Thermo Fisher Scientific: Jenny Johnson
Thermo Fisher Scientific has appointed Jenny Johnson to its board of directors, bringing the company’s total number of board members to 12. Johnson is the president and CEO of Franklin Resources. She earned a BA in economics from the University of California at Davis.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies: Kate Priestman
Oxford Nanopore Technologies has appointed Kate Priestman as a non-executive director, effective July 13. Priestman most recently served as senior VP of R&D strategy, portfolio, and operations at GlaxoSmithKline. She currently also serves as a trustee of RBG Kew.
Biocept: M. Faye Wilson, Bruce Gerhardt, Marsha Chandler
Biocept board chair M. Faye Wilson unexpectedly passed away on July 10. She was appointed to the firm's board in 2009 and at different times served as lead independent director. Most recently, she was a member of the audit, compensation, and science and technology committees. Wilson was CEO of business consulting firm Wilson Boyles. Before that, she was senior VP at The Home Depot, and prior to that, she worked at Bank of America.
Biocept has appointed Bruce Gerhardt as its new board chair and Marsha Chandler as vice chair. Gerhardt is a tax and business advisor for businesses and individuals. He previously worked as financial VP for several companies and joined the Biocept board in 2010. Chandler, who joined the board in 2013, is senior vice chancellor and professor emerita at the University of California, San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy as well as advisor to the Lehigh University College of Global Health and the University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences and College of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She previously served as executive VP and chief operating officer of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and as senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at UCSD.
Element Biosciences: Edwin Hauw
Element Biosciences has appointed Edwin Hauw as senior VP of marketing and product management. He will also develop external partnerships and implement strategies to drive adoption of the firm's Aviti sequencer and future products. He comes to the firm from 10x Genomics, where he was VP of marketing. He also held product management roles at Pacific Biosciences, Applied Biosystems, and Affymetrix. Hauw holds an MBA from the University of Southern California.
Iridia: Buck Watia
Buck Watia has been appointed as VP of corporate development at DNA-based data storage firm Iridia. He joins the Carlsbad, California-based firm from Microsoft, where he was head of strategy and growth in the security, cloud, and AI business. Previously, he led business and corporate development at CyberX, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2020. Earlier, he held roles at Rapid7, ArcSight, and iDefense. Watia has a bachelor of business administration from Boise State University.
Inflammatix: Heiner Dreismann
Immune system molecular diagnostics firm Inflammatix has appointed Heiner Dreismann to its board of directors. He has more than 35 years of experience in the life sciences and healthcare industries and was the CEO of Roche Molecular Systems from 2000 to 2006. Dreismann also held leadership positions at Roche's diagnostic division, and he currently serves on the boards of several public, private, and non-profit organizations.
For additional recent items on executive appointments, promotions, and departures in the omics and molecular diagnostics space, please see the People in the News page on our website.