George Church Ph.D.
Board Chairman

George Church is currently Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences & Technology at MIT. With Walter Gilbert he developed the first direct genomic sequencing method in 1984 and helped initiate the Human Genome Project while he was a Research Scientist at newly-formed Biogen Inc. He invented the broadly-applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags, homologous recombination methods, and DNA array synthesizers. Technology transfer of automated sequencing & software to Genome Therapeutics Corp. resulted in the first commercial genome sequence (the human pathogen, H. pylori) in 1994. He has initiated the Personal Genome Project (PGP) in January 2006 and research on synthetic biology. He is director of the US Department of Energy Center on Bioenergy at Harvard & MIT and director of the National Institutes of Health (NHGRI) Center of Excellence in Genomic Science at Harvard, MIT & Washington University.

He has been advisor to 22 companies, most recently co-founding (with Joseph Jacobson, Jay Keasling, and Drew Endy) Codon Devices, Inc., a biotech startup aiming to commercialize synthetic biology and LS9, a biofuels company. He is a senior editor for Nature EMBO Molecular Systems Biology.

Board of Directors

Board Members

Ian Ratcliffe
Board Chairman

Ian Ratcliffe is a recognized leader and expert in the field of stem cell research and involved with a number of companies that are leading the way in the stem cell field. He founded Stemgent in 2008 and has served as its President and CEO since then. Previously, he was President of Upstate, a leading provider of cell signaling research products and services. The company was acquired by Serologicals, Corp. in 2004 and Ratcliffe was subsequently retained as President of the Upstate division of the company. Mr. Ratcliffe is also currently the Chairman of Enzymatics (Boston), a manufacturer of molecular biology reagents, a director of Global Cell Solutions LLC (Charlottesville), a biotech company commercializing proprietary 3D cell culture technology and a director of Asterand PLC (LSE:ATD) a leading global supplier of high quality, well characterized human tissue and human tissue-based research services for drug discovery. Mr. Ratcliffe is also a General Partner with Keswick Ventures LLP, Virginia. Ian has a degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Surrey and has an M.B.A. from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Paul Manning
Board Member

Paul B. Manning is the founder, president, and chief executive officer of PBM Products, LLC, the first company to launch private label and store brand infant formulas in the United States.

Before forming PBM in 1997, Mr. Manning held key sales and marketing positions with leading pharmaceutical companies and founded several companies, including Able Laboratories and Manfam, Inc., two companies that developed and distributed prescription and over-the-counter products to major chains in the United States.

Aside from his entrepreneurial work, Mr. Manning created the Islet Replacement Research Foundation, a voluntary nonprofit grant maker and supporter of diabetes research. The goal of the foundation is to bring together dedicated scientists who support ambitious research projects to find a cure for diabetes and eradicate insulin dependence.

To date PBM has donated several million dollars to diabetes research with the aim of giving everyone with diabetes the opportunity to live a life free from the constraints of insulin management. Recently Mr. Manning changed the name of his nonprofit organization to reflect his personal and corporate mission: Focus to Cure Diabetes Foundation.

In 2002, Mr. Manning was named Virginia Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, where he earned a BS in microbiology.

Stephen Picone
CEO

Stephen Picone Co-founded Enzymatics in 2006, and oversees scientific operations and coordinates internal and external strategic initiatives. He developed Enzymatics' proprietary purification technology and is named as an inventor on several patents and applications. Prior to Enzymatics Stephen served as a product manager for New England BioLabs where his efforts were focused on chromatography process development, manufacture and quality control of a variety of DNA modifying enzymes. Stephen also fostered international business relations through technical training and marketing activities in addition to coordinating NEB's technical service program. In 1997 Stephen graduated from the University of Vermont with a B.S. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. Stephen received his Masters in Business Administration from Suffolk University in 2003.

Christopher Benoit
President & Chief Operating Officer

Christopher Benoit co-founded Enzymatics in 2006 and serves as the company's President and Chief Operating Officer. Christopher currently leads Enzymatics' business development team and was responsible for creating and implementing the company's business systems, including leading the company through the development and certification of an ISO 13485:2003 Quality Management System. An active member of the community, Chris serves as a biotechnology advisor to Endicott College, and supports local economic development through several Enzymatics' funded initiatives. Prior to co-founding Enzymatics, Mr. Benoit served from 1995-2006 as the product manager for DNA polymerases at New England BioLabs. A life-long resident of the North Shore of Massachusetts, Mr. Benoit holds a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is an elite level competitive cyclist (Category 1/UCI Elite), and a year-round bicycle commuter.