Management, Directors & Advisors

Mr. Ted Danse President and CEO
Weng Tao, M.D., Ph.D. Chief Scientific Officer Vice President, Research & Development, USA	Mr. Rich Small Vice President and CFO

Neurotech Group Photo

Ted Danse, President and CEO

Mr. Danse was named President and CEO of Neurotech in 2005. He has close to 30 years of life science industry experience, with over 20 in the ophthalmic industry. Previously he was President and CEO of the US ophthalmic pharmaceutical company ISTA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ISTA) and was responsible for taking the company public in 2000. He has also served as a Director on the boards of several development-stage ophthalmic companies, including Quest Vision Technologies, Inc. that was sold to Advanced Medical Optics in May 2005. Mr. Danse previously held various senior positions in Allergen where he was responsible for establishing a high-growth, profitable business operation in Japan and Asia, and for several successful corporate aquisitions. His early career was spent in business development roles at Coopervision, Bausch & Lomb and Schering-Plough. He then went on to hold various senior positions in Allergan. He holds a BA degree from the University of the Pacific, California, USA and an MBA from Thunderbird, The Garvin Graduate School of International Management, Arizona, USA.

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Weng Tao, M.D., PhD, CSO & VP Research & Development, USA

Dr. Tao has over 18 years of experience in research and development including 16 years with pharmaceutical and biotech industries. For the past 9 years, her efforts have been focused on the development of Encapsulated Cell Technology (ECT). Dr. Tao is one of the key founders for Neurotech USA and leads the effort in preclinical and clinical development of ECT-CNTF. Prior to joining Neurotech USA in 2000, Dr. Tao was Director of Cell Research and the Team Leader responsible for the development of ECT using genetically modified cells at CytoTherapeutics, Inc. Dr. Tao held various managerial and research positions in the area of immunological diseases, including inflammation, infectious diseases (vaccine) and cancer at American Cyanamid, M6 Pharmaceuticals and Regeneron. Dr. Tao received her M.D. from the Capital Institute of Medicine in Beijing, was awarded her Ph.D. degree in cell physiology and biophysics from the University of Connecticut Health Center at Farmington, and received her post-doctoral training at Yale Medical School.

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Richard Small, Vice President and CFO

Mr. Small joined Neurotech as Vice President and CFO in August, 2007. Rich brings to Neurotech greater than 15 years of both private and public life sciences experience and 30 years of overall financial and operational management. Previously he served as SVP and CFO of Point Therapeutics, a publicly-traded biotechnology company, where he was involved in raising in excess of $100 million. Prior to that he served as VP, CFO at Immulogic Pharmaceutical, Inc., where he was involved in multiple licensing deals and several public offerings. His early career was spent in senior management positions at Dennison Manufacturing Company and he began his career at the public accounting firm of Coopers and Lybrand, LLC. Rich is a certified public accountant and has a B.S. in Accounting from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

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