Board of Directors
Michael K. Lowe
President and CEO
Most recently, Mr. Lowe spent seven years at Philips Oral Healthcare (Royal Philips Electronics) where he worked in a variety of roles including global product management and brand management for Sonicare (Class I medical device, $350 million annual revenue). His experience comprises a range of marketing-related disciplines including dental professional sales management, sales training, promotion and advertising, market research, pricing strategy, and channel strategy development. While at Philips, he was nominated into the prestigious High Potential global management program, was listed as a co-inventor on a business application patent related to CRM, and developed a training program, Evidence-Based Dentistry, which won a regional MEDIC process improvement award for increased dental sales. He initially began working on the Sonicare business with Optiva, Inc. (1999 Inc. magazine Fastest Growing Privately Held Company award), joining Philips through the strategic acquisition process in 2000.
Mr. Lowe holds a BS in Biology from Louisiana State University where he graduated with honors. Subsequently he attended dental school at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans for two years, where he scored in the 90th percentile on Step One of the National Dental Board Examination, before an early departure to begin his commercial career in the dental industry. He graduated with an MBA from the Rice University Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management as Jones Scholar. While in business school, he was awarded numerous scholarships, was nominated for entry into the Texas Business Hall of Fame as an outstanding student, and completed two venture capital internships. While pursuing his MBA full-time, Mr. Lowe maintained several consulting contracts, including an agreement with an early stage dental technology company as well as a Houston-based orthodontic practice. Through the end of 2006, he served as interim COO of an Austin-based diagnostics company, departing upon the completion of a successful acquisition.
William J. Ryan
Former President and CEO of The Straumann Company (US subsidiary), provider of dental implants, where he increased market share ten-fold and helped drive the parent company’s market value from $100 million to over $3 billion. Former President and CEO of NobelPharma USA Inc. (Nobel Biocare), market leader in the dental implant field, where he doubled revenue in four years without increasing expense levels. Bill’s forty-year career includes numerous executive general management roles at leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including Repligen and Pharmacia. Among his past academic board appointments have been the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard School of Dental Medicine. He currently chairs the Board of Councilors at the Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine. He also served on the Board of the Research and Education Foundation of the ACP. Bill has been involved in multiple IPOs.
Stephen J. Banks
Venture Partner of S3 Ventures. Steve began his involvement with venture capital as Vice President of Venture Capital at The Hillman Company, which was a founding limited partner of Kleiner Perkins. In 1988, he became President of BCM Technologies, an affiliate of Baylor College of Medicine, where he was involved in the formation of more than 30 new technology companies spun out of the Baylor including Lexicon (LEXG), GeneMedicine (VLTS), ForeFront (SKIL), Triplex (AGEN), PrimaCis (MDLIQ) and Zonagen (ZONA). He also established BCMT’s venture advisory board and affiliated venture fund. Steve earned a BS in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He taught a graduate venture capital course at Rice University during the years 1992 to 2005.
Brian R. Smith
Managing director of S3 Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund focusing on technology and medical device opportunities in Texas and the Southwest. Prior to S3 Ventures, Brian co-founded the Convergent Investors Fund, where, as Managing Director, he oversaw investment in 10 companies. Before that, he founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Crossroads Systems (NASDAQ: CRDS), which was a pioneer in storage area networks. Brian led Crossroads through five rounds of venture, strategic, and mezzanine financing and to a successful IPO in 1999.
Linda B. Spain
Serves on the board of directors and advisory boards of private companies ranging from emerging technology start-up to mature and mainstream. During her career, she has held various executive positions and has been responsible for development of new business opportunities, mergers/acquisitions/divestitures, finance, structuring strategic alliances, sales and marketing, key supply and purchase agreements, and commercialization of technology. She has participated in numerous transactions ranging in size from under $1 million dollars to over $1 billion dollars. Linda is a co-founder of the Houston Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors.