Robert (Bob) Barrett
Bob Barrett has over 30 years of experience in the Life Sciences, Clinical Diagnostics, and Blood Screening markets. Since the start of his career at Abbott Diagnostics Bob has been actively involved in the application of novel technologies to address critical needs in the clinical diagnostics, blood screening, life science research, and applied markets. Bob has held high level positions at leading companies including, Chiron, Roche, Qiagen, and Applied Biosystems/LIFE Technologies. During his tenure at Chiron Corp., Bob was instrumental in developing the market for the first HIV and HCV viral load testing products, including the launch of the world’s first HIV and HCV viral load test.
As Divisional Vice President/General Manager at Applied Biosystems, Bob was a founding member of the team that created AB’s ~$250m+ Applied Markets Division. This included AB’s global leading position in DNA forensics, food pathogen testing, and environmental and pharma QA/QC testing.
Bob currently consults with early commercial stage companies to identify and develop key strategic opportunities, establish critical external relationships, and create the necessary commercial infrastructures to drive future success.
Mark L. Lewis
Mark Lewis has participated in the life sciences industry for over 40 years developing and commercializing platforms and technologies for DNA sequencing, genotyping, flow cytometry, molecular biology, PCR, high content screening and confocal imaging. He has held research and development, commercial, and general management roles at leading organizations including Illumina, BD Biosciences, Swift Biosciences, Molecular Dynamics, Nycomed-Amersham, and Beckman Instruments. Currently, Mark is on the Board of Directors for Swift Biosciences, Miroculus, and Prime Genomics. Mark also serves as a member of the Dean’s Leadership Council for Biological Sciences at University of California at San Diego. In addition, Mark is also a member of the Campaign Cabinet and a co-instructor for the Professional Pathways Course for life science PhDs and graduate students at UCSD. In Mark’s most recent full-time role, Mark served as interim CEO at Swift Biosciences. Mark also held Senior Vice President roles in Product Development, General Management, and Customer Support at Illumina, a leading supplier of systems for genetic analysis. During his time at Illumina, Mark directed the development of the HiSeqTM and MiSeqTM next-generation sequencing platforms and supporting reagents. Mark earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from University of California at San Diego.
Richard Brooks
Dr. Richard Brooks has over 30 years of successful commercial experience in the biotech industry. Currently, he is a Commercial Leader for the Advanced Cell Diagnostics Division of Bio-techne Corp, a leader in the rapidly growing field of spatial genomics. Prior to Bio-techne, Richard held commercial leadership roles at IntegenX, Affymetrix, Life Technologies, Amersham, and Molecular Dynamics. During his career, he has been intimately involved in the commercialization of many market disrupting innovations such as Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), qPCR, Rapid DNA, RNAscope (a gene expression platform that provides single cell resolution and single transcript sensitivity) and other novel technology platforms commonly used in research laboratories today. Richard earned a B.S. in Biology from Jackson State University, a Ph.D. in Biology/Biochemistry from Indiana University and conducted post-doctoral studies at the University of California, San Francisco in the field of molecular endocrinology.
Jeff Heimburger
Jeff Heimburger is an accomplished commercial executive operating as an independent consultant specialized in clinical diagnostics and life science markets. He leads teams in the development and execution of portfolio and commercial strategies, achieving results both organically and through partnership or M&A. He most recently led the global marketing function for the Genomics division at Agilent Technologies. Previously Jeff led global marketing for Focus Diagnostics (acquired from Quest Diagnostics by DiaSorin), IntegenX (acquired by ThermoFisher), and Applied Imaging (now part of Leica, a Danaher business). At Roche Molecular Systems, he led global commercial functions for the market-leading virology portfolio, successfully launching over 15 products into highly regulated markets worldwide. Jeff also held various functional and leadership positions with Abbott Diagnostics in sales, marketing, R&D, and service & support functions across a broad range of product portfolios and market segments. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a Biology minor from Purdue University.
Patrick Carroll
Pat Carroll has spent over 30 years in the life science industry, where he has demonstrated expertise in building and managing sales operations and developing new markets. He was an early employee at Applied Biosystems, where he set up the North American and Asia-Pacific sales organizations before assuming a global role as senior vice president of worldwide sales. More recently, he spent nearly a decade at Bio-Rad managing the North American sales operation. Patrick has also been involved in several life science startup companies including his current company, Sage Science, where he serves as Executive VP Sales & Marketing.
Jack Ball
Jack Ball is currently CEO of the Teitelbaum Foundation and President of Tyball Associates, LLC. He serves on the board of directors of Carterra Inc, Cytek Biosciences, NanoCellect Inc. and Swift Bioscience. Most recently he was CEO, Solulink Inc. Prior to that he was CCO at Accuri Cytometers, which was sold to Becton Dickinson in March 2011. Prior to Accuri Cytometers, he was CEO of Amnis Corporation. He has also served as CCO for Molecular Probes, Inc. Prior to that he was with Orchid Biosciences as Sr. VP and General Manager. Before Orchid he was with Amersham Pharmacia Biotech Inc., where he rose to President for North America over 25+ years.
Tom O’Lenic
Tom O’Lenic has over 25 years of experience developing and commercializing disruptive technologies in the forensic, diagnostic and life science markets. He is presently Founder and CEO of Buzzkill Labs. Mr. O’Lenic is also Executive Director of the Board of Directors at GenTegra, LLC. Recently, as CCO and General Manager of Advanced Cell Diagnostics, he orchestrated explosive revenue growth which lead to acquisition by Bio-Techne for 13x revenue. As a C-level executive, he has created over a $1B of exit value.
David Weber
David Weber has over 45 years experience in the life science tools space with an emphasis in genomics, proteomics, cell biology, and bioprocessing. Currently, he is the founder and President of Weber & Associates, a life science consulting firm, and also serves as an Executive-in-Residence with Ampersand Capital Partners, a leading life science and healthcare private equity firm. David’s main focus throughout his career has been commercialization strategy and execution. Most recently, he served as the first Chief Commercial Officer for Maravai LifeSciences, a private equity backed firm which went public in late 2020. He also served in the same role for Affymetrix and drove a successful transformation of its commercial efforts through its acquisition by Thermo Fisher Scientific. David has also had senior leadership roles at Amersham Biosciences, Eksigent Technologies, and Stratagene. David currently serves on the Board of Directors for Biolog, a global leader in cell-based phenotypic technologies and assays as well as SAMPS, a non-profit organization for life science sales and marketing professionals
