CNMI Board of Directors
Jose Anaya, El Camino/CACTs
Jose is the Dean of Community Advancement at El Camino College. He oversees the Centers for Applied Competitive Technologies as the Statewide Initiative Director, hosted at El Camino College. He has maintained a steady relationship with the Chancellors’ Office and EWDP partners, as well as Federal and State Legislatures. Jose has 12 years of experience working as a Center Director and Statewide Director with the Advanced Manufacturing initiative. His employment in the private sector spans 17 years and includes notable advanced manufacturing firms such as Honeywell, ITT Industries and DataCard. His areas of expertise are product design, manufacturing, management, and economic and workforce development. Jose has a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnics University and an MBA from the University of Southern California.
Diran Apelian, U.C. Irvine
Diran is Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, Chief Strategy Officer for the Samueli School of Engineering, and Director of the Advanced Casting Research Center at UCI. He is also Provost Emeritus and Founding Director of the Metal Processing Institute at WPI, Worcester, Mass. He received his B.S. degree in metallurgical engineering from Drexel University in 1968 and his doctorate in materials science and engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972.
Leonard Mitchell, USC
Leonard is a Clinical Professor of Economic Development at the University of Southern California. He has over 35 years of comprehensive, multi-level experience as a Counselor at Law and Consultant to Executive Level Management in the areas of business law, business workouts, corporate acquisitions, and multiple business and financial experience. He served as Staff Consultant to the Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary for The Honorable Peter Rodino, and conducted a national study on “Hostile Corporate Takeovers: Their Financing and Related Implications in Financial Markets and on Employment.” In addition, he has spent a significant amount of time over the last 14 years researching and developing background information on eco-industrial parks and sustainable communities. He holds a Master's degree in Educational Administration from Goddard College, an MBA from George Washington University, and a Juris Doctorate degree in Law from the Antioch School of Law.
Todd Pray, Ph.D., Berkeley Lab
Todd Pray was named Berkeley Lab’s Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer (CSPO) and head of the Strategic Partnerships Office (SPO) in March 2019. Prior to this, Todd’s career had been dedicated to developing technologies that improve human health and environmental sustainability across a broad spectrum of pharmaceutical, food science, and renewable fuel and chemical product R&D programs. As CSPO, he is committed to expanding his vision and focus to encompass all areas of scientific research represented at the Lab. Todd holds an M.B.A. from Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley; Ph.D. in BioPhysics from the University of California at San Francisco; and B.S. degree in Biological Chemistry from the University of Chicago.
Christopher M. Spadaccini, Ph.D., LLNL
Christopher is currently the Materials Engineering Division Leader in the Engineering Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He has been working in advanced additive manufacturing process development and architected materials for over 14 years and has over 70 peer-reviewed publications including 4 book chapters, more than 100 invited presentations, and over 50 patents awarded or pending. Christopher founded several new fabrication laboratories at LLNL for additive manufacturing and process development focused on micro and nano-scale features and mixed material printing, as well as scale-up for higher throughput. He was the founding Director of the Center for Engineered Materials and Manufacturing prior to becoming a division leader and co-led efforts to establish the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory, a new facility in the Livermore Valley Open Campus. In his role as MED division leader, he manages an organization of approximately 550 staff including engineers and scientists, post-docs, machinists, and technicians, as well as over a dozen facilities. He has been a member of the LLNL technical staff for 18 years. Christopher has also been a lecturer in the Chemical, Materials, and Biomedical Engineering Department at San Jose State University, where he taught graduate courses in heat, mass, and momentum transport. He is currently an adjunct faculty member at the University of California, Davis, in the Chemical Engineering Department.
Gene Russell, Manex (MEP)
Gene is President and CEO of Manex and has over 30 years of senior executive strategic planning, operation management and consulting experience in the manufacturing and technology sector. Prior to joining Manex, he led companies within several rapidly changing industries including telecommunications, wireless mobile, consumer electronics, and major appliances. Gene was CEO of Pilgrim Home and Hearth where he was instrumental in restructuring operations in the U.S. and China, diversified and revamped product lines, expanded distribution channels domestically and internationally and developed a management team that produced results. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Jim Watson, CMTC (MEP)
Jim is President and CEO of CMTC. He began at CMTC in 1999 as Vice President of Business Development and transitioned to the position of Vice President of Operations in 2001 which he held for the past 10 years until he assumed his role as CEO in 2011. With over 30 years of management experience in the areas of strategic planning, operations management, organizational design, sales and marketing and cultural alignment, he brings a wide range of knowledge to his current position. Prior to joining CMTC, Jim worked at Western Airlines as Vice President of Passenger and Cargo Sales and then was Vice President and General Manager of SuperShuttle International before moving to Anchor Audio as the Vice President of Sales and General Manager Europe. Jim holds a Bachlelor’s degree in Political Science from California State University, Northridge.