Our Team

President David J. Kennedy is a highly-motivated, hands-on leader who has managed IKOTECH’s start-up and daily operations. Mr. Kennedy has the technical competence and knowledge of the marketplace to successfully drive this high-tech entrepreneurial company to a prominent position in the global cell sorting market. Mr. Kennedy joined IKOTECH in 2006 after a ten-year career with increasing responsibility and corresponding achievement at Techshot. While an employee of Techshot, Mr. Kennedy began managing the technology development and engineering for IKOTECH’s products in 2003. He is lead author on one related publication, is lead inventor on one issued patent for the technology, and has presented IKOTECH’s technology at U.S. and international conferences. Mr. Kennedy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.

Chief Scientist (part-time) Dr. Paul W. Todd is a world-renowned expert in the field of bioseparations and cell technology. His CV includes over 300 scientific articles in cell biophysics, biochemistry, and chemical engineering, including authorship of a textbook in bioprocessing. Dr. Todd’s career is a combination of service in both industry and academia, including director of the Bioprocessing and Pharmaceutical Research Center in Philadelphia and positions at Penn State and the University of Colorado. Dr. Todd principally serves as Techshot’s Chief Scientist. Dr. Todd has been the principal investigator on a number of SBIR grants funded by DoD, NASA, NIH, and NSF. Dr. Todd holds a BA degree from Bowdoin College, SB from MIT, MS from the University of Rochester, and PhD in Biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to his role as Chief Scientist, Dr. Todd also chairs IKOTECH’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Management

Chairman of the Board Mark S. Deuser is one of the two co-founders and owners of IKOTECH. As Chairman, he brings significant management and organizational skills to IKOTECH having also co-founded Techshot, Inc., another small entrepreneurial technology-based company, nearly twenty years ago. Mr. Deuser continues to serve as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Techshot, which is a provider of high-tech product development and engineering services to federal, university and private sector clients. Under his leadership, Techshot has become Indiana’s leading recipient of SBIR awards with close to 60 awards to date. He has guided and successfully grown Techshot to prominence, as acknowledged by numerous national awards and regional recognition, including being listed two consecutive years as Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest growing companies. Mr. Deuser is a registered Professional Engineer, and was graduated with honors from the University of Evansville (Evansville, IN) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Founders & Principal Owners

Board of Advisors

IKOTECH’s governance is organized into a Board of Managers and Advisors and a Science Advisory Board. The Board of Managers and Advisors meets on a quarterly basis and consists of the the Founders (see above), the following Advisors, the Chairman of the Science Advisory Board, and the President. Board meetings have been held since October 2006 and are both well attended and productive.

John H. Barnard, Advisor, is the Founder of Barnard Associates and Barnard Life Sciences. He is also Managing Director of Pearl Street Ventures, and founding partner and board member for YourEncore, Inc. He has 27 years of financial experience at Eli Lilly and Company including Controller of International Operations, Director of Financial Systems, Director of Business Process Reengineering and Controller of DowElanco. John has assisted in the founding of more than a dozen new firms as well as the capitalization and acceleration of many more. He has a BA degree in Psychology from Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana and a MBA degree from Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Nicholas E. Mathioudakis, Advisor, is a partner at Baker & Daniels LLP and a member of its Corporate Finance and Health and Life Sciences teams. Prior to joining Baker & Daniels, he was a co-founder of JMM Ventures and served as the vice president of corporate development and general counsel for Aprimo, Inc. where he helped raise over $32 million in venture financing. His versatile legal background includes technology development and licensing transactions, technology transfer, merger and acquisition transactions, capital formation, securities law and strategic planning. Mr. Mathioudakis also serves as IKOTECH’s general counsel for general business issues.

Nigel Ferrey, Senior Advisor, is founder of bioLOGIC, a global life science development, management and investment firm, where he provides contract senior executive services to clients. His uniquely applicable background includes serving as President & CEO for Cytomation, a high speed cell sorting instrumentation business, from start-up (1996) through merger (2003) and subsequent liquidity event (2007) returning over $300 million to Cytomation’s owners. He has served as President for a number of other companies including Mobus, SFC, and CorryHeibert. His industry and investor connections, business savvy, and experience are extensive.

Science Advisory Board

Paul Todd, Ph.D., serves as the Science Advisory Board Chairman. See above for his biosketch.

James Leary, Ph.D., Science Advisor, is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. Dr. Leary is a world-renown expert in flow cytometry and nanomedicine. Dr. Leary joined Purdue in 2006 with a joint appointment in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and the School of Veterinary Medicine's Department of Basic Medical Sciences. In addition to his roles as a faculty member, he is also involved in the Birck Nanotechnology Center, Oncological Sciences Center, and the Bindley Bioscience Center at Purdue's Discovery Park, as well as the Purdue Cancer Center. Dr. Leary received two Bachelor's Degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in aeronautics-astronautics and philosophy-history, a Master's Degree in physics from the University of New Hampshire, and a Doctorate in biophysics from Pennsylvania State University. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s best researchers in high speed and rare event cell sorting.

Rex Bickers, M.D., Science Advisor, is a practicing physician in clinical neonatology and also serves as a clinical consultant to IKOTECH. He earned degrees in chemistry, pharmacology and medicine from Indiana University, and he is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine. Dr. Bickers currently provides clinical neonatology services to Pediatrix Medical Group, a unit of MEDNAX National Medical Group (NYSE: MD). Dr. Bickers brings three decades of experience in clinical and laboratory research, (neonatal) critical care, and medical literature management to the IKOTECH team.

Managing Director John C. Vellinger is the other co-founder and owner of IKOTECH. He also co-founded Techshot, and has since served as the company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Vellinger has extensive design management experience in developing innovative products for both commercial and government applications. His project managers and their teams have designed innovative products for governmental agencies such as NASA, NIH, Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as Fortune 100 companies such as Procter & Gamble and the Coca-Cola Company. His design teams developed and provided equipment that was used to conduct life science experiments on 7 different space shuttle missions. Under his leadership, intellectual property has been generated in various high-tech fields, resulting in 6 USPTO patents issued to date and 5 applications in review. Mr. Vellinger is a graduate of Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a specialty in biomedical design.