Management
Susan Barich - Executive Director
Susan Barich joined the Marina Technology Cluster in 2003 from the Silicon Valley World Internet Center. She has more than 20 years of experience serving businesses in the Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay areas, particularly in the areas of business communications, strategy and project development, including eight years working with small and emerging companies. She sits on the advisory boards of the San Jose Environmental Business Cluster and the Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center. She was founding chair of the Silicon Valley Industry Education Advisory Board, and is a founding member of the Pacific Incubation Network. Susan is the former director of communications and client services for the Silicon Valley World Internet Center. She was the director of the Regional Environmental Business Resource and Assistance Center at Mission College in Santa Clara, and she was the associate director of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network's environmental initiative. Susan also spent one year with the TEN/NASA incubator, assisting technology start-ups with marketing, as well as designing and implementing the Academic Bridge, the incubator's outreach to colleges and universities.
Alan Barich - Operations Director
Alan Barich's 30 years of engineering, sales, marketing and general management experience includes complete profit and loss responsibility in the power industry, manufacturing and logistics and 8 years working inside start-up companies. He has run small, privately owned businesses as well as large divisions of publicly held enterprises. Alan has turned around small companies by managing cash flow and customer confidence. He worked his way up through the ranks of Enterprise Engine Company, an engine-manufacturing division of both Transamerica Delaval and, later, IMO Industries, from field engineer to sales and marketing to customer service to general manager of the division. He was then recruited to create the TurboCare Division of IMO Industries, now owned by Siemens, from 5 former competitors servicing the after-market needs of turbo machinery world-wide. After successfully positioning TurbCare in the market, Alan worked with start-up companies in Silicon Valley, then provided turn-around general management for a failing aftermarket engine company in northern California, managing their cash flow and client relations to bring them back to profitability. From 1997 to 2007, Alan was vice-president of a privately held warehousing and logistics company in Hayward, managing all aspects of the business. Alan currently consults with renewable energy technologists to commercialize products from their technologies. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo.
Adam Davis - Operations Manager
Adam is responsible for facilities management and operations, including office management, IT, accounts payable and receivable, lease management and vendor management. He also tracks services to CDBG-grant-funded clients and manages all grant reporting to the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) in Sacramento. When you call on the phone, the first voice you hear will most likely be Adam's.
Chris Khan - Associate Director
Chris Khan is the principal of Khan-Bernier, a business services consultancy to private start-up companies and government entities. He has worked with nearly two hundred incubator clients since 2003 and has been serving as Associate Director of the Marina Technology Cluster since 2007. He serves on the steering committee for the Project 17 Agricultural Technology Regional Innovation Cluster and on the steering committee for the Monterey Bay Regional Business Plan Competition.
Chris’s background includes more than 18 years experience in the semiconductor industry in the areas of production, engineering, and management. He was CEO of Epitaxy, Inc., where he led the company to successful acquisition by LG of Korea. He has consulted in the development of software design for Washington and California-based companies including his work as a standards research fellow for the Department of Defense in Seaside, California. He is retired from the School of Information Technology and Communications Design at CSU Monterey Bay after 10 years as a program coordinator, lecturer, and graduate advisor.
Chris holds both an MS degree in Management and Information Technology and a BS degree in Telecommunications, Multimedia, and Applied Computing from CSU Monterey Bay. His latest effort is the development of SEED Microenterprise, a non-profit organization focused on connecting microenterprise business start-up and support resources with people starting microenterprise businesses.