John G. Watson Foundation Board Members

The John G. Watson Foundation is led by a Board of Directors comprised of experienced representatives from leading local businesses with diverse professional backgrounds.

Caitlin Wege

Caitlin is a partner at MooDoos Investments, a private family-owned investment fund that invests in early-stage companies throughout North America. MooDoos is industry agnostic and invests in several industries including life sciences, manufacturing and education technology. She is an experienced angel investor and fund manager that serves on the board of portfolio companies CPL Canada, its sister company, Glasshouse Pharmaceuticals and Neuralace Medical.

In addition to her work with MooDoos she is Chairman of Tech Coast Angels, San Diego Chapter. Tech Coast Angels is the largest Angel network in the US. She is also a trustee and finance committee member for the Wege Foundation, an environmentally-focused family foundation based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a board member of The Ecology Center in Orange County and serves as a mentor and advisory board member for the ZIP Launchpad, the business accelerator at San Diego State University.

Stephen Flaim

Dr. Flaim holds a doctorate in Human Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of California at Davis. He held faculty positions in Medicine and Physiology at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and senior management roles at the Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute, the Squibb Institute for Medical Research, Alliance Pharmaceutical Corporation, Trega Biosciences, Inc. and Galileo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Flaim is Founder and President of Flaim Partners Consulting, a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the American College of Clinical Pharmacology. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

Dr. Flaim is Director Emeritus of the Angel Capital Association, Past Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Tech Coast Angels, Past President and Chairman of the San Diego Network of Tech Coast Angels, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with CONNECT, Chairman & CEO of the John G. Watson Foundation and is active in numerous regional and national scientific organizations. He is a technology and business advisor to the William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement at the University of California, San Diego and Senior Special Advisor and Investor-in-Residence to the Office of Translational Alliances and Coordination in the Division of Extramural Research Activities of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institutes of the National Institutes of Health.

Jeff Draa

Jeff Draa is a technology business executive with a background in semiconductor equipment, nanomaterials, enterprise software, web-based e-commerce and new venture funding.  In his early career, Jeff supported chip makers like Intel with the equipment and materials needed to build state of the art chip factories.

Currently Jeff is CEO and Co-Founder of Grolltex, Inc., an advanced biosensor and graphene materials company that leverages research and IP out of The University of California, San Diego.  He is also Chairman Emeritus of the Tech Coast Angels, a Southern California venture funding group.  Jeff is a member of several corporate and non-profit boards, including at Peachjar, an early stage e-commerce company that helps schools go paperless and the John G. Watson Foundation which supports entrepreneurism in Southern California.  Jeff lives with his family in San Diego, California.