News

May 26, 2023

People in the News at Standard BioTools, Epigenomics, Centogene, Molecular Loop, Quantum

Standard BioTools: Jeffrey Black Standard BioTools has appointed Jeffrey Black

Standard BioTools: Jeffrey Black

Standard BioTools has appointed Jeffrey Black as senior VP and CFO. Former CFO Vikram Jog will remain at the company for an unspecific period of time as a special adviser to the CEO to ensure an effective transition. Black was most recently CFO at Apollo Endosurgery until that company was acquired by Boston Scientific in April 2023. He has also previously served as executive VP and CFO of Alphatec Holdings, CFO of Applied Proteomics, and CFO of AltheaDx. He holds a B.S. in business from the University of Arizona.

Epigenomics: Andrew Lukowiak

Epigenomics said that Andrew Lukowiak has resigned from his position as president and CSO, and as a member of the executive board, effective May 31. Lukowiak has held these positions since December 2021. The company said that his resignation is in accord with a company restructuring initiated on Feb. 15, 2023, in the wake of the company failing to raise additional capital for a pivotal study to support US Food and Drug Administration approval of its colorectal cancer screening assay.

Centogene: Bettina Goerner

Bettina Goerner is stepping down as chief data officer of Centogene, effective May 26. In her role, which she has held since 2021, she has been responsible for the German molecular diagnostics company's bio-databank and related data partnerships. Prior to joining Centogene, she was managing director of data products and services at Springer Nature. Goerner holds a master's degree in molecular biology from the International Max Planck Research School.

Molecular Loop Biosciences: Paul Brown

Paul Brown has been appointed to the board of directors of targeted sequencing firm Molecular Loop Biosciences. Prior to his retirement in 2020, he was the head of Roche Molecular Solutions, where he was responsible for the molecular diagnostics, tissue diagnostics, and sequencing solutions business units. Before that, he was president and CEO of Roche Molecular Diagnostics, and prior to that, he held various leadership positions in Roche's pharmaceutical division.

Quantum-Si: Scott Mendel

Quantum-Si has appointed Scott Mendel to its board of directors. Mendel was previously president and CEO of GenMark Diagnostics. Prior to that he was CFO at The Active Network and GE HealthCare. He is also a board member at Visby Medical and Akoya Biosciences.

Sera Prognostics: Greg Critchfield, Zhenya Lindgardt, Kim Kamdar

Sera Prognostics said that President and CEO Greg Critchfield is retiring from his roles effective June 8 to pursue other activities. He will continue to serve as a member of the company's board.

Zhenya Lindgardt, a member of the company's board of directors, will succeed Critchfield as interim president and CEO. Lindgardt is currently CEO of nonprofit The Commons Project Foundation. She was previously VP of platform and customer engagement at Uber Technologies.

Kim Kamdar, a member of the company's board, has been appointed chair.

Gradientech: Hilja Ibert, Nedal Safwat

Gradientech has appointed Hilja Ibert and Nedal Safwat to its board, effective May 9. Ted Elvhage and Simon Turner chose not to run for reelection to the board, the Swedish rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing firm said. Ibert has more than 30 years of experience in the clinical diagnostics industry and has worked at Hologic, Becton Dickinson, and BioMérieux. She is currently CEO of Gentian Diagnostics. Safwat is the VP and head of molecular diagnostics North America at Qiagen. He was previously at BioMérieux and covered microbiology applications such as bacteria identification, antibiotic susceptibility testing, antibiotic resistance, and sepsis detection products.

Sun Genomics: Will Hankee

Will Hankee has joined gut microbiome firm Sun Genomics as VP of sales and business development. He comes to the San Diego-based firm from Genova Diagnostics, where he grew diagnostic testing on a global scale.

For additional recent items on executive appointments, promotions, and departures in the omics and molecular diagnostics space, please see the People in the News page on our website.