Mark McGowan became our interim President and Chief Executive Officer on July 1, 2010, and resigned in August 2010 due to the hiring of R. Judd Jessup as our permanent President and CEO. Mr. McGowan was elected Chairman of the Board effective June 1, 2010, having served as a Director since January 2010. Mr. McGowan is the managing member of SAF Capital Management LLC, a value-oriented investment firm which he founded in November, 2006. Prior to forming SAF Capital Management LLC, Mr. McGowan was Co-founder and Managing Partner of MPG Capital Management LLC, an equity market research firm which derived and licensed statistically validated algorithmic trading models and investment strategies for wealthy individuals and institutional investors. Mr. McGowan previously worked within the Consumer and Market Knowledge function of Procter & Gamble, where he was instrumental in shaping marketing strategies for multiple brands, as well as leading Market Mix Modeling and the development of macroeconomic forecasting capabilities within Procter & Gamble's Homecare division. Mr. McGowan performed two cooperative assignments with Johnson & Johnson; working within global operations for Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon Endo Surgery and in domestic operations for Johnson & Johnson's Consumer Products headquarters. Mr. McGowan received his Bachelor of Science in Microbiology, with a focus in Genomics and Molecular Genetics, from Michigan State University.

John H. Abeles, M.D. has served on our Board since December 2006. Dr. Abeles is the President and founder of MedVest, Inc., which has provided consulting services to health care and high technology companies since 1980. Since 1998, he has served as the Chairman of UniMedica Inc., a web-enabled medical school education consulting and publishing firm, and as Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the International University of Health Sciences. He has served as a Director of Higuchi Bio-Science Institute, University of Kansas since 1997, and as a Director of the College of Chemistry Advisory Board at the University of California at Berkeley since 2001. Since 1992, Dr. Abeles also has been the general partner of Northlea Partners, Ltd., an investment and venture capital firm. Dr. Abeles is a member of the Boards of Directors of Cytocore, Inc., DUSA Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Encore Medical Corporation, I-Flow Corporation, Molecular Diagnostics Inc. and Oryx Technology, Inc. Dr. Abeles received his Medical degree as well as a degree in Pharmacology from the University of Birmingham, England. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, London.

F. Rigdon Currie has served on our Board since December 2006. Since July 1998, Mr. Currie has been an independent venture capital consultant. From February 1993 to July 1998, Mr. Currie was a partner of MK Global Ventures, a venture capital firm. Mr. Currie received a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Martin R. Felsenthal was appointed to our Board in April 2011. Mr. Felsenthal has been a Partner of HLM Venture Partners, a venture capital firm since 2007. Mr. Felsenthal was previously a General Partner of Salix Ventures, a venture capital firm, where he focused on investments in health care services and health care information technology. He joined Salix Ventures in 1997. Mr. Felsenthal served on the boards of Vantage Oncology, US Renal Care, Vericare, AccentCare, Titan Health and Payerpath. He is currently a director of Aperio Technologies, TelaDoc and Vericare Management. Mr. Felsenthal also serves on the Board of the Northern California Chapter of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. He received a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Gottlieb was appointed to our board of directors in January 2009. He is a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Deputy Commissioner and a leading expert in healthcare policy whose work focuses on providing insights into the economic, regulatory, and technological forces driving the transformation of medicine. Dr. Gottlieb is currently a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a private, nonpartisan, not-for-profit institution dedicated to research and education on issues of government, politics, economics and social welfare. He also practices medicine as an attending physician in Connecticut. Dr. Gottlieb has received numerous awards and is the author of more than 300 articles that have appeared in leading medical journals and publications including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. In addition, he has held editorial positions at the British Medical Journal and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Gottlieb also regularly appears as an expert commentator on CNBC, Fox News, Bloomberg Television, and other business and news channels. Dr. Gottlieb is a partner at Arcoda Capital Management and a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and is a graduate of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and of Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

Judd Jessup has over 35 years of experience in the healthcare and managed care industries. Most recently he was Chief Executive Officer of US LABS, a national laboratory which provides cancer diagnostic and genetic testing services, from 2002 to 2005. He has extensive background in the managed care industry having served as President of the Health Plans Division for FHP International from 1994 to 1996 as well as the President of TakeCare, Inc., a publicly traded HMO operating in California, Colorado, Illinois and Ohio until it was sold to FHP. He is a successful entrepreneur with the ability to execute strategic plans to achieve the optimum level of performance for stakeholders. He has repeatedly built effective management teams utilizing his effective leadership and management style. Mr. Jessup currently serves on the Board of Directors of Corvel Corporation and NovaMed, Inc, both publicly traded companies.

Amit Kumar, Ph.D. served as our President and Chief Executive Officer from September 2001 through June 2010, has served as a Director on our Board of Directors continuously since September 2000, and continues to do so. Dr. Kumar was on our Board from September 2000 through August 2001, and became a Director again on July 1, 2010. Prior to September 2001, Dr. Kumar served as Vice President of Life Sciences of Acacia Research Corporation ("Acacia"). From January 1999 to February 2000, Dr. Kumar was the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of Signature BioSciences, Inc., a life science company developing technology for advanced research in genomics, proteomics and drug discovery. From January 1998 to December 1999, Dr. Kumar was an Entrepreneur in Residence with Oak Investment Partners, a venture capital firm. Prior to that time, Dr. Kumar worked as Senior Manager at Idexx Laboratories, Inc., a biotechnology company, and as Head of Research and Development for Idetek Corporation, which was later acquired by Idexx Laboratories, Inc. Dr. Kumar serves on the boards of directors of Aeolus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. and Tacere Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Kumar has extensive education, knowledge and experience with technology and in developing technology-based enterprises in the biotechnology sector, and we believe that this knowledge and experience is a benefit to our Board. Dr. Kumar also has experience in venture capital and has a broad knowledge of the industry segments that are relevant to CombiMatrix's current and future business opportunities. Dr. Kumar received a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Occidental College. After joint studies at Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology ("Caltech"), he received his Ph.D. from Caltech and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University.