ABZENA - Key Persons
Brian Regan is Head of Healthcare Group and General Partner at Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe (WCAS).
His responsibilities include leading a diverse team with investing, operational, strategic and health policy experience to help build and expand leading healthcare companies.
Brian joined the Abzena Board in 2018. Brian brings two decades of executive experience working alongside healthcare teams, including those at Aptuit, Laurus Labs, Ardent Health Services, Bausch & Lomb, and Select Medical.
Brian currently serves on the Boards of his portfolio companies, which include US Anesthesia Partners, US Radiology Specialists, Shields Health Solutions, and Kiniciti.
He also serves on the Board of the Health Management Academy, a strategic partner of WCAS providing leadership development, research, and knowledge sharing to leading US health systems.
Job Titles:
- CSO
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Chief Scientific Officer ( CSO ) and Cambridge Site Head
Campbell Bunce as CSO and Cambridge Site Head leads a talented team of scientists across a diverse range of expertise and capabilities to support drug discovery, design, and developability; and cell line development.
He ensures that Abzena's strong innovation focus and depth of scientific expertise is maintained through technological developments and works in partnership with clients to design and deliver solutions that support their program needs.
Campbell has over 25 years of experience working in the biotech and diagnostics sectors. Before joining Abzena in 2015, he held multiple positions of increasing responsibility in Biotech including Head of Cellular Immunology at Cantab Pharmaceuticals, Director of Programs at Piramed Pharma, and R&D Director at Immune Targeting systems.
Throughout his career he has applied innovative solutions for the design, manufacture and clinical evaluation of novel products including vaccines, biologics, and small molecules in multiple therapeutic areas. These include inflammation, cancer, infectious disease, and addiction.
Campbell has a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Manchester, UK, an Executive MBA from Judge Business School, Cambridge University, UK and has published a number of papers on cell-mediated immunity, immunotherapy and vaccines.
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Leadership Team
David Williamson leads all aspects of Abzena's Information Technology (IT) function with responsibility for the company's IT strategy and ensuring that all systems necessary to support its operations and objectives are in place while creating opportunities to maximize business value through technology.
Before beginning his 25+ year career in life science, he served as a communications officer in the US Army.
David joined Abzena in 2021 after spending the previous 10 years innovating and transforming data management and technology programs at global biotech companies Illumina and Biogen.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York and an MBA in Operations Management & IT from Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business, PA.
Job Titles:
- Independent Consultant
- Member of the Board
Dennis Fenton is an independent consultant after retiring from his 26 year career at Amgen.
Dennis joined the Abzena Board in 2022.
Dennis has over 40 years' experience in the pharmaceutical industry with positions of increasing responsibility at companies including Pfizer and Amgen where he led both a Sales and Marketing Team and an Operations Team. His experience extends into 5 US patents for areas including the production and purification of products made by bioprocessing.
Dennis is on the Board of directors of Anaptysbio, Modern Meadow and Synedgen as well as previously serving on the Board of numerous other companies including Portola Pharmaceuticals, Siennia Biopharmaceuticals, Pfenex, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, Hospira, Dendreon, XenoPort and Genzyme.
Dennis was granted a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board
- CEO of KINICITI
- Chairman of the Abzena Board
Geoff Glass has been Chairman of the Abzena Board since June of 2022. Geoff is also CEO of KINICITI and serves as the Chairman of the Board for both Avadel Pharmaceuticals and Ncardia.
He almost three decades of executive experience in pharmaceutical and biotechnology therapeutic and services organizations. Geoff's previous positions include Operating Partner at LongueVue Capital and CEO of Sancilio Pharmaceuticals. Geoff helped lead the turnaround of Patheon in executive leadership positions that included Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing and President. Prior to Patheon, Geoff was a Senior Vice President at Valeant Pharmaceuticals.
Geoff began his career in management consulting at EY where he held various leadership positions in their global Life Sciences practice.
Joe Principe - Chief Commercial Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Commercial Officer
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Leadership Team
Joe Principe oversees Abzena's global commercial and marketing strategies. Joe is responsible for new business creation, client relationship management aligned to a best-in-class experience, and commercial growth of the company.
Joe joined Abzena in 2023 and is a proven leader in the pharmaceutical industry bringing more than 20 years of wide-ranging experience in management, marketing, financial analysis, and negotiation to Abzena.
Prior to joining Abzena, Joe has held positions of increasing scope and responsibility including President & Chief Executive Officer of the Avara Group, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Thermo Fisher Scientific, (Patheon Pharmaceuticals) and VP Global Business Development at Piramal Pharma.
Joe holds a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from Loyola University Chicago, and an MBA from Northwestern University's J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, IL, USA.
John Fikre - Chief Legal Officer
Job Titles:
- General Counsel
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Leadership Team
John Fikre serves as Abzena's General Counsel, overseeing all legal matters relating to the company.
John's responsibilities include oversight of operations, strategic transactions, commercial agreements, intellectual property, and compliance.
With 20+ years of experience in general corporate and commercial law, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity and capital market offerings. He brings a robust understanding of global business transactions, joint ventures and financial dealings to his role.
Job Titles:
- Chief Technical Officer
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Leadership Team
Louise Duffy is focused on the scientific and technical aspects associated with Abzena's portfolio from early development to commercial production.
Louise is responsible for leading and driving Abzena's technical CMC strategy, providing technical and CMC regulatory leadership and guidance to project teams while working collaboratively with clients for project success.
With a career spanning over 30 years, Louise has deep expertise in the development, technology transfer, and supply of biopharmaceuticals, vaccines, and cell & gene therapies. She has in-depth experience in the development of strategic CMC approaches to support successful global regulatory inspections and filings such as INDs, IMPDs, BLA, and MAAs.
Prior to joining Abzena in 2020 she was an independent consultant in biopharmaceuticals and cell and gene therapies and has held senior leadership roles in GlaxoSmithKline as VP & Global Supply Chain Head, Biopharmaceuticals and Janssen R&D (J&J) as VP & Global Head, Strategic Sciences.
Louise contributes and speaks at organizations including BioPhorum, PDA and ISPE. Louise is on multiple scientific advisory panels.
Louise holds a Ph.D. and a M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, London, and a B.Sc. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Life Science Consultant and Owner of Utiger Life Science Consulting
Lukas Utiger is a life science consultant and owner of Utiger Life Science Consulting.
With over two decades of experience in the life science industry, he provides in-depth insight and expertise in the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry.
He joined as a member of the Abzena Board in 2022.
Lukas has held numerous positions across the biopharmaceutical services industry having acted as Group VP Asian Strategy, Pharma Service Group at Thermo Fisher Scientific, and as Division President Drug Product and Pharma Development Service North America at Patheon. In these roles, he applied the knowledge he had gained from his past 20 years at Lonza, where he had progressed from Project Manager R&D to COO and President of Lonza Bioscience.
Lukas holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from ETH Zürich, Switzerland, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London, UK.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Leadership Team
Matthew Stober joined Abzena from his role at Istari Oncology where he served as President and Chief Executive Officer for 2 years.
Matthew has over 30 years of experience at large, multinational pharmaceutical organizations, in manufacturing operational roles. Matthew has previously held senior executive positions at Novartis Vaccines, Smith and Nephew and Hospira where he served as Global Head of Operations, President of Operations, and Senior Vice President of Operations respectively. His deep and extensive operational experience has been consolidated from senior positions at companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Pfizer.
Matthew holds various Board positions including current appointments at X-Vax Technology, Istari Oncology and Castlevax.
He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Villanova University, PA, USA.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Talent Partner
Mia Jung is a Talent Partner on the Healthcare team at Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe.
Her responsibilities include executive talent strategy and management and building best- in- class leadership teams.
Mia joined the Abzena Board in 2019.
Mia has a decade of executive experience serving in various positions of responsibility including as a Partner at Oxeon Partners. She co-founded Break into the Boardroom, an initiative that seeks to drive gender parity in privately held healthcare boards.
Mia has held commercial leadership roles in the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries at companies such as Merck, Guidant, and Boston Scientific. Mia is also a Board Member and Nominating Chair, New York Academy of Medicine, USA.
Mia holds an M.B.A from Columbia Business School, New York and London Business School, UK, and a B.A from Villanova University, Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Managing Partner
- Member of the Board
Michelle Detwiler is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at the healthcare technology equity firm Biospring Partners.
Michelle has served as a Board member of Abzena (a Biospring portfolio company) since 2020.
Michelle has over a decade of experience investing in life sciences at Longwood Fund and General Atlantic and has held various Board positions including at Gingko BioWorks, PathAI and Immunocore.
Michelle previously held senior business development roles at GlaxoSmithKline. She currently serves on the Board of the non-profits Life Science Cares, and the Women's Foundation of Boston.
Michelle holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from The University of Oxford Medical School, UK and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology from The University of Oxford, where she also undertook post-doctoral research in the Department of Physiology at the John Radcliffe Hospital.
Nick joined the Abzena Board of directors in 2018.
Nick is a member of the Board at the pharmaceutical companies, Leiters, Ncardi, and Kiniciti. He also holds a Board position at the non-profit organisation the Healthcare Private Equity Association (HCPEA) and was previously on the Board at Aptuit and Patheon.
Earlier in his career, Nick focused on healthcare investments at JLL Partners and spent several years in the Mergers and Acquisitions group at Merrill Lynch.
Nicholas holds a B.A in Economics from Washington and Lee University, Virginia.
Peter is the President of xCell Strategic Consulting, a consulting firm to the Pharmaceutical Industry. Peter joined the Abzena Board in 2022.
Peter has over 40 years' experience in the pharmaceutical industry with a thorough understanding of Drug Development, Outsourcing, and Supply Chain. Peter held positions of increasing responsibility at SmithKline Beecham and Wyeth - serving as SVP Operations at Wyeth. He also served as President/CEO at Patheon and Division president at Qualitest. Peter has deep experience in Drug Development and Manufacturing and has a very broad perspective of the Pharma Services and CDMO industries.
He serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Pharma, Biopharma Outsourcing Association (PBOA) and has previously served on the Boards of IPS - a Global Healthcare Engineering Company, and Frontida Laboratories.
Peter holds a BSME in Mechanical Engineering from Villanova University, PA, USA, and an MBA from Philadelphia University.
Peter is a member of the Global Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Leadership Forum of the ISPE.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Board As an Independent Director
Peter Gray joined the Abzena Board as an Independent Director in 2018, bringing with him over 30 years of experience within the pharmaceutical services industry, including as Chairman of UDG Healthcare plc, as CEO of ICON plc, where previously he had been CFO, and as CFO of Elan Corporation plc.
Peter currently sits on the board of Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc and is chairman of Teckro Inc, a clinical trial enabling technology company. He was previously an Independent Director director at Aptuit LLC and at UDG Healthcare plc.
Peter holds a degree in law from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1981.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Site Head and Senior Vice President, San Diego Operations
Sean O'Brien is responsible for leading and managing all site operations. He oversees analytical method and process development; clinical and commercial cGMP manufacturing; environmental health and safety; facilities, and materials management. Sean and his team manufacture toxicology through commercial phases.
With over 20 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry, Sean has previously held roles with progressively increasing scope and responsibility at Amgen and Alexion Pharmaceuticals as Director of Manufacturing before progressing to Executive Director and Site Lead, Dublin, Ireland.
Sean has extensive experience in leading organizations and driving business and network improvements to transform business units. He has overseen new product introductions, regulatory approvals, enterprise resource planning system implementations, capital projects, and the creation of robust safety and compliance cultures.
Sean holds a B.A from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY and an MBA from San Francisco State University, CA, USA. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry Sean served as logistics officer in the United States Marine Corps.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Leadership Team
Thomas Castellano serves as Abzena's CFO and oversees Abzena's global finance and fiscal health of the business. Tom has primary responsibility for planning, implementing, managing, and running of all the finance activities at Abzena.
Tom manages our capital investments, investor relations and partnership compliance with Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Stowe (WCAS).
Tom joined Abzena from Catalent where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He has over 20 years of corporate finance and capital market experience having held positions of increasing responsibility including Vice President Finance, Investor Relations and Treasurer and Global Vice President Operational Finance at Catalent. His experience includes finance partnership on the execution of company growth strategy and membership of Executive Leadership Teams. Tom began his career at Cendant Corporation and Lehman Brothers.
Tom holds a BS in finance and an MBA, both from Seton Hall University, NJ, USA.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Senior Vice President and Global Head of Quality
Troy Wright is responsible for quality, compliance, and patient safety. He oversees the Quality Management System, the global site quality assurance and compliance systems, audits and inspections, and day-to-day quality control operations.
With 20+ years' in the biopharmaceutical sector Troy brings technical expertise to quality systems, quality assurance, quality control, biochemistry, and microbiology. He has experience covering various production platforms including mammalian cell culture and large and small molecule drug substance manufacturing.
Troy joined Abzena in 2021 from Amgen Inc. where he held roles of increasing responsibility including Chief of Staff for Worldwide Quality, Quality Operations Team Lead and Contract Manufacturing Quality.
He attained his bachelor's degree from Catawba College, Salisbury, NC, and is a member of, RX360, the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) and CASSS.