School Founding Board

Arthur Buerk

Managing Director, Buerk Dale Victor

Artie Buerk has been providing strategic advice and capital to growth companies for over 30 years. Buerk is currently a founder and managing director at Buerk Dale Victor, a local private equity and venture capital firm, where he is instrumental in generating deal flow and providing active, hands-on portfolio company support.

Earlier in his career, Buerk served as President of Northwestern Trust from 1993-1995 and served as co-chairman from 1995-2001. Artie was President and board member for Shurgard Storage Centers from 1977-1992. He assisted with taking the company public in 1994. Buerk was founder and director of Intermation, a records storage management service. From 1968 to 1977, he served as Director of Development at the University of Washington.

Buerk has a BA in finance and banking from the University of Washington and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He currently serves as a trustee for the University of Washington Foundation and an advisory board member for the UW Business School and the Center for Technology Entrepreneurship. He is a past board chair and president of the UW Alumni Association, past chair of the UW Development Fund, and past president of the Harvard Business School Club of Puget Sound.

Buerk’s other current civic involvement includes serving as a member of the Downtown Seattle Rotary Club and serving as a board member for the Alliance for Education. He is a past trustee of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and past president of the Seattle Public School Foundation Fund for Excellence.


Donald J. Horowitz

Chair, Access to Justice Technology Bill of Rights Committee, Washington State Access to Justice Board

Judge Horowitz has been active in the justice and legal systems for over forty years, and continues to be fully involved in efforts to improve the quality and delivery of justice. He is currently Chair of the Access to Justice Technology Bill of Rights Committee of the Access to Justice Board. Judge Horowitz is a former Superior Court Judge in the State of Washington and for twenty years has served as a mediator and arbitrator. He has also served as Senior Assistant Attorney General for the State of Washington, the first Chief Counsel for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, and later as that Department's Deputy Secretary.

Judge Horowitz received his B.A. degree from Columbia University and his L.L.B. degree from Yale Law School. He has been a member of the Washington State Board of Bar Examiners, an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Puget Sound (now Seattle University) Law School, and an instructor for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. He is currently on the advisory boards to the Center for Law, Commerce and Technology at the University of Washington Law School, the Access to Justice Institute of Seattle University School of Law, and the University of Washington Information School. He is a Technical Support Member of the Washington State Minority and Justice Commission, and also serves on various committees of the Washington State Bar Association and the Washington State Access to Justice Board.


Ronald S. Howell

President & CEO, Washington Research Foundation

As President and CEO of Washington Research Foundation, Mr. Howell has guided WRF from being an organization that identified, protected and licensed technologies to one with sufficient assets and expertise to foster the creation of early stage technology-based companies. Mr. Howell has been with Washington Research Foundation since 1989, becoming president in 1992 and was responsible for shaping the most successful licensing program in the organization's history for generating a significant ongoing revenue stream. He continues to provide strategic direction for this effort. Earlier in his career he was in medical sales and operations.

Mr. Howell serves on several boards related to the mission and activities of WRF and WRF Capital. He holds a bachelor of science in biochemistry from Washington State University.


Eric P. Larsen

Principal, Information Technology, BlackRock

Eric Larsen joined Quellos (now BlackRock) in 1998 and is a Principal responsible for information technology. Prior to joining BlackRock, Larsen was a Senior Consultant with Metamor Technologies, responsible for managing information systems projects, technical designs and developing new business. Concurrent with his consulting responsibilities, Larsen was responsible for conducting market research and analysis on local competitors. Before joining Metamor, Larsen was a Senior Consultant with Andersen Consulting, LLP. During his five years with Andersen, he analyzed business processes, facilitated mergers and designed communications networks. Larsen became a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder in 2001. Additionally, he holds an MBA with distinction from DePaul University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois.


Edward D. Lazowska, Ph.D.

Bill and Melinda Gates Chair

Ed Lazowska holds the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. Lazowska's research and teaching concern the design, implementation, and analysis of high-performance computing and communication systems. He is a member of the Technical Advisory Boards for Microsoft Research, Voyager Capital, Ignition, Frazier Technology Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, and Impinj, and of the Boards of Directors of Data I/O Corporation and Lguide.com. He is a member of the ACM Council, and of the Boards of Directors of the Washington Software Alliance and the Technology Alliance of Washington, as well as serving on the Washington State Information Services Board, in connection with which he was recognized in 2002 by Government Technology magazine as a member of the inaugural "GT 25" national leaders of information technology in state government.

Lazowska received his A.B. from Brown University in 1972 and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1977, when he joined the University of Washington faculty.


Rick LeFaivre, Ph.D.

Venture Partner, OVP Venture Partners

Rick LeFaivre is a venture partner at OVP, and brings over thirty years of accomplishment as a computer scientist, professor, R&D executive and venture advisor working at leading universities, high technology companies and venture firms. He has served as VP of the Advanced Technology Group at Apple Computer, as SVP of R&D and CTO at Borland International, and held R&D management positions at Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems and Tektronix. He was a founding partner of the Zazi Forum, which brings together world-class technology experts to advise corporations and government agencies on matters of national importance; IdeaEdge Ventures, a San Diego-based venture development organization; and the Software Patent Institute, which advises the government on issues related to software patentability.

He started his career as a professor in the computer science department at Rutgers University, teaching and carrying out research in artificial intelligence and advanced programming technology, and later served as Executive Director of the Von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement at the University of California, San Diego, focused on the effective commercialization of university-developed technology. LeFaivre has published extensively in the computer science literature, has served on a number of industry and academic advisory boards, and has testified before the Congress of the United States on matters of technology policy.

LeFaivre received an AB in Mathematics at the University of Missouri; and his MS and Ph.D. in Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin.


Sherri Rogalski

Consultant

Dr. Sherri Rogalski is a senior scientist and patent agent with expertise in intellectual property practice, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, neuroscience and inflammation, with record of setting scientific and intellectual property standards for large, international contract research organization. Sherri advises biotechnology and research companies in these areas. Dr. Rogalski also drafts patents (Patent Agent, United States Patent and Trademark Office), set up in-house intellectual property practice, and analyzes patents and develops inventions with scientific staff and is a Liaison to outside patent counsel for emerging companies.

Dr. Rogalski’s areas of expertise include: direct in vitro and in vivo groups for pharmacokinetic and early ADME studies, oversight of animal facility in a non-GLP environment, interface with cross-functioning teams in France, client management, interdisciplinary project management and presentation skills to large pharmaceutical companies. As co-chair of the 2005 Invest NW program, her community connections were used to introduce a new subsidiary to the Northwest biotech community. Dr. Rogalski earned her PhD in Pharmacology at the University of Washington.


Michael Simon

Chief Technical Office, Creation Logic

Mike Simon has been working in computer security and policy development since 1985, working at the time for the University of Idaho, a regional pioneer in computer security and one of the first NSA Centers of Excellence in Information Assurance Education, Simon built the network laboratory infrastructure used for the research programs that support the center and taught Senior and Graduate courses in networking and network topology.

From 1993 through September 2005, Simon has been involved in building security awareness and improving the security posture for hundreds of companies as Conjungi Corporation’s Chief Scientist. Simon is responsible for designing security policy that protects multiple industries, including health care, biotech, military, streaming media, power infrastructure, water infrastructure, financial institutions, e-commerce and aerospace.

Simon is an adjunct faculty member for the University of Washington and occasionally lectures at Seattle University, University of Idaho and several civic organizations on the subject of information assurance and computer security. He sits on the advisory board for the Information Assurance certificate program, the Advisory Board for the Computer Science Department at the University of Idaho and on the Founders Board for the Information School at the University of Washington. He earned a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Idaho.


Tad Sommerville

President, Sommerwind Group

Tad Sommerville has pursued a number of different professional endeavors:

  • Sold pleasure boats in 15 southern states, and managed sales internationally for a large boat builder.
  • Owned and operated a small software company.
  • Created and assembled numerous mail-order catalogs.
  • Wrote advertising copy.
  • Managed sales and marketing for an aluminum fabrication company.
  • Exported fruit to China.
  • Managed bond portfolios.
  • Navigated and piloted a salmon tender in Alaska.

Currently, Sommerville is president of Sommerwind Group, a financial management company. He is a full time real estate investor specializing in multi-family properties in Seattle, Tacoma, and Palm Springs. Tad is also an investment trustee managing the orderly liquidation of a large portfolio of loans and real property for distribution to creditors under an approved Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan.

Sommerville is married with three boys and one girl. He received his BS in finance from the University of Colorado, Boulder and received his MBA from the University of Washington in 2002. At various times in his life, he could speak Mandarin, French, and Japanese.