23andMe: Valerie Montgomery Rice, Peter Taylor
23andMe has appointed Valerie Montgomery Rice and Peter Taylor to its board of directors following the June 16 closing of the previously announced business combination between 23andMe and VG Acquisition Corp.
Montgomery Rice is currently president and dean of Morehouse School of Medicine. An infertility specialist and researcher, she has held faculty positions and leadership roles at various health centers, and most notably was the founding director of the Center for Women's Health Research at Meharry Medical College, a research center devoted to studying diseases that disproportionately impact women of color.
Taylor is president of the nonprofit ECMC Foundation, where he has led more than $195 million of grant and investment initiatives affecting educational outcomes, especially among underserved populations. Taylor has also served as executive vice president and CFO for the University of California system, and he previously spent 16 years in the investment banking industry including with Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital.
GenapSys: Britton Russell, Mary Stewart, Surekha Karudapuram
GenapSys has added Britton Russell as CFO, Mary Stewart as chief operating officer, and Surekha Karudapuram as VP of product management and marketing.
Russell comes to GenapSys from Invitae and ArcherDx, where he was senior VP of finance (Invitae acquired ArcherDx in October 2020). Russell also has experience at AstraZeneca, Genentech, and Royal Dutch Shell. Russell holds an MBA from Rice University.
Stewart also comes to GenapSys from Invitae, where she was VP for global diagnostic strategy. She brings over 20 years of experience as a hospital administrator. Stewart holds an MBA and master's degree in health services administration from Arizona State University.
Karudapuram brings a decade of experience in product management and marketing. Most recently, she was at GALT, where she led marketing and applications for microbiome analysis. She has also worked at Varian Medical Systems, Life Technologies, and Agilent. She holds a doctorate from the University of Maryland.
Akoya Biosciences: Scott Mendel
Akoya Biosciences has appointed Scott Mendel to its board of directors. Mendel is currently CEO of GenMark Diagnostics, which was acquired by Roche in April for $1.8 billion. He joined GenMark as CFO in 2014 and was promoted to CEO in 2020. Prior to GenMark, Mendel held senior-level leadership positions with The Active Network and GE Healthcare. He holds a B.S. in finance from Indiana University and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
For additional recent items on executive appointments and promotions in omics and molecular diagnostics, please see the People in the News page on our website.