CTG believes one that of the keys to success in technology transfer is involvement of experienced management and also access to entrepreneurial mentors who have a successful history with technology commercialization and building start-up businesses. CTG also believes that, to accomplish the CTG goals it is critical to engage the support of many of the region's proven and resident entrepreneurs.

Cottonwood has quickly built supportive relationships with many of the region's successful entrepreneurs. CTG has been fortunate to receive the formal endorsement and support of certain of these entrepreneurial leaders to assist with due diligence, mentor new company executives and possibly serve on Boards as appropriate. Currently the list includes the Advisors listed below, although this group will continue to be expanded as interested and qualified members of the New Mexico entrepreneurial community are identified.

Chuck Call – Chuck is a New Mexico entrepreneur who founded Mesosytems from technology spun out of Pacific Northwest National Lab. His company was acquired successfully by ICX Systems (NASDAQ – ICXT). He has prior history working at other national labs and is an active New Mexico angel investor and entrepreneurial sponsor having supported several area start-ups, including some based on LANL technologies.

John Elling - John has a technical background, has been the President and CEO of several technology based start-ups, and has consistently built these companies to a successful exit. He is a seasoned bioinformatics entrepreneur with a proven ability to identify and develop technology and business opportunities. Most recently John was founder, CEO and President of Acoustic Cytometry Systems. This was technology licensed out of Los Alamos National Lab. The compnay was recently sold to a public company at a profit to the investors. Additionally he has experience at Los Alamos National Lab as both an employee and a visiting entrepreneur, and as such he is well versed in the licensing process at the national laboratories.

Gary Ebersole – Gary is CEO of Knowledge Systems, a start-up technology based on LANL technology. He has a long history of successful start-up management experience in both CA and NM. He has prior history with Informix and sold a prior company to Sun Microsystems.


Mike Emerson – Mike is a former executive at ARES, an engineering design company which has contracted for significant work throughout New Mexico, including at LANL. He was recently COO of Heliose, a bio-based start-up company. He brings a rich variety of experience across numerous engineer disciplines and early stage start-ups.


CJ Wang – CJ is a member of NM Angels where he has a history of investing in and providing guidance to technology transfer type businesses in NM, including out of LANL such as Knowledge Reef Systems. Prior to New Mexico he had a history of technology transfer support and corporate consulting in New York.


Doug Welter – Doug has a technical and operating background from Motorola and Philips, as well as having worked on technology transfer opportunities from LANL, UNM and Sandia. He was recently CEO of a solar energy technology based start-up and worked  with LANL and other NM based research centers in securing complimentary technologies to support this effort.


Rusty Schmidt - Rusty is well known as the original founder and CEO of Advent Solar. Advent Solar grew from a start-up to raising millions under Rusty's leadership and establishing itself as an industry leader. Rusty is now CEO of a new solar energy start-up.