Board of Directors

DAVID MARGULIES, Chairman - David Margulies is a physician executive and entrepreneur with career-long interests in computational biology and the neurosciences. In his 35 year career, David founded or co-founded six successful technology-based health system and health services companies and has served in senior executive or director roles for multiple public and private companies. He created the first clinical computing programs at both Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and Boston Children Hospital, serving as BCH’s first Chief Information Officer. From BCH, David went to Cerner Corporation as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientist, also serving as a Director of Cerner. He co-founded CareInsite, now WebMD, serving in Director and senior executive roles. In 2000, David co-founded Correlagen Diagnostics, and was CEO and Chairman. LabCorp acquired Correlagen in 2011 to be its National Center of Excellence for DNA Diagnostics. David was co-founder of Generation Health, subsequently acquired by CVS/Caremark. More recently, while serving as Executive Director of the Gene Partnership at Boston Children’s Hospital, David was the driving force behind the creation of Claritas Genomics, where he now serves as a Director. David is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Medical School, and board certified in Internal Medicine. He holds an appointment as Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and is a member of the faculties of Genetics, Developmental Medicine, and Informatics.

STEVEN HYMAN is director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and also Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. Previously, he was Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) from 1996-2001 and Provost of Harvard University from 2001 to 2011.

JONATHAN FLEMING is a general partner of Oxford Bioscience Partners. He has worked in the investment business for more than 20 years, starting and financing growth companies in the United States, Europe, and Israel. Prior to joining OBP in 1996, he was a founding general partner of MVP Ventures in Boston. He is a trustee of the Museum of Science, Boston, and a member of the board of the New England Healthcare Institute.

ANDREW ROSS is a life long entrepreneur and private investor with a focus on early stage investments in biotechnology, collaborative consumption, and cause-focused enterprise.

Board of Directors

STACIE WENINGER is the Executive Director of the Fidelity Biosciences Research Initiative (FBRI). FBRI was created to advance the discovery of novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of neurological disorders. As part of its mission, FBRI funds early-stage research in academia and the private sector, thereby supporting innovative discoveries and helping to bridge the gap for the translation of those discoveries into potential therapeutics. Previously, she was the Senior Director of Science Programs for the Fidelity Foundations. In 2005, Dr. Weninger served as the Project Manager and Senior Analyst for the Task Force on Women in Science at Harvard University. From 2001-2005, Dr. Weninger was a Senior Scientist at Cell Press for the journal Neuron. Before joining Cell Press, Dr. Weninger was a postdoctoral research fellow at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School with Dr. Bruce Yankner. She was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute predoctoral fellow in the Program in Neuroscience at Harvard University. While a graduate student and postdoctoral research fellow, Dr. Weninger was actively involved in undergraduate teaching, winning six teaching awards. Dr. Weninger received a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University, and a B.S. degree in chemistry with highest honors from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She currently chairs the Collaboration for Alzheimer’s Prevention, is President of the Biomedical Research Forum, serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Rugen Therapeutics, Inc., and serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Aratome LLC, Inscopix Inc., Annexon Inc., BRI-Alzan, BRI-Tolan, and SPR Pharma.

DAVID KNUDSON is Sr. Vice President and Chief Legal Counsel for United National Corporation where he provides legal and advisory services to Denny Sanford. He practiced law for 35 years at Davenport, Evans, Hurwitz and Smith in Sioux Falls, focusing on healthcare, banking and corporate transactions. He also worked for three years as the Sr. Vice President - Strategic Advisor for Sanford Health. A native of Yankton, SD, Dave is a graduate of Harvard College and the New York University School of Law. He received an MBA from the University of South Dakota School of Business. Dave has had a long time interest in public service and served as Chief of Staff to South Dakota Governor Bill Janklow in 1995 and 1999. He served four terms in the South Dakota State Senate and served as the Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2010. He ran unsuccessfully in the 2010 Republican primary for Governor of South Dakota. As a lawyer and advisor, Dave has worked closely with Mr. Denny Sanford for more than 25 years. He has worked with Mr. Sanford on more than $1 billion of charitable gifts. He has served on the board of several non- profit organizations including the Sioux Falls Development Foundation and the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce. He currently serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the University of South Dakota Beacom School of Business.

JONATHAN THOMAS ("JT") is the Chair of the governing Board of CIRM, California’s stem cell agency. The agency was created when voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 71 in 2004. JT is responsible for helping guide the funding decisions of the agency’s 29 member Board, charged with distributing $3 billion to fund the development of stem cell therapies and cures for people in need. JT's interest in science is a long-running one. He majored in Biology and History at Yale, where he graduated summa cum laude. As a George C. Marshall Scholar at Oxford, he then earned a PhD with a medical focus in Commonwealth History. He subsequently returned to Yale for a JD at the Yale Law School. While there, he retained an involvement with biology by teaching courses on the legal implications of genetic engineering and the impact of disease on history. He combined those different interests in a career that has spanned finance, the law and politics. Before joining CIRM he was a Co-Founding Partner at Saybrook Capital, an investment banking and private equity firm based in Santa Monica, California where he led an early round of financing for Advanced Cell Technology (now Ocata Therapeutics), which has two embryonic stem cell-based clinical trials for vision disorders. His legal experience includes clerking for White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler in the last year of the Carter Administration and also for the Honorable George Mackinnon of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He has also served on a number of Boards working closely with political officials at the federal, state and local level on a variety of projects for over 25 years. JT has a long-standing commitment to patient advocacy, serving more than 15 years on the Board AbilityFirst (and as Chair for 4), which assists children with spinal cord injuries and mental disabilities that could be targets of stem cell therapies.