The Team
Whitney Richards, Founder, CEO & President
Mr. Richards struggled for years with the devastating personal and professional consequences of long-undiagnosed Lyme disease and wants to apply his 20 years of business experience to provide a diagnostic solution.
Mr. Richards has served in executive-level roles for almost 20 years. Most recently he was also the CEO & General Manager of Aboca USA, Inc. Mr. Richards was the CEO of Pop n’ Shake Development and was one its principal founders. Mr. Richards has experience in M&A. Mr. Richards was a senior equity trader and a member of an investment advisory board for Westpeak Investment Advisors, one of the fastest-growing institutional money managers in America with over $9 billion under management. He also worked for Credit Suisse First Boston and Twenty-First Securities in New York City. Mr. Richards has an MBA with a concentration in Finance and has an undergraduate degree in Accounting.
David Macdonald, Co-Founder, Executive Board
Mr. Macdonald has a strong track record of success with more than 30 years of international experience developing and commercializing clinical diagnostic products and laboratory services.
Mr. Macdonald has served in CEO and COO roles for over 20 years, most recently as the CEO at Agendia, and formerly as a Division President, COO and Vice President at Quest Diagnostics. Mr. Macdonald has been an invited speaker at a variety of industry events and has served on several industry Advisory Boards and Boards of Directors. David holds a BSBA degree in Management and Finance from Northeastern University and a MBA degree from Babson College with a focus on Marketing and Entrepreneurship
Advisory Board
Jorge Leon, Ph.D., Clinical Advisor
Dr. Leon was one of the visionary founders of the molecular diagnostics lab offering at Quest Diagnostics. He has pioneered the development of molecular diagnostics, gene sequencing and pharmacogenomic testing over the last 30 years.
Dr. Leon currently provides advisory services for diagnostic and pharmaceutical businesses, assessing and evaluating new technologies and developing companies with solid business plans. This includes catalyzing the development and commercialization of new products. Dr. Leon is the President and CEO at Leomics Associates, was the Vice President of Applied Genomics at Quest Diagnostics and the CSO and Senior Vice President of Business Development at NEN Life Sciences.
Tony Shuber, Research & Development
An accomplished, innovative, senior executive with over 20 years of experience in the development of sophisticated diagnostic products and services within the clinical laboratory and biotech industry.
Mr. Shuber is an accomplished, awarded professional in the field of Molecular Biology. A Senior Biotech/Life Science Executive, he is renowned for strategic vision and innovation within Diagnostics and Applied Genomics focused on novel products/breakthrough and commercialization. Mr. Shuber brings over 25 years of experience in both Diagnostics and Biotech. Most recently Mr. Shuber was VP and Chief Science Officer of Nabsys Inc. where he developed the clinical strategy for the application of Structural Variation analysis in oncology. Prior to Nabsys, Mr. Shuber was the Chief Technology Officer at Ignyta where he identified a novel platform for CTC enrichment for a liquid biopsy associated companion diagnostic approach. Prior to Ignyta, Mr. Shuber was Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Predictive Biosciences and led the company's overall scientific efforts and applied research team in developing the first non-invasive diagnostic test that combined protein and DNA analysis in a single assay. Mr. Shuber also previously served as Co-Founder, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for EXACT Sciences, where he received the Colorectal Cancer Network associated Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award for the development of proprietary sample preparation and analytical technologies for the early detection of colorectal cancer. Prior to Exact he directed and managed the Technology Development group at Genzyme Genetics where he spearheaded from development to commercial launch multiple DNA-based diagnostic tests offered in the CLIA approved Genzyme Genetics Laboratory. Mr. Shuber began his commercial career at Genetics Institute where he spent six years as a bench scientist focusing on the heterologous expression of human genes in bacteria for therapeutic applications. He holds over 50 granted US patent applications and has authored over 35 peer-reviewed publications in such prestigious journals as The New England Journal of Medicine. He earned his undergraduate (BS in Biology) and graduate (MS in Molecular and Developmental Biology) degrees from Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Robert J. Easton, Business Strategy
Mr. Easton has been recognized as a thought leader in healthcare business consulting for over 30 years. He has led strategy development and supervised opportunity assessments for hundreds of clients on 4 continents, including large and specialty pharmaceutical companies, early-stage through publicly traded biopharmaceutical companies, and diagnostics businesses.
Mr. Easton has built and led two consulting firms, The Wilkerson Group and Easton Associates. He brings powerful analytical skills to bear on projects to ensure insightful and actionable results. Mr. Easton applies his deep domain knowledge to influence the decision-making of medical industry leaders and support client executives around the world. Over his long career, Mr. Easton has written and spoken about multiple industry issues in scores of venues. He is Chairman of the New York Biotechnology Association, and has served on 8 medical company Boards. He also serves as Chairman of Gilda’s Club of New York City, which provides social and emotional support to people living with cancer. Mr. Easton holds two degrees in Chemical Engineering from Rice University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Russ Wedemeyer, Marketing and Commercialization
Mr. Wedemeyer is the Founder of FeedbackSTAT, a full-service market research and business development company that focuses exclusively on the healthcare and biotech industries.
After spending 14 years with Abbott Diagnostics, holding numerous management positions within the company in sales, product development, training, and business unit management for national accounts, Mr. Wedemeyer was then privileged to be a part of the startup team at Ventana Medical Systems. In 1994 Mr. Wedemeyer created and launched FeedbackSTAT, a full-service market research and business development company, focused exclusively on the biotech and healthcare markets. Our experienced team executes projects in the fields of molecular biology, clinical chemistry, veterinary diagnostics, anatomical pathology, DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) and POC (Point-of-Care) testing.
Scott Schroeder, CPA, Finance
Mr. Schroeder has more than 20 years of experience as a Chief Financial Officer, Controller and Treasurer.
Since 2006 Mr. Schroeder has been the Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration, CFO at Nanomix Inc. and has worked as at the executive level financial positions with notable companies such as Itero Energy Inc., Luminous Networks, and Blaze Software to name a few.
Robert A. Rubin, Ph.D., Bioinformatics
Dr. Rubin has over 35 years’ experience in applying mathematical and statistical modeling and analysis, signal and image processing, and software development skills to varied research, development, testing, and evaluation programs, with a particular focus on systems effectiveness analysis.
Dr. Rubin was an Associate Professor of mathematics for 11 years and served for 20 years in the aerospace industry. As an expert in mathematics, biostatistics and bioinformatics, his current activities involve consulting with various biotech firms on tests for Lyme disease, breast cancer and major depressive disorder, and collaboration with academic and government scientists on a variety of basic research projects involving genomics, next generation sequencing and DNA methylation. Dr. Rubin has a B.A. in Mathematics from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional full-time study of statistics at Penn.
Charles B. Root, Ph.D., Compliance and Reimbursement
Dr. Charles Root is CEO of CodeMap, LLC. He has provided laboratory coding and reimbursement information to healthcare providers and manufacturers for over 22 years regarding compliance, coding and economic issues.
CodeMap’s clients include more than 50 diagnostic test manufacturers and over 1,500 health care providers (hospitals, independent laboratories and imaging centers) who rely on CodeMap publications, compliance training, and advisory services.