KIYATEC - Key Persons
Dr. Nash brings over 30 years of executive-level healthcare experience in the managed care, hospital and medical group practice settings. Previously Dr. Nash served as Chief Physician Executive and Senior Vice President at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, one of the nation's leading health insurance plans. During his career, Dr. Nash has held executive leadership positions in both managed care (Kaiser Permanente, Capital District Physicians' Health Plan) and healthcare (Northern Berkshire Health System, North Adams Regional Hospital) organizations. Dr. Nash serves on the boards of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation and the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI), while also serving on the Board of Strategic Advisors at the Excel Venture Management Fund and the Clinical Advisory Group at the Blue Venture Fund. He is a board-certified physician who completed his residency training at Duke University. Bruce earned his MBA in Health Sector Management from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.
Christopher is the President of Ortec, Inc., a South Carolina company offering custom manufacturing services for pharmaceutical, medical device and combination products. Prior to joining Ortec, Christopher was with Nalco Company where he held several positions in product marketing, international marketing, and strategic mergers & acquisitions. He holds a bachelors degree in chemistry from Clemson University and an MBA from Wake Forest University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Co - Founder
- Member of the Board
Mr. Johnson is the founder and CEO of the company.
Mr. Robart is an experienced healthcare executive with a solid foundation in near- and long-term strategic planning, development and execution. He is the co-founder and managing partner of Seae Ventures, a healthcare venture fund with a particular focus on women and minority entrepreneurs. Prior to founding Seae in 2019, Jason held a number of executive roles at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, including: Chief Strategy Officer, President and CEO of Zaffre Investments, BCBSMA's corporate venture arm; Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP of Organizational Effectiveness; and Segment Leader for National Accounts. Previous positions also include executive vice president for Health Dialog, an international health care analytics company, and principal at Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Jason holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Middlebury College and a Certificate in Private Equity and Venture Capital from Harvard Business School.
Mr. Miller is a dedicated and reliable expert in the field.
Kiyatec is a functional precision oncology company that measures the response of individual patient live cancer cells with its innovative 3D cell culture technology platform.
We offer clinical testing for high-grade glioma and are developing tests for ovarian, breast, non-small cell lung and rare tumors in our CLIA-certified laboratory.
Kiyatec works with leading biopharmaceutical companies to unlock response dynamics for investigational drug candidates for use in solid tumors.
Lillia Holmes is Chief Operations Officer overseeing Kiyatec operations and regulatory compliance. Prior to Kiyatec, Lillia gained experience in operational and financial management and furthered her regulatory affairs expertise as the Director of Cellular Therapy at The Blood Connection, Inc. where she managed the processing facility for bone marrow transplants and served as the Technical Supervisor for CLIA high complexity testing. Her interest in operational management and cellular therapy stemmed from translating oncology research to clinical therapies during her time as a Research Associate for the Greenville Hospital System Oncology Research Institute. Since that time, Lillia has continued to develop her knowledge of FDA, CLIA, FACT and AABB regulations and standards and has successfully translated that knowledge to operational improvements for biotechnology organizations as well as both research and clinical laboratories. Lillia is a Greenville, SC native and attended the University of South Carolina at Spartanburg where she graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Biology. She then furthered her education at East Tennessee State, Quillen College of Medicine by earning a M.S. in Biomedical Sciences. Her love for Greenville led her back home where she has been instrumental in oncology research and cellular therapy manufacturing. Passionate about oncology and blood donation, Lillia brings a unique perspective to Kiyatec's mission.
Dr. Matthew (Matt) Gevaert is the Chief Executive Officer, a Co-Founder and a Board Member of Kiyatec, Inc. Under Matt's leadership Kiyatec is disrupting cancer therapy selection with patient-specific prediction of response to drug therapies, prior to treatment. Kiyatec achieves this by measuring the response of individual patient live cancer cells with its innovative 3D cell culture technology platform, with success demonstrated in peer-reviewed publications for multiple tumor types that score >95th percentile in on-line impact. Through a dedicated focus on direct relevance to cancer patients, Kiyatec has successfully attracted multiple rounds of private sector investment, developed its 3D Predict™ and KIYA-Predict™ ex vivo 3D cell culture platforms, and published the first functional precision oncology assay with clinically-correlated prospective predictive therapeutic response evidence in multiple tumor types. To-date, Kiyatec has been awarded more than $5M of competitively awarded federal funding including contracts from the National Cancer Institute, cultivated clinical collaborations at leading national cancer institutions and built productive relationships with premier biopharmaceutical companies developing the cancer therapies of the future.
Matt is a graduate of the University of Waterloo (B.Sc., Chemistry) and of Clemson University (M.S. and Ph.D., Bioengineering). He serves on a number of professional and community boards and occasionally teaches an MBA graduate course in technology entrepreneurship for professional business students.
Mr. Silverman is the former CEO of mtm laboratories AG, an in-vitro diagnostics company which developed and commercialized a portfolio of products using its patent protected biomarkers for early detection and diagnosis of cervical cancer. He was instrumental in building this company into a global, fully integrated business, with a strong foundation of significant clinical utility and commercial momentum. Mr. Silverman successfully negotiated the purchase of mtm by Roche Diagnostics in August 2011 for a total deal value of $270 Million and then facilitated the integration of mtm into Roche. Prior to mtm laboratories, Mr. Silverman was the Senior Vice-President of Worldwide Commercial Operations for Viacell, a company focused on developing stem cell therapies and cord blood banking. Before this, he spent 6 years with Cytyc Corporation. During his tenure at Cytyc, he served as the Vice President of Marketing and the Vice President of International, and was integral in launching and establishing the core technology (the ThinPrep Pap Test) into the standard of care for cervical cancer screening. Previous positions include Vice-President of Marketing for Pasteur Merieux Connaught, Director of New Product Development for Abbott Laboratories Pharmaceutical Products Division and Management Consultant with Bain and Company. He earned his Master's degree in Marketing and Finance from Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of Management and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from the University of Michigan. Mr. Silverman currently works with several companies in a Board and Advisory capacity.
Stacy Chick - Chief Commercial Officer
Stacy Chick is Chief Commercial Officer for Kiyatec. In partnership with the executive team, she leads the Company's efforts in all commercial functions, including sales, marketing, reimbursement, client services and communications. Stacy brings over 30 years of successful life sciences commercialization experience, most recently as US commercial advisor to multiple global life sciences entities, investors, boards and investment firms after successfully transitioning a privately-held research stage global oncology molecular diagnostics firm to reimbursed, commercial revenue stage and subsequent acquisition. Stacy led teams in general management, sales, marketing, communications, market access and reimbursement with Sanofi, Bristol-Myers Squibb and several mid-to-early stage global pharmaceutical companies. Stacy earned her Bachelors in Business Administration (Marketing) from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia and her Masters in Business Administration (Finance) from Rutgers. She is an Emeritus member of the University of Georgia Terry College of Business Alumni Board, advisor/mentor to UGA I-Corps, Peer Ambassador volunteer at Emory Winship Cancer Center and Soldiers' Angels volunteer supporting deployed US troops throughout the world. For the past five years Stacy served on the board of OurBrainBank, a 501 ( c ) 3 foundation of patient advocates and medical advisors dedicated to making glioblastoma treatable, rather than terminal.
Dr. Tessa DesRochers is the Chief Scientific Officer responsible for managing all research and development within Kiyatec, including all government contracts and grants, external collaborations, and internal preclinical and clinical assay development. Before joining the company, Tessa was in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University where she developed bioengineered 3D models of human kidney tissue and breast cancer with applications in the areas of nephrotoxicology, disease modeling, and infectious disease. She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in the area of tissue engineering and disease applications, has presented a number of abstracts at multiple scientific meetings, and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals. As a "military brat", Tessa grew up in numerous locations, including California, England, and Ohio before her family settled in New Hampshire. She attended the University of New Hampshire where she graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Biochemistry. She received her PhD from Tufts University's Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology where her thesis focused upon epigenetic gene regulation in a 3D model of human skin. Her postdoctoral training included a year at Children's Hospital in Boston and subsequent training in the lab of Dr. David Kaplan at Tufts University. Tessa is committed to the development of 3D tissues as better models of human development and disease.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Managing Partner at Ethan Rivers
Wes Carr, CPA, is a cofounder and managing partner at Ethan Rivers, LLC - a management accounting and business operations firm in Greenville, South Carolina. Wes began his public accounting career with Ernst & Young, LLP and then went on to gain industry experience within manufacturing, tech, real estate, service, and non-profit organizations. Wes currently serves a number of businesses as fractional CFO. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Bob Jones University and an MBA from Clemson University.