Melnick Joins CMEA

Michael Melnick has joined CMEA Ventures as a principal in the firm's energy and materials practice. He previously served as chief commercial officer and executive VP of operations at Assay Designs, a provider of assay development for drug development and translational research.

PRESS RELEASE

CMEA Ventures today announced that Michael Melnick, PhD., has joined as a principal in the energy & materials practice. With Melnick's background in genetics and biology, his addition underscores the growth of CMEA's focus on energy & materials as well as the firm's commitment to bringing together multiple disciplines to find the most innovative and transformative investments.

“Much of what's interesting in energy and materials investing is how to leverage biological processes to generate advances in new forms of energy,” said Tom Baruch, CMEA's founder and managing director. “Michael will be able to apply novel ideas and cutting-edge science from his disciplines to new products, processes or procedures in fields relevant to energy and materials.”

Melnick, [41], was most recently chief commercial officer and executive vice president of operations at Assay Designs, a leader in assay development for drug discovery and translational research. Before that, he co-founded and was vice president of business and corporate development at Cell Signaling Technology, an innovator in cell biology research tools, preceded by his position as staff scientist at New England Biolabs. Melnick holds a PhD in Genetics from Harvard University and BS with honors and MS degrees in Biological Sciences from Stanford University.

On the CMEA Energy & Materials team, Melnick joins Baruch, Maurice Gunderson, senior partner and one of the most experienced venture investors in the field, Jim Kim, partner, and venture partners David Tuckerman and Bruce Pasternak. CMEA's strategic focus on energy and materials has led to six publicly disclosed investments to date that include A123, cNano, Codexis, Superprotonic, and others including advanced low-cost photovoltaics, modular nuclear power, and next-generation batteries. Moving ahead, the firm sees the greatest opportunities to be in transportation fuels, premium power, alternative generation, energy-efficient products, and energy intelligence.

“There are few venture firms that understand the intimate connection between various scientific disciplines and the success of alternative energy and materials investments,” said Melnick. “Having observed the burgeoning field over the past decade or so, this is clearly the right approach.”

About CMEA Ventures

CMEA Ventures (www.cmeaventures.com) is a venture capital firm focused on life sciences, high technology, and energy and materials investments. CMEA believes that the most successful venture backed companies are science focused, with experienced teams intent on winning. As a result, CMEA's portfolio companies typically have cutting edge, highly differentiated, and often multidisciplinary technology at their core, with founding teams of the highest caliber.

CMEA invests in both early and late stage ventures, and has a strong network of corporate, investment, and entrepreneurial relationships that it leverages on behalf of its portfolio companies. The firm currently manages six funds representing investments in excess of $1 billion. CMEA has been an early stage investor in many successful companies, including Arcadia, Bayhill Therapeutics, Codexis, Entropic, Flextronics (FLEX), Ilypsa (sold to Amgen), Intermolecular, LiveOps, Perlegen, Silicon Spice (BRCM), Superprotonic, Symyx (SMMX), Syrrx (purchased by Takeda), and Xenoport (XNPT).

CMEA Ventures was founded in 1989 and maintains offices in San Francisco and Menlo Park. CMEA's partners and associates have extensive science, engineering, and operational backgrounds that particularly suit CMEA's focus on technology and teams