Dean O. Morton

CEPHEID develops, manufactures and markets fully-integrated systems that perform genetic analysis. The firm's systems enable molecular testing for organisms and genetic-based diseases by automating otherwise complex manual laboratory procedures. The company was founded by Thomas L. Gutshall, William McMillan, Kurt Petersen, Greg Kovacs and M. Allen Northrup on March 4, 1996 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA.

Pharsight's products and services help drugmakers build and shape their pipelines and decrease time and money spent on development. Using computer simulation, statistics, and data analysis along with pharmacology, disease and drug modeling, genetics, and databases of biologic information, Pharsight helps clients determine drug-development targets.

Founded in 2000, KT Venture Group is a venture capital firm headquartered in Milpitas, California. The firm is affiliated with KLA-Tencor Corp. (NASDAQ: KLAC).

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute provides oceanographic research services. The private company is based in Moss Landing, CA.

BEA Systems, Inc. provides business software solutions. The firm provides transaction processing systems, telecommunication billing applications, and enterprise financial systems. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in San Jose, CA.

Centigram Communications Corp. designs and manufactures systems and software for users to access a broad range communications applications. The company is headquartered in San Jose, CA.

ALZA Corp. provides drug delivery solutions and develops pharmaceutical products. The company applies its delivery technologies to develop pharmaceutical products with enhanced therapeutic value for its own portfolio and for many of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. The company was founded by Martin Gerstel and Alejandro Zaffaroni in 1968 and is headquartered in Vacaville, CA.