Board of Advisors

Dr. George L. Burruss MD, FACS, Memphis Plastic Surgery Group

A graduate of The University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences, Dr. Burruss has practiced plastic surgery for more than 18 years. He has served as assistant professor of plastic surgery at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and as acting chief of plastic surgery, at the Veterans Administrative Medical Center.

Dr. Glenn Allen Crosby, II Founder of Private Practice Neurosurgical Clinic, The Crosby Clinic

Crosby is a board certified neurosurgeon practicing in Memphis, Tennessee. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Rhodes College, Masters of Science Degree from Georgetown University, and his MD from University of Tennessee in Memphis. He has completed his training at George Washington University and the Mayo Clinic. After his training, he joined at Semmes-Murphy Clinic and then opened his own private practice, The Crosby Clinic. Crosby’s practice is primarily involved with general neurosurgical practices, including surgery of the brain and spinal cord. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of multiple medical societies, including the AMA, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Congress of Neurosurgery, and an executive board member of the Southern Neurosurgical Society. He is a member of the medical staff at Baptist Memorial Hospital and Methodist University Hospital in Memphis. Dr. Crosby has over 20 years business experience and is actively involved in banking, real estate and health care.

Jeff Davis CEO, Orabrush

Orabrush’s chief executive brings 23 successful years of experience in sales, marketing and general management at Procter & Gamble both in the U.S.A and abroad. Jeff’s P&G experience spans several different product sectors including consumer-packaged goods, pharmaceuticals and beauty businesses in five countries in North America and Europe (USA, Canada, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia).

Jeff’s experiences span from opening developing markets in Eastern Europe in the early nineties to building P&G’s global business in the Pharmaceutical industry in Germany, Canada and in the United States. In his final assignment, Jeff led the integration of the Germany based Wellahaircare company into P&G, creating a new, global Salon Professional Hair company in the Beauty sector.

Jeff brings this deep expertise to the start-up world at Orabrush Inc., a new media powered, e-commerce brand builder for consumer goods. Orabrush’s “Reverse Marketing Model” leverages social media marketing platforms to commercialize innovative products. Touted as a disruptive new model for creating awareness and purchase both on and offline for consumer products, the model has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, Mashable, TechCrunch and ABC’s Nightline. In addition to his active business leadership, Jeff is working to influence positive change in business and education. At the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, he serves as adjunct professor bringing real-world experiences and insights into the classroom. As an advisor at Ernst & Young, he assists the company’s business advisory practice with top worldwide CPG clients.

Shekhar Mitra Ph.D., President of Innopreneur, LLC

Shekhar contributes more than 25 years of deep experience in numerous global leadership roles as a Procter & Gamble executive to Orabrush’s Board of Directors. A renowned global innovation leader, Shekhar has a proven track record of creating breakthrough consumer product innovations and global capabilities in the health, hygiene, beauty and grooming industries. Prior to joining Orabrush, Inc., Shekhar served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Research & Development, Global Salon Professional and Global Prestige for P&G. He was also a member of P&G’s Global Leadership Council and a part of a 17-member Top Innovation Team for the company to create renewed innovation strategies and a pipeline of ideas for new business development.

Throughout Shekhar’s career he has led the creation and development of technology platforms and innovation strategies that have resulted in well-known consumer products like Crest Whitestrips, Crest China, Crest Prohealth, Aleve Analgesic, Prilosec, Gillette and Old Spice Clinical Strength, and Metamucil (cholesterol lowering) to name a few. Several of these, including Crest Whitening Expressions, Whitestrips, Olay Regenerist, Prilosec, and Secret Clinical Strength, were named among the top ten consumer product innovations in the year in which they were released. Shekhar has led the global innovation capability growth for P&G over the last decade with the start-up of Beijing, Bangalore, Rio and Africa innovation hubs. He has been awarded over 50 patents to date with 15 more on file in various fields and is an invited speaker on topics ranging from game-changing innovation approaches and organization development. In 2010, he was awarded the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor recognized by the U.S. Congress and listed in the Congressional Record for his contributions to improving lives via innovation leadership and community service.

Before joining P&G in 1984 as a staff scientist, Shekhar received his undergraduate degree in Biophysical Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology; his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Life Sciences from Columbia University in New York; and was a Jane Coffin Research Fellow at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Shekhar also currently serves as Premium Consulting Partner at YourEncore, Inc. and President of Innopreneur LLC. He also is a member of the Advisory Board for Vyome Biosciences and Phoenix Biometrics.

Russell Moon Co-founder Skinceuticals, CEO of PerioSciences

In 1994, Russell co-founded SkinCeuticals, the antioxidant-based, skin care product line, acquired by L’Oreal in 2005. He now leads PerioSciences, an oral care company that further developed antioxidant technology pioneered by SkinCeuticals, creating first-to-market toothpastes, mouth rinses and oral gels. PerioSciences products are the choice for health-minded patients who demand high-quality, naturally sourced ingredients. Patients with dental implants, who suffer from dry mouth symptoms, those undergoing treatment for cancer, or patients who regularly whiten their teeth respond to the powerful antioxidants and adopt our technology as their daily oral care choice. PerioSciences distributes through dental and medical practices as well as through high-end spas. Our proprietary Internet-based distribution infrastructure includes direct and auto-ship features for efficient delivery directly to consumers while supporting our channel partners.

Mike A. Pietrangelo Managing Partner of The Theraplex Company

Since 1998, Pietrangelo has practiced law at Pietrangelo Cook, PLC, based in Memphis, Tenn. With licenses in New York, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia, he was an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission from 1967 to 1968, and later for Pfizer, Inc., from 1968 to 1972. Pietrangelo joined Schering-Plough Corporation in Memphis in 1972, first as legal director and then as associate general counsel. During that time, he was appointed visiting professor of law by the University of Tennessee and the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy. In 1980, Pietrangelo left corporate law and focused on consumer products management, serving in a variety of executive positions at Schering-Plough Corporation prior to being named president of the Personal Care Products Group in 1985. In 1989, he was asked to join Western Publishing Group as president and chief operating officer. From 1990 to 1994, Pietrangelo was the president and chief executive officer of CLEO, Inc., a Memphis-based subsidiary of Gibson Greetings, Inc. that manufactured specialized paper products. From 1994 until 1998, he served as president of Johnson Products Company, a subsidiary of IVAX Corporation. Pietrangelo has served on the board of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporationand currently serves on the boards of directors of the nonprofit American Parkinson Disease Association, SurgiVision, Inc., and Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc. Pietrangelo is currently managing partner of The Theraplex Company LLC.

Andrew Seamons Managing Partner of Pittco Capital Partners

Andrew Seamons is the. Pittco Capital Partners is a closely-held private equity investment firm providing equity and mezzanine capital to entrepreneurial organizations throughout the United States. Mr. Seamons brings two decades of experience working with companies of all sizes on tackling tough strategic issues and driving rapid and significant financial and operational improvement. Prior to forming Pittco Capital Partners, Mr. Seamons was a partner with Paradigm Capital Partners, a Southeastern focused private equity firm. Previously, he was a member of the senior management team at LendingTree, the leading dot com era success story in online financial services. He was also a consultant with McKinsey & Company, an international management consultancy. Mr. Seamons currently serves on the board of directors of a number of growth companies, advisory boards of private equity funds and is a board member and past chairman of Emerge Memphis, the local non-profit business incubator. Mr. Seamons holds a B.S. in electrical engineering and economics, summa cum laude, from Duke University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar. He is also a CFA charterholder.