Thomas J. Farrell
Entrepreneur in Residence

Mr. Farrell joined PTV Sciences in late 2005 with a successful entrepreneurial and operational track record in the life science and engineering industries. In addition to his role at PTV, he is currently CEO of Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, a Houston-based cancer vaccine company with a lead product, BPX-101, in Phase I/II clinical trials. In 1998, he founded Cylene Pharmaceuticals Inc. (originally Cyternex, Inc.) in Austin, serving as President & CEO until 2003, and COO & CFO until 2005. During his tenure, Cylene raised $33 million in venture capital financing, and successfully discovered and advanced a first-in-class anticancer agent, CX-3543, into clinical trials. The company has since raised an additional $44 million in a Series C financing. Prior to founding Cylene, Mr. Farrell implemented and supported a variety of pioneering business incubation programs at the IC2 Institute in Austin, Texas, designed to foster high tech and life science start-up company formation around federal labs and research universities. Previously, Mr. Farrell worked in Europe and the United States as an engineer for Houston-based Cooper Cameron, a multinational oilfield engineering firm, where he designed and developed a number of products and systems that are marketed worldwide. Mr. Farrell earned his B.A. in engineering from the University of Cambridge in 1984, becoming a Chartered Engineer in 1987, and he graduated from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in the top 10% of the M.B.A. class of 1993.

Dennis L. McWilliams, M.S.E.M.
Entrepreneur in Residence

CEO, Apollo Endosurgery, Inc.

Mr. McWilliams is currently the CEO of Apollo Endosurgery, Inc., a company he founded with PTV Sciences II. Apollo develops medical devices for natural orifice surgical procedures. Prior to PTV Sciences and Apollo, Mr. McWilliams was a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Chrysalis BioTechnology, which developed synthetic proteins for bone and dermal repair. Chrysalis was acquired in 2004 by OrthoLogic Corporation, at which point Mr. McWilliams joined PTV Sciences as Entrepreneur in Residence. Mr. McWilliams also worked at George Kozmetzky’s IC2 Institute (Austin, Texas), a technology “Think Tank” developing technology commercialization strategies for a variety of public and private entities, including University of Texas Medical Branch, NASA, and CIA labs. He received a Bachelor of Science with honors from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from Stanford University. Mr. McWilliams was recently named an Outstanding Young Texas Ex, an honor given annually to four graduates of the University of Texas.