The 13-member Bioscience Innovation Advisory Committee, named Dec. 23, consists largely of executives living west of the Connecticut River.

Committee members, headed by Connecticut Innovations' chief executive Claire Leonardi, will approve disbursements of money from the Connecticut Bioscience Innovation Fund overseen by Lyme resident Jeremy Crisp, a former Novartis executive who serves as CI's executive vice president and chief innovation officer.

Four committee members were chosen by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, while the president pro tempore of the state Senate, speaker of the House and majority and minority leaders of each chamber appointed one member each. The commissioners of the state's Department of Economic and Community Development and Department of Public Health serve as ex-officio voting members, and Leonardi will be committee chairperson.

Board members and their backgrounds are as follows:

Peter Farina of North Salem, N.Y., an executive in residence at Canaan Partners, a Westport venture capital firm.

Steven D. Hanks of Farmington, vice president of medical affairs for Hartford HealthCare's central region.

Joseph J. Kaliko of Greenwich, president and chief executive officer of Gaming Innovations International LLC, which designs innovative gaming products and services for lotteries and their suppliers internationally.

Marc Lalande of West Hartford, chair of the Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology and executive director of Genomics and Personalized Medicine Programs at the University of Connecticut.

William LaRochelle of Madison, member of the Roche 454 Sequencing Solutions International Business Team and head of key opinion leader management.

Charles Lee of Farmington, scientific director of The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine.

Jewel Mullen of Middlefield, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

Claire Leonardi of Avon, chief executive officer of Connecticut Innovations and a veteran investment and venture capital executive with more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Alan Mendelson of West Hartford, founder and a general partner of Axiom Venture Partners.

Edmund Pezalla of Wethersfield, Aetna's national medical director for pharmaceutical policy and strategy.

Carolyn Slayman of Hamden, deputy dean of Yale School of Medicine and Sterling Professor of Genetics and a professor of cellular and molecular physiology.

Catherine Smith of Northford, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development and a former executive in the insurance and financial services industry.

Eleanor L. Tandler of Guilford, founder and chief executive officer of NovaTract Surgical Inc.