Jack M. Gill , PhD

Director

Vanguard Ventures
Palo Alto, CA

Jack M. Gill is a co-founder and Managing Director of Vanguard Venture Partners, a venture capital firm specializing in high technology start-ups, located in Palo Alto, California and Houston, Texas. Vanguard manages $500 million of paid in capital and has been the lead investor in numerous highly successful companies such as Aldus, Digital Microwave, Pyramid Technology, EndoSonics, Mycogen, EndoTherapeutics, Macromedia, Network Appliance, Indigo Medical, CardioGenesis, Advanced Fibre Communications, Ciena, LightSpeed (CISCO), Tut Systems, Digital Island, and ImageX.com. Vanguard Venture Partners specializes in start-up investments in the computer, communications and life science industries throughout the United States. As a Managing Director, Dr. Gill invests in telecommunications and Life Sciences at Vanguard. Prior to co-founding Vanguard in October 1981, Dr. Gill was Executive Vice President and Group Manager of the Scientific Divisions of Spectra Physics, Inc. Spectra Physics, formerly a NYSE listed company and later acquired by Pharos, Sweden, was then the world's largest manufacturer of commercial, scientific and industrial lasers and a leading manufacturer of laboratory computers and chromatography instrumentation. In 1970, Gill founded Autolab, which pioneered the application of microprocessor-based instruments and computers for chromatography laboratory applications. Autolab was sold to Spectra Physics in 1972 and Gill remained as Vice President, General Manager as the business grew profitably to $100 million in sales and earned a leading market position. Autolab is now a subsidiary of Thermo Electron, Inc. Gill served as Director of Research and Engineering of the Aerograph Division of Varian Associates from 1965 to 1970, where he was responsible for a technical staff of 80. In this capacity, Dr. Gill authored 50 technical papers and lectured worldwide on gas chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography, laboratory computerization, and advances in instrumentation. Gill's earlier experience was with Monsanto Company in St. Louis. He graduated from Lamar University with a B.S. degree in Chemistry and Engineering and later earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Indiana University.