Andr� Mendes Born and raised in Portugal, Andr� Mendes came to the United States at the age of 17 to study genetics and play basketball. After a rather circuitous route that had him wash dishes, wait tables, lay tile, teach pre-schoolers, program, manage programmers, and finally lead PBS's Information Technology Division for a couple of years, in the March 26th issue of Computerworld, Andr� was named as one of the Premier 100 IT leaders in the country. As for basketball, in 1981 Andr� was an Academic All-American at a Maryland junior college where he quickly, albeit reluctantly, realized that 6'2'' shooting guards are a dime a dozen and that bad ankles and a sunny disposition do not a major college or NBA star make. After leaving PBS in March of this year, Andr� now finds himself squarely back in the Life Sciences arena as COO and CTO of Pluvita Corporation, a biotechnology startup whose aim is to revolutionize the way that disease inception is detected and individually targeted pharmaceuticals are developed. Andr� speaks five languages fluently and resides in Potomac, MD with his wife Cassidy and son Mark.
COO & CTO, Pluvita Corporation
(former VP and CIO, PBS)
2001 PBS Technology Conference CD-ROM