Laura F. Shunk was elected chairperson of the Board of Directors effective April 26, 2019. Ms. Shunk joined our company as a director in 2014. Ms. Shunk graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1980 with an A.B. degree in Chemistry and German, and from Case Western Reserve Univeristy in 1983 with a J.D. She began the practice of law at the Cleveland firm of Pearne, Gordon, Sessions, and Granger, where she worked on the prosecution of US patent application originating in foreign jurisdictions and in the United States. As the daughter of entrepreneur Ed Funk, she began to develop an interest in the interaction between entrepreneurial ventures and intellectual property. She wrote several key patents for a young Cross Medical Company. These patents later became the subject of extensive litigation, and resulted in millions of dollars in settlements with Johnson & Johnson, and later with AlphaTech Spine, and which were a key asset in the purchase of Interpore/Cross for $280 million by Biomet. Presently, Ms. Shunk is a shareholder of Hudak, Shunk & Farine, Co. L.P.A where she has been employed for more than five years. At this firm, she has expanded her areas of representation to include sophisticated material science research, and was awarded appointments to represent the University of Akron, Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University, and NASA, as well as Akron and Northeast Ohio polymer manufacturers and molders. She has continued with her interest in guiding star-up ventures with respect to the development of intellectual property portfolios. Ms. Shunk acted as counsel to an Akron area orthopedic implant company that was able to complete its acquisition in its seventh year at at 5.5x sales multiplier in part as a result of its extensive multi-national patent and trademark portfolio which Laura helped create. M. Shunk’s experience with intellectual property and the development and commercialization of new technologies is experience that the board considers valuable.