MANAGEMENT
Prof. Ekkehard Schütz, M.D., Ph.D., FACB
Chief Executive Officer & Chief Medical Officer
Bill Boeger
Co-Founder, Board Member, & Director of Business Development.
John DiPietro
Chief Financial Officer
Julia Beck, Ph.D.
Vice President of Research
Bill Boeger
Co-Founder, Board Member, & Director of Business Development.
Mr. Boeger co-founded Chronix with Howard Urnovitz in 1997. He has 30 years experience in venture capital investing in, and senior management of, both public and private early-stage companies. Previously, Mr. Boeger was Chairman and CEO of Calypte Biomedical. In his role as a venture capitalist, he has held senior positions at Quest Ventures and Continental Capital Ventures. Earlier in his career, Mr. Boeger worked as a Research Assistant at Harvard Medical School and also served on the faculty of the Tuck School at Dartmouth College. He received a BSc. from Williams College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Mr. Boeger has worked actively with start-up companies and served on the Boards of Directors of numerous portfolio companies that have successfully completed an IPO or have been acquired by public companies.
John DiPietro
Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Finance & Administration
Mr. DiPietro joined Chronix as Chief Financial Officer in 2002. He has over 30 years of experience in financial management, public accounting and senior management of public and private companies. He has successfully completed three IPOs and has raised over $200 million of public/private debt and equity. He served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Calypte Biomedical, Inc. from 1995-1999. Previously, Mr. DiPietro served as Chief Financial Officer of Meris Labs, Inc., a clinical laboratory company, and as Chief Financial Officer of Tripath Technology, Inc., a semiconductor company. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Calypte Biomedical, Inc., Chairman of the Compliance Committee and member of the Audit Committee. Mr. DiPietro received his B.S. from Lehigh University and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He is a Certified Public Accountant.
Prof. Ekkehard Schütz, M.D., Ph.D., FACB
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer
Prof. Dr. Schütz has 30 years experience in research and developing medical diagnostic products, published over 150 peer-reviewed publications, reviews and book chapters and numerous additional conference contributions. Prof. Schütz joined Chronix after working over a decade in internal medicine and the clinical laboratory of the University Hospital in
Göttingen, Germany. He is a leading authority in using computer-assisted analysis to develop cutting edge molecular diagnostic services. He has received several awards in Molecular Diagnostics and Clinical Chemistry, and is the architect of the Chronix Biomedical cancer and transplantation tests, with vast experience in patenting and licensing. Prof. Schütz is also heading an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory. His unique combination of understanding computer science and molecular biology and being a physician has allowed him to develop critically needed diagnostics.
Julia Beck, Ph.D.
Vice President of Research
Dr. Julia Beck has 17 years experience in molecular diagnostics, with over 70 peer-reviewed publications, including original papers, book chapters, and conference contributions. She joined Chronix in 2006 and was appointed VP of Research in 2018. Dr. Beck has considerable experience in the genomic data analysis of animals and humans. Dr. Beck is also highly experienced in research laboratory management and in Quality Assurance and Controls. She received her MSc and PhD, from Göttingen University.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
David Mackenzie
Chairman
Paul Freiman
Non-Executive Director
Ralf Glaubitz
Non-Executive Director
Michael Jerstad
Non-Executive Director
Robert Leppo
Non-Executive Director
William Mitchell
Non-Executive Director
David Mackenzie
Chairman
Mr. Mackenzie has 33 years of business experience, starting at age 17 when, along with five younger siblings, he created Jethro Development Ltd, an oil and gas exploration and production company that became profitable in its second year of operations, and provided the funds used to acquire major positions in subsequent business ventures. As President of the Lincoln Group of Companies, Mr. Mackenzie has 15 years of venture capital experience. Investments have resulted in the successful start-ups of Computer Motion (ISRG on NASDAQ), WestJet Airlines (WJA on Toronto exchange), Arxx Building Products, SideStep, Vovida Networks (acquired by Cisco for $100m in 2000), Telverse Comms. (sold to by Level 3 Comms. for $30m in 2003), Teamplate Inc. (acquired by Captaris Inc. for $11.5m in 2003), Sonic Mobility (acquired by Avocent Corp for $8m in 2004), ICEsoft Inc., Blizzard Energy (sold assets to Shiningbank Energy Income Fund for $275m in 2005), and Zenas Energy Corp. (ZNS on Toronto exchange). He also has 14 years experience in international commerce. Successful investments include: Maloney Industries (selling oil and gas equipment into many countries), Vlinx (China), and Osidle Baltyk (Poland). Mr. Mackenzie received a BA in Economics from Whitman College, Washington, and a BSc in Petroleum Engineering from Colorado School of Mines, Denver.
William Boeger
Non-Executive Director
Mr. Boeger co-founded Chronix with Howard Urnovitz in 1997. He has 30 years experience in venture capital investing in, and senior management of, both public and private early-stage companies. Previously, Mr. Boeger was Chairman and CEO of Calypte Biomedical. In his role as a venture capitalist, he has held senior positions at Quest Ventures and Continental Capital Ventures. Earlier in his career, Mr. Boeger worked as a Research Assistant at Harvard Medical School and also served on the faculty of the Tuck School at Dartmouth College. He received a BSc. from Williams College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Mr. Boeger has worked actively with start-up companies and served on the Boards of Directors of numerous portfolio companies that have successfully completed an IPO or have been acquired by public companies.
Paul Freiman
Non-Executive Director
Mr. Freiman’s career spans 54 years in healthcare, starting as a salesman at ER Squibb & Sons in 1958, before joining Syntex as a salesman in 1962 and rising through the ranks. By the time of its acquisition by Roche in 1993, Mr Freiman had become its CEO and Chairman. From 1994-96, he founded and owned Third Age Consulting, San Francisco, consulting on Pharmaceuticals and Boards of Directors. From 1996-2009, Mr. Freiman was CEO of Neurobiological Technologies Inc, a California-based biotech company. More recently (2009-14), he has been a partner in Burrill Brasil Investimentos, Rio de Janeiro, helping to discover and fund a nascent Brazilian biotech industry as well as the delivery of healthcare in Brazil. He has served on the boards of numerous biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including the US-arm of Otsuka and currently serves on the board of NovaBay.
Ralf Glaubitz
Non-Executive Director
Dr Glaubitz has more than 30 years’ experience in biochemistry and diagnostics, initially studying biochemistry at the Free University Berlin, before moving to the Medical University Hannover where he was awarded a PhD. His whole working life has been dedicated to disease diagnosis in clinical laboratories in many cases either attached to or partnered with major hospitals in Germany. Latterly, Dr. Glaubitz has worked at clinical laboratories owned by the Amedes group in Hamburg, Kiel, and Hannover covering, among others, fertility, pathology and human genetics.
Michael Jerstad
Non-Executive Director
Mr. Jerstad is a Partner at PrairieGold Venture Partners where he oversees all aspects of the firm’s investment activities, from sourcing, structuring and negotiating investments to serving as a board member for portfolio companies. He currently serves on the boards of Grand Prairie Foods, Chronix Biomedical, PetMedicus Labs and Orasi Medical. Prior to joining PrairieGold, Mr. Jerstad worked in Piper Jaffray’s Healthcare Investment Banking Group, specializing in M&A advisory services and public and private equity financing. Before that, he was an Attorney at Briggs and Morgan LLP, specialising in business litigation, employment law and contracts. He received a BA from Tufts University, a JD from Georgetown University, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Robert Leppo
Non-Executive Director
Mr. Leppo has more than 30 years of investing experience, beginning as a Securities Analyst at Capital Research Company (1969-77). Since 1977, he has been selfemployed as a private investor. Mr. Leppo has successfully developed ongoing strategies for investing in three markets: personal venture capital, US common stocks, and commodity futures. Increasingly in the past 20 years, he has focused on venture capital into start-up/early-stage companies and, since 1995, focused increasingly on internet-based companies. Major successful investments and board membership dates include: Information America (1983-92), Advent Software (1983-95), Best Internet (1995-97), MedSeek (1995-2000), ValueClick (1998-2000), OnPrem (1999-2000) and AirTreks (1998-2000). Significant major public stock positions were Coachmen Industries (1975-76), Nucor, Progressive Insurance, and most importantly, Circuit City. Mr. Leppo received a BA in History from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
William Mitchell
Non-Executive Director
Dr. Mitchell is a Professor of Pathology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He was awarded an MD from Vanderbilt and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University, where he served as an Intern in Internal Medicine, followed by a Fellowship at its School of Medicine. Dr. Mitchell has published more than 200 papers, reviews and abstracts dealing with viruses, anti-viral drugs and immune responses to HIV infection. Dr. Mitchell has worked for and with many professional societies, including the International Society for Anti-viral Research, the American Society of Microbiology, the Amercan Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American Academy of Pathology.