Anita Thigpen Perry

Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of the Board

As First Lady, Mrs. Perry championed a number of health care-related issues, including domestic violence awareness, breast cancer awareness, childhood immunizations and the critical nursing shortage.

Among her many honors, Mrs. Perry was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame for Leadership in 2014. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center recognized her contributions to health care by renaming its nursing school the Anita Thigpen Perry School of Nursing in 2008. She was also honored by West Texas A&M University with the establishment of the Anita Thigpen Perry Nursing Excellence Scholarship. The March of Dimes tapped Mrs. Perry as its National Chair for Childhood Immunization in 2004.

In 2001, The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio established the Anita Thigpen Perry Endowment to help support the Center for Community-Based Health Promotion, focusing on improving areas in nutrition, cardiovascular disease, health education and early childhood development for women and children in South Texas. Mrs. Perry earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from West Texas State University in Canyon and a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

Stanley C. Jones, M.D.

Co-Founder, Director & Chief Medical Officer

Following his service in the military, he completed his orthopedic residency at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston and his fellowship at Wellesley Hospital in Canada. Dr. Jones is a licensed physician in the state of Texas and is certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery.

As the founder and Medical Director of the Spine Care Center in Houston, he performs surgery and sees patients on a full-time basis. Dr. Jones’ operating privileges also extend outside his practice to Memorial Hermann Hospital Southwest, where he was previously Director of Spine Care Services at Houston Orthopedic and Spine Hospital and Elite Center for minimally invasive surgery.

Dr. Jones utilizes his experience and expertise to educate colleagues and peers through the publication of medical papers on back pain and surgical techniques and through seminars on numerous topics related to the spine. He has been a part of multiple research projects in partnership with institutions such as Johnson & Johnson, Bayer Pharmaceuticals and Abbott Spine.

Exchanging knowledge and research with like-minded physicians is important to Dr. Jones, which is why his involvement in highly esteemed medical organizations is vast. In addition to being the Diplomat of the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery, he is also a member of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the American Medical Association, the Texas Medical Association, the North American Spine Association, the International Intradiscal Therapy Society, the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, the Association of Ethical Spine Surgeons and the American Board of Spine Surgery.

In 2009, Dr. Jones suffered from a sudden onset of debilitating autoimmune psoriatic arthritis. Although he continued to see patients, his condition prevented him from performing surgery. When conventional treatments failed to provide him with relief, he located a company in Asia that had developed a state-of-the-art technology that allowed him to receive the treatment of autologous (his own) adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Four months after receiving stem cell therapy, he was able to return to a normal surgery schedule and a life without pain. As a result, he is responsible for bringing a proprietary stem cell technology to the United States to start Celltex in 2011 with David Eller.

His current interests are in the fields of minimally invasive spine surgery and pain management and in advocating the use of adult autologous MSCs for medical benefits to patients.

Lawrence R. Samuels

Director

Mr. Samuels’ career began at the law firm Cravath, Swaine and Moore in New York City where he focused on business law prior to joining what is now known as McGuire Woods in 1987. Before retiring from McGuire Woods in 2013, he was a partner at McGuire Woods (and its predecessor firm Ross & Hardies), where he practiced corporate law, and also served as outside General Counsel for several public companies.

Throughout his career, Mr. Samuels has represented companies from a number of countries, including Japan, Great Britain, France, Germany and Australia, for which he handled international transactions related to U.S. acquisitions, operations and investments. He also represented U.S. companies on matters of foreign acquisitions in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Mr. Samuels serves as a Board Advisor to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and BiOWiSH Technologies, Inc. His fields of expertise include commercial and securities litigation, mergers and acquisitions, international transactions, securities regulation, corporate finance and corporate governance.

Nabil Sakkab, Ph.D.

Director

Dr. Sakkab retired from Procter & Gamble in 2007 as Senior Vice President, Corporate Research and Development of following several assignments in Cincinnati, Brussels, Belgium and Kobe, Japan, on a variety of businesses, including over-the-counter health care and household products. He served on P&G’s Leadership Council and the Innovation Committee of P&G’s board of directors.

He is a thought leader and worldwide speaker in the Open Innovation movement, the author of several scientific and innovation management publications, and co-inventor on more than 27 patents. Dr. Sakkab was awarded the 2007 IRI Medal for Leadership in R&D Management and the 2007 Holland Award for best article in innovation management.

Dr. Sakkab served on the boards of IRI, CEFIC, CEFIC Research & Science, and Greenearth Company while working for Procter & Gamble and is an advisory professor for Tsinghua University in Beijing. Currently, he serves on the board of directors of Celltex, as well as the boards of Altria and Givaudan, two major enterprises, and three additional companies in biotechnology and health care: PharNext, BiOWiSH Technologies and Deinove.

David L. Coolidge

Director

David L. Coolidge is a proud graduate of Texas A&M University’s Class of 1987. Notably, while attending Texas A&M, he earned a position as part the famous Texas Aggie 12th Man Kickoff Team during the 1985-’87 seasons. Those teams won the Southwest Conference Championship in each of those years.

After graduating, David joined Seagull Energy in 1989 as a natural gas analyst and trader. From 1990-‘95, David worked for Coastal Gas Marketing as part of the West Coast and Rockies gas-trading team. In 1995, David left Coastal to join another trading firm that ultimately became Reliant Energy. He held multiple trading roles in which his responsibilities grew.

In 1999, David accepted a position with AAA Capital Management, an energy hedge fund, where he specialized in natural gas futures trading. He continued to handle additional progressively greater trading responsibilities with AAA until 2006, when Mr. Coolidge launched his own hedge fund, Velite Capital Management. David successfully lead Velite until 2015 when he sold the company.

Robert G. Gootee

Director

As President and Chief Executive Officer of Oregon-based Moda, founded in 1955, Robert is widely recognized as a thought leader and civic influencer in business ethics, environmental sustainability and more equitable corporate cultures.

Born and raised in Texas, Robert earned an undergraduate degree in forestry and a Master of Business Administration from Texas A&M University before launching his career as a certified public accountant. He held several financial management positions in the high-tech, environmental, healthcare and insurance industries before joining Moda (then ODS) as Vice President of Finance in 1988. Since being appointed President and CEO in 1998, Robert has led the company through dramatic growth to annual revenues of more than $4 billion.

With more than 1,300 employees, Moda today is a multifaceted organization offering a wide range of medical, dental, pharmacy and vision plans and attendant business products and services. The company has more than 400,000 members in its medical plans and more than 700,000 members in its stand-alone pharmacy segment. The Moda family of enterprises includes Moda Health, Ardon Health, Arrow Dental, Astra Practice Partners, BenefitHelp Solutions, Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Organization, Emerging Health, Moda Assurance Company, ODS Community Dental, OHSU Health IDS, and Summit Health. Affiliated companies include Delta Dental of Oregon and Delta Dental of Alaska with more than 1 million dental members.

A passionate bicyclist, Robert sets the healthy-living-standard for his workforce by frequent commuting on two wheels. But his environmental contributions extend far beyond pedaling to Moda’s signature headquarters in downtown Portland. He is a long-time supporter of The Nature Conservancy and served for more than 20 years on its Oregon Board of Trustees. Other board engagement across his long career of public service includes the Oregon Health Leadership Council, Oregon Health & Science University Foundation, Delta Dental Plans Association and the Oregon Hospice Association. In 2017, he endowed at Texas A&M the Gootee Family Forestry Scholarship in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management.

Robert’s recent civic recognition includes the David G. Fitzpatrick Award honoring “Vision, Leadership & Generosity” transforming the lives of young people through education, the Governors Gold Award for “Contributions to the Greatness of Oregon”, recognition as the “Executive of the Year” from the Portland Business Journal, and the Summit Award from Texas A&M University honoring “The 100 fastest-growing Aggie-owned or Aggie-led businesses in the world.”

In 2013, Robert signed a landmark 15-year community investment agreement with the Portland Trail Blazers. In recognition of Moda’s commitment to that partnership, the basketball team renamed its arena, a central city landmark, the Moda Center.