William Hagstrom — Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Hagstrom has over 25 years of leadership experience in the healthcare industry. Prior to joining Crescendo Bioscience™, he was President of Alpha BioPartners, a strategic consulting firm for early-stage biotechnology companies. While at Alpha BioPartners, Mr. Hagstrom co-founded Altheus Therapeutics and Biolytx Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he served as President and CEO of UroCor, a specialty diagnostic services company focused on urological cancers, which he built from start-up through market launch, product expansion and penetration of over 35% of the U.S. urology market. Mr. Hagstrom has also held a variety of management positions in large, multinational healthcare companies including Becton, Dickinson and Company, American Hospital Supply and Baxter International. He received a BS degree in Business Management from Bob Jones University.
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David Chernoff, MD — Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Chernoff has served as acting Chief Medical Officer for several start-up molecular diagnostic companies including XDx, CardioDx, and Tethys Bioscience. Previously, he was Vice President of Corporate Technology at Elan Pharmaceuticals and Medical Director of Chiron Diagnostics, where he played a pivotal role in the development of assays for HIV, HCV, HBV, and CMV. He recently spent two years as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and one year as an Operating Partner at the venture firm TPG. Dr. Chernoff holds an MD from New York University and completed his medical training in internal medicine, rheumatology, and infectious disease at the University of California, San Francisco.
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Michael Centola, PhD — Founder and Scientific Advisor
Dr. Centola is an Assistant Member of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF), an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Department of Medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and Director for the OMRF Microarray Research Facility. He was recruited to the OMRF in 2000 from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Centola has focused his research on the genetics, genomics and proteomics of inflammatory disease. He holds a PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Guy Cavet, PhD — Senior Director, Informatics
Dr. Cavet is responsible for data management, data analysis, algorithm development and software engineering at Crescendo Bioscience. He has over 10 years of experience working in bioinformatics, software development and scientific research. Prior to joining Crescendo, Dr. Cavet managed informatics research and software development for diagnostics at Genentech. He also worked in genomics, technology development and scientific software development at Rosetta Inpharmatics, both before and after the company's acquisition by Merck & Co. He received a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
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Lyndal Hesterberg, PhD — Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Hesterberg brings over 25 years of product development experience in both protein diagnostics and therapeutics to Crescendo. As Founder and CEO of Barofold, he turned a process-based protein technology into a clinical-stage company with a full pipeline of drug candidates. As Senior Director of Research Services at SomaLogic, he was responsible for integrating clinical direction into the development of chip-based proteomics assays. Dr. Hesterberg was also part of the start-up management team of Biostar where, as EVP Scientific Affairs, he developed the platform technology, created IP strategy and launched multiple products. Prior to that, he served as Manager of Diagnostic Product Development at Amgen, where he established the internal diagnostic division. Dr. Hesterberg received a PhD in biochemistry from St. Louis University.
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Ted Snelgrove — Chief Commercialization Officer
Mr. Snelgrove brings to Crescendo Bioscience nearly 20 years of experience launching complex products in the healthcare field. As Vice President, Sales & Marketing for Genomic Health, he was responsible for commercialization of the Oncotype DX® Breast Cancer Assay. Prior to that, he worked for several leading biopharmaceutical companies, including ALZA, Amgen, Immunex and Eli Lilly, serving in a range of commercial positions from Sales to Marketing to Business Development. Mr. Snelgrove's professional career started as an officer with the U.S. Navy, where he flew helicopters and managed officer recruiting. He received an MBA in Marketing from the University of Michigan.
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Lucy Lu, Vice President — Business Development
Ms. Lu has more than 20 years of technical and business experience in life science and in vitro diagnostics. Prior to joining Crescendo Bioscience, she was Vice President, Technology Management and Head of the U.S. Chief Technology Office for Roche Diagnostics, where she built a global team focusing on technology search, assessment and recommendation to support strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions. Her scouting focus covered life sciences, diabetes care, near-patient testing, and molecular and centralized diagnostics. She has also held various management positions at Applied Biosystems, Genentech, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Ms. Lu received an MBA from St. Mary's College and an MS in Plant Biology from the University of Illinois.
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William R. Salisbury — Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Salisbury brings nearly 25 years of corporate finance and legal experience to Crescendo Bioscience. Prior to joining Crescendo, he was a Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley, where he advised the senior management of corporate clients in preparing for, structuring and executing public and private equity and debt financing transactions and on a broad range of capital-raising and investor-relations topics. He led the execution of over 150 financings, including 75 IPOs in technology and healthcare. Prior to that, he practiced corporate law at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and Paris, where he completed numerous equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions and debt restructurings. Mr. Salisbury holds a JD from Harvard Law School.
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