Sorrento Ventures: Advisory Council

The Sorrento Ventures Funds draw on the experience and contacts of our Advisory Council. Composed primarily of limited partners in the Sorrento Funds, each member is a prominent business or academic leader from San Diego who share a high interest in emerging San Diego businesses.

The Advisory Council enhances the ability of the Sorrento Funds to identify and evaluate potential investments through their substantial referral network.

The Advisory Council has much to offer to companies invested in our Funds:

Guidance in evaluating prospective investments
Management assistance
Business introductions and contacts

However, all investment and other decisions relating to the operation of the Sorrento Funds are the sole responsibility of the General Partner.

Chairman of John Burnham & Co. (San Diego's leading real estate, mortgage loan and insurance company) and Burnham Pacific Properties; Founder and Director of First National Bank; Trustee of The Burnham Institute; Former Director of San Diego Gas & Electric Company, Cubic Corporation and Gen-Probe, Inc.; Former Trustee of Stanford University; President of America's Cup Organizing Committee

Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Brodart Company (a manufacturer and distributor of school and library supplies and equipment and an operator of retail book stores); Chairman and President of BDI Investment Corp. (a regulated investment company) and Tura, Inc. (an eyeglass frame manufacturer and distributor)

Director of Investments for the $5 billion Pension Plan, Nuclear Decommissioning and Post-Retirement Medical Benefit Trust for Sempra Energy; finance Committee member for the San Diego Opera Association; Investment Advisory Council for the $1.2 million San Diego Opera Endowment.

Former Chairman and ECO of Proxima Corporation; Former Chairman and CEO of Topaz, Inc.; Director of Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Applied Digital Access, Atcom Corporation, Digirad Corporation, Laser Power Corporation and International Forum of Corporate Directors; Instructor at UCSD Extension in "How to Start and Finance a High-Tech Company"; Mentor for Chairmen's Roundtable.

Chairman of San Diego Gas & Electric Company and Enova Corporation; Former Chairman of San Diego Economic Development Corporation; Director of Burnham Pacific Properties, Inc. and the San Diego Chamber of Commerce; Member of the Board of Overseers of the University of California, San Diego; Trustee of The Burnham Institute; Member of the California Business Roundtable.

Former President and Chairman of ISSCO (Integrated Software Systems Corporation); Founder of the Preuss Foundation, Inc. (specializes in fostering communication among scientists in the field of cancer); Director of DepoTech Corporation, DOME Imaging Systems, Inc., Network Computing Devices, Inc. and Wright Strategies, Inc.; Regent for the University of California; Former Member of the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health; Director of BIOCOM, The National Brain Tumor Foundation, Duke University Cancer Center Board of Overseers; Member of the Board of Overseers of the University of California, San Diego.

Professor of Materials Science and Former Dean of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego; Guggenheim Fellow Recipient at Cambridge University; Visiting Scientist at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY; Member of the Materials Research Society and the Electron Microscope Society of America.