Harry Stylli is the Chairman and CEO of Progenity, and co-founded the company, guiding it from a small start-up with a single genetic testing platform to a key player in molecular diagnostics for women’s health. He is leading the company to develop precision medicine solutions through its genomic/epigenomic, proteomic, and microbiomic platforms, with both diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Over the course of his career, he has worked to facilitate advancements in molecular diagnostic and therapeutic modalities that make a difference to society. Before co-founding Progenity in 2011, he transformed Sequenom from a distressed tools manufacturer into a molecular diagnostics company that was the first to develop and launch noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT). This led to a worldwide transformation of prenatal testing for Down syndrome and other serious genetic conditions and later to the development of liquid biopsy technologies for cancer.

As a board member and Chief Restructuring Officer, he took Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals through a business restructuring and chapter 11 bankruptcy, securing exit financing. As CEO of Xencor, he transformed the company from a computational protein design service provider into a biopharmaceutical company with a compelling antibody-based pipeline and pharma partnerships. He was the founding CEO of CovX Pharmaceuticals, a peptide/protein delivery platform based on modified antibodies that was acquired by Pfizer pre-IND.

Harry also co-founded Aurora Biosciences, which was purchased by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The work of Aurora Biosciences, in collaboration with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, led to the discovery of Kalydeco by Vertex, the first targeted therapy for treating cystic fibrosis. He began his career at GSK research and development in the UK, moving into various roles of increasing responsibility.

In addition to his role at Progenity, Dr. Stylli is also a director of Immunis.AI and an advisor to Longitude Capital, a venture capital fund.

Harry holds a PhD from King’s College London GKT School of Medical Education, an MBA from The Open University (UK), and a BSc (hons) from University of East London. He also supports several charitable organizations, serving as a board member for the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and as honorary director for the ABC Youth Foundation.

Matthew Cooper, PhD, DABT, MBA, is Chief Scientific Officer at Progenity.

Matthew was previously the CEO and Founder of Carmenta Bioscience before Progenity acquired the company in 2015. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for Avails Medical, NeoSeq, and the Preeclampsia Foundation. Dr. Cooper serves in advisory roles for SPARK (Stanford School of Medicine), StartX (Stanford start-up incubator), and Lean LaunchPad for the Life Sciences at UCSF. Prior to Carmenta, Dr. Cooper was founding Chief Scientific Officer at Syapse, a precision medicine software platform company, and spent over a decade in biomarker and drug development across the value chain at such companies as Biogen Idec and Roche.

Dr. Cooper's educational background includes dual MBAs from Columbia Business School (Finance) and the Berkeley Haas School of Business (Entrepreneurship). He also obtained a PhD in Toxicology (University of Kentucky, College of Medicine) and BS in Chemistry (University of Tulsa, College of Engineering). He is board certified in toxicology (Diplomat of the American Board of Toxicology) and has earned a Certificate of Entrepreneurship from the Berkeley Haas School of Business. Matt is also an avid foodie and wine collector. When not at work, you can find Matt traveling the world in search of his next best meal.

Eric d’Esparbes brings more than 25 years of financial and executive experience in strategic planning and fund-raising functions for both private and public companies.

Most recently, he was the CFO and interim Principal Executive Officer of Innoviva, Inc. (NASDAQ:INVA), a publicly traded biotechnology company managing a portfolio of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease medicines, which are sold globally by GlaxoSmithKline. During his time at Innoviva, Mr. d’Esparbes led the optimization of the company’s capital structure and helped develop and implement a strategic plan to transition the company to a higher margin business. Prior to this, he held leadership positions as CFO for Joule Unlimited, Vice President of Finance for global energy company, AEI, Inc., and CFO for Meiya Power Company (now CNG New Energy), where he collaborated with large private equity investors to raise and optimize capital. In his previous roles, he was responsible for profit and loss management of up to $3.5 billion annual global sales. Mr. d’Esparbes holds a bachelor’s degree from Hautes Études Commercial in Montréal, Canada.

Sami Shihabi is the Chief Commercial Officer at Progenity overseeing both the Women’s Health and Precision Medicine business units. With 20+ years of experience in the healthcare industry, Sami’s experience covers corporate strategy, product portfolio planning and commercialization, market expansions, and commercial development across the medical device, molecular diagnostics, and therapeutics industries.

Prior to joining Progenity, Sami was the Chief Commercial Officer at Prometheus Laboratories, a leader of precision healthcare in gastroenterology. He led the sales, marketing, and managed care organizations in addition to establishing the corporate and portfolio pipeline strategies. Prior to that, he led marketing at Valeant Pharmaceuticals for the hepatology and infectious diseases portfolio. Earlier in his career, he worked at Baxter Oncology in various roles spanning from R&D to sales and product management in the field of hematopoietic stem cell transplants for hematologic malignancies. Sami holds an MBA from UC Irvine and an MS in Molecular Biology from Penn State University.

Kevin Howe, BPharm, PhD is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Operations at Progenity. He is responsible for overseeing drug device development and regulatory teams within the Precision Medicine business unit. He is also responsible for Progenity’s quality management programs.

Kevin holds a PhD in altered protein states and has over 30 years of experience in the industry. Kevin was the founder of Epi-Cure Consulting Ltd, a specialist drug development and regulatory organization and QP service provider. He worked with the National Health Service, the pharmaceutical industry and Quintiles where he was head of the Pharma Consulting Group in Europe. During his career, he has worked with the full range of products from synthetic NCEs to biologics, naturally derived and biotechnology, as well as genetically modified human cell vaccines, alone and in combination with devices. His educational background includes a BPharm and PhD from Chelsea College, University of London.

Clarke Neumann brings 30 years of legal and business experience, manages the company’s legal department, and oversees its compliance and human resources functions. Mr. Neumann’s background includes 14 years of public company experience at life science research tools and diagnostic laboratory services company Sequenom, Inc. where he led the legal department for 13 years and served as General Counsel.

Prior to his in-house career, Mr. Neumann was an attorney at the law firm Lyon & Lyon, LLP, in its Los Angeles and San Diego offices and focused on technology transactions, patent matters, and business and intellectual property litigation. Prior to law school Mr. Neumann held sales and scientist positions at Nalco Chemical Company and McDonnell Douglas Astronautics. Mr. Neumann earned his JD from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles (1993) and BS in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University (1985). Mr. Neumann is also a registered patent attorney.

Jeana DaRe, PhD, FACMG is the Vice President of Laboratory Medicine at Progenity. She is responsible for leading the Laboratory Director team, overseeing the Medical Affairs team, and bringing clinical molecular genetics expertise to Progenity’s new product development and commercialization pipeline. She joined the company in 2014 bringing with her a background in laboratory leadership, next-generation sequencing, variant interpretation, and commercialization of genetic tests.

Dr. DaRe was previously Laboratory Director at Transgenomic, where she helped bring one of the first large next-generation sequencing panels to the clinical laboratory industry. Dr. DaRe obtained certification by the American Board of Medical Genetics in Clinical Molecular Genetics, after completing her clinical training through a joint program located at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Signature Genomics Laboratories in Spokane, WA. She earned her doctoral degree in Genetics from Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, OH.

Emil Chuang is the Vice President of GI Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at Progenity. Dr. Chuang is a seasoned senior executive in biotechnology with over 20 years of clinical trials and development experience.

Dr. Chuang is a board-certified pediatric gastroenterologist who has a passion for research to develop innovative solutions to improve the outcome for patients. He was responsible for leading a team that filed the first IND at the FDA for a medical food for the treatment of Crohn’s disease. He also served as the industry Co-Chair for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation Plexus program, an industry and academic collaborative to accelerate IBD research. His industry experience spans both large pharmaceutical companies such as JNJ, Nestle Health Science and Takeda, to biotechnology companies such as Arena Pharmaceuticals, Ionis, and Prometheus Labs. Prior to joining Progenity, he was the Head of GI Translational Medicine and Early Clinical at Takeda. He has extensive expertise in both early and late phase development for both diagnostics and therapeutic products. For the past decade, he has had major responsibilities to build and develop high-functioning development teams.

Dr. Chuang obtained his medical degree at the University of Sydney, Australia. After completing his specialty training in pediatrics in Sydney, he completed subspecialty training with a double fellowship in Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. After completing his training, he was on faculty at Duke University and University of Pennsylvania (CHOP) prior to joining the industry.

Robyn Hatton is the Vice President of Human Resources at Progenity, Inc. She leads the development and execution of the company’s human resources strategy, providing strategic and operational support to the executive leadership team in the areas of talent management, learning and development, and talent acquisition. Her team supports over 650 employees in six locations. Robyn has over ten years of experience in the field of human resources, and holds a BSBA in Human Resource Management from the University of Wisconsin.

Harry Stylli is the Chairman and CEO of Progenity, and co-founded the company, guiding it from a small start-up with a single genetic testing platform to a key player in molecular diagnostics for women’s health. He is leading the company to develop precision medicine solutions through its genomic/epigenomic, proteomic, and microbiomic platforms, with both diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Over the course of his career, he has worked to facilitate advancements in molecular diagnostic and therapeutic modalities that make a difference to society. Before co-founding Progenity in 2011, he transformed Sequenom from a distressed tools manufacturer into a molecular diagnostics company that was the first to develop and launch noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT). This led to a worldwide transformation of prenatal testing for Down syndrome and other serious genetic conditions and later to the development of liquid biopsy technologies for cancer.

As a board member and Chief Restructuring Officer, he took Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals through a business restructuring and chapter 11 bankruptcy, securing exit financing. As CEO of Xencor, he transformed the company from a computational protein design service provider into a biopharmaceutical company with a compelling antibody-based pipeline and pharma partnerships. He was the founding CEO of CovX Pharmaceuticals, a peptide/protein delivery platform based on modified antibodies that was acquired by Pfizer pre-IND.

Harry also co-founded Aurora Biosciences, which was purchased by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The work of Aurora Biosciences, in collaboration with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, led to the discovery of Kalydeco by Vertex, the first targeted therapy for treating cystic fibrosis. He began his career at GSK research and development in the UK, moving into various roles of increasing responsibility.

In addition to his role at Progenity, Dr. Stylli is also a director of Immunis.AI and an advisor to Longitude Capital, a venture capital fund.

Harry holds a PhD from King’s College London GKT School of Medical Education, an MBA from The Open University (UK), and a BSc (hons) from University of East London. He also supports several charitable organizations, serving as a board member for the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and as honorary director for the ABC Youth Foundation.

Jeffrey A. Ferrell is the founder of Athyrium (2008) and currently serves as the firm’s Managing Partner. Mr. Ferrell has substantial investment experience in the life sciences sector across a wide range of asset classes and transaction structures.

Prior to forming Athyrium, Mr. Ferrell served in several capacities at Lehman Brothers, including overseeing life sciences investments for Global Trading Strategies (a principal investment group within Lehman) and as Vice President in Lehman Brothers’ Private Equity division focused on life sciences investments. Prior to joining Lehman in 2001, he was Principal at Schroder Ventures Life Sciences (SVLS) based in Boston. Investments Mr. Ferrell has been involved with include: Sequenom, Bioenvision (acquired by Genzyme), Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Orthovita (acquired by Stryker), Nektar Therapeutics, ISTA Pharmaceuticals, Lpath, Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, KaloBios, Fluidigm, and more. Mr. Ferrell graduated with an AB in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College.

Jeffrey D. Alter is the President of Arcturus One Consulting. Mr. Alter has extensive experience in health plan management, business strategy, and mergers and acquisitions.

He was formerly CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s Commercial Group and during his 14 years with the organization, he led its largest business unit, generating $51 billion in revenue. He was instrumental in implementing strategic initiatives that significantly improved organic growth, client relationships and retention rates. He also developed strategies that expanded the geographic footprint, diversified the business portfolio, led to business acquisitions, and improved product margin stability. Mr. Alter also successfully led UnitedHealthcare’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Prior to this, he served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Financial Planning for Oxford Health Plans, served as Vice President of Finance, Underwriting and Operations at Vytra Health Plans, and spent ten years in finance and operations roles for Grumman Aerospace Corporation and Harris Corporation. Mr. Alter serves on the boards of the Long Island Association, the Board of Governors of St. John’s University, and CityMD. He received a BS in marketing and an MBA in Finance from St. John’s University.

John T. Bigalke founded and is the CEO of Second Half Healthcare Advisors, where he consults on business strategy for companies competing in the rapidly changing health care environment.

He is a seasoned financial expert, a board member and advisor to healthcare and life science companies. He is a Board Leadership Fellow with the National Association of Corporate Directors. His previous roles were U.S. National Industry Leader and Senior Partner, Global Health Care and Life Sciences at Deloitte LLP, where he led the growth to become the leading professional services firm serving the industry. Mr. Bigalke led a wide range of engagements over 18 years at Deloitte and 40 years in the industry, providing audit, litigation support, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory advisory, and strategic planning services. He also served as the National Director of Public Policy, leading the development of Deloitte’s public policy strategy. Mr. Bigalke serves as chairman of the Advisory Board at VaxCare Corporation and is a member of the Board of Directors at Advent (formerly Adventist) Health Systems. He is on the Advisor Board of Concord Management Services LLC. He previously served on the Board of Directors of Deloitte LLP and the Healthcare Financial Management Association, among others. He received a BS in Financial Management from Clemson University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Samuel R. Nussbaum, MD, is a strategic consultant for EBG Advisors, and acts as a senior advisor to Sandbox Industries and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

He is a clinical leader, academic physician, and policy advisor to top healthcare companies. Dr. Nussbaum has expertise in technology assessment and health economics for health plans and private and public sector policy organizations. Dr. Nussbaum served as Executive Vice President, Clinical Health Policy, and Chief Medical Officer at Anthem for 15 years, where he oversaw clinical strategy as well as medical and pharmacy policy. Prior to that, Dr. Nussbaum was Executive Vice President, Medical Affairs and System Integration at BJC Healthcare where he was instrumental in developing alternative businesses and strategic acquisitions that enabled business and clinical portfolio expansion. He also spent two decades in academia at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Nussbaum is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine and a senior fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. He currently serves on several boards, including Motus GI, Coherus Biosciences, and PhyMed. He received a BA from New York University and an MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Lynne Powell is the Chief Executive Officer of Druggability Technologies (DRGT).

Ms. Powell was appointed to the board in February 2019. She brings more than 25 years of cross-functional and global experience. She is currently CEO of Druggability Technologies (DRGT) and prior to that was Chief Commercial Officer at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals. She spent 17 years of her career at CSL in roles of increasing responsibility, starting as Head of Clinical Research for plasma products and concluding as SVP, General Manager, Commercial Operations, North America. Ms. Powell has launched multiple products globally and in the U.S. She also held positions within Glaxo Wellcome’s commercial strategy and clinical research organizations in the UK. She received an MBA from Monash University in Australia.

Dr. Kotzin brings experience including more than 25 years of academic research and 15 years of executive leadership for life science companies.

Dr. Kotzin is a Board of Directors member at Rigel, currently serves as a Principal Fellow and Senior Vice President for Nektar Therapeutics, and consults for companies developing therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. His previous roles include Vice President of Global Clinical Development and Head of the Inflammation Therapeutic Area and Vice President and Head of Medical Sciences at Amgen. Prior to entering the life sciences industry, he held several positions as a professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, where his research focused on immunopathogenesis of disease. He received a doctorate in medicine from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Kotzin has held leadership roles at several national organizations, including as a member of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Board of Directors, Member and Chairperson of the NIH Immunological Sciences Study Section, Chairperson of the NIH Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence, and Member of the Board of Directors for the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies. He is currently an elected Master of the ACR.