Virtual Incubation Company : Development Team

Dr. Calvin Goforth, President
Virtual Incubation is a technology venture development and enterprise incubation company. At Virtual Incubation, Dr. Goforth works in the areas of client identification and screening, business planning and commercialization strategy, and technology development strategy. Dr. Goforth has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (with a minor in Electrical Engineering) from Stanford University.

Dr. Goforth's strengths include his ability to synthesize an understanding of a technology and its place in the market and to formulate a vision for product differentiation and sustainable competitive advantage. He also brings a systematic and analytical approach to problem solving and planning. He has extensive experience in technology company startup and development and has broad science and engineering skills that encompass multiple disciplines. He has experience and understanding of intellectual property development and management, risk analysis and mitigation, and growth-company organizational development.

Under Dr. Goforth's direction, Virtual Incubation has developed a virtual enterprising model in support of its portfolio of technology based companies. The virtual enterprising model has allowed the portfolio companies to utilize skilled management, business processes, and administrative support at much lower cost than would normally be possible for a seed stage endeavor.

Randy Andress, Senior Electrical Engineer
Mr. Andress holds a B.S.E.E. as well as a B.A. in English from the University of Arkansas. His experience includes microcontroller and DSP systems, motion control software, industrial control applications, and vision systems for military band aerospace applications. He performs circuit board design, electrical system design, and programming in C/C++ and assembly languages. He also writes technical support documents and conducts training classes for technical support personnel.

Maggie Brown, Senior Graphic Designer
Ms. Brown graduated from the University of Arkansas with a B.A. in Advertising and Public Relations. She took an M.A., graduating Summa Cum Laude, with a concentration in graphic design, also from the U of A. She is a memeber of the 2005-06 Chancellor's List, the 2002-05 National Dean's List, and is a 2001 All-American Scholar. She is also the recipient of the 2005 Edsel Ford Scholarship.

Ms. Brown has experience in a variety of graphic design areas, which include: print media, photography, illustrations, logos, and web development.

Robert Fink, Business Development Management
Mr. Fink has over 25 years of experience in engineering, project management, and research and development for clients in a wide variety of industries. He most recently held a senior management position in a consulting engineering firm, where he provided management, business development, marketing, and leadership of the technology group. He has extensive experience in project management and has provided technical coordination and leadership for several efforts in the power industry to forge consensus between the government and industry on important regulatory issues.

Mr. Fink received his B.S. and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from Rice University. Much of his career has been spent working in the areas of instrumentation and control systems and human-system interfaces. He has particular strengths in coordinating multi-disciplinary groups of professionals, academics, and practitioners working to apply new technologies in specific applications. He combines an understanding of the underlying technologies, business implications, and real-world constraints, and the ability to communicate effectively with various stakeholders to be successful in these endeavors.

Ms. Kimberley Fuller, Director of Market Research
Ms. Fuller graduated from Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) with a Bachelor of Science in Clinical Psychology and Statistics, and subsequently completed her M.B.A. at St. Mary’s University (also in NS, Canada). Prior to joining VIC in 2006, Ms. Fuller served as the director of financial services at one of the nation’s top competitive intelligence research and consulting firms, Fuld & Company Inc., where she helped clients determine appropriate market research objectives, managed research projects, identified ideal market niches, and assisted clients in developing product and company positioning strategies.
Ms. Fuller has also worked in the pharmaceutical and telecommunications industries where she gained experience in designing quantitative market research studies, completing statistical analyses, preparing actionable marketing plans, and conducting focus groups.

Robyn Goforth

Dr. Goforth received her Ph.D. in 2001 in Chemistry and Biochemistry. In addition to her work with Virtual Incubation, she is presently working as a Research Professor in the Molecular Biology Research Laboratory at the University of Arkansas. As a member of the Virtual Incubation's client development team, she provides scientific research support especially for funding proposal writing.

Dr. Goforth has extensive experience with peptide synthesis as well as high-performance liquid chromatography systems; size-exclusion columns; circular-dichroism methods; and a variety of peptide and protein modification, purification, and characterization techniques. More recent work has been with DNA cloning, RT-PCR, protein expression and purification (including extensive work with FPLC systems), Western blotting, and other techniques such as Blue Native PAGE, co- and immuno-precipitation, and crosslinking techniques for the study of both soluble and membrane proteins.

Anna McCain, Technical Writer
Ms. McCain earned her B.S. in English/biology education at Louisiana Tech University and her M.S. in chemistry at the University of Arkansas. She has experience teaching chemistry, physical science, general science, and earth science at the junior high and high school levels. This experience has given her a broad base of knowledge in the sciences and practice in communicating the sciences to the community at large.

Ms. McCain has research experience that includes micro-scale, nuclear magnetic resonance studies of biological membranes as well as more practical, bucket-scale research in the food sciences. More recent work has combined her background in English and chemistry in work as a scientific/technical writer. She has worked closely with professors and researchers in enology, chemistry, entomology, and food science in helping them prepare research findings for publication in refereed journals. At Virtual Incubation she works with researchers and business development specialists in the collection, organization, and presentation of research findings for patents and grant proposals.

Shannon Sears, Office Manager
Ms. Sears graduated from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville with a B.A. in Honors Anthropology, with a concentration in Gender Studies and a minor in German. She graduated Magna Cum Laude as a four-year honors scholar. Ms. Sears is also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honors society, the Phi Kappa Phi honors society, and Delta Phi Alpha, a German honors society.

Along with providing administrative and clerical support, Ms. Sears is involved in the proposal application process for each company. She drafts, edits, formats, and submits grant proposals to each of the leading organizations, and helps to ensure that all documentation is provided and updated on a regular basis. She also maintains company records and databases, and provides technology and human resources support.

Janie Stone, Accounting Manager
Ms. Stone graduated cum laude from Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana, with a B.S. in Accounting and Business. She earned her M.B.A. at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Prior to joining Virtual Incubation in 2004, Ms. Stone worked for five years in public accounting as a senior auditor with a Little Rock accounting firm where she was responsible for overseeing all stages of an audit, supervising the audit staff, and working directly with audit clients. She also has considerable experience in financial and compliance audits of government grants, preparing financial statements, and developing internal controls.

Ms. Stone also previously worked for Covenant House of New Orleans, a not-for-profit organization, as accounting manager and grant accountant. She was responsible for cash management, maintaining property and equipment depreciation, schedules and recording, and adjusting accounts, as well as prepaid items, liabilities, revenue, and expenses. As grant accountant, she monitored the subcontractor grantees' adherence to accounting and compliance regulations and prepared necessary financial reports required by grantor agencies as well as the accounting duties associated with such grants.

Debby Winters, Company Counsel/Patent Attorney
Dr. Winters has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Georgia. She completed postdoctoral training in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York, NY working on the expression of cytochrome P450 with funding from an NIH Postdoctoral Training Grant. She studied the molecular detection of such foodborne pathogens as Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter jeuni and E. coli O157:H7 by PCR and Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis in the Food Science and Poultry Science Departments at the University of Arkansas. She has extensive experience in both cloning and sequencing of DNA coding for specific genes in these microorganisms and has widely published in these areas.

Dr. Winters graduated magna cum laude with a J. D. from the University of Arkansas where she was on the Arkansas Law Review. She began her career in Intellectual Property law while working at Blakely, Sokoloff, Taylor & Zafman in Denver, CO. Her legal practice has also involved bankruptcy and corporate law both in private practice and in corporate settings. She is licensed to practice in both state and federal courts. She manages the intellectual property for Virtual Incubation as well as handling other legal matters. Dr. Winters is admitted to practice before the Arkansas State courts, the Western and Eastern Districts of Arkansas, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.