Board of Directors

Piedmont Pharmaceuticals is fortunate to work with directors who have decades of experience in biomedical research and development, financing and investment, corporation management and pharmaceutical science.

Roland Johnson
Chairman

Piedmont Pharmaceuticals President and CEO Roland Johnson also serves as the chairman of the board of directors. To learn more about Mr. Johnson, please click here.

Luther H. Hodges, Jr.

Luther H. Hodges, Jr., a 25-year veteran of commercial banking, brings a wealth of financial and investment expertise to the Piedmont Pharmaceuticals board of directors. Currently the president of the venture capital firm Phoenix Associates, Mr. Hodges is the former chairman and CEO of The National Bank of Washington and of Washington Bancorporation, as well as the former under secretary, deputy secretary and acting secretary of the United States Department of Commerce.

The author of several books on business education and a former faculty member of the business schools at the University of North Carolina, Duke University and the University of New Mexico, Mr. Hodges is currently an adjunct professor at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School. He is also president of the North Carolina Veterinary Medical Foundation, Inc.

In addition to serving on Piedmont Pharmaceuticals' board, Mr. Hodges is a director of Open Finance Network in Charlotte, N.C.; Homeowners Insurance Corporation of America in Dallas, Texas; and Advanced Safety Concepts, Inc., in Santa Fe, N.M. Mr. Hodges formerly served as chairman of the board of directors for North Carolina National Bank and as a director for NCNB Corp. (now Bank of America Corp.).

Mr. Hodges earned his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina and earned a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. A former U.S. Naval Reservist, he and his wife, Cheray Zauderer Hodges, reside in Chapel Hill and Watauga County, N.C.

Andy Jane

A partner and investment manager at CM Capital, one of Australia's leading early-stage venture capital fund management firms, Andy Jane has 15 years of experience in biomedical research and development, project management, marketing and business development. He specializes in the commercialization and globalization of technology-based products and brings to Piedmont Pharmaceuticals expertise in contractual negotiation, strategic relationship building and licensing.

Prior to joining CM Capital in 2003, Mr. Jane served for four years as director of business development and licensing at Lake Technology, where he was instrumental in the worldwide business development and marketing of Dolby Headphone™ and Dolby Virtual Speaker™ technologies. He also spent five years at AGEN, where he was responsible for the management of the company's instrumentation and biosensor program and for the primary business planning and management of the Thromboview Project.

Mr. Jane earned an Honours Bachelor of Science in physics from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, a Master of Science in instrumentation from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and a postgraduate certificate in science media and journalism from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.

Lanty L. Smith

A highly successful entrepreneur, corporate executive and financial investor, Lanty L. Smith has extensive experience in corporation startup and management. He is the founder, president and CEO of Tippet Capital, an investment and merchant banking firm headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. He also currently serves as president, CEO and a director for MediWave Star Technology Inc., a cardiovascular research and diagnostics company he co-founded in 1999, and of Scion NeuroStim LLC, a medical device development company he co-founded in 2007.

In addition, Mr. Smith has served or currently serves as an advisor to more than 30 corporations and organizations. Perhaps most notably, he is chairman of the executive committee of the board of directors and lead independent director of Wachovia Corp., which operates the fourth largest bank and the second largest securities brokerage network in the U.S.

Mr. Smith's other engagements include the vice-chairmanship of the board of directors of Duke Management Company, which manages Duke University's endowment fund, and serving on the boards of directors of the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina – which owns and manages Research Triangle Park, the North Carolina Humanities Center and the North Carolina Institute of Medicine.

Mr. Smith currently serves as chairman of the board of directors of Precision Fabrics Group, Inc., a company he formed to purchase the Precision Fabrics Division of Burlington Industries, Inc. Mr. Smith was president of Burlington from 1986 to 1988. Prior to that, he was a partner in the law firm of Jones Day.

A native of Sherrodsville, Ohio, Mr. Smith earned his undergraduate degree with honors in mathematics from Wittenberg University and received with honors a law degree from Duke University. He and his wife, Dr. Margaret Smith, reside in Raleigh, N.C.

Kenneth "Bill" Yates, D.V.M.

Dr. Bill Yates is a professor and the chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy at Harding University, where his responsibilities include faculty recruitment, academic and research policy development, and strategic planning for both technology transfer and research facilities support and development.

In addition to his academic work, Dr. Yates also advises emerging life science and biotechnology companies on business strategy, operational support, technology assessment and product development based on his extensive experience in the formulation, development and regulation of human and veterinary biological and device products, including the successful commercialization of several topical and oral indications for pain and wound management. His current areas of interest include novel delivery systems for drugs, including biologics and protein and peptide therapeutics.

Before joining the faculty at Harding, Dr. Yates served as co-founder and president of DelSite Biotechnologies, Inc., a drug delivery company headquartered in Irving, Texas. Prior to co-founding DelSite in 2001, Dr. Yates was vice president of research and development at Carrington Laboratories, where he had served in various capacities since 1990.