Corporate Governance

Linda Baddour became a member of our board of directors in March 2021 and serves as a member of the Audit Committee and Nomination and Governance Committee of our board of directors. Ms. Baddour is an experienced senior executive with over twenty years of experience across healthcare, life sciences and pharmaceuticals. Ms. Baddour has served on the board of directors of Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT), a publicly traded analytical laboratory instrument and software company, since 2018, and Signant Health, since 2020.  She also served on the board of directors of Advara, a Genstar Capital portfolio company from 2019 until its sale in 2022. From 2007 to 2018, Ms. Baddour served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of PRA Health Sciences, Inc., a global contract research organization and data science company. During Ms. Baddour’s tenure, PRA Health Sciences grew from approximately 3,000 employees to over 17,000. From 1995 to 2007, Ms. Baddour worked at Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc., a contract research organization, serving in various roles, including as Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Chief Accounting Officer. Ms. Baddour earned both a BA and MBA. from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and is a certified public accountant.

Mr. Berman became a member of our board of directors in January 2015 and serves as Lead Director, Chairman of the Audit Committee and member of the Compensation Committee and Nomination and Governance Committee of our board of directors. Mr. Berman’s business career spans over 40 years of venture capital, senior management, and merger & acquisitions experience. Mr. Berman has served as a director and/or officer of over a dozen public and private companies. From 2006 to 2011, he was Chairman of National Investment Managers, a company with $12 billion in pension administration assets. Over the last decade he has served on the board of 5 companies that have reached over one billion in market capitalization – Cryoport, Advaxis, EXIDE, Internet Commerce Corporation, and Ontrak (Catasys). Previously, Mr. Berman worked at Goldman Sachs; was Senior Vice President of Bankers Trust Company, where he advised on over $4 billion of M&A transactions. He is a past Director of the Stern School of Business of New York University where he obtained his B.S. and MBA. He also earned U.S. and foreign law degrees from Boston College and The Hague Academy of International Law, respectively.

Mr. Hancock was appointed to our board of directors in January 2019 and serves as a member of the Audit Committee and Scientific and Technology Committee. Mr. Hancock is currently President of DMH Strategic Consulting LLC. He retired from General Motors (“GM”) in 2011, after 43 years of service in GM's powertrain engineering and general management functions. His last position with GM was Vice President, Global Strategic Product Alliances. During this period, he served as Chairman of GM's DMAX and VM Motori diesel engine joint ventures with Isuzu and Fiat, respectively. Mr. Hancock's previous appointments at GM included: Vice President, Global Powertrain Engineering; CEO, Fiat-GM Powertrain; and President, Allison Transmission Division. Mr. Hancock is Chairman of the Board of Westport Fuel Systems (NASDAQ WPRT), a Vancouver, B.C. based global supplier of clean gaseous fuel parts, and systems for the transportation industry. He is also serving as chairman of the board of SuperTurbo Technologies, Inc., a Loveland, CO based privately held developer of advanced turbo compounding systems for engines. In addition, Mr. Hancock serves in an advisory capacity to several global suppliers to the automotive and commercial vehicle industries. He was President of SAE International in 2014 and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Kettering University  and a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Hariri, M.D., Ph.D. became a member of our board of directors in September 2015 and serves as Chairman of the Scientific and Technology Committee and member of the Nomination and Governance Committee of our board of directors. Dr. Hariri is a visionary surgeon, scientist, aviator and entrepreneur and serves the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Cellularity, one of the world’s largest human cellular therapeutics companies. Previously, he served as the CEO of the Cellular Therapeutics Division of Celgene Corporation. Prior to joining Celgene Cellular Therapeutics as president in 2002, Dr. Hariri was founder, chairman and chief scientific officer at Anthrogenesis Corporation/LIFEBANK, Inc., a privately held biomedical technology and service corporation involved in the area of human stem cell therapeutics, which was acquired by Celgene in 2002. Dr. Hariri is also co-founder and president of Human Longevity, Inc., a genomics and cell-therapy company. He also serves on the board of directors of Bio Vie Inc. , He previously served on the board of directors of Myos Corporation (Nasdaq: MYOS), and Bionik Laboratories Corp (OTCQX: BNKL), and is a former member of the Board of Visitors of the Columbia University School of Engineering & Applied Sciences and the Science &Technology Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons; as well as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, which is awarded by the X Prize Foundation. Dr. Hariri is also a Trustee of the Liberty Science Center.  He has pioneered the use of stem cells to treat a range of life-threatening diseases and has over 170 issued and pending patents, has authored over 150 published chapters, articles and abstracts and is most recognized for his discovery of pluripotent stem cells from the placenta as a member of the team which discovered TNF (tumor necrosis factor). Dr. Hariri received his undergraduate training at the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and was awarded his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Cornell University Medical College. Dr. Hariri received his surgical training at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center where he also co-directed the Aitken  Laboratory in Neurosurgery.

Ram Jagannath is a Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Healthcare for Blackstone, responsible for investing across Blackstone’s Private Equity, Tactical Opportunities, and Growth businesses, based in New York.  Since joining Blackstone in 2019, Mr. Jagannath has led Blackstone’s investments in HealthEdge, Burgess Group, Bright Health, ZO Skin Health, Altruista Health, Ginger, Hydrogen Health, Wellframe, Medable, and Life Science Logistics, and was involved in Blackstone’s investments in Alnylam/inclisiran royalty (NASDAQ: ALNY) and Precision Medicine Group. He is also a member of the Blackstone Growth Investment Committee. Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Jagannath was a founding Partner of Navab Capital Partners (“NCP”), where he was Head of Healthcare and a member of NCP’s Management and Investment Committees. Prior to NCP, he was a Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, focused on healthcare investments in Carlyle’s flagship US Buyout private equity fund. During his twelve years at Carlyle, Mr. Jagannath was a member of the teams which invested in One Medical Group (NASDAQ: ONEM), Pharmaceutical Product Development (NASDAQ: PPD), X-Chem, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (NASDAQ: OCDX), Healthscope Ltd. (ASX: HSO), and HCR ManorCare. Previously, he worked at Genstar Capital and Thomas Weisel Capital Partners. Mr. Jagannath currently serves on the board of directors of HealthEdge,  ZO Skin Health, Headspace Health and Hydrogen Health and as a board observer of Medable. He also serves on the Board of Visitors of the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering; the Kellogg School of Management Private Equity Advisory Council; and on the Board of Directors of Centering Healthcare Institute. Mr. Jagannath received a B.S.E. in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering with a minor in Economics from Duke University, a J.D. from the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and an MBA. from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. After Duke, he was a Fulbright Scholar in Economic Development at the University of Zagreb in Croatia. In 2021, he was recognized in Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare and GrowthCap’s Top 25 Healthcare Investors.

Dr. Mandalam became a member of our board of directors in June 2014 and serves as Chairman of the Governance and Nomination Committee and member of the Compensation Committee our board of directors. Dr. Mandalam is currently the founder and CEO of Citra BioConsulting Inc., a cell therapy and biologics development consulting firm.  Prior to founding Citra BioConsulting in 2021, he was the CEO, President and Board Member of Cellerant Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company developing novel cell-based and antibody therapies for cancer treatment and blood-related disorders. Under his leadership, Cellerant developed a pipeline of candidates for treatment of hematological malignancies and rapidly expanded from an early-stage to an advanced clinical-stage company. Prior to joining Cellerant in 2005, he was the Executive Director of Product Development at Geron Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company where he managed the development and manufacturing of cell-based therapies for treatment of degenerative diseases and cancer. From 1994 to 2000, he held various positions in research and development at Aastrom Biosciences, where he was responsible for programs involving ex vivo expansion of human bone marrow stem cells and dendritic cells. Dr. Mandalam is the author or co-author of several publications, patent applications, and abstracts. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Jerrell Shelton has more than 40 years of executive and corporate governance experience across several industries including information services, software, telecommunications, manufacturing, natural resources, and distribution. He became a member of our board of directors in October 2012 and was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company in November 2012. He was appointed Chairman of the Board in October 2015. Previously, he was a visiting executive at IBM Research, where his team created and developed WebFountain, a project contributing significantly to IBM’s software strategy. He was also President and CEO of NDC Holdings, Continental Graphics Holdings, Thomson Business Information Group and Advantage Companies. Under his leadership, each of those companies achieved rapid revenue growth, improved profitability, and increased shareholder value. Mr. Shelton holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee and a MBA from Harvard University.