R. Matthew Neff

President & CEO

R. Matthew Neff graduated a Phi Beta Kappa from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, in 1977. Mr. Neff was awarded a B.A. in English with highest honors. In 1980, he earned a Juris Doctor degree from Indiana University with high honors. Mr. Neff was the Executive Editor of the Indiana Law Review.

Mr. Neff practiced law with the Indianapolis law firm of Krieg DeVault Alexander & Capehart for eight years, first as an associate attorney, and then as a partner. From 1988 until 1992, Mr. Neff was a partner in the Indiana law firm of Baker & Daniels.

From 1992 to 1993, Mr. Neff served as the Deputy to the Chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board, the regulator and governor of the $200 Billion Federal Home Loan Bank System. Mr. Neff led the effort to develop and build support for the first-ever strategic plan of the Federal Home Loan Bank System. He was also responsible for managing the external relationships of the Finance Board, including those with the White House and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as with other bank regulatory agencies.

In 1993, Mr. Neff co-founded Circle Investors, Inc., an insurance holding company that ultimately acquired four life insurance companies aggregating $250 Million in assets.

In 1998, Mr. Neff co-founded Senex Financial Corp., a financial services company engaged in the healthcare finance field. As the Chairman and CEO of Senex, Mr. Neff led three rounds of institutional financing, as well as the negotiation of bank financing and securitization transactions.

In August, 2007, Mr. Neff left Senex to become the President and Chief Executive Officer of CHV Capital, Inc.

Mr. Neff is currently the Chairman of the Board of IU Health Risk Retention Group and IUH Assurance Ltd., an offshore reinsurer located in the Cayman Islands. He is also a Director of Quanta Specialty Lines Insurance Company, headquartered in New York City, Unified Financial Services, Inc., a financial services company headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky and was formerly on the Board of Governors of the Riley Children's Foundation and a director of the Conseco Strategic Income Fund, a publicly-traded closed-end mutual fund now owned by Brookfield Asset Management. Mr. Neff also sits on the Boards of Directors of Perfinity BioSciences, Inc., and iScience Interventional, portfolio companies of CHV Capital. He currently chairs Board Audit, Compensation, and Nominating/Governance Committees. Mr. Neff served as a Delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging.

Mr. Neff resides in Indianapolis with his wife Lee. They are the parents of three children.

Kyle Salyers

Managing Director

Kyle Salyers is a Co-founder and Managing Director of CHV Capital, Inc. (CHV), a wholly owned venture capital affiliate of Indiana's largest integrated delivery network, Indiana University Health.  Kyle is the lead investor and a Director or Board Observer for NICO Corporation, MindFrame, NeoChord, Celleration, Perfect Serve, Noxilizer and MedVentive.

Mr. Salyers brings an integrated set of experiences and success as an entrepreneur, an investor, an economic development professional, and as a political staff member.   As an investor, Mr. Salyers co-managed the venture activities of Rose-Hulman Ventures, an affiliate of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, in over 30 technology based start-up companies which included Suros Surgical Systems. Suros was acquired by Hologic in 2006 and provided Rose-Hulman Institute the single largest non-grant cash infusion in the institution’s history.  

Mr. Salyers has played leadership roles in developing and funding a number of large scale public/ private economic development partnerships.  As the Economic Development Manager for Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, he was instrumental in establishing the City’s first technology-based economic development plan: The Mayor’s High Technology Task Force and later served as the Vice President of the Indiana Technology Partnership.

As the Senior Vice President for Innovation & New Ventures at Thomas P. Miller & Associates (TPMA), Kyle led economic development and technology commercialization for many high profile clients including Purdue University.   During his tenure TPMA was recognized as one of Central Indiana’s top 10 fastest growing private businesses for three consecutive years.

In 2005, the President of Indiana University engaged Mr. Salyers to develop the University’s first comprehensive economic development strategy, Advancing Indiana and serve as a Special Advisor and Executive Director of the Advancing Indiana initiative.

Mr. Salyers is the acting Chair of the Indiana University School of Nursing National Advisory Board and serves on the Board of Directors of TechPoint, and the Advisory Board of the Eiteljorg Museum of Native American and Western Art.

Mr. Salyers is a graduate of DePauw University with degrees in Economics and Sociology and was a four year varsity basketball player. Mr. Salyers has an MBA from the University of Notre Dame and completed Harvard University’s Making Corporate Boards More Effective executive education program.  Kyle and his wife Natasha have three daughters.
 

Kun Ma, MD, PhD, MBA

Director of Venture Analysis

Dr. Kun Ma has knowledge of both business and science.

Dr. Ma has worked for Indiana University Research and Technology Corporation, managed numerous technologies in biopharma/life science field, negotiated and maintained deals with a broad range of companies from startups to multinationals. He also worked for Tripos, Inc. as a Market Research Analyst and a Financial Analyst. He helped the marketing group to segment the market for the company's computational chemistry products and services and optimized marketing strategy. He also conducted full-scale company valuation, and evaluated gaps between the results and the market cap to help make financial and business strategies. Dr. Ma also worked for Zystor Therapeutics, Inc., an early stage biotech company, and developed a strategic plan of preclinical and clinical trials for the company's pipeline of large molecules, incorporating regulatory requirements, development timeline, and financial requirements. He also held a research position at the National Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Genetic Engineering, an institution devoted to research and commercialization of large-molecule therapeutics for infectious diseases, immune diseases and cancers.

Dr. Ma has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Indiana University, an MBA in Marketing and Strategy from the Olin School of Business of Washington University in St. Louis, and a MD from Beijing Medical University.

He resides in Indianapolis with his wife and two children.

Derrick M. Smith

Senior Associate CHV Capital

Vice President of Operations-University Health Management (China)

Derrick Smith is a Senior Associate for CHV Capital and Vice President of Operations for University Health Management (China), one of CHV Capital’s portfolio companies.

Mr. Smith has had a variety of experiences in healthcare business development, including roles with an academic hospital system, two medical device start-ups and a biopharmaceutical contract research and manufacturing organization (CRMO).
In his first healthcare-related role, Mr. Smith assisted Indiana University Health Cardiovascular in strategic placement of providers and related services around the State of Indiana for market expansion and referral growth.  He also worked with and advised physicians and other providers on improvements in customer satisfaction in the outpatient setting.

Mr. Smith then used his knowledge of the cardiovascular market and background in science with two cardiovascular medical device start-ups.  Mr. Smith consulted the founders and management teams on key market opportunities and product development pathways.  Both companies continue to operate and attract funding.

At Cook Pharmica, Mr. Smith helped the biopharmaceutical CRMO develop and implement its brand strategy and value proposition.  He created innovative methods to quantify and communicate the value proposition to big pharma customers.  In addition to his marketing activities, Mr. Smith also worked with the sales team in targeting and attracting highly-valued customers.

Mr. Smith graduated from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business with a Masters of Business Administration (2011).  He also obtained his Masters of Health Administration from the Indiana University School of Medicine (2011) and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology from Indiana University (2007).

Mr. Smith currently lives in Indianapolis, IN.

Dawn Cherry

Executive Assistant

Dawn started her career in 1998 as an Inventory Coordinator and Associate in the Accounting Department of Dynamic Corporation (now Dayton Phoenix Group) located in Montmorenci, Indiana. Dynamic Corporation manufactures braking resistors for locomotives and off-highway trucks.

In 2000, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee to take on the roll of Executive Assistant to Al Hagaman of O'Neil Hagaman, Al Hagaman is the Business Manager for Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, The Dixie Chicks, Trace Adkins, Emmy Lou Harris and K.T. Oslin.

In 2003, she moved to Fishers, Indiana and became the Executive Assistant to R. Matthew Neff and Kyle Lanham at Senex Services. Senex is a debt factoring company created by Mr. Neff and Mr. Lanham.

At it's inception in 2007, she came to work as the Executive Assistant for the CHV team at CHV Capital, Inc.

Dawn is a graduate of Indiana Business College with degrees in Business Administration and Accounting. Dawn and her husband Jason live in Fishers, Indiana and have three sons.