People in the News

Gothenburg, Sweden-based molecular biology research services organization TATAA Biocenter has appointed Mathias Hallin as CEO, Kennet Mattsson as senior VP of commercial operations, and Kristofer Hellberg as senior VP of laboratory services.

Hallin has been head of finance for TATAA Biocenter since November 2022. Before that, he was finance director for the Nordic and Baltic regions at the Van Ameyde Group. Mattsson previously served as head of sales and business development and business development manager at TATAA Biocenter. Earlier, he was district sales manager for the UK and Nordics at HTG Molecular Diagnostics. Hellberg has served as product manager for services at TATAA Biocenter since May 2022. Prior to that he was country manager for the Nordics with Eurofins Genomics.

Quantum-Si has appointed Johan Denecke as senior VP of operations. Denecke was previously SVP of operations at Atomica. Prior to that he was VP of manufacturing engineering at Illumina and VP of quality assurance at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

LetsGetChecked has appointed Avni Santani as chief genomics officer. She was previously chief medical officer at Veritas Genomics, which LetsGetChecked acquired last year. Before that, Santani was director of clinical laboratories and strategic initiatives at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and an associate professor of pathology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Biocept has named Antonino Morales as president and CEO. He has been the San Diego-based company's interim CFO since February 2022 and a director since July 2021. Samuel Riccitelli, Biocept's interim president and CEO and a director of the firm, has resigned. The company also said that Controller Robert Walsh has been promoted to VP and will serve as principal accounting officer. He will continue as Biocept's controller.

Twist Bioscience said it has appointed Chet Gandhi as chief information officer. Gandhi comes to Twist from DynPro, where he was chief digital officer. Before that, he was CIO at Wineshipping. He also has experience as a technology executive at Intapp and Magento Commerce, an eBay spinoff. He holds a master's degree in engineering from the University of British Columbia.  

GenomeWeb has learned that clinical genetic testing startup Arcensus has hired Shivendra Kishore as CEO, replacing founding CEO Arndt Rolfs. Kishore, who started in February, came to the German company from Mimamsia, a genetic data analysis and interpretation startup that he founded and served as managing director of. Kishore previously was an executive at Centogene, a company Rolfs also founded and led.

Molecular diagnostics firm Genetic Signatures has appointed Karl Pechmann as chief operating officer and CFO, as well as company secretary. Pechmann has extensive experience at publicly traded companies including OncoSil Medical, Lyckr, and Immutep. He is a qualified chartered accountant and chartered secretary.

Personalis has appointed Kenneth Widder to its board of directors. Widder currently serves on the boards of QuidelOrtho and Evoke Pharma. He has over 40 years of experience working with biomedical companies, including Sydnexis, OrphoMed, Sytera, NovaCardia, Santarus, and Molecular Biosystems. He was also a general partner at LVP Life Science Ventures and Windamere Venture Partners. He holds an MD from Northwestern University and was trained in pathology at Duke University.

The company also announced that Alan Colowick has resigned his position as a director of the company, effective June 12.

Agendia has appointed Ronald Andrews and David Schreiber to its board of directors. Andrews most recently served as a board member, president, and CEO of Oncocyte. Prior to that he held senior roles at Thermo Fisher and was CEO and vice chairman of the board of Clarient. Andrews also founded consulting firm The Bethesda Group and held management positions at Roche Molecular Diagnostics, Immucore, and Abbott Diagnostics. He has served on the boards of Insight Genetics, Precipio, and Oxford ImmunoTec, and is a member of the board of governors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology's CancerLinQ.

Schreiber boasts close to 40 years of experience in the laboratory diagnostics space, working for over two decades as a consultant to private equity firms focused on healthcare companies in their portfolios. Prior to this, he served as CFO of Dianon Systems and worked at Quest Diagnostics. He holds an MBA and a BS in finance from Northern Illinois University, and has served on the boards of several companies including Specialty Labs, Nanogen, Response Genetics, and Aspira Women's Health.

Foundation Medicine this week announced several changes to its executive leadership team:

• Lucas Dennis has been appointed senior VP, head of R&D, overseeing the company's cancer diagnostic portfolio. Dennis joined Foundation Medicine in 2018 to lead product development form the company's liquid biopsy diagnostic portfolio.
• Michael Kling has been named chief technology officer. He joined the company in 2019 and most recently served as senior VP, engineering. He has over 20 years of technology leadership experience in the healthcare and biotech spaces, and joined Foundation Medicine from UnitedHealth Group.
• Annie Murphy is the new chief commercial officer, overseeing the development and execution of the company's global clinical commercial strategy. Murphy joined the company in 2015 and has held various commercial, global product strategy, and medical roles.
• Jennifer Romans has been appointed senior VP, corporate affairs. She joined the company in 2020 to build a strong governmental affairs and public policy function. Prior to Foundation Medicine, Romans was the principal government affairs liaison for Lilly Oncology within Eli Lilly.
• Troy Schurr has been named chief biopharma business officer, and will lead the company's collaborations with biotech and pharmaceutical partners. He joined Foundation Medicine in 2022 as VP, biopharma marketing and solutions. He has also previously held global marketing, product development, and sales leadership roles at several companies including Johnson & Johnson and Astellas Oncology.