External board members

Jon McCarthy, Ph.D.
Board Chair

Jon McCarthy was elected to the Microscopy Innovations board in 2012 and currently serves as chairman. Recently retired with emeritus status, Jon McCarthy served as director of Shared Instrumentation Facilities at University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering. Dr. McCarthy is former president of Thermo Noran, where he was responsible for company direction and P&L for this microanalysis division of Thermo Electron. He led the acquisition of several related companies, and the integration of Kevex and Spectrace into Thermo Noran.

Jon is an expert in materials analysis by x-ray microanalysis, design of energy dispersive x-ray spectrometers, and confocal microscopy. He has broad experience in materials characterization, and nanofabrication instrumentation and techniques. McCarthy is past  president of the Microbeam Analysis Society. He holds his PhD in experimental physics from Iowa State University.

Todd W. Motto
Board Member

For the last 6 years, as President of Formot Enterprises, LLC, Todd has led the investment based strategic direction, as well as implementation and management of investments in all areas: Private Equity, Real Estate, traditional Equity and Debt portfolios. He also plays a significant role in managing several start-up companies. Prior to Formot, Todd spent 20 years in sales and marketing at Meridian Bioscience, Inc., a Human Clinical Diagnostics and Life Sciences Company. Most recently he was Vice President of Business Development, where he led the strategic acquisition and outside partnership process for the Company. Prior to that he was Meridian’s Global Vice President of Sales and Marketing where he was responsible for identifying, proposing and leading the development of new products, markets and partnerships around the world. He was responsible for over $150 Million in sales across 90 countries. Todd developed experience in the Investment Banking and Market Research industries early in his career. Todd earned a degree in Marketing from Bowling Green State University in 1989.

Meru Thakur
Board Member

Mr. Thakur has 25 years of experience in managing strategic technology initiatives at Mellon Bank, Conrail, Verizon and IBM. His consulting experience includes advising senior management on technology investment, integration and governance at Pfizer, American Airlines, Investors Bank and Trust, and American Express.

In addition to Microscopy Innovations, Meru is currently a board member at Neoclone Biotechnology. He has served on the board’of other technology start-ups, including SoLoMo and BioSystem Development. He is a member of Silicon Pastures angel network. During his tenure on the BioSystems Development board, a successful exit for investors was achieved through acquisition by Agilent Technologies, Inc. He holds an MBA and a PhD from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.