The Co-Founders and Board of Managers are committed to providing their services to Prevencio in their respective spheres of expertise. Prevencio will rapidly build an executive team to take the primary responsibility for the development and execution of strategic plans to meet the Company’s goals.
Prevencio will staff a small virtual corporate headquarters office in Seattle, with another office in Pittsburgh. The company currently has two full time employees - the Chief Executive Officer & Chief Operating Officer both drawn from the founders. Other executives, such as VP Product Development, will be among the next appointments, drawn from among their colleagues and through executive recruitment.
The Co-Founders & Management
Robert V. Masterson, Ph.D.
CEO, Co-Founder
- Dr. Robert Masterson previously founded Tessera Diagnostics in 2000 in order to develop and bring new cancer diagnostic tests to the medical marketplace by licensing novel protein technology from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pittsburgh.
- He has a distinguished 25-year research and development background in biotechnology including patented, commercial products.
- Dr. Masterson has held senior management positions including Vice President of Research & Development for Q-pharma, Inc. (Edmonds, WA) and Skin Biology, Inc. (Bellevue, WA), and was Scientific Director of Genelex Corporation (Seattle, WA), and was formerly a Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute (Cologne, Germany) where he was in charge of a molecular and cellular biology research group.
- He has a Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology from Iowa State University (1984) and has a B.S. in Microbiology from University of Washington (1980).
William A. LaFramboise, Ph.D.
Co-Founder
Associate Professor
Department of Pathology
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
Director of Clinical Genomics Facility
Director of Tumor Stem Cell Laboratory
- Dr. William (Bill) LaFramboise is a Prevencio co-founder who currently has an active and diverse research program spanning numerous departments and institutions at the University of Pittsburgh. One of Dr. LaFramboise research interests, the study of clinically important cardiac proteins, has included collaborations with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Department of Cardiology.
- He was previously Associate Professor and Director of the Applied Molecular Research Microarray Facility, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, at the Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. Previously Dr. LaFramboise has held positions including Director of Laboratory Development & Operations at TissueInformatics, Inc. in Pittsburgh and Director of Cellular & Molecular Myology Laboratory in the Department of Pediatrics at Drexel University Medical School.
- He has a Ph.D. in Molecular Neurobiology from the University of Pittsburgh (1990) and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Washington (1985).
Gary Frank
Chief Operating Officer, Co-Founder
- Over the last 22 years Gary H. Frank has been directly involved with medical and other companies to strengthen and enable their business strategies by raising early stage capital, mezzanine and second round financing, and by providing liquidity events by M&A and public offerings as well as implement turn-a-round strategies through his company, Global Ventures, LLC, Bellevue, WA. Mr. Frank has been a YPO (Young Presidents Organization) member. In the last ten years Global Ventures has been directly involved in raising funds for a wide variety of public and private companies ranging from biotechnology to natural resources. These companies included Dejour (DEJ), Ondine Biopharma (OBP.to), Tessera Diagnostics and Optimum Energy.
- With Woman’s Wellbeing, Inc. Redmond WA, Mr. Frank’s duties as a board member, and a consultant for sales and marketing, helped facilitate the sale of the company to Medifast, Inc. [MED AMX] for $10 per share plus debt.
- Previously, Gary Frank was President of Performance USA, Inc., Dallas, TX (Sunrise Medical Co (NASDAQ), where he was responsible for all operations and profitability with over 100 employees and annual sales of $15M; his previous Company, Monarch America Inc (Seattle, WA), where he was Founder and President, was sold to Sunrise Medical Co. after thirty months with $6M in medical sales.
- Mr. Frank gained experience and expertise in cardiology sales while formerly Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Quinton Instrument Co (Seattle, WA), where he was responsible for worldwide sales and marketing for products designed to measure cardiovascular damage and irregularities; the company was sold to A.H. Robbins 32 months later.
- In addition he has extensive experience in medical sales of cardiovascular and orthopedic surgical products for Johnson and Johnson (New Brunswick, NJ), where he was the Divisional Sales Manager and received numerous, national sales awards.
Vipul Shah
Chief Financial Officer
- Mr. Shah has an extensive financial accounting background over a span of 25 years with a variety of start-up companies including a number that have gone public in Canada.
- He has held senior management positions in various companies including Ondine Biopharma (OBP.to).
- Mr. Shah is a CPA with a BA in Accounting and an MBA from the University of Washington.
Board of Managers
The Board of Managers includes Gary Frank, Robert Masterson, and Thomas Clement.
Thomas Clement
Board Manager
- Tom Clement co-founded Pathway Medical Technologies, Inc. in October 1998 and served as the company CEO until September 2008, leading a talented management team as the company developed and brought to market its flagship product, the Jetstreamtm System for treatment of peripheral arteries. As CEO, Clement had active involvement in clinical and regulatory strategy, product development, operations and quality assurance. He was also responsible for business development and financing, where he successfully raised more than $84 million for Pathway. In September, Clement assumed the role of Chairman of the Board.
- Clement has over 25 years experience in product development engineering, engineering management, and senior management. Previously, Clement was a founding employee of Heart Technology which grew to more than $100 million in revenue and 550 employees. There he spent 12 years in senior management roles. When Heart Technology was acquired by Boston Scientific, Clement became responsible for the emerging cardiovascular technologies group of the Scimed Division.
- Clement has a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington. Currently he serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association (WBBA), and he has positions on the Visiting Committee for the University of Washington Educational Outreach Programs, the Advisory Board to the University of Washington’s Master Degree in Medical Engineering, and the Advisory Board to the University of Washington / Bothell Business Administration programs.
Scientific Advisory Board
Perry Fell, Ph.D.
Dr. Fell served as CEO of NanoString Technologies from 2004 to 2009, and was previously Chairman of the Board. He also serves as a director of Impel NeuroPharma. Prior to NanoString, Dr. Fell co-founded and served as CEO of Seattle Genetics. Dr. Fell took Seattle Genetics public in 2001. Prior to his tenure at Seattle Genetics, Dr. Fell directed the Molecular Immunology Department at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute. Dr. Fell holds an MBA from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA and a PhD in Immunology from Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, TX.