HARMONIZE STRATEGY GROUP - Key Persons
Dr. Nate Miranda has 20+ years of experience in the polymers, plastics and packaging industry, working with companise such as MonoSol, PepsiCo, Sealed Air and Cryovac. Nate brings to the table a track record of commercialized products, a combination of R&D, technical service and commercialization experience, as well as a passion for environmentally friendly packaging and overall approach to new product development. Nate's experience crosses the technical and commercial chasm via his experience in all aspects of new product development: R&D management, technical support, customer service, sales and new business development.
On the technical side, Nate can help clients with idea conception to product development to transition into manufacturing. On the business side, he can help clients with idea conception to value proposition to commercialization.
Nate earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a B.A. in English from Stanford University, and completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University. His thesis was on the migration of small molecules through plastic films. Nate parlayed his thesis knowledge into a career designing new packaging and has started his own company (Profound Packaging LLC) in 2019.
Nate has served on the Board of Editors for the Research - Technology Management Journal since 2011. He also currently serves on the industrial advisory boards for North Carolina State University's Chemical and Biomecular Engineering Department and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Technology Commercialization and Entrepreneurship pPogram. Nate served three years on the Community Investment Committee for the United Way of the Piedmont in upstate South Carolina.
Dr. Sandra Merkel DeJames is the Founder, President and CEO of Harmonize Strategy Group.
Sandra has a keen interest in building and launching new businesses, leading transformational change and enabling growth. She is experienced in working within public, private and venture-backed companies, as well as for-profit and non-profit ogranizations, and has founded multiple businesses. She has international business experience across 5 continents and multiple industries, including basic and applied Life Sciences, Biotechnology, Data and Informatics. With broad technical, commercial, operational and leadership experience, her background makes her uniquely positioned to lead early and mid - stage companies, and collaborate with large, established organizations looking to diversify technologically and commercially, through the development of robust strategy and insure alignment and integration across functions and operations to achieve successful execution.
Sandra was most recently Vice President of Innovation and Commercial Development, and member of the Executive Leadership Team, at Metabolon Inc. - the pioneer and leading health technology company in metabolomics. In this role, Sandra led the development of new technical and commercial Innovation platforms, and led the development of the company's Data and Informatics strategy, as well as the supporting R&D strategy. She also served as Vice President of Precision Medicine at Metabolon, where she led technical and commercial strategy, and the development and launch of 5 new clinical tools (MetaIMD TM, MetaUDX TM [adult], MetaUDX TM [pediatric], MetaGA and MetaGP), including Metabolon's 1st Precision Medicine clinical tests, Meta IMD TM, a comprehensive biochemical test for identification of more than 60 rare and inherited metabolic disorders in infants and children, and MetaUDX TM, for assessing undiagnosed and difficult to diagnose disease. Prior to Metabolon, Sandra was Head of Regional Development (Americas Region) for Novozymes, where she established the Americas Region Innovation and New Business Creation hubs, leading senior scientists, business developers and marketing managers in strategy development and identification, valuation, development and early stage commercialization of new technologies. While at Novozymes, she also had various roles driving external innovation with academic institutions, early stage companies and fortune 500s, technology and commercial platform development, technology licensing and partnering, and played a key role in developing a novel cell-based technology to address next-generation market needs.
In addition to founding and leading Harmonize Strategy Group, Sandra founded (2007) and leads NC Elite Volleyball, Inc. (www.ncelitevb.org), an organization focused on "supporting, developing and providing opportunity for student athletes through training, competition, the development of life skills and service to the community." With a full-time administrative staff, over 50 coaches, and more than 500 student athletes participating annually, NC Elite develops girls and young women from 10-18 years of age and prepares them for high school and collegiate competition. In 2019, Sandra founded K.I.D.S Community, Inc., to provide leadership, teamwork and life skills development for children in elementary through high school via engagement in community service (www.harmonizestrategy.com/kidscommunityinc).
Dr. Merkel DeJames holds a BA in Psychology from UNC Charlotte, where she was a NCAA Division I scholarship athlete, earning 8 varsity letters in Volleyball and Track & Field, was 3x captain, 2x MVP, earned multiple All-Conference USA awards, and graduated with an NCAA ranking of 14th in career assists. She also earned a PhD in Biology from UNC Charlotte, and completed her post-doctoral training at the UNC School of Medicine. Sandra is a Certified Professional Coach and has earned numerous certificates in Fundraising, Social Entrepreneurship and Non-profit Strategy from the UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business. She serves on various boards and advisory councils, including the National Advisory Board for the NCSU Institute for Emerging Issues, and is Board Chair for NC Elite Volleyball, Inc.
Mr. Jason Lawrence has over 20 years of finance experience in both public and private companies, including over 10 years in the pharmaceutical, diagnostics, biotechnology and life sciences industries. Jason has broad experience including Executive and Board communications, Investor Relations,
Initial Public Offerings ("IPOs"), external reporting (Securities and Exchange Commission compliance), financial planning and analysis, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, implementation and integration, operational efficiency, debt and equity financings, Sarbanes Oxley compliance, and cross-functional support and training. Jason leverages a cross-function and strategic approach to finance and communications, which has been proven valuable in successful execution of corporate initiatives.
Jason was most recently the Director of Finance at Metabolon, Inc. In this role Jason had broad responsibilities, as he managed the monthly, quarterly and annual financials, successfully completed SEC registration (IPO) with no SEC comments on financials, worked cross-functionally to create and maintain the annual budget and monthly forecasts, managed debt and equity deals (including due diligence and modeling), managed the acquisition of European subsidiary, drafted and implemented transfer pricing for European subsidiary, created financial presentations for Board of Directors meetings and other investor meetings, was lead contact for investor relations and participated in investor calls, managed the bank selection process and integration, created Company Investment Policy, helped select, implement and integrate new general ledger, financial modeling and stock option software as well as held observer seat on audit committee.
Prior to Metabolon Jason was the manager of external reporting at Patheon, Inc. (now a subsidiary of Thermo Fisher). Jason was part of the initial team that moved the company's headquarters from Toronto to RTP, and transitioned from the Toronto Stock Exchange to NASDAQ (by means of a Form 10 registration with SEC). As part of this transition, he created a detailed reconciliation from Canadian GAAP to US GAAP and implemented and integrated these changes with all global finance directors. Other projects were the completion of over $1 billion in debt equity financings, creation and implementation of corporate accounting website, global finance calendar, managed all weekly global finance meetings, and successful selection, implementation and integration of new reporting software. Prior to Patheon Jason held various financial roles with companies in the retail, digital marketing and private education industries.