Board of Directors
Dick Allen, Lecturer in Strategic Management – Stanford Graduate School of Business
Dick Allen has over 38 years experience in the health care industry, both as an operating executive and as a seed capital investor/board member. He started his career at Baxter Healthcare, holding domestic and international management positions in both finance and operations during his 10 year stint there.
After leaving Baxter, Dick cofounded Caremark, the venture capital-backed pioneer of IV infusion therapy delivered in the home. He headed the finance, operations, and administration functions of the company at various times in its period of rapid growth and was instrumental in helping to lead a successful IPO just three years after the company’s founding.
Since Caremark’s sale to Baxter in 1987, Dick has been President of DIMA Ventures, a privately-held firm that provides seed capital and board support for start-up companies in the medical device and health care IT markets. In this capacity, he has been a founder, board member, or early-stage private investor in more than a dozen companies. He co-founded Pyxis Corporation, a manufacturer and marketer of hospital-based automated prescription drug storage and dispensing devices, and he served on the executive committee of the Board of Directors until the sale of the company for almost $1 billion to Cardinal Health in 1996.
Dick held the position of Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1989 to 1993. He returned to Stanford in 2004 where he is presently teaching a course entitled “Managing Growing Enterprises”. Dick is the immediate past Chairman of the Board of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, and he continues to serve as a board member for the hospital. He is also a past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Orange County Business Council and a past recipient of the Director of the Year award from the Orange County Forum for Corporate Directors.
He is on the Board of Directors of the Orange County Community Foundation, the M.I.N.D. Institute, and several privately held health care companies. Dick received his BS degree (cum laude) from Yale University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Michael de Anda, de Anda Capital, LLC
Michael de Anda has been investing in privately held companies since 1993 and has over ten years of experience in the private and public equity markets. He serves on the Board of Directors of Pricing Dynamics and Circle of Friends. Previously, he was an Advisor to Ecoupons and sat on the Board of NetHandicap and Federal Research prior to their sales. Michael was a General Partner of Eureka Capital, a small cap focused hedge fund. He earned his C.P.A. in Illinois in addition to an M.B.A from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and a Bachelors degree in Accounting from DePaul.
Tony F. DiStefano, Enterprise for High School Students
Mr. DiStefano has 25 years of leadership experience in the telecommunications and energy industries. He has been a successful CEO for much of the past seventeen years- both as the leader of subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies as the CEO of a venture-backed business.
As the Chairman and CEO of Arrival Communications from 2000 through early 2007, he led the company through several rounds of equity financing, the build out of its next-generation packet network and its profitable expansion throughout central California. The company, which provided business customers with voice and data services, attracted substantial interest from strategic investors and was sold in the first quarter of 2007.
Prior to joining Arrival, Mr. DiStefano was chairman and CEO of PG&E Enterprises, CEO of PacTel Cable, and CEO of Pacific Telesis UK Ltd. At both PacTel/AirTouch and PG&ECorporation Mr. DiStefano was responsible for a number of acquisitions, divestitures, start-ups and joint ventures.
Mr. DiStefano led PacTel/AirTouch's successful joint venture bid (along with Mannessman A.G.) for the first competitively-awarded national German cellular license. He also founded, built and sold Pacific Telesis UK Ltd., a major fiber-coax provider of telecommunications services with franchise territories covering over one million households throughout England. Mr. DiStefano was also responsible for corporate development activities at both PacTel/AirTouch and PG&E Corporation. Prior to joining Pacific Telesis he was a management consultant at Bain and Company.
Mr. DiStefano received bachelors (cum laude) and masters degrees in electrical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. He holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.
Mr. DiStefano is currently the Executive Director of Enterprise for High School Students. He is a past member of the boards of CALTEL and COMPTEL and is a past governor and compensation committee chairman of the Pacific Stock Exchange. He is also a past Executive Committee member of the World Affairs Council of Northern California.
Michael O’Connell, M20 Investments, LLC
Michael O’Connell is currently the Managing Director at M2O Investments - a family investment fund. He was formerly the Managing Director and President of Anhalt, O'Connell & Steffanci, Inc., an investment management firm specializing in debt securities with $1 billion under management.
Previously, Michael owned and operated the National Lines Bureau, a ship mooring company for the Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors. He is currently an investor in over 20 private companies. Michael received his Bachelors, with high honors, from Harvard College, and his M.B.A from Harvard Business School.
