Board of Directors
  Board of Advisors

  News and Press

Professor Ramaz Katsarava, PhD
Full Professor, Technical University of Georgia,
Faculty of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy
Tbilisi, Georgia

Dr. Katsarava is a full professor and head of the Center for Medical Polymers and Biomaterials of Technical University of Georgia teaching graduate and post-graduate courses in Chemistry, Technology and Biomedical Applications of polymers.

Ramaz is the founder of several new polycondensation methods of polymer synthesis that have been developing since 70s of the last century. He and his team pioneered the synthesis of several new families of highly biocompatible biodegradable non-conventional polymers composed of naturally occurring a-amino acids and other nontoxic building blocks like fatty dicarboxylic acids and diols. These polymers show a widest range of mechanical, physical-chemical and biochemical properties, and have a high potential for practical applications. Some of them are being applied in industry in the USA and Georgia. Ramaz is the Word recognized expert in the field of biomedical polymers, a member of several National and International professional organizations. He has more than 250 publications including papers in leading International journal, possesses various Georgian and US patents, 28 grants from National and International Science Foundations. In 2007 Ramaz was awarded the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Gold Medal as an Outstanding Inventor.

Dr. Guram Gvasalia, MD, PhD
Head Surgeon of the Ministry of Health, Tbilisi Medical University
Chief Surgeon at the Gori Military Hospital
Gori, Georgia

Dr. Gvasalia is Chief Surgeon at the military hospital located in Gori, Georgia. He also headed the military medical support during fighting in Abkhasia (where all soldiers were supplied with Piophage spray bottles); has worked extensively with phage for over 25 years and virtually always uses it as part of his surgical practice. Dr. Gvasalia is a partner participant in Betty Kutter's Phage Biotics Group, and organization that is documenting phage therapy treatment protocols.

As a Head Surgeon of the Ministry of Health he participated in organizing medical aids for the injured during all local military conflicts in the Republic. He is awarded the III Rate Vakhtang Gorgasali Decoration (1995). He is awarded Academician Grigol Mukhadze Medal and a Diploma for the merits in the development of native surgery. He is a consultant of 3 theses for a Doctor’s degree and has greatly contributed to health reforms in Georgia.

Dr. Gvasalia has published 130 scientific works on the urgent issues of gastric cavity surgery, emergency surgery, body trauma, military field surgery, surgical infection, small invasive surgery of suppurative inflammatory diseases. He has published a monograph “Urgent Issues of Contaminated Surgery” Tbilisi, 1985; a guide book “Diagnosis and Treatment Manipulations in Surgery”, Tbilisi, 1991; He is an author of the first Georgian methodological instructions in military field surgery “Fire shot damages of soft tissues”, Tbilisi, 1992. 

Dr. Dale A. Maharaj, MD, MBBS. FRCS. FICS. FICA. CWS
Lecturer in General Surgery and Honorary Consultant, University of the West Indies
Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies

Dr. Maharaj is one of the leading vascular surgeons in the Caribbean. He has published numerous papers on vascular surgery and is the principal investigator of the first phage clinical trial to be run in Trinidad at the Government run hospital.

Richard A. Sanford Ph.D. C.R.T.P.
Financial Reporting Manager
Management Consultant
San Francisco, CA

Originally from Arizona, Rick was on the front line of early PC-based accounting and financial software in San Francisco in the mid-1980’s, and became experienced in accounting system setup, conversions, and customization for rapidly changing or restructuring businesses. His work ranged from emerging companies such as Silent Records and Cairo Cinemafilms to conversions at larger employers such as the Kendall Jackson Wineries and Broken Hill Proprietary (Utah) Ltd.

In New York City in 1994, Rick joined up with the Delta Consulting Group (later Mercer-Delta), fueling that company's rapid growth and expansion to a West Coast office. He later ran the Americas operations for the BBC Music Magazine while employed by BBC Worldwide Americas, and spent time with assorted gazelle companies in the portfolios of GE Capital, Wicks Group, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson during the late 1990's. His projects also included merging non-profit companies such as the Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS), developing online retailers and marketing firms, investment partnerships, and larger financial institutions such as J.P. Morgan affiliate The Church Pension Fund, administering retirement benefits for the worldwide Episcopal Clergy.

Before leaving Manhattan, Rick had assumed the controller and treasury duties for the Dramatists Play Service, Inc., a 73-year-old midtown firm administering royalties for the American Theater. He returned to San Francisco in Fall 2003, applying his skills in the mergers&acquisitions world, and began rendering investment management and advice to individuals and small companies.

Rick has run accounting operations, accounting software conversions, and financial reporting for over 80 small companies, private companies, partnerships, and multinational corporations. His work has primarily centered in Media and Entertainment, Computer Peripherals and Software, Intellectual Property, Publishing, Consumer Products, Marketing and Advertising, Family Office, and Private Capital. He has taken his years of experience into working as an investment manager and serving as a director on selected corporate and institutional boards.