Meet the
Tech Team.
Anna Bier – 734-223-1090 – biera@gvsu.edu
SBIR/STTR, Federal Grants & Contracts
Anna Bier brings extensive experience with federal grants and contracts to the MI-SBDC as well as engineering research and development and other various aspects of creating and running many divisions of a high-tech business enterprise.
Before joining the MI-SBDC, Anna spent seven years as the Vice President/Chief Financial Officer/Scientist of her co-owned, small, high-tech business in Virginia with approximately 30 employees and seven consultants. As such, she has researched, written, negotiated and managed over 30 Phase I and Phase II SBIR and STTR contracts/grants for several U.S. Government agencies including the DoE, DoT, NSF, NIH, NRC, EPA, USDA, DoD, and NIST. Before the company was sold, three products were moved successfully into Phase III commercialization. Additionally, she has written, presented and published several papers at various conferences relating to her engineering and scientific research and served as a technology and commercialization advisor for the NSF, DoE, and NIH proposal programs.
Anna received a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Virginia Tech in 2002. She also received a Master of Science in Physics from Texas A&M University in 1995 and a Bachelor of Science in Physics (with minors in Mathematics, Chemistry and Russian History) from Virginia Tech in 1993.
Arcadio (Kayo) Ramirez – 734-644-2389 – ramirear@gvsu.edu
Clean Tech, Corporate Formation & Licensing, Early-Stage Financing, M&A, Pitchbook, Patent Landscaping, Roadmapping
Throughout his more than 20-year professional career, Arcadio Ramirez has been extensively involved with early stage companies. As an attorney with Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosti, he advised startup companies with financing, commercial, corporate governance and intellectual property issues. In financings alone, he directed projects exceeding $15M.
From the practice of law, Arcadio transitioned into entrepreneurial ventures, organizing, securing financing, operating and selling two companies, including one of the first venture-funded transaction-based Internet sites, Do It Sports. Arcadio has also served on the management team and acted as a business consultant to numerous early-stage companies.
In addition, Arcadio has been engaged as a management consultant by a number of Fortune 50 companies, including AT&T, Intel and Ford Motor Company. Engagements included new product development strategy, customer segmentation and restructuring, financial process re-engineering and private marketplace strategy projects. These projects saved/earned clients millions of dollars.
Arcadio received his business education at the University of Michigan Business School. He earned his Juris Doctorate from Stanford Law School and his B.A. with highest honors from the University of Michigan. Arcadio resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has two children and is an internationally competitive triathlete.
Scott Taylor – 586-337-9300 – taylorsc@gvsu.edu
Product Development and Strategies
Scott offers an in-the-trenches business, technical, and entrepreneurial background. Prior to joining the SBDC Technology Team, as one of two founders of Soloshot Inc, he served as president while the company scaled from an idea conceived on the beach, to a global brand with three product line generations, worldwide distribution, in-house production, in-house sales/marketing/R&D teams, and multiple issued patents. Scott holds a Master’s degree in chemical engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in naval architecture and marine engineering, both from the University of Michigan. Scott and his family reside in the greater Ann Arbor area.
Alain Piette – 248-931-3886 – piettea@gvsu.edu
Defense, Agriculture & Aerospace
Alain brings extensive experience in organizational development, manufacturing, R&D, market development, technology transfer and international expansion to the team.
He most recently served as president of an advanced manufacturing company, which was a technology spinout from a large automotive supplier. His activities included marketing and commercialization and leading the advanced R&D activities. The company focused its efforts in the aerospace, military and transportation industries.
Alain has also worked in Europe, Southern Africa, and Central and South America for international corporations such as DuPont, Sherwin Williams and Kongsberg Automotive. He has been involved with turn-around, startup and M&A activities.
Alain holds a B.S.B.A. and M.B.A. from Wayne State University.
Bob Honeyman – 305-240-1694 – honeymro@gvsu.edu
Financial Modeling (Technology Agnostic)
Robert Honeyman has spent the past several years working as CFO for several start up entities, including Wave Aircraft Corporation, and Advanced Predictive Analytics, Inc. He has provided consulting advice, including financial modeling and business plan writing, for various individuals considering launching new businesses.
From 1999 to 2010, Mr. Honeyman was Corporate Controller and then CFO for DataCore Software Corporation, a $30 million software developer located in Fort Lauderdale, FL. As Corporate Controller, he created the legal structure for DataCore¹s international presence, opening subsidiaries in Europe, Asia, and North America. As Vice President Finance, Mr. Honeyman negotiated receivables-based loan agreements that helped the company bridge and survive the tech crash of 2000-2003. As CFO, Mr. Honeyman was a member of the executive management with Board level responsibilities.
Mr. Honeyman earned both a bachelor degree, with a concentration in Economics, and an MBA in Finance from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI.
Melanie de Vries – 734-945-3664 – devrmela@gvsu.edu
Education, Professional services, Marketing as a Business, Social Media, Complex B2B process
The Michigan SBDC Tech Team is proud to have Melanie de Vries as one of our Technology Business Consultants. Melanie has over 20 years’ experience in driving growth strategy for early stage software, education technology, professional services, non-profit, alternative energy, manufacturing, and health services organizations. She has a history of success in developing marketing and sales programs that build and improve on the profitability of companies.
Her recent experience includes serving as CEO and Co-Founder of PaymentScholar (an edtech start-up). She has worked in the entrepreneurial ecosystem as an independent consultant advising start-up organizations on strategic planning, market positioning, market analysis, brand development, and customer discovery. She has also served as the senior marketing officer for Deloitte & Touche/Deloitte Consulting, The Learning Care Group and ForeSee Results. In these roles, she oversaw the execution of business and marketing strategies to drive growth and increase market share.
Melanie is a graduate of The University of Michigan.
Clay Phillips – 248-688-7714 – phillcla@gvsu.edu
Advanced Mobility
Clay Phillips is the Mobility Lead for the SBDC. He has deep practical experience in open innovation, intelligence, business development, strategy, and alliance management. From 2014 – 2018 he was an independent innovation and growth strategy advisor for startups, large companies and non-profits. He has served as adjunct instructor for the NSF Innovation Corps program and mentor for Detroit Techstars and GAMIC programs with a focus on transportation, advanced mobility and energy.
Prior to 2014 he was an executive at General Motors R&D where he held leadership positions in corporate and advanced technology strategy, alliance management, and innovation commercialization. He was a founding member and VP of GM’s corporate venture capital arm, GM Ventures, and led commercialization due diligence for the R&D Center’s open innovation and internal startup program. Earlier in his career he managed international product and portfolio planning and new business development initiatives.
Clay holds a BA from Trinity College and an MBA from Columbia University. In between degrees he served as an intelligence officer with the U.S. Navy for six years. For fun, he is an amateur musician and composer, and enjoys sailing on big water whenever possible.
Nancy Gilby – 650-539-8376 – nabgilby@gmail.com
Information Systems
Nancy brings over 30+ years of software startup experience to her advisory role. She previously founded and/or led products for 14 successful startups with 8 exits so far using a unique integrated approach to company and market development, including raising 13 rounds of venture funding. Nancy led Asurion Mobile Applications as VP of Engineering, serving 100+ million users of her team’s mobile data cloud services. By the time she left, she led the team that supported Asurion mobile apps on every US carrier, every phone. Nancy’s product development methodology has generated three case studies at the Harvard Business School. Her leadership in product strategy and development contributed to Firefly, the first online web community site, a spin-out of the MIT Media Laboratory, purchased by Microsoft; Wildfire, the first voice-based personal, mobile, voice-based assistant, purchased by Orange; Component Software, as co-founder, was folded into Sun to become what is Java today; and On Technology, developers of the first group scheduling application, Meeting Maker as well as a successful public company, later purchased by Symantec. Nancy holds an M.S.E. and a B.S.E. Magna Cum Laude in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Shruti Bagla – 313-320-5656 – sbagla@bioansh.com
Life Sciences
Dr. Bagla earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Genetics studying the genetic, anatomic, and electrical mechanisms underlying epilepsy in surgically resected human brain tissue. She was at Children’s Hospital of Michigan – Hematology/Oncology focusing on functional genomic studies to characterize rare pediatric hematological disorders. She was also a Principal Investigator on an independent grant. As Director of Product Development and later Vice President of Commercial Operations at RapidBio, she demonstrated executive-level leadership in all aspects of establishing and growing a high-complexity CLIA lab, including: developing commercial strategies for business growth, building strategic business partnerships; establishing lab portals; developing new clinical tests; establishing protocol and scaling lab processes; implementing efficient resulting and billing processes; and evaluation of process/technology trade-offs to achieve high profitability and customer satisfaction.
She currently mentors life science startups from concept to commercialization of their novel technologies, helping them with business models, securing start-up funding, and building management teams.
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