Board of Directors
Dr. Ferenc Darvas – Founder & Chairman
Dr. Ferenc Darvas is one of the true pioneers in the process intensification involved in modern chemistry. Dr. Darvas conceived the first industrialized solution-phase combinatorial synthesis technology (CMT). This was realized by ComGenex, the first European combinatorial chemistry corporation in 1992. In the mid-90's he focused to high-throughput ADME methodologies in combinatorial design, introduced combinatorial methodologies into chemical genomics, and recently, the use micro- and mesoscale flow reaction technologies for combinatorial synthesis and lead optimization when, as inventor, initiated and co-developed H-Cube®, the first bench top hydrogenator at ThalesNano, Inc.
Dr. Darvas received his first degree in organic chemistry, another in computer science, and his PhD. in the use of artificial intelligence in drug design. Dr. Darvas is co-founder of the International Society for QSAR, the Society for Biomolecular Screening (SBS), the Hungarian Chapter of the American Chemical Society and the Hungarian Biotechnology Association. He was teaching in Budapest, Barcelona, Gainesville (Florida, USA), and still teaching as guest professor at UMIT in Hall/Innsbruck, Austria.
Dominic Gallello - Co-Chairman
In addition to his Board responsibilities, Mr. Gallello leads key aspects of the company’s operations including sales & marketing and the product realization process.
Mr. Gallello, was Chief Executive Officer of Graphisoft from 2003-2008. Under his leadership, he restored Graphisoft to a high growth & profit company with an ever expanding global footprint. This success culminated in the acquisition of all the shares of publically traded Graphisoft by Nemetschek AG in 2007.
Prior to Graphisoft, Gallello was responsible for all product development as EVP, Products at Macromedia. For 10 years at Autodesk, he was EVP of the high growth Asia/Pacific division and Mechanical Market Group and later, the $600M Design Solutions Division. Gallello also spent 11 years at Intergraph Corporation in various management roles including serving as President of Intergraph Japan. He holds a BA and MBA from Monmouth University.
Alex Drijver
Alex Drijver is the CEO of ChemAxon, a leader in providing chemical software development platforms for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Mr. Drijver was a founder and former CEO of ThalesNano. He had a number of operating roles at the company between 2002-2007. Drijver overseas all strategic financial matters for the company. Earlier he was Chief Financial Officer at ComGenex Inc. and Vice President of ABN AMRO Bank in London, and then Budapest. Before joining to ABN AMRO, Drijver worked in different financial and investment related positions in London for 10 years. He is the holder of the R&D 100's Award and the Hungarian Venture Capital Association’s SME of the Year Award.
Dr. László Ürge
Dr. Ürge was appointed as the CEO of ThalesNano in March 2007 and held this position until April 2012. From 2001 to 2006 Dr. Ürge was the CEO of ComGenex Inc, an integrated drug discovery service provider. In 2006 he was the Vice President of European Operations for AMRI Hungary. Earlier held the positions of Head of Pharmaceutical development at Biorex R&D Inc, an innovative biotechnology company. Prior to that he was a research group leader at Neurex Corporation (CA, USA) later acquired by Elan Pharmaceuticals. He did his postdoc at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. He is a Vice President of the Hungarian Association for Innovation and a Member of the Board of the Hungarian Biotechnology Association. Dr. Ürge is author of 90 publications and patents and a holder of two R&D awards.
Margit D. Vargáné
Margit D. Vargáné is a member of the Board of Directors both at ThalesNano and at ComInnex Technology Holding, which is a management service supporting arm for a small group of high tech ventures in Hungary. Previously she was on the Board of ComGenex, and also held the position of Director of HR from 2000 till 2006 during a period of rapid growth. She is a founder and Board Member of Aromax Inc, a natural healthcare company, producing and distributing high quality aromatic oils, a market leader in Hungary. She also acted as a Chief Executive Officer between 1992-1993, and most recently from 2007 to 2008. Vargáné graduated from University of Pécs faculty of Human Resources.
Board Advisors
Governor George E. Pataki joined the ThalesNano Advisory Board in September, 2009. Governor Pataki was a partner in the New York law firm of Plunkett & Jaffe until 1987. He was elected mayor of Peekskill, New York in 1981, and served in the New York State Legislature as an assemblyman and then a senator from 1985 to 1994. In 1994, he became the fifty-third Governor of the State of New York and was reelected in 1998 and 2002. He served as Governor from January 1, 1995 until January 1, 2007. Governor Pataki led the establishment of the first mandatory cap and trade carbon initiative (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative) which now includes ten Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States. The Governor implemented the first integrated strategy for creating clean, renewable transportation networks utilizing alternative fuels. In addition, Governor Pataki worked to create public private partnerships for clean energy generation in New York State resulting in one of the largest industrial solar power arrays in the U.S., two cellulosic ethanol pilot production facilities and one of the largest wind-power arrays in the Eastern U.S. He introduced metering to encourage alternative energy production in homes and established the nation’s first business park devoted to the development of clean energy technologies.
Governor Pataki joined the law firm of Chadbourne and Parke, LLP in 2007 as Counsel, focusing on environmental, energy and infrastructure practice areas. The Governor is also founder and Chairman of Pataki-Cahill Group, a consulting firm concentrating on climate change, energy and the environment. Since joining Chadbourne and Parke, Pataki served as Co-Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations Independent Task Force on Climate Change and as the Unites States Public Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. Governor Pataki holds a Bachelor’s degree from Yale University (1967) and a Law degree from Columbia Law School (1970).
Dr. David Tapolczay
Dr. David Tapolczay has 21 years experience of R&D management; his past roles include joint worldwide head of chemistry for Zeneca agrochemicals and senior manager of chemical development for Glaxo. He was responsible for the rapid growth of Cambridge Discovery Chemistry and was a key figure in two successful sales of the company initially to Oxford Molecular and then Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Post this last acquisition, Tapolczay was VP of Pharmaceutical Sciences with responsibility for over 230 scientists. On leaving Millennium, Tapolczay was a founder of Pharmorphix Ltd., which was acquired by Sigma Aldrich Fine Chemicals in August 2006. He has also been involved with the start up of 5 companies, all of which are still trading and one of which has been AIM listed. He was most recently VP of Technology Development for GSK pharmaceuticals and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Medical Research Council Technology Group (MRCT).
Tapolczay has an international reputation in the pharmaceutical chemical development as well as an outstanding academic track record with a considerable number of patents and publications. He was a visiting Professor at Sussex University and has previously held the position of visiting lecturer at Nottingham, Reading and Durham Universities and a member of both the Technical Opportunities Panel and the User Panel of the EPSRC.
Gergely Darvas
Gergely Darvas is a founder of ThalesNano and served as COO from 2004 until 2009. He was a Member of the Board at ComGenex Inc. between 2000 and 2006. Earlier he worked at CompuDrug International as the Director of Marketing. He led the Hungarian American Chamber of Commerce in Budapest for two years until 2000. He is a founder and Vice President of the Hungarian Spin-Off Association, holder of the R&D 100's Award and the Hungarian Venture Capital Association’s SME of the Year Award.