Board of Directors

C. Lee Jones

C. Lee Jones is Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer of Essential Group, Inc. located in the Chicago metropolitan area. Lee has extensive experience in the diverse fields of pharmaceutical clinical research and development, information technology, healthcare/medicine, and business management. Lee holds a BS in Physiology and an MBA.

Before joining Essential Group in 2000, Lee spent 23 years in the pharmaceutical industry with his last role as Divisional VP of Information Management and Technology for the global Pharmaceutical Product business for Abbott Laboratories. He has also held positions as Executive Director, Clinical Services, Pharmaceutical Development. Before joining Abbott, Lee spent thirteen years with The Upjohn Company, with his last role being Associate Director of Clinical Research.

Dennis N. Cavender

Dennis Cavender comes to Essential with over 30 years of broad experience in financial and operating positions. Mr. Cavender is also a partner with Tatum CFO Partners with expertise in SEC reporting, Wall Street, international finance and operations, Internet electronic commerce, management reporting, treasury, risk management and merger and acquisition activity. He has an extensive background with service, manufacturing and distribution companies, in pharmaceutical, medical device, computer, telecommunications, and biotechnology companies.

Mr. Cavender holds a Master's in Business Administration in International Business from the University of Santa Clara, and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Northern Colorado. Prior to Tatum, he served as Vice President, M&A Integration of Interland Corporation, the largest Web hosting services company in North America targeting small and medium size businesses. In addition, he has held executive positions at CyberCash, Inc., an Internet payment services company, Promega Corporation, a privately held biotechnology company, Amdahl Corporation, a Fortune 500 computer manufacturing company, and Syntex Corporation, a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical multinational company.

Mr. Cavender is a member of the Board of Directors for the Chicago Chapter of Financial Executives International (FEI) and is an active member of the national Committee for Finance and Information Technology for FEI.

Joan Neuscheler

Ms. Neuscheler has served as a director since August 2000, and also serves as a member of the Audit Committee and Compensation Committee.

Currently, Ms. Neuscheler is president of Tullis-Dickerson & Co., Inc., a venture capital firm, and was Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer from 1989 to 2000. In addition, she serves as a director of several public and private companies.

Bruce "Toby" Wesson

Mr. Wesson joined Galen in 1991 after more than 23 years with Smith Barney, for whom he served as a Senior Vice President and Managing Director in the Corporate Finance Division.

In addition to directing Smith Barney’s Major Account Group and becoming Senior Managing Director overseeing the East Coast region, Mr. Wesson was Chairman of the Valuation and Opinion Committee for Corporate Finance—making him ultimately responsible for all of the valuation and opinions given by the firm.

Mr. Wesson currently serves on the boards of Chemtura Corporation, Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Derma Sciences, Inc., QMed, Inc. (as Chairman of the Board), Overlook Hospital Foundation (as Chairman of the Board) and several of Galen´s privately held companies. He is also a Trustee of Colgate University, and was President of Colgate´s Alumni Corporation Board of Directors from 1997-1999.

Sam B. Nickerson

Sam Nickerson joined Tullis-Dickerson as an Associate in 2003 and was promoted to Vice President in 2006. His prior experience in the venture capital industry includes positions at S.R. One and ARCH Development Partners.

Mr. Nickerson began his career as a securities analyst at Bramwell Capital Management, where he specialized in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. He later started an independent consulting practice, in which he helped emerging medical technology companies secure private financing and strategic investment. Mr. Nickerson also held management positions in finance and marketing at Bioject Medical Technologies.

Mr. Nickerson received an MBA from The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, where he was a Neubauer Scholar. He also holds a BA in biochemistry and molecular biology from Reed College.