Board of Directors

Felice A. de Jong, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Felice has an extensive and distinguished career in metabolomics, and life science. She holds post-graduate degrees in Technology Management from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; Nutritional Biochemistry from the University of Connecticut; and a doctorate in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Dr. de Jong was Technical Manager, Biochemistry at Boehringer Mannheim (Roche), Australia and the founding President of Sigma Aldrich Australia, developing her first company to a successful venture from the ground up. Dr. de Jong returned to Sigma-Aldrich in Boston, USA where she ran Sigma’s neurobiology subsidiary, RBI, as its President.

Felice has been an active leader and proponent in the field of metabolomics since its emergence. She developed metabolomics business and marketing strategies during her 6 years as Senior/ Director of Business Development for Metabolon. Her current focus is the automation of methodologies for the measurement of biological response to stress, i.e. disease, environment, drugs, toxins etc.

Chris Beecher, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Scientific Officer

Chris has more than 25 years of experience in metabolomics, drug discovery and development, and holds 12 patents and 75 publications. His Ph.D. was awarded in Pharmaceutical Sciences (specialty, Natural Products Chemistry and Biochemistry) from the University of Connecticut in 1986. Dr. Beecher served as Director for Drug Development with Ancile Pharmaceuticals and Associate Director for Natural Products Drug Discovery for Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). Before joining BMS, Chris was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Chris is a metabolomic platform development pioneer. In 2001, Dr. Beecher was appointed as the Director of Metabolic Profiling at Paradigm Genetics, Inc. where he was responsible for building the world’s first parallel metabolomics platform. He later became the sole technical founder of Metabolon, Inc. where he continued to build metabolomics platforms and work in discovery. Following the discovery of the metabolite biomarker sarcosine in prostate cancer, Dr. Beecher became a Professor in the Department of Pathology, at the Medical School of the University of Michigan and assumed the position of Director of the UM Metabolomics Facility. Chris is currently Chief Scientific Officer for IROA Technologies where he oversees the continuous development of next generation metabolomics, data generation and data interpretation platforms.

Adrienne Tymiak

Adrienne’s passion is to leverage science and technology for societal benefit while helping to build organizations, capabilities and a talent pipeline for the future. Her current activities include mentoring investigators and reviewing emerging technologies for the Rutgers TechAdvance Team and Mentors-In-Residence Program, advising for technology start up companies and consortia, and serving as the co-Executive Director for the Collective Success Network (CSN) supporting the education and career aspirations of first generation, low income college students. She is also a member of the board of directors and Treasurer for HiTOPS, a NJ based nonprofit organization providing sex education and support for all youth.

As Executive Director at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), her role included strategic planning, organizational design and research in drug discovery and development. She helped plan translational research and biomarker discovery efforts and helped design an organization that delivered industry-leading success rates for drug discovery at BMS. She led a research team of up to 150 scientists equipped with over $50 MM in instrumentation at 4 separate sites. Together they established the analytical and informatics infrastructure for medicinal chemistry support, chiral separations and analysis, protein characterization, preclinical and clinical bioanalysis, in vivo imaging and metabolomics through internal efforts and global collaborations with academic and industrial partners.

As an invited speaker at national and international conferences, Adrienne has presented scientific advances in over 80 publications, book chapters and patents with more than 90 external posters and presentations and has served as board member for the International Consortium for Innovation and Quality in Pharmaceutical Development (IQ Consortium), the Allotrope Foundation and Next-Gen Metabolomics (IROA Technologies). Most recently, she was an invited speaker about women and their careers in science.

Gus Salem 

Gustavo “Gus” Salem has over 25 years of extensive experience in the life science industry, and is currently the President of IDEX Health and Science, LLC, a unit of IDEX Corporation.

Gus’ background includes leadership positions as President and CEO of SISCAPA Assay Technologies, and Vice President and General Manager of the Biological Systems Division at Agilent Technologies. Gus is an established leader in mass spectrometry, analytical instruments, and in-vitro diagnostics.  His extensive mass spectrometry business and product experience in the consumables markets brings great vision towards helping IROA to achieve goals in the research and clinical metabolomics space.

Terry Cross

Since 2002, Terry Cross has mentored over 50 company founders in Southeast Michigan and has been instrumental in helping entrepreneurs raise in excess of $ 100 million of capital funding. Mr. Cross was named The Distinguished Alumni in 2005 by The School of Business Administration at Wayne State University where he is also their first Executive in Residence-Entrepreneurship.  He administers the prestigious Adams Family Fellowship for Entrepreneurship for The Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan. He currently serves as business plan evaluator for the SEIC Michigan 21st. Century Jobs’ Fund Pre Seed Fund, the SEIC Michigan 21st.Century Jobs Pre Seed Fund, Accelerator Fund, Follow-On Fund, and Venture Match Fund, The Great Lakes Entrepreneurs’ Quest and The First Step Fund in Detroit, MI. He serves on the Investment Committee of Invest Michigan and he is on the Board and Investment Committee of The Automation Alley Fund. He is a member of The Rochester Hills Mayor’s Business Committee.

He currently serves an adviser to The Zell Lurie Commercialization Fund at The Ross School of Business at The University of Michigan where he was named Outstanding Adviser for 2010-2011. In September of 2007, Terry was named to the Task Force for a World Financial Center by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, one of Korea’s most prestigious educational institutions. In 2010 Terry was elected to the Board of the Detroit Chapter of The American Technion Society associated with The Technion in Haifa, Israel. He is a founding member of Michigan Venture Capital Association, a Board member of Automation Alley’s Entrepreneurial Initiative of Southeast Michigan, a Board Member of Ann Arbor Angels, and Chairman of The Executive Board of Michigan-Emerging an event focusing on the emerging sectors in Michigan’s economic recovery.

Todd Fink

Mr. Fink is a Managing Partner of O2 Investment Partners. During the past 20+ years, Mr. Fink has led or participated in multiple business acquisitions, mergers and divestitures, joint venture/partnership arrangements, as well as various financings and re-financings. Mr. Fink’s primary responsibilities include M&A/deal execution, finance, treasury functions and capital allocation for O2. Mr. Fink has extensive experience investing in industrials (chemicals, polymers and general manufacturing), automotive, technology, building products and business services. Mr. Fink serves on the boards of O2’s portfolio businesses and is a Director of Alpha Precision Group, Greco Aluminum Railings (Chairman), O2 Specialty Manufacturing, Packaging Concepts & Design, PCT Brands (Chairman), and NTI Connect (Chairman). Previously, Mr. Fink was a partner in a major Detroit-based law firm, where he specialized in corporate, mergers and acquisitions, real estate and finance matters. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Wayne State University Law School.