Grady S. Vanderhoofven

Mr. Vanderhoofven is the Executive Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors of Eclipse Management, LLC, the General Partner of Meritus Ventures, L.P. He is one of two Fund Managers for Meritus Ventures, which makes equity investments in rural central and southern Appalachia.

Mr. Vanderhoofven is also the Executive Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors of Southern Appalachian Management Company, LLC, the General Partner of the Southern Appalachian Fund, L.P.  He is the Assistant Manager of the Southern Appalachian Fund, which makes equity investments in low income areas in southern Appalachia. (http://www.southappfund.com/)

Mr. Vanderhoofven currently is a member of the Boards of Directors for Protein Discovery, Smart Furniture, Tricycle, and ThinOptX, and he is a former member of the Boards of Directors of Metatomix, Walden Technology Source, Tarallax Wireless, NuMarkets, and Eonstreams. Mr. Vanderhoofven is also a Board observer for SemiSouth Laboratories, Zipit Wireless, Inc., and Aldis Corporation.

Mr. Vanderhoofven previously worked for ten years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). While at ORNL, he worked as a materials engineer and in business development. As a commercialization manager, he led the group responsible for identification and commercialization of intellectual property developed in an R&D organization with an annual budget exceeding $300 million. While at ORNL, he negotiated more than 50 license agreements and more than 125 commercial research and development agreements with national and international companies ranging from new company start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations. Mr. Vanderhoofven led ORNL in the creation of twelve start-up companies founded to commercialize products/services based on technology developed at ORNL.

Mr. Vanderhoofven has both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Yale University and has completed an Executive Education Program in private equity and corporate governance at Harvard Business School.