Board of Directors

Reo Carr
Editor in Chief
San Diego Business Journal
Corporate Vice President of Digital Media
California Business Journals
A journalist for more than 25 years, Reo has focused his career on business reporting and editing. Currently as Editor-in-Chief of the San Diego Business Journal, Reo oversees overall news and production operations including all print and online news reporting. As Corporate Vice President of Digital Media, Reo leads the online and digital media efforts for all four California Business Journal (San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley Business Journals) publications including the development of new media and social media products.   

Reo is currently Co-Chair of San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders Civic Leadership Economic Development Program for the City of San Diego.  He serves on the board of the Flying Leathernecks Historical Foundation, the national 100th Anniversary of Naval Aviation Foundation and the Bank of America Local Market Selection Committee and is a judge for the annual Athena Awards recognizing outstanding women in technology in San Diego County. He also serves on several for-profit corporate boards including Kids Invent, Inc.

Reo has been active in the community, previously serving as Chairman of the Board of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center and Chairman of Fleet Week San Diego. He is also has served on the board of United Thru Reading, San Diego Fleet Week Foundation, the CONNECT Unmanned Systems Forum, The Red Bull Air Race Host Committee, and the board of advisors of the San Diego Air & Space Museum, The Ronald McDonald House, the Children’s Initiative and America's Promise and on the host committees for the Kyoto Laureates Symposium, the San Diego Symphony, the Mental Health Association, and the American Heart Association. He was the 2009 American Heart Association Volunteer of the Year (San Diego Chapter). 

Reo holds a bachelors and masters degree from San Jose State University. He completed additional post-graduate work in publishing and business at Stanford University and University of California, Berkley. He resides in San Diego.

Jan D’Alvise
 President and CEO
Jan is a seasoned life science executive with more than 30 years of experience in diagnostics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals and drug discovery research tools.  Prior to joining Pediatric Bioscience, Jan was the CEO of Gish Biomedical, a cardiopulmonary medical device company in Orange County that she turned around and then sold it to the Sorin Group.  Prior to Gish, Jan was the CEO of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, where she completed a successful acquisition by the Sanford-Burnham Institute in 2009. Prior to SKCC Jan was also the Co-Founder, President/CEO/Chairman of NuGEN, Inc, and the Co-Founder and Executive VP/COO of Metrika Inc.  Jan built both companies from technology concept through to successful regulatory approvals, product introduction and sustainable revenue growth.  She has raised more than $80M through Venture Capital, and has completed dozens of strategic deals to fund both companies. 

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Jan was a VP of Drug Development at Syntex/Roche and Business Unit Director of their Pain and Inflammation business.  She was VP of Commercial Operations at SYVA, (Syntex’s clinical diagnostics division), and began her career with Diagnostic Products Corporation (DPC), where over 10 years she held positions of increasing responsibility in marketing, business development, and global sales and distribution management, and was part of the senior team that took the company public. 

Jan has a B.S. in Biochemistry from Michigan Technological University, and a M.B.A. from University of Michigan.  She has completed post-graduate work at Stanford and Wharton Business Schools and has been a frequent guest lecturer at Stanford University on business planning and entrepreneurship.  Jan has been on the board of several private companies and non-profits, and is currently on the board of Precision Through Imaging (PTI, Inc.) a San Diego medical device company, and Tech Coast Angels where she is also the Chair of their BioMed Track Screening Committee.  Jan is an Entrepreneur in residence for the Springboard Entrepreneurship Program at San Diego CONNECT and a Member of Athena SD.

Matthew Friesen
Chief Operating Officer and co-Founder
Mr. Friesen is a principal and founder of the Hallmark Group, where he is responsible for capital programs and all company operations. Mr. Friesen has utilized his in-depth knowledge of public sector financing to facilitate and oversee the development of over $500 million of state funded projects in California. His combined knowledge of finance, programming and project management contributed to the turnaround and successful on-time opening of the 10th campus of the University of California system which was two years behind schedule when Hallmark Group was hired. Mr. Friesen is also the co-founder of Land Park Academy and Capitol Autism Services, site-based private schools and residential clinical care providers serving children with autism. Additionally Mr. Friesen is a founding board member of Hallmark Community Solutions, a non-profit development company specializing in the finance and construction of projects that serve people with special needs, including autism. Mr. Friesen is one of the first investors in Pediatric Bioscience, alongside Mr. Gardner.

Charles R. Gardner Jr.
Pediatric Bioscience Founder, Chairman and Investor
Principal: Hallmark Group, Advance Education Sacramento
Mr. Gardner is a principal and founder of the Hallmark Group. The Hallmark Group is a program management company that specializes in the management of highly complex and time critical capital improvement projects. The Hallmark Group was awarded the program management contract for the construction of the new $500 million University of California campus in Merced.

Mr. Gardner has also been very active and successful in the not-for-profit sector. Along with two partners, Mr. Gardner founded Land Park Academy in 2002. Land Park Academy is a private school for children with autism that is dedicated to the education and care of children ages 6 – 14. In 2003, Mr. Gardner founded Hallmark Community Services, a non-profit corporation to provide education, community services, and housing opportunities for people with developmental disabilities. Hallmark Community Services is currently contracted with the California Department of Developmental Services to provide $120 million in housing for people with developmental disabilities.

Mr. Gardner has been credited with being the visionary behind the establishment of the M.I.N.D. Institute, the world’s leading research institutes dedicated to autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. He has also served on the M.I.N.D. Board of Directors from 1998 until 2000. He continues to serve on the M.I.N.D. Research Committee.

Winnie H. Wan, PhD
Co-Founder, Chairman of Board and CEO of OncoHealth Corp
Dr. Wan has extensive experience in launching and building life science companies and has successfully commercialized disruptive technologies from inception. These technologies include the analytical systems for drug development at ForteBio, Inc., the anatomical pathology systems for cancer diagnosis at Becton Dickinson, the cell analysis systems at Guava Technologies, Inc., and the HIV drug testing model at SyStemix, Inc. Winnie held CEO or executive management positions at BEING Biopharma, Inc., ForteBio, Inc., GeneTrol BioTherapeutics, Becton Dickinson’s CIS Division, Systemix, etc. She currently serves on the board of Valley Medical Foundation and Pediatric Bioscience. She received her B.A. from Skidmore College; her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Yale University, and her M.B.A. from Columbia University and her post-doctoral training in cell biology at Rockefeller University.