Rob Carlson (Managing Director | Seattle): Entrepreneur, author, scientist. Namesake of “Carlson Curves”, which describe the pace of improvement of biological technologies (Life 2.0, The Economist, 31 Aug, 2006), and originator of the first estimates of global biotech revenues. Carlson is the author of the book Biology is Technology: The Promise, Peril, and New Business of Engineering Life, published in 2010 by Harvard University Press; it received the PROSE award for the Best Engineering and Technology Book of 2010 and was named to the Best Books of 2010 lists by writers at both The Economist and Foreign Policy. Carlson is an Affiliate Professor in the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington and earned a doctorate in Physics from Princeton University in 1997. Additional writing and a blog can be found at www.synthesis.cc. 

Rik Wehbring (Managing Director |  San Francisco): Entrepreneur, systems engineer, multiple start-up founder.  Wehbring has an extensive technical and operational background developed over 20 years of working in Silicon Valley. He has been a founder multiple times including as co-founder of one of the first “garage biology” start-ups. With Dr. Carlson, he has run the strategic consulting firm Biodesic for 12 years, which provides guidance to governments and corporations about the impact of biology on the future. Wehbring earned an MEng in Electrical Engineering, as well as a BA in Physics with Distinction, from Cornell University.