Leadership Board

Board Chair Mike Gilson is a business development manager and strategist for EicOsis, LLC—an emerging biotechnology company founded in Davis that is working on developing a first-in-class therapy of a once-a-day, oral treatment for neuropathic and inflammatory pain in humans, horses and companion animals.

Gilson has had an extensive career in the aerospace and defense industries, building and sustaining companies serving global customers in a diverse range of functions including strategic planning, operations, finance, product innovation and launch, global business development and marketing. Gilson has lived or worked in more than 40 countries ranging from Pakistan to France to China, where he has had the privilege of working with senior business leaders and high ranking government officials.

During the past 20-plus years, Gilson balanced his career with a passion for the non-profit world. He has served in numerous capacities, from board president to building a public elementary school classroom in San Francisco to serving on the University of Pennsylvania board of trustees. More recently, Gilson has served on the boards of the Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation, the Lafayette War Veteran’s Memorial and the Lafayette Town Hall Theatre. Additionally he is a frequent mentor at the Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. Gilson holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ted Green is a senior director of portfolio management for Sofgen Pharmaceuticals, a Colombia-based $400 million specialty pharma company.

Green has over 30 years of experience in strategic marketing and business development with a specialty in growing small or under-resourced businesses inside larger organizations by entering new or adjacent areas to create profitable growth. He started his marketing career in the food industry where he worked for General Mills, and then moved into the wine industry working for the E&J Gallo Winery and Constellation Brands. Green transitioned into the pharmaceutical industry in 1999 where he served in numerous senior leadership roles for Leiner Health Products’ over-the-counter drug division. In 2008, Green established his own consulting firm where he specialized in acquisition due diligence and strategic market entry in the pharmaceutical industry. In 2010, one of his clients, Nature’s Products, Inc, recruited him to be their senior director of new business development. He served in that role until 2014 when he transitioned to sister company, Sofgen.

In addition to serving on the UC Davis Library board, Green served as president of the UC Davis Parent and Family Council. Green earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from UC Davis and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University. Green’s son, daughter and his wife (whom Green met through a UC Davis library research project) also are alumni of UC Davis.

Barry Klein is a professor emeritus of physics and former chair of the Department of Physics at UC Davis.

At UC Davis, he has held roles as vice provost for academic personnel, vice chancellor for research and director of the McClellan Nuclear Research Center at UC Davis. Klein is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a fellow and chartered physicist of the Institute of Physics and a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He has been involved in developing and supporting numerous major research initiatives at UC Davis. Additionally, he has served on many committees and boards in support of UC Davis, the University of California system and the international scientific community. Klein’s condensed matter research efforts have been in electronic structure theory and applications, studying the fundamental properties of condensed matter systems using theoretical and computational approaches. He has more than 140 research publications.

Klein received his Ph.D. in condensed matter theory from New York University in 1969, and an undergraduate degree in engineering physics from NYU in 1962. From 1969-71 he held a postdoctoral appointment at the Naval Research Laboratory. In 1971 he became a member of the NRL staff, working in condensed matter and plasma physics theory. He eventually became head of the NRL electronic structure of solids section, branch head for condensed matter physics, and subsequently head of the complex systems theory branch. He also served as program manager for condensed matter theory and acting section head for condensed matter sciences at the National Science Foundation.

Courtney Linn is a senior vice president and general counsel of Golden 1 Credit Union. In this role, he advises the credit union’s board and senior management on a broad range of legal and compliance matters.

Prior to joining Golden 1 Credit Union, Linn worked for six years at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, where he advised and represented financial institutions in Bank Secrecy Act regulatory, enforcement and criminal and civil matters, and represented individuals and institutions in financial crime matters, including money laundering and mortgage fraud. Linn is a former federal prosecutor who has handled numerous complex financial crime cases involving fraud, money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act violations, mortgage lending and asset forfeiture. Additionally, Linn was a chief architect of various national legislative, regulatory and policy strategies affecting the government’s anti-money laundering and asset forfeiture programs. Linn also handled numerous civil matters on behalf of the United States, including actions in which the United States sought to recover fire suppression and resource damages arising out of forest fires on public lands.

Linn is widely recognized as one of the foremost national experts on the Bank Secrecy Act, money laundering, mortgage fraud, asset forfeiture and fraud restitution matters. He has written several articles on the Bank Secrecy Act and was cited by the Fourth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals in U.S. v. Peterson. Linn has been a frequent lecturer on a variety of white collar and financial crime topics at law schools and to audiences of financial institutions, financial professionals, federal prosecutors and law enforcement agents.

Gary Novack is the founder and president of PharmaLogic Development, Inc. PharmaLogic is a consultancy providing development expertise to pharmaceutical and medical device companies, specializing in ophthalmology and other local therapies.

Novack has degrees from three University of California campuses: a bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz, a doctoral degree in pharmacology and toxicology from UC Davis, and a postdoctoral fellowship in neurophysiology at UCLA. He has worked in research positions at Merrell Dow, Allergan and Nelson Research. He earned his diplomate in clinical pharmacology in 1990, the inaugural year of the certification. He has authored more than 220 papers and played a key role in the approval of over 40 products. Novack is on the editorial board of several ophthalmology journals.

Novack is a UC Regent Emeritus, past president of the UC Santa Cruz Alumni Association and past president of the UC Santa Cruz Foundation. He is a visiting professor of pharmacology and ophthalmology at UC Davis.

Michelle Scully is a deputy county administrative officer in economic development for the County of Lake.

She formerly served as the executive director of Marymount California University, Lakeside Campus, where she was responsible for the opening and oversight of the new campus. Prior to her tenure at Marymount California University she was a biology instructor at Mendocino College and worked at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in the Department of Population Health and Reproduction as well as the California Primate Research Center. She graduated from UC Davis with a bachelor’s degree in zoology and received her master’s degree in biology and ecology from California State University, Chico.

Scully received recognition from Congressman John Garamendi as one of his 2014 Women of the Year for her many years of commitment to education and community. She is an appointed member of the Workforce Alliance of the North Bay Lake Advisory committee and volunteer for the Lake County Hunger Task Force. Scully also serves as president of the board of a private school that she and her husband helped found in 2005. Scully currently lives in Lake County with her husband Patrick, who also is a UC Davis alum. They have two children in college.

Diane Zimmerman is a writer and consultant focusing on building human capacity. She recently retired as a superintendent of schools after a 36-year career in education during which she perfected her skills in facilitation, conflict management and leadership development.

Zimmerman has worked as a teacher, speech therapist, program manager and assistant director of special education. She served as principal for two schools in Davis, California prior to being promoted to assistant superintendent for human resources. In 2002, she began a nine-year appointment as a superintendent of Old Adobe School Union School District. Under her leadership the district’s teachers moved from having contentious union interactions to productive, interest-based relations.

Throughout her career, Zimmerman has been involved in her communities. She currently serves as a board member of the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County, the Petaluma Educational Foundation and the Watershed Collaborative. She takes great pride in being part of communities that not only work well together, but also seek challenges as an opportunity for learning and knowledge development. Zimmerman has co-authored three books on leadership and is currently working on two more. Her journal articles regularly appear in the Journal of Staff Development, a publication of Learning Forward, a national organization dedicated to excellent teaching and learning. She obtained a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis in 1972 and her doctoral degree in human and organizational development from the Fielding Graduate University in 1998. She has taught college courses at California State University, Sacramento and Sonoma State University. She lives in Suisun Valley, California with her husband, Rich.