Team

Mark has over 24 years of leadership, management, strategic business development and operations experience, including 16 years experience in entrepreneurial services and technology development and delivery in the technology and life sciences industries. He has served as senior executive at two startup ventures based in the Bostonarea, and played a key role in the founding, development and strategic sale of one of these to a publicly-traded company. He currently serves on the board of two Provenance portfolio companies.

Mark’s life sciences knowledge and experience spans the product discovery, development, commercial launch, and post-approval manufacturing phases for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, withemphasis on corresponding regulatory requirements. He is particularly noted for his expertise with respect to the implementation, quality assurance, and compliance of automated systems used for regulated applications.

Mark received a B.S.E. in Naval architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan, a Masters in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, and was certified Chief Engineer of Navy Nuclear Propulsion Plants while serving as a U.S. Navy Nuclear Submarine Officer.

Robert A. Balke (Bob) has nearly 25 years of experience in leading businesses that grow via innovation, new manufacturing processes, technology development, acquisition, venturing, and marketing. Thus far Bob has been associated with launching 50+ new businesses, 100’s of new products which produced over $1B in new revenue. His deepest experiences have been in a variety of materials and their uses. He has experience in markets which span from durables to consumables and services.

Bob initially started with a start-up venture group which brought three firms to capital funding and commercialization. Through the 1980’s and 1990’s he worked for 3 Fortune 100 companies including 12 years with The General Electric Company. He served at an executive level as the functional leader in manufacturing, finance, technology, sales and marketing. He has also led businesses with annual sales revenue ranging from $10MM to $2B. From 2000 to 2005 he was a top EVP at Smurfit-Stone and Eastman Chemical Co. Bob earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a Master of Business Administration degree with an emphasis on international high-tech management from Northeastern University in Boston.

From 2002 until joining Forge, David O’Dowd was Managing Director of DGO Consulting, providing strategic technology commercialization services to early stage healthcare companies. From 2001 to 2002 he was Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at PrivaSource, Inc, which was focused on healthcare data aggregation and de-identification. From 1997 to 2001 he was Director of Development and Director of Marketing at Genomics Collaborative, a genomics start-up that built a repository of 100,000 DNA and tissue samples and detailed medical information from people around the world with common diseases. From 1992 until 1997, he was Manager at Health Advances, a healthcare-focused strategy consulting firm. From 1990 until 1992, he was a Research Associate at Mercer Management consulting. David holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester and an S.M. in Technology and Policy from MIT.

To fulfill the “human capital” requirements for Forge engagements, we supplement our internal staff with our growing network of experienced, team-oriented individuals with one or more demonstrated core competences covering a range of relevant scientific, technical and commercial disciplines. Depending on the blend and level of talent required, the financial capacity of the engagement sponsor and individual risk profiles, the requisite consulting “talent” will be retained on a fee-for-service, partially “at-risk”, or fully “at-risk” basis. Advantages to this approach include:

• Known and proven pool of talented resources
• Extended virtual staff affording greater breadth and depth of technical, operational, managerial and tactical/strategic business development expertise
• Ability to quickly respond to growing yet dynamic project demands
• Ability to engage senior level talent and/or academics that may not otherwise be accessible or affordable
• Provides network members the opportunity to benefit from active participation in a diverse array of engagements, without first having to commit to a full-time obligation
• For engagements involving established corporate entities, the company has the opportunity to engage the services of experienced executive level talent in an acting capacity until or unless a full-time commitment is justified
• The Forge Executive Talent Network is an attractive opportunity for qualified individuals to participate in the commercialization process for promising innovations, while being free and encouraged to entertain full-time opportunities within the corresponding entities should they be made available.