Meet our leadership team.
We have highly dedicated and driven leadership team with many years of experience in the biotechnology industry.
Scott Hutton has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and Director since January 2020, and previously held the role of Chief Operating Officer from March 2018 to December 2019. Additionally, Mr. Hutton has served on the board of Eximis Surgical since February 2018 and was an Observer on the Board of Directors of Aqueduct Critical Care from September 2014 to January 2017. Mr. Hutton joined Biodesix from Spectranetics Corp (NASDAQ: SPNC), a U.S.-based global leader in vascular intervention and lead management solutions (now part of Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG)), where he served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Vascular Intervention division from January 2017 to December 2017. Prior to joining Spectranetics, Mr. Hutton held several positions of increasing responsibility, including Vice President and General Manager, at Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT), a global healthcare products company and manufacturer of medical devices and supplies, over a period of 16 years. From April 2012 to January 2017, Mr. Hutton was Vice President and General Manager of Neurosurgery, where he oversaw the operations of the approximately $1 Billion Neurosurgery Business Unit. From 2008 to 2012, he grew from Senior Director of Global Marketing to Vice President and Business Leader of the Surgical Navigation and Intra-Operative Imaging Business. Mr. Hutton holds a B.A. in Health and Kinesiology from Purdue University. In July 2011, Mr. Hutton received the Medtronic Wallin Leadership Award for his focus on talent development, business performance, and his personal and intentional demonstration of leadership.
Robin Harper Cowie has served as our Chief Financial Officer since April 2017. She has been with the Company in multiple financial and reimbursement positions since March 2011, serving as Vice President of Finance from February 2016 to April 2017, Vice President of Reimbursement & Health Economics from February 2015 to February 2016, Senior Director of Reimbursement from January 2014 to February 2015, and Director of Reimbursement from March 2011 to January 2014. Prior to joining Biodesix, Ms. Harper Cowie held a leadership role in payer and government relations at Precision Therapeutics, Inc. Ms. Harper Cowie’s background includes corporate finance, managed care and payer relations, reimbursement and regulatory policy, and revenue cycle operations. Additionally, she spent several years as a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Ms. Harper Cowie holds a B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Pittsburgh, and an M.B.A. in Finance from the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business from the University of Pittsburgh.
Paul Beresford, Ph.D. has served as our Chief Business Officer since March 2015 and has been with the Company in multiple business development and strategic marketing positions since January 2009. From 2001 to 2008, prior to joining Biodesix, Dr. Beresford held several senior management positions, including Vice President and General Manager of Translational Diagnostics, at Ventana Medical Systems and Roche Diagnostics (after the acquisition of Ventana by Roche in early 2008). Dr. Beresford also sat on the Board of Directors of Biomarker Strategies from January 2011 to January 2014. Dr. Beresford’s expertise includes leading groups that provide products and services to oncology-focused pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for identifying and commercializing companion diagnostics. Dr. Beresford received a B.S. in Life Sciences and M.S. in Immunology from Queen’s University in Canada. He received a Ph.D. in Immunology from Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and was an Instructor and Junior Investigator at the Center for Blood Research at Harvard Medical School.
Bobbi Coffin has served as our Chief Growth Officer since March 2020 and has been with the Company in multiple marketing management roles since July 2015, including Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to joining Biodesix, Ms. Coffin served as Vice President of Commercial Marketing and Strategy at Exact Sciences, a molecular diagnostics company with focus on the early detection and prevention of colorectal cancer, from 2013 to 2015. From 2007 to 2013, Ms. Coffin was Vice President of Marketing at Precision Therapeutics. From 1999 to 2006, she held the position of Senior Director of Marketing at Cytyc Corporation (now Hologic). Additionally, Ms. Coffin has served as an executive board member for multiple national advocacy and society groups, including the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Corporate Counsel (NCCN), the Society of GYN Oncology (SGO) Industry Board, and the Colon Cancer Foundation. Most recently, Ms. Coffin is on the executive committee and Board of Directors for the Colorado Bioscience Association, supporting the growing bioscience workforce in the state of Colorado. Ms. Coffin holds a B.S. from the College of Business and Economics and the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism, both completed at West Virginia University.
Gary Pestano, Ph.D. has served as our Chief Development Officer since October 2018 and has been with the Company in Product Development and Operations since March 2012. Prior to joining Biodesix, Dr. Pestano held senior positions in Pharma Services, R&D and Project Leadership at Ventana Medical Systems, a member of the Roche Group, from 2003 to 2012. Dr. Pestano’s experience in laboratory operations management and assay development for high complexity molecular diagnostics in oncology and virology include molecular and proteomic testing. Dr. Pestano is the co-inventor on multiple national and international patents for diagnostic tests. He has also fostered many collaborations in academia and industry as a part of new product development. Dr. Pestano received a B.S. in Biochemistry from The City College of New York, his Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York where his thesis focused on vaccine development for novel genetic variants of HIV-1. He conducted his post-doctoral training in Cancer Immunology and AIDS at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School.
Robert W. Georgantas III, Ph.D. has served as our Senior Vice President of Research and Translational Science since August 2019. From 2014 to 2019, prior to joining Biodesix, Dr. Georgantas worked at AbbVie where he served as Director of Immunology Programs and Biomarkers within the Genomics Research Center of Excellence, a group of experts tasked with applying genetics, genomics, epigenetics, and metagenomics to inform the product pipeline primarily regarding new target discovery, biomarkers for clinical trials, and asset positioning. Dr. Georgantas is recognized as a leader of immunology translational science and strategy. Dr. Georgantas completed his Ph.D. in pharmacology and molecular medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Kieran O’Kane has served as our Chief Commercial Officer since March 2020 and has been with the Company in multiple marketing management roles since February 2018. From April 2016 to February 2018, prior to joining Biodesix, Mr. O’Kane lead the Global Diagnostics Marketing team at Nanostring Technologies, a biotechnology company focused in developing cancer diagnostic tools. He is a highly experienced strategic and tactical global sales and marketing leader for both in-line and pipeline products with a career focus in oncology. Mr. O’Kane has held commercial leadership positions and managed multiple new product launches at Biotheranostics, Cell Therapeutics, Eisai, Cephalon, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Roche. Mr. O’Kane received a B.S. in Pharmacology at King’s College, University of London.
Linda Traylor, Ph.D. has served as our Vice President of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs (CDMA) since November 2016 and has been with the Company since November 2015. Prior to joining Biodesix, Dr. Traylor has held multiple Clinical Development and Medical Affairs leadership positions for international biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including Abbott Laboratories, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, The Binding Site and Novartis Oncology. Dr. Traylor is a published scientist and is an active volunteer for the MSL Society, as a lecturer and mentor. Dr. Traylor received a B.S. in Chemistry at University of Arkansas, Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and conducted her post-doctoral fellowship at Duke University.
Matt Stauffer joins Biodesix as an experienced sales leader from Olympus, where he most recently served as the Western Vice President of Sales for the surgical endoscopy and integration business. At Olympus, Matt led a team of 7 regional managers and 56 territory managers to exceed 100M in annual sales.
Matt began his professional career in the military. He enlisted in the U.S Army prior to 9/11. After receiving a commission, he served as an infantry officer during wartime in the 101st Airborne Division and 75th Ranger Regiment. This leadership crucible taught him to plan in deliberate and expedited scenarios, make significant decisions within ambiguous environments, collaborate with a wide range of individuals, and subjugate personal needs to organizational needs. Matt strengthened his humanity and moral compass through deep life experiences.
Post-military, Matt continued his career in the private sector as a sales consultant at Stryker and Trumpf Medical, where he achieved President’s Club honors multiple times.
For the past eight years Matt successfully led medical sales teams with increasing responsibility at Trumpf Medical and Olympus. He utilized strong leadership and teamwork to build high performing sales teams that increased market share and preserved profitability in competitive, complex sales environments. He is a contagious collaborator and focused leader who consistently reduces “noise” by identifying and leveraging the key drivers of sales performance. Matt builds winning sales cultures and empowers individuals to make decisions that maximize sales and positively impact strategic initiatives. If you ask Matt why his sales teams are known to succeed, he will reply that his “teams prevail over the competition, and forces of commoditization, through a laser focus on three initiatives: 1) talent management 2) segmentation, targeting, and positioning, and 3) sales force effectiveness.”
Jim Purvis has served as our Vice President of Human Resources and Operational Effectiveness since March 2010. Mr. Purvis is a seasoned operations, human resources, and organizational development professional with over 30 years of industry experience. Prior to Biodesix, Mr. Purvis served as Managing Partner of Align Organizational Performance, an organizational leadership consulting firm. From 2003 to 2009, Mr. Purvis served as Executive Vice President of Human Resources at AIMCO, a Multi-Family REIT, and his additional corporate experience includes Human Resources Leadership roles at SomaLogic, ALCOA, Eastern Airlines, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and ATT Broadband. Mr. Purvis obtained his B.A. in American Studies from the University of Notre Dame.
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