Mark D. Fischer-Colbrie
President, Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Fischer-Colbrie was named President and CEO in September 2008 after working for one year as a business development consultant for the company. He has over 25 years of experience in companies in the areas of diagnostics, medical devices, therapeutics and high technology and has been involved in three Initial Public Offerings. Prior to joining Labcyte, Mr. Fischer-Colbrie was Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer at Adeza Biomedical Corporation, a women’s health care company, which became public in December 2004 and was subsequently sold for over $450 million. During his tenure from February 2001 to May 2007, Mr. Fischer-Colbrie was inventor and co-inventor on five patent applications and ran the Business Development function for three years. Prior that role, Mr. Fischer-Colbrie was the Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer for nearly nine years for KeraVision, Inc., a vision correction company. At Maxtor Corporation, a manufacturer of disk drives that grew from a start-up to $1.2 billion in revenue, he held several positions from April 1983 to February 1992 including Vice-President, Finance, Corporate Controller and Advanced Technology Business Manager.
Mr. Fischer-Colbrie holds a BA from Stanford University and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in numerous roles for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, including as President, Greater Bay Area Chapter. He is currently a member of the Nominating Committee for the JDRF International Board and the JDRF National Speaker’s Program.
Richard Ellson
Chief Technology Officer
Mr. Ellson is a founder of Labcyte. Previously, he was an Area Manager in novel printing technologies at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Prior to PARC, he was at the Eastman Kodak Company in a variety of management and technical roles in the fields of color printing, image data compression, fluid handling, materials transport and net-shape manufacturing applications. His contributions to internal manufacturing processes were acknowledged by a Kodak Doctoral Award in 1988. Mr. Ellson was nominated for the 1994 Lemelson-MIT Prize and is the inventor on over 40 issued U.S.patents.
Mr. Ellson holds a B.S. in Fluid and Thermal Science and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. Through the Kodak Doctoral Awards Program, he took a two-year paid leave to study mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Elaine J. Heron, Ph.D.
Director
Dr. Heron was the CEO of Labcyte from July, 2001 until September, 2008. She was previously the General Manager of the molecular biology division of Applied Biosystems (NYSE: ABI) and a Corporate Vice President of Applera, the parent of Applied Biosystems. This division was responsible for all DNA products including sequencers, PCR, arrays, forensics and diagnostics. Prior to serving as General Manager, she was responsible for worldwide sales, service and support. Dr. Heron was also the Vice President of Marketing for Affymetrix and a founder of Molecular Dynamics, which is now a division of GE Healthcare. She currently serves on the boards of directors for BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN), and Fluxion Biosciences Inc.
Dr. Heron holds a B.S. and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Purdue University as well as an M.B.A.
Jonathan MacQuitty, Ph. D.
Director
Dr. MacQuitty became President and Director of the Abingworth US subsidiary, Abingworth Management Inc., in 1999. He is based at the firm's offices in Menlo Park, California. Following an M.A. in Chemistry at Oxford University and a Ph.D. at the University of Sussex, he completed an M.B.A. at Stanford. In 1988, Dr. MacQuitty co-founded GenPharm International as its Chief Executive Officer. He has also held management positions at Genencor and Genentech. He moved into venture capital in 1997 and has served on the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization and is a Director of a number of biotech companies.
Andre Marion
Director
André F. Marion retired from the Perkin-Elmer Corporation as the President of its Applied Biosystems Division on February 1, 1995. Mr. Marion was the Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Applied Biosystems, Inc. at the time of its merger with Perkin-Elmer in 1993. As one of the founders of Applied Biosystems, Inc., André Marion served as its Chairman of the Board from October of 1987, President and Chief Executive Officer from January of 1986, Chief Operating Officer from May of 1983 to 1986 and was Vice President of Engineering from the founding year of the Company in June of 1981 to 1983. Mr. Marion held various Research and Development managerial positions during his employment with the Hewlett-Packard Corporation from 1972 to 1981. A native of France, he holds an engineering degree from the French Ecole Nationale Supérieures d'Ingénieurs Arts et Métiers in both mechanical and electronic engineering. He is an inventor on six U.S. patents related to printing, data processing and storage. Mr. Marion currently serves as director of several private corporations.
Sandra Panem, Ph.D.
Director
Sandra Panem, Ph.D. is a partner of Cross Atlantic Partners, a venture capital firm focused on the emerging life sciences and health care industry. She has 30 years of experience in the life sciences encompassing private and public equity portfolio management, venture capital, scientific research, and public policy. Dr. Panem received a B.S. Degree in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Chicago. She was President of Vector Fund Management, a private equity fund investing in the emerging life sciences and healthcare industries. Prior to joining Vector, Dr. Panem served as Vice President and Portfolio Manager for the Oppenheimer Global BioTech Fund, a mutual fund that invested in public and private life science companies. Prior to Oppenheimer, Dr. Panem was Vice President at Salomon Brothers, Inc. where she was a principal member of the investment team responsible for Salomon Brothers Venture Capital. Dr. Panem was also an Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Chicago, and a Science and Public Policy Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. She is the author of several books concerning the commercialization of new medical technologies. Dr. Panem has served as a member of numerous Boards of public and private companies, as well as non-profit organizations.
Joseph H. Smith, Esq.
Director
Mr. Smith has over 30 years of business and legal experience and is currently Sr. Vice President, Business Development and General Counsel of Cepheid, a leading developer of integrated systems for genetic assessment. He was previously Senior Vice President, Business Development, at Applied Biosystems group of Applera Corporation. In that capacity he directed the activities of Applied Biosystems in scouting and closing new business opportunities and investments, potential acquisitions, mergers, and collaborations. Prior to his post as the head of business development at Applied Biosystems Group, Mr. Smith was Assistant Secretary of Applera Corporation (1998-2002) and Vice President of Intellectual Property for Applied Biosystems Group (ABI) and its predecessor, PE Biosystems Division of Perkin-Elmer (1995-2001), and Vice President of Intellectual Property for Applied Biosystems, Inc. (1989-1994), the predecessor of PE Biosystems. During that time, Mr. Smith and his team built the patent portfolio from a handful of patents and applications to over 400. He was also responsible for designing an out-licensing strategy for the company, implementing a highly successful worldwide patent licensing program for PCR thermal cyclers, PCR reagents, and DNA sequencing.
Prior to his activities with Applied Biosystems, Mr. Smith was a partner at the intellectual property law firm of Wiseman, Jones, and Smith, and the law firm of Boone, Fox, and Jones, and was a member of the technical legal department of Hewlett-Packard. Mr. Smith holds a B.S. in Engineering Physics from the University of Arizona; an M.S. in Physics and a C. Phil. in Theoretical Physics from the University of California, San Diego, and a Juris Doctorate from Santa Clara University.
Craig C. Taylor
Director
Mr. Taylor has been an active venture capitalist since 1977. He earned a B.S. (1972) and an M.S. (1974) in Physics from Brown University, and an M.B.A. from Stanford in 1977. He worked in the Office of Technology Licensing at Stanford from 1975 to 1977. In addition to Labcyte Inc., he serves on the boards of several private companies, including ForteBio, KFx Medical, Optimedica and Zyomyx. Mr. Taylor is a past member of the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association, and serves as an advisor to the MIT/Stanford Venture Laboratory, and Astia.
Michael O'Donnell, Esq.
Secretary
Mr. O'Donnell is a member of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati where he specializes in corporate securities law. He has been provided general corporate representation to biopharmaceutical and other life sciences companies for more than 15 years, with particular expertise in venture capital financings, public offerings, technology licensing, and corporate partnering transactions. He has represented several public biopharmaceutical clients, including Ciphergen Biosystems, Illumina, Microcide Pharmaceuticals, Neurocrine Biosciences, Pain Therapeutics, and Pharmacopeia, as well as numerous private biopharmaceutical, medical device, and instrumentation companies. Mr. O'Donnell was involved with the formation and initial financing of Aurora Biosciences and Cell Genesys, and was responsible for structuring the spin-off and initial funding of X-Ceptor from Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Onyx Pharmaceuticals from Chiron/CETUS, and Tularik from Genentech. Mr. O’Donnell received his law degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School and undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Bucknell University. He was selected as one of the leading biotech lawyers in the San Francisco Bay Area by BIOPEOPLE Magazine.