. and remains involved as a consultant in the company’s ongoing research efforts.