Roger K. Baumberger

Senior Managing Director and CFA joined Aegis Capital Corp. in March 2013 as Senior Managing Director of Private Equity Banking and Chief Operating Officer of SternAegis Ventures. Mr. Baumberger’s extensive investment banking and corporate finance experience at New York City-based firms has been focused on private and public emerging growth companies in all sectors including healthcare, technology, software, internet and telecommunications. Specific areas of professional expertise include private placement of equity and debt, including venture capital and PIPE financings; mergers and acquisitions; initial public offerings; and the valuation of securities and business.

From 1995 until March 2013, Mr. Baumberger was with Spencer Trask Ventures, Inc. where he was Senior Managing Director, Investment Banking. Prior senior corporate finance positions were held at Josephthal & Company, BDO Seidman, Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., The Equitable Life Assurance Society and Marine Midland Bank. He is member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and CFA Institute. Additionally, he is a past president of The Executive Forum and a director of the NYU Alumni Association.

Mr. Baumberger’s academic credentials include designation as a Chartered Financial Analyst, an M.B.A. with distinction from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and an A.B. from Dartmouth College.

Melissa Fan Chen

 Ms. Fan Chen has extensive experience on Wall Street in the areas of investment banking, financial services and security trading.  She holds the Series 7 & 63 licenses.  Over the years, Ms. Chen’s career focus has been the direct interaction with Chinese companies assisting them with their performance in the U.S. public capital markets.  In this regard she advices her clients on communication with regulators, auditors, attorneys, and other market professionals while  specializing in market/industry analysis and corporate due diligence.  Ms. Chen has been an advisor to numerous companies in the preparation of their IPO – Initial Public Offering – and is an ongoing consultant for future financings, strategic acquisitions and up-listing to senior securities exchanges. Ms. Chen has significant relationships with many investment banking firms, market makers, and analysts. She is an independent member of the Board and the Chair of the Board’s Audit Committee of Biostar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Ms. Chen earned a Master of Science in accounting from The City University of New York, Queens College. She is fluent in English and Mandarin.

Christopher D. Gee

Director of International Sales and Marketing, Radient Pharma Corp.  Mr. Gee is a successful technology and biotech executive with extensive sales, marketing, and distribution management experience.  He has held executive positions and managed projects in the USA and internationally overseeing product development, marketing, sales, licensing, and distribution partnering.  His purview has spanned domestic and global operations including negotiated licensing and distribution agreements with top tier companies.  Mr. Gee’s background includes serving as a senior analyst at New York University, Stern School of Business - IT department and working as an executive at Apple Inc., to manage business development, sales activities, and enterprise computing projects.  He has also served as a principal in start-up companies. Mr. Gee received his M.A. from King’s College, University of London and his B.A. from New York University.  

DR. Keith M. Giles

Brings 20 years of academic and entrepreneurial experience in the life sciences, with a strong background in oncology, immuno-oncology, biomarkers and therapeutics. Dr. Giles has held research positions at the University of Western Australia, New York University and MiReven. At the University of Western Australia, he was a Royal Perth Hospital Medical Research Foundation Fellow and led a research team studying the role of microRNAs in cancer. He was responsible for strategy development and spearheaded project funding applications, publications and presentations. Dr. Giles later co-founded MiReven, a biopharmaceutical company developing a microRNA-based cancer therapy. As Head Scientist at MiReven, he was responsible for conducting therapeutic analyses of the oncology landscape to make product development recommendations. Dr. Giles also oversaw MiReven’s preclinical program and supervised a team of scientists, managed collaborations with strategic partners in Europe and the United States, produced and delivered investor presentations, and was a liaison for intellectual property protection. In 2013, Dr. Giles received an Innovator of the Year Award from the Western Australian State Government for his work with MiReven. In 2014, he joined a translational oncology program at New York University to develop immuno-oncology biomarkers. As an academic scientist, his work has been published widely in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals, and he has written book chapters on cancer biology. Dr. Giles has been invited to present his work at major international conferences, and is an editorial board member and expert reviewer at biomarker and oncology journals. He received a BS from Curtin University in Perth, Australia, a Graduate Diploma in Pathology and a PhD in Cancer Medicine from the University of Western Australia.

Jack Lifton

In 1962, Mr. Lifton started his career with Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. in Detroit, Michigan where he focused on the preparation and study of the electronic properties of ultrapure technology metals alloys and first examined the electronic uses of lithium and its compounds for energy storage and production. In 1964, he produced the first thin film phase change memory cell, which resulted first in the invention of the recordable CD/DVD and is today the basis of SSD computer memories. He also worked on the development of the first commercial europium based cathodoluminescent phosphor and participated in the first work on hydrogen storage alloys that led ultimately to the development of the nickel hydride battery in the period 1965-67. During this time he was also a volunteer member of the team at the Ford Motor Company developing alkali-metal sulfur molten salt batteries for vehicular traction use.  After receiving his M.S. Chemistry degree from Wayne State University (Detroit) in 1967 he joined ITT Advanced Electro-Optical Laboratories in San Fernando, Ca. where he developed a method for the deposition of thin films of photoactive materials along the walls of microchannel plate tubes that resulted in the successful creation of a type of solid state image intensifier device still in use today. In 1970 he focused on the development and manufacturing of engineered materials for the OEM automotive and electronics industry. In 1972 he served as production manager; technical sales director; VP operations, and finally CEO of a Detroit based private company and then of a Franco-British joint venture. He retired as the CEO of a wholly owned American OEM engineered materials subsidiary of Germany’s MetallGesellschaft AG, and is now a business operations consultant as Jack Lifton LLC, which he founded in 1999. He coined the term “technology metals” in 2007, and has become one of the best known “popular” expositors in print and on the lecture circuit of the global markets for technology metals in the world. He consults to public and private companies, institutional investors, and governmental organizations on the sourcing, refining, fabricating, and marketing of the technology metals and materials. He has been a technology metals trader for two generations and has travelled extensively to visit mines, refineries, and fabricators on every continent. 

Dr. Richard S. Matthews

Brings 40 years of experience in the medical and scientific fields including teaching at Syracuse University, and research positions at both Pfizer and Amgen. Dr. Matthews had responsibility for the study of worldwide licensing opportunities at Pfizer Medical Systems, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and Amgen. As a patent chemist at Pfizer, he prepared applications and testified on infringement issues. At Pfizer Medical Systems, Dr. Matthews also represented Pfizer at the Bureau of Radiological Health Section of the FDA and was a liaison with the Department of Commerce for export license negotiations. Dr. Matthews was responsible for evaluating the first whole body MRI device, numerous bone cements products, heart valves, insulin delivery systems, and artificial joints. He was also responsible for coordinating the committees on Acquisitions, Strategic Analysis, Acquisition Candidate Analysis and Venture Fund Candidate Analysis, and was the principal RDIT liaison for R&D Operations. In 1973, he designed the first computer program to analyze medical opportunities by combining market size and development costs to determine pricing. Modern variations of this program are widely used even today throughout the industry. At the Licensing Department of Central Research he conducted therapeutic analyses in the areas of cardiovascular medicine, osteoporosis, diabetes, obesity, ulcer therapy,asthma and CNS. In 1998 he moved to Amgen as the Director of Licensing. There, Dr. Matthews supervised a team of scientists, overseeing their interactions with small research companies and recommending potential licensing opportunities for Amgen. He received a BA from Brooklyn College and his Ph.D. at Columbia University in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. Dr. Matthews resides in Connecticut and California.

William D. Priester, M.D.

Has been in the private practice of Internal Medicine and Cardiology since 1983. He has been the Medical Director of the Lenox Hill Physicians Hospital Organization in New York City and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Lenox Hill Health Network. Dr. Priester is also the President of Lenox Hill Cardiology Associates, P.C., which is a group of 16 physicians who interpret all non-invasive cardiology procedures at Lenox Hill Hospital. Dr. Priester received a B. A. from Stanford University and his M.D. from the University of Iowa College of Medicine. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease, and a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology.

Diane M. Smith

Principal. Ms. Smith joined Darby in December 2007, bringing nearly 20 years of experience in domestic and emerging market private equity investing, fund management and banking, including the launching and management of several new private equity and mezzanine investment businesses in both the U. S. and Latin America. Prior to forming her own firm to advise early stage entrepreneurs seeking private growth capital, Ms. Smith served as Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager for Electra Investment Trust PLC of the U.K., playing a key role in building the firm’s new U. S. principal investing business to over half a billion dollars in equity and mezzanine investments in a wide variety of industries. Joining Electra in 1991, Ms. Smith focused on growth financings and leveraged buyouts in middle market-sized companies in a broad range of sectors, with emphasis on consumer products and services, telecom and broadcast media, transportation operations and service providers, specialty industrial manufacturing and healthcare. 
 
In the late 1990’s, Ms. Smith spearheaded Electra’s expansion into South America, targeting infrastructure privatizations and related service providers as well as specialty manufacturers and consumer products and services. Prior to joining Electra, Ms. Smith was involved in building the new leveraged buyout business for a NewYork based thrift, as well as serving in international banking and corporate finance roles with Manufacturers Hanover Trust. Before joiningMHT she spent several years in Spain developing export markets for Spanish producers of industrial and consumer products. Ms. Smith holds a Masters in International Management from Thunderbird School of global Management and a B.A. in Communications from Washington State University. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese.