MANAGEMENT TEAM
Glenn Kawasaki, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Kawasaki has 24 years of experience in start-up biotechnology companies. He was the first scientist (1981) and chair of the Science Board at ZymoGenetics, Inc., today a one-billion-dollar public corporation. He has a Ph.D. in Genetics (1979), an M.B.A. (1986), and a J.D. (1995) each from the University of Washington. Dr. Kawasaki was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School from 1979-81 and was an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley, where he earned a B.S. in Genetics and an A.B. in Zoology. In 1989 he founded Aptein, Inc., which was based on Dr. Kawasaki's invention now known as "ribosome display" for engineering antibodies and other proteins. He was the President, CEO, and Research Director of this Seattle company. Aptein was sold to Cambridge Antibody Technology, a U.K. firm, in 1998. In 1999, Dr. Kawasaki founded Catch Incorporated, which developed and now sells a novel test for homocysteine, a compound linked to cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer's Disease, glaucoma, and other ailments. Dr. Kawasaki remains an executive officer and director of Catch but is not an employee of the Bothell, WA, firm. He is a founder and director of Sound Pharmaceuticals, another Seattle start-up (2001), which is focused on preventing and restoring hearing loss. Dr. Kawasaki has 14 U.S. patents and over a hundred foreign related patents. Dr. Kawasaki is also a Vice President of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Company in Seattle.
Ali Arjomand, Ph.D.
President and Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Arjomand is founder of Accium BioSciences and is responsible for Accium's commercial AMS services and operations. He serves as Scientific Director for Accium's AMS-based studies and is responsible for each sponsor's bioanalytical project. Dr. Arjomand obtained his Doctorate in 1998 from the University of California in Davis under the guidance of Dr. Andrew Clifford. He designed and conducted the first human microdosing study using AMS in a joint research effort with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (see publications). Prior to founding Accium, Dr. Arjomand was Director of Technical Business Development at CombiMatrix Corporation, a publicly traded genomics biotechnology company. As the sixteenth employee hired, Dr. Arjomand co-led the development of commercialization strategies and oversaw the expansion of the companys DNA chip products into the U.S. and Asian markets. Prior to joining CombiMatrix, Dr. Arjomand was lead technical consultant for chromatography at Bio-Rad Laboratories, a $1B supplier of life science and diagnostics products.
J. Scott Tarrant
VP Corporate Development
Scott has over twenty years of technical sales, marketing and business development experience with companies ranging from early stage start-ups to large ($1.0B plus) publicly traded entities. Most recently he served as Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing for UK based Xceleron Ltd, a specialty CRO utilizing accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to obtain early ADME and PK data in exploratory clinical development. Scott established Xcelerons US subsidiary in Maryland, negotiated state, local and private funding support, and led the rapid growth in sales culminating in the build-out of state-of-the-art research facilities in early 2008. Prior to Xceleron, Scott led a sales team of both genomics and preclinical CRO services at Gene Logic Inc. who acquired TherImmune Research Corporation in 2003. Scott joined TherImmune in early 1999 as the company was being formed. At TherImmune he served as VP Sales and Marketing leading the organization to annual sales of nearly $30 million in preclinical services prior to its acquisition. Scott was formerly District Sales Manager for Nalco Chemical Company in Washington, DC. Prior to his 10-year sales/management career at Nalco, he served four years in various leadership positions as a combat engineer officer in the United States Army. Scott received his B.S. in Biology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Syracuse University and is a 2008 graduate of the International Executive Program in General Management at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France and Singapore.
Ugo Zoppi, Ph.D.
Director, AMS Laboratory
Dr. Zoppi is Director of Accium's Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility. He is responsible for operation, maintenance, routine measurement as well as development of new AMS methodologies. Dr. Zoppi is a recognized expert in the field of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry with over 35 AMS publications and several AMS chapters to his name.
Qi Song, Ph.D.
Director, Bioanalytical Services
Dr. Song is Director of Bioanalytical Services at Accium. She is responsible for the overall operation and management of GLP/GCP sample receiving, sample processing and as Study Director, oversees all study conduct. Dr. Song has over 10 years of pharmaceutical and contract research experience in developing, LC/MS/MS, chromatographic and structural characterization techniques. She has over 20 publications in the methods development and sample processing field and has managed facilities working to FDA, ICH, GLP and GMP standards.
Barbara Alford-Cassel
Quality Assurance Officer
Ms. Alford-Cassel is Accium's Quality Assurance Officer. She brings over 20 years of QA leadership experience from the pharmaceutical and medical device industry. She has led the Quality Assurance efforts in cross-functional product development teams and has successfully developed and implemented Quality Systems in several start-up environments.
