Here’s a look at the nine members confirmed Thursday to the board of the Kansas Bioscience Authority:

Jim Barone

Barone

State Sen. Jim Barone, D-Frontenac, was elected to the Kansas Senate in November 1996 and re-elected in 2000.

As well as serving as the ranking Democrat member of both the Senate Commerce and Utilities committees, Barone is a member of the Senate Ways & Means, Economic Development, and Pensions, Investments & Benefits committees. He is a member of the National Council of State Legislatures’ Communications & Information Policy Committee.

Barone played a key role in passage of the Kansas Economic Growth Act while serving on the Senate Commerce Committee, where the bioscience bill was heard and approved. He also served on the conference committee that refined the bill signed into law.

Barone worked for Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. until 1991. He retired with 30 years service.

A native of southeast Kansas, Barone graduated from Pittsburg State University in 1962 with a degree in business administration.

He was appointed to the board by Anthony Hensley, Senate minority leader.

Clay Blair

Clay Blair is a Johnson County businessman and real estate developer. Among his projects are the First Watch restaurant chain and Pinnacle Village Shopping Center in Johnson County. He owns Clay Blair Services Corp. Blair began his career as a professor of business administration at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Mo.

Blair also serves as a member of the Johnson County Visioning Committee, the Johnson County Infrastructure Advisory Board and the Johnson County Charter Revision Commission.

Blair is a former chairman and vice chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents and current chairman of the Kansas Research Enhancement Building Corp., which is charged with designing and building three research facilities across the state — a biomedical center at Kansas University, a biosecurity facility at Kansas State University and an expansion of the aviation research center at Wichita State University. Blair played a key role in enactment of the state legislation that allotted $120 million in state bonds to the project.

Blair

He earned a bachelor’s degree from KU in 1965, a master’s in business administration from Indiana University in 1966 and a doctorate in higher education administration from KU in 1969.

He was appointed to the board by Dave Kerr, Senate president.

David R. Franz

David R. Franz joined the faculty at Kansas State University in fall 2003 as director of the National Agricultural Biosecurity Center. He also is chief biological scientist and head of the Consulting for Biological Defense group at Midwest Research Institute, Kansas City, Mo.

Previously, he was vice president of the Chemical and Biological Defense Division at the Southern Research Institute at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Franz served in the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for 23 of 27 years on active duty. He has been both deputy commander and commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and of the Medical Research and Materiel Command.

Franz served as chief inspector on three U.N. Special Commission biological warfare inspection missions to Iraq, and as technical adviser on long-term monitoring.

Franz

His current national-level committee appointments include the Defense Intelligence Agency Red Team Bio-Chem 2020, Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Threat Reduction Advisory Committee Science & Technology Panel and Counterproliferation Panel, co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Advanced Sensors, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Research Standards and Practices, and the National Academy of Sciences Committee for Research with Russian Biological Institutes, which he chairs.

Originally from Hutchinson, Franz holds a D.V.M. from Kansas State and Ph.D. in physiology from Baylor College of Medicine.

He was appointed to the board by Doug Mays, speaker of the House.

Dan Glickman

Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman this year was named president of the Motion Picture Association of America. Previously, he served as director of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Glickman was secretary of agriculture from 1995 to 2001.

Glickman served 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Kansas’ 4th Congressional District. During that time, he served as a member of the House Agriculture Committee, including six years as chairman of the subcommittee that had jurisdiction over most federal farm policy issues. He also was a member of the House Judiciary Committee.

Glickman serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange; Communities in Schools; America’s Second Harvest; Food Research and Action Center; RFK Memorial Foundation; and The Farm Foundation. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. He also co-chairs the boards of the U.S. Consensus Council and The Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology.

Glickman received his B.A. in history from the University of Michigan and his J.D. from George Washington University.

He was appointed to the board by Dennis McKinney, House minority leader.

Glickman

Victoria Franchetti Haynes

Victoria Franchetti Haynes’ career spans 27 years of technology leadership, management and new business development. In July 1999, Haynes became president and chief executive officer of RTI International, which conducts research and provides services for the government, industry and universities in the areas of health, environment, education, training, science and engineering. Among its newest initiatives is the commercialization of proprietary technology.

Prior to joining RTI, Haynes worked for The BF Goodrich Co. first serving as vice president of research and development and later as vice president of the Advanced Technology Group and chief technical officer. From 1977 to 1992, she worked at Monsanto Research Corp., with her final role being director of technology, plastics division.

Haynes serves on numerous corporate, not-for-profit and advisory boards, including MCNC Research and Development Institute, PPG Industries, Inc., Lubrizol Corp. and Nucor Corp.

She received her Ph.D. in physical/organic chemistry from Boston University in 1975, an M.A. in college teaching from Boston University in 1971 and a B.S. in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1969.

She was appointed to the board by Sebelius.

Haynes

Sandra Lawrence

In 2004, Sandra Lawrence was named senior vice president and treasurer of Kansas City-based Midwest Research Institute, an independent, not-for-profit laboratory that conducts scientific research and technology development for government and industry. She oversees MRI’s business management, human resources and information technology and facilities operations.

Lawrence joined MRI several years ago as director of its Center for Regional Development. She left to become general manager, then vice president of administration for Gateway. Most recently she was president and CEO of Global Packing Solutions Inc. She also has been president of Stern Bros., an investment banking firm.

Lawrence received her A.B. in psychology, with an emphasis in statistics, from Vassar College. She went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she earned a master’s in architecture with a focus on urban design and civil engineering. She later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

She was appointed to the board by by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Stephen O’Connor

Stephen O’Connor is founder and CEO of Pasadena, Calif.-based Nanostream, a biotech company whose technology allows pharmaceutical companies to bring drugs to market faster. The company provides microfluidic products, or “chips” with miniaturized channels, to move nanoliters of fluids involved in biological and chemical reactions.

Lawrence

O’Connor founded or co-founded three other technology companies in Southern California. He is named as inventor on nine patents and has authored 15 scientific articles on topics including molecular wires, hair morphology and tooth decay.

In 2002, Technology Review, MIT’s magazine of innovation, chose O’Connor as one of the world’s 100 Top Young Innovators. He is a member of the board of directors of Pasadena Entretec.

O’Connor earned his doctorate in physical chemistry from the California Institute of Technology.

He was appointed to the board by the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp.

Bill Sanford

Bill Sanford is chairman and chief executive officer of NanoScale Materials Inc., a technology company spin-off from Kansas State University. He is founder and chairman of Symark LLC, a technology commercialization, business development and private equity firm headquartered in Naples, Fla. In addition, he is executive founder, retired chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of Steris Corp.

O'Connor

Sanford is an experienced entrepreneur, executive, consultant, investor and board member with extensive new venture, turnaround, senior management and market development experience. His business career spans 39 years with emphasis on the development and marketing of health care and scientific products, medical devices, health services and advanced information systems.

Sanford serves as a board member and adviser to KeyCorp, Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University, Wilson Greatbatch Technologies Inc., Biomec Inc., Primus Venture Partners, BioEnterprise Corporation and several early-stage technology companies and investment partnerships. He is chairman emeritus of the Northeast Ohio Regional Technology Coalition, vice chairman of Omeris Inc. (formerly the Edison BioTechnology Center), charter member of the state of Ohio Technology Action Board and a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Sanford is a trustee of the Kansas State University Foundation, vice chairman of the Kansas State University Research Foundation, chairman of the President’s Entrepreneurial Roundtable and chairman of the Commercialization Committee of the College of Business Advisory Council.

He received his Bachelor’s of Science in biological sciences from KSU in 1965.

Sanford was appointed to the board by Kerr.

Dolph C. Simons Jr.

Dolph C. Simons Jr. is chairman of The World Company, which owns cable television provider Sunflower Broadband and the Lawrence Journal-World, of which he is editor. The company also has weekly newspapers in Douglas, Leavenworth and Johnson counties. As chairman of The World Company, Simons oversees newspaper and broadband operations, plus World Online, its Web division.

Simons recently resigned as chairman of the Kansas University Endowment Association; he remains a member of the board and its executive committee. He has served as president of the William Allen White Foundation, Kansas Press Assn. and Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the board of trustees of Midwest Research Institute; trustee of the Menninger Foundation; past member of the Central Governing Board, Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City; member of the advisory committee of the KU School of Business; and former director of Oread Laboratories Inc. and Commerce Bancshares in Kansas City, Mo. He is a former director of The Associated Press, Inland Daily Press Assn., American Newspaper Publishers Assn., Lawrence National Bank and Lawrence Memorial Hospital. He also is national past president of the KU Alumni Association. He is a trustee of the National Parks and Conservation Assn., a former trustee of Kansas Nature Conservancy and a four-time Pulitzer juror.

Simons graduated from KU in 1951.

He was appointed to the board by Mays.

Simons

Bioscience Authority goes to work