Board of directors
 |
Kathy J. Odell |
Kathy Odell is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of leadership experience in high growth technology enterprises. Most recently she served as founding CEO of Inogen, Inc., a manufacturer of advanced oxygen therapy devices for treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Inogen attracted over $53M in capital from top tier venture firms and is currently one of the leading firms in the Portable Oxygen Concentrator (POC) segment of the durable medical equipment market.
She began her entrepreneurial career in 1985 as co-founder Medical
Concepts, Inc., which over a five year period became the world’s leading
designer and manufacturer of video systems for minimally invasive
surgery, resulting in its acquisition by Karl Storz Endoscopy GmbH in
1990. Following the acquisition, Kathy served the Storz organization
as Managing Director of Karl Storz Imaging and President of Karl Storz
Veterinary Endoscopy America.
In January 2000 Kathy was recruited to become Vice President of Enterprise Services for Agility
Communications, Inc., a fast-growth, venture backed, photonics start-up
engaged in the development and manufacture of tunable lasers. Joining
the founding team after the close of the first venture round, Kathy
assumed responsibility for human resources, administration, operations
and facilities, participating in the growth of the company from a single
location with 15 employees to a company of 272 employees in three
locations in less than 15 months.
Kathy is actively involved in entrepreneurial activities in the Santa
Barbara area. In addition to iMagic, she serves as a board member and
management advisor to three early stage/growth stage companies. She
was a founding director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and
Engineering Management (CEEM) at the University of California Santa
Barbara, and has been a guest lecturer at UCSB on entrepreneurial
business formation and leadership issues. She presently serves on the
UCSB Foundation Board of Trustees.
In addition to her work with private enterprises, since 1999 Kathy
has been a director of Pacific Capital Bancorp, N.A. (NASDAQ:PCBC), a
regional community bank with $7.5B in assets. She currently serves as
Chair of the Compensation Committee and as a member of the Governance
and Nominating Committee and Executive Committee.
Kathy received the 2005 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Greater Los Angeles area; her other honors include the 2005 Venky Award for entrepreneurial leadership presented by UCSB; the Women’s Economic Ventures 2001 Entrepreneur of the Year and the 1998 South Coast Business and Technology Award as Executive of the Year. Kathy is a graduate of Stanford University.