Leadership Team

Vishal Sikri

President and Chief Commercial Officer

Vishal Sikri is President and Chief Commercial Officer at Inivata. Vishal Sikri has over 20 plus years of experience in the somatic diagnostics space and most recently was President of Oncology at Invitae. Prior to Invitae, Vishal served as U.S. General Manager for Biocartis leading all commercial operations. He has extensive precision medicine experience, having launched and commercialized tests for therapy selection and molecular residual disease in the U.S. and globally across different molecular platforms. Vishal also brings years of experience as a dynamic leader in large organizations with a desire for success. He holds degrees in Molecular Biology and Pharmaceutical Sciences from UW-Madison and an MBA from Loyola University.

Jacqui Watson

Chief of Staff

Jacqui Watson is Chief of Staff at Inivata. Jacqui brings an extensive background of working internationally as an HR Director, People Developer, and consultant within various organizations at a senior level. She has over 20 years’ experience of leading people and business transformation across different sectors including pharma, IT and hospitality.

Throughout her career Jacqui has focussed on inspiring individuals and teams to reach their full potential and in her current role she is responsible for the alignment of our organisational human resource processes to help drive our business success. She was most recently consulting for various companies, where her primary focus was to identify and develop a sustainable supply of leadership and talent from within these organizations.

David Eberhard

Chief Medical Officer

David Eberhard, MD, PhD is Chief Medical Officer at Inivata. David is a seasoned healthcare executive, bringing over 20 years’ experience in the research and development of oncology therapeutics, biomarkers, and diagnostics. He joins Inivata from Illumina, where he served as Senior Medical Director, Oncology, and was responsible for providing clinical expertise, strategic vision, and leadership to build the corporate and public presence of a new and rapidly growing medical oncology group. Prior to this he held the role of Senior Director, Oncology Development at Genomic Health, where he provided strategic and tactical support to bring oncology mutation testing to market, with a focus on the company’s OncotypeSEQ, a liquid biopsy NGS gene mutation panel for solid tumors. David has been active as a consultant advising various biotech, pharma and VC clients on cancer drugs, diagnostic R&D and molecular pathology. He has also served as a pathologist in various lab-based roles, both within academia and industry, working on a variety of initiatives in oncology diagnostics, drug development and genomics.

David holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of South Dakota and a MD / PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan. He carried out his Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Pathology and Pharmacology at the University of Virginia and holds an American Board of Pathology Certification in Anatomic Pathology and Neuropathology.

Clive Morris

President

Clive Morris is President at Inivata. Following an early career as a surgeon, Clive worked for over a decade in various key roles at AstraZeneca, where he oversaw R&D and medical affairs projects and groups on a global scale, was involved in R&D strategy, investor relations, and led the major transformation of AstraZeneca’s UK strategic R&D sites and global HQ.

He has extensive experience across all phases of drug development including seven marketed or close-to-market oncology products. Clive also founded and lead Health Innovation Manchester, and is a non-executive director of Wheatsheaf investments.

Clive is accredited as a Pharmaceutical Medicine specialist by the UK Royal College of Physicians, has an Executive MBA and trained as a physician at the University of Manchester in the UK.

Peter Collins

Chief Business Officer

Peter Collins is Chief Business Officer at Inivata. Peter brings over 30 years of experience working in the biopharmaceutical sector, having held senior leadership positions in several molecular diagnostics companies, most recently at Guardant Health. Peter has also served as Chief Business Officer of Yourgene Health, where he led all aspects of commercialization and business development. Prior to this, Peter was Vice President, Head of Diagnostics at GSK – where he was responsible for the companion diagnostics assets and pipeline across all therapeutic areas, particularly oncology – and VP, Pharma Business Development at QIAGEN. Peter was also the founder and board member of Epemed, a European not for profit organisation bringing together global forces in personalized medicine. Peter holds a BSc in Biological Sciences from Plymouth University.

Alan Schafer PhD

Chief Technology Officer

Alan Schafer is Chief Technology Officer at Inivata. Alan brings to the role over 25 years of genetics and molecular diagnostics experience. He was previously CEO of 14M Genomics, a cancer molecular diagnostics company, and prior to that served as CEO of Population Genetics Technologies, a business specialising in infectious disease diagnostics and next-generation sequencing technologies. Earlier roles include those of Global VP Technology Development at GlaxoSmithKline and VP Genetics at Incyte. More recently, Alan has worked as an independent consultant for the biotechnology industry, academia and the investment community, offering his expertise in genomic and biology technologies with a particular focus on the interface between science, technology and business. Alan holds a PhD from the University of Southern California and has authored numerous publications in the molecular genetics field.

Robert Osborne

SVP, Technology and Assay Development

Robert Osborne is SVP, Technology and Assay Development at Inivata. Robert has more than 20 years of experience in research and development. Before joining Inivata in April 2019, Robert was a Principal Staff Scientist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute where he developed new approaches to quantitate somatic variants in polyclonal tissues. Previously, he was Director of Technology Development at 14M Genomics and Director of Research at Population Genetics Technologies (PGT). Robert has authored 16 patents, including key early work on molecular barcoding technologies. Robert has a PhD in Genetics from the University of Nottingham and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Rochester, NY and the University of Oxford.

Jamie Platt

Chief Operations Officer

Jamie Platt is Chief Operations Officer at Inivata. Jamie leads the global clinical laboratory operations and has extensive expertise in sequencing and molecular systematics, including population genetics.

During her 15 years in clinical diagnostics, Jamie has developed and validated numerous high complexity sequencing assays in the clinical areas of Oncology, Infectious Disease and Molecular Genetics and has introduced custom, industrial-grade automation to high complexity, sequencing assays.

She has spent more than 10 years overseeing development and validation of Next Generation Sequencing Assays for both clinical diagnostics and clinical trials and has special interest in applying advanced sequencing technologies (NGS) to improve personalized healthcare. Jamie received her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Oregon State University and completed postdoctoral training in population genetics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Nitzan Rosenfeld

Chief Scientific Officer

Nitzan Rosenfeld is Chief Scientific Officer at Inivata and is also one of Inivata’s founders. He is a world-leader in circulating tumor DNA research and since 2009 leads a research group at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, part of the University of Cambridge. His work combines new molecular and genomics approaches to develop new diagnostic tools and applications. Previously he was head of Computational Biology at Rosetta Genomics, where he led development of molecular diagnostic tests for cancer. He originally trained in Physics, and specialized in quantitative molecular biology, obtaining a PhD in Systems Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Nitzan has authored dozens of patents and research articles on methods for molecular diagnostics and cell-free DNA analysis.

For his contributions, he received numerous awards including the CRUK Future Leaders in Cancer Research prize, the Foulkes Foundation Medal, and the Pezcoller Foundation – EACR Cancer Research Award, and was elected as a fellow of the British Academy of Medical Sciences.

Tim Shannon

Chief Financial Officer

Tim Shannon is Chief Financial Officer at Inivata. Tim manages finance, administration and legal activities. Prior to joining Inivata he formulated and implemented financial controls and process improvements supporting business growth and expansion most recently at Baxano Surgical and Talecris Biotherapeutics. His background in technology, life sciences, and distribution environments is particularly relevant as Inivata moves forward towards commercialization.

While at Talecris, Tim managed the Initial Public Offering (IPO) at a $3.28 billion valuation and has managed merger and acquisition transactions. Tim also has operational business experience across critical issues including budgeting, investor relations, systems implementation, and risk management. Tim has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Appalachian State University and is a CPA, having spent the first 15 years of his career with PwC.

Stacy Chick

Chief Commercial Officer

Stacy brings over 25 years of US healthcare commercial experience to Inivata. Joining the team as a consultant in early 2018, Stacy quickly leveraged her healthcare sales, marketing, market access and operations experience to build and accelerate the commercialization strategy for InVisionFirst®-Lung. Stacy was appointed Chief Commercial Officer effective September 1, 2018. Prior to joining Inivata, Stacy held sales, marketing, market access and general management executive roles leading teams in global and US life science companies including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi. Throughout her career Stacy was recognized with President’s Club, Pinnacle and TWIN awards for outstanding business results, mentorship and patient advocacy. Stacy earned her MBA in Finance from Rutgers University and her BBA in Marketing from the University of Georgia. Stacy is an Emeritus Member of the Terry College of Business Alumni Board at the University of Georgia, Board Member of Our Brain Bank, and holds membership in the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), Women’s Business Leadership, Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She was appointed as a Peer Ambassador at Emory Winship Cancer Center in 2018.

Douglas M VanOort

Non-Executive Director

Mr. VanOort has served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of NeoGenomics since October 28, 2009. For seven months prior to October 2009, he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors, Executive Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining NeoGenomics, Mr. VanOort was a General Partner with a Private Equity Firm, and a Founding Managing Partner of a Venture Capital Firm. From 1982 through 1999, Mr. VanOort served in various positions at Corning, Inc. and at its spin-off company, Quest Diagnostics, Inc. During the period from 1995 through 1999, he served as the Senior Vice President Operations for Quest Diagnostics, Inc. which was then a $1.5 billion newly formed NYSE traded Company. During the period of 1989 to 1995, he held senior executive positions at Corning Life Sciences, Inc. including Executive Vice President. Corning Life Sciences, Inc. had revenues of approximately $2 billion and was spun-off in a public transaction to create both Quest Diagnostics, Inc. and Covance, Inc. From 1982 to 1989, Mr. VanOort served in various executive positions at Corning Inc., including Director of Mergers & Acquisitions.

Mr. VanOort currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of several privately-held companies, and is a principal owner of a privately-held retail hardware store chain. Mr. VanOort is a graduate of Bentley University.

Robert Tansley

Non-Executive Director

Robert joined Cambridge Innovation Capital as Investment Director in January 2014. After seven years working in hospital medicine, Robert joined the pharma industry in 1996 working in development and regulatory roles at Sanofi, the MHRA and Roche where he led the clinical team for the regulatory approval of Valcyte®.

Ten years ago, Robert joined the Cambridge based company Arakis and worked as Medical Director until its £106m sale to Sosei Inc. Since that acquisition, Robert has been involved in a number of start-up companies including founding the malaria-focused company Treague, being founding CEO of the University of Copenhagen spin-out Avilex Pharma and being part of the founding management team of KalVista which is developing the first plasma kallikrein inhibitor for diabetic macular edema in collaboration with its scientific co-founders from Harvard Medical School.

Robert qualified in medicine from University College London, he is a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and has an MBA from London Business School and an M.Phil in Biostatistics from the University of Cambridge.

Craig Richardson

Non-Executive Director

Craig is a Partner in IP Group’s Life Science investment team. He started his career in the pharmaceutical industry in 1998 and worked in new product development for Glaxo Wellcome, followed by a series of business development roles in UK biotech. He was then part of the founding management team of an in vitro diagnostics company before moving into venture capital investment with Inventages, a life science focused VC fund. He subsequently worked for Fusion IP plc, a specialist investor in university spin-out companies, before joining IP Group in 2014.

Craig has a first-class honours degree in Pharmacy from Cardiff University and a PhD from the School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham. He also holds an MBA with Distinction from the University of Warwick where he was awarded a Sainsbury Management Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Peter Wrighton-Smith

Non-Executive Director

Dr Wrighton-Smith is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Oxford Immunotec Glob al PLC, a high-growth global diagnostics company focussing on monitoring immune-regulated conditions.

Peter has led Oxford Immunotec from the foundation stages, through product development to regulatory approval in over 50 countries, and subsequent worldwide commercialisation via both a kit and a CLIA lab model. Over that time, Oxford Immunotec has raised five rounds of venture funding prior to an IPO on NASDAQ in 2013. Dr Wrighton-Smith has a Masters in Engineering, Economics and Management, and a Doctorate in Medical Engineering, both from University of Oxford.

Jeanne Bolger

Non-Executive Director

Jeanne joined Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc as Vice President, Venture Investments, in February 2013.

She is based in London, UK at the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Centre. Jeanne’s responsibilities are focused on investing in and managing portfolio investments in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology areas in Europe.

Jeanne has over 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in management roles across R&D, Commercial and Business Development. She spent 11 years in Licensing and Acquisition, most recently as Global Head of Scientific Licensing for Johnson & Johnson’s Pharmaceutical business, having joined the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies in 2005 from the Business Development group at GSK. In 2009, Jeanne became VP Alliance Management and Board Director at Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy, working with Pfizer and Elan on immunotherapies targeting beta amyloid for Alzheimer’s disease.

Jeanne received her medical degree from University College Dublin. She also holds diplomas in Child Health (NUI) and in Finance and Accounting (ACCA). She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Ireland (RAMI). She has served as the sole pharmaceutical industry representative on two Irish government taskforces seeking to enhance the commercialization of IP from Irish academic centres. She is a visiting lecturer on the MSc Pharmaceutical Medicine curriculum at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

Nitzan Rosenfeld

Chief Scientific Officer

Nitzan is one of Inivata’s founders and its Chief Scientific Officer. He is a world-leader in circulating tumor DNA research and since 2009 leads a research group at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, part of the University of Cambridge. His work combines new molecular and genomics approaches to develop new diagnostic tools and applications. Previously he was head of Computational Biology at Rosetta Genomics, where he led development of molecular diagnostic tests for cancer. He originally trained in Physics, and specialized in quantitative molecular biology, obtaining a PhD in Systems Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Nitzan authored dozens of patents and research articles on methods for molecular diagnostics and cell-free DNA analysis. For his contributions, he was awarded the CRUK Future Leaders in Cancer Research prize, the British Association for Cancer Research Translational Research Award, and the Academy of Medical Sciences Foulkes Medal.

Clive Morris

Chief Executive Officer

Clive joined the leadership team in May 2016 and became CEO in July 2018. Clive worked for over a decade in various key roles at AstraZeneca, where he oversaw R&D and medical affairs projects and groups on a global scale, was involved in R&D strategy, investor relations, and led the major transformation of AstraZeneca’s UK strategic R&D sites and global HQ.

He has extensive experience across all phases of drug development including seven marketed or close-to-market oncology products. Most recently Clive founded and lead Health Innovation Manchester, to develop an innovation ecosystem involving the decentralisation of £6bn per annum of health and social care services. He is also a non-executive director of Wheatsheaf investments and the InnovateUK Medicines Discovery Catapult.

Clive is accredited as a Pharmaceutical Medicine specialist by the UK Royal College of Physicians, has an Executive MBA and trained as a physician at the University of Manchester.

Jeff Buchalter

Non-Executive Chairman

Jeff joined Inivata after a long and successful career in the bio/pharmaceutical industry most recently as Chief Executive Officer of Archimedes Pharma Ltd.

His experience combines strong corporate leadership allied to an extensive background in medical/clinical research with multinational organisations. He brings extensive commercial and drug development experience in oncology and other therapeutic areas.

Jeff has been recognised for his work, receiving the Joseph F. Buckley Memorial Award from the American Cancer Society for commitment to cancer control and involvement in the oncology pharmaceutical field. He has also been a Collaborating Partner in the President’s National Dialogue on Cancer and acted as Chairman of the Board of Directors to the National Childhood Cancer Foundation in the United States.

Jeff received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance from Seton Hall University and a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from Temple University.

Leadership Team

Vishal Sikri

David Eberhard

Nitzan Rosenfeld PhD

Alan Schafer PhD

Jacqui Watson

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