Board of Directors
Jay M. Short, Ph.D., Founder, Executive Director, and Chairman of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation
Jay M. Short, Ph.D. has served as a member of our Board of Directors since March 2004. Subject to stockholder approval of the nominee, effective as of the date of the annual meeting, Dr. Short will also assume the newly created role of Lead Independent Director. Dr. Short is currently Executive Chairman and Principal of BioAtla, a protein therapeutics research and development services organization based in San Diego and Beijing. Dr. Short is Founder and through July 2008, President and Chairman of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity focused on preservation of biological diversity in the living environment by inventing and implementing business and educational strategies in the service of conservation. Dr. Short will remain a member of the Board of Directors of E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation after July 2008. From February 1999 to October 2005, Dr. Short was the President and CEO of Diversa Corporation, a leader in applying proprietary genomic technologies for the rapid discovery and optimization of novel products from biodiversity. He was a founding member of Diversa Corporation, and served as Chief Technology Officer and Director of the company from its inception in 1994. Dr. Short is a director for publicly-held Invitrogen Corporation and Nventa Biopharmaceuticals Corporation, and privately-held Ciris Energy. He previously served as Head of Research and Operations of Strategene Cloning Systems and President of their antibody development subsidiary. Dr. Short is a member of BioAtla, LLC and Capia IP, LLC. Dr. Short received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and his B.A. with honors in Chemistry from Taylor University in Upland, Indiana.