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Mr. Higgins joined the Akonni Biosystems Board in 2011 and has served as Akonni’s Chairman of the Board since 2013. He is a member of the Board of Directors for Prosetta Biosciences, Inc., a biotech drug development company. Mr. Higgins also served as Prosetta’s founding President and CEO from 2003-2008. Before that time, Mr. Higgins was President and Chief Operating Officer of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR). BSR is the leading global resource for businesses seeking to improve their performance in areas of corporate social responsibility. Mr. Higgins served in the administration of President Carter, beginning as a senior executive at the Department of Health Education and Welfare, where he was Director of Region VII, and at HHS, as Associate Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. His service culminated as a presidential appointee on the White House Senior Staff, where he served as Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet. Mr. Higgins has served as a senior vice president of Edison International and its subsidiary, Southern California Edison, and as a Senior Vice President of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of MD. Earlier in his career, he was head of the health department in Portland, Oregon; founding publisher of the Portland Business Journal; co-founder and Editor in Chief of HealthWeek Publications; and a three term state representative in Iowa. Mr. Higgins currently serves on the boards of directors of Zen Hospice Project, C-TAC, SCAN Health Plan and The SCAN Foundation. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Ambrose University, where he graduated cum laude in 1967. He is also a co-founder and chairman of the board of Amber Kinetics, an energy storage company in Union City, Ca.