Omar Kurdi is Co-Founder and President of Cellares. He has more than 18 years of biotechnology experience and has demonstrated his entrepreneurial ability by building and scaling successful organizations – from growing exceptional teams, to creating effective stakeholder relationships, and delivering on bottom-line growth. He leverages his engineering background and technical aptitude to drive operational excellence and has led operational teams that manufactured reagents, medical devices and capital equipment for the life sciences industry. Omar has held executive and leadership roles at a wide array of biotech companies. At Finesse Solutions, he led teams that manufactured bioprocessing equipment and helped grow the company from 10 to nearly 100 employees in a short span. At Synthego, which manufactures CRISPR/Cas9 kits and edits many types of cell lines, he oversaw the build-out of several facilities and helped grow the company from 10 to approximately 150 people. At Thermo Fisher Scientific, he led a large team that manufactured different types of LCMS systems, both research use only (RUO) and class 1 medical devices. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from San Jose State University.

Fabian Gerlinghaus is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cellares. He is driven by a strong sense of purpose and is passionate about building the future of cell therapy manufacturing. With 10+ years of experience as an innovator and a leader, Fabian has established a track record of assembling top-performing teams to successfully drive novel bioprocessing technologies from ideation to commercial readiness. Prior to co-founding Cellares, Fabian served as Chief Innovation Officer at Synthego, where he co-invented the company’s proprietary RNA synthesizer technology and helped grow the company from five to more than 230 employees. He successfully led the interdisciplinary team that took synthesizer technology from whiteboard sketch to production-ready instruments within two years, enabling the company to be the first to market with its CRISPR/Cas9 product portfolio. He earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Technical University of Munich, and an honours degree in technology management from the Center for Digital Technology and Management, Munich.

Kiran Thakkar is the Director of Information Technology at Cellares. He has more than 15 years of experience in leading technical teams with an extensive range of expertise including IT operations, application development, infrastructure, network operations, IT security, ERP systems, project management and strategic planning. Prior to joining Cellares, he held the position of Director of Information Technology at Berkeley Lights. He earned an MBA in Finance and MIS from Ohio University.

Mark Flower is Vice President of Business Development at Cellares. He has more than 16 years of experience in immuno-oncology, cell-based gene and immunotherapy, cell therapy manufacturing, cell collection and bioprocessing. Prior to joining Cellares, he served as Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Relationships with Be The Match BioTherapies, a subsidiary of the National Marrow Donor Program. Previous roles include Executive Director of Sales and Marketing at Hitachi Chemical Advanced Therapeutics Solutions, a leading cell therapy contract and development manufacturing organization (CDMO). Earlier in his career, he was Senior Manager, Global Strategic Marketing, in the Therapeutic Systems business unit at Terumo BCT. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biological science from the University of California, San Diego.

Einav Kraft has over sixteen years of leadership experience in Quality and Compliance in the Pharmaceutical, Biotech, and Medical Devices industries which includes establishing, implementing, and ramping phase-appropriate quality systems from the ground up in pre-clinical, clinical, and GMP commercial environments. She also has a proven track record in developing and implementing a quality vision and culture across multiple organizations. Additionally, she has successfully hosted multiple health authority inspections and Pre-Approval Inspections, with the FDA and EMA, among others. Most recently, Einav served as Site Head of Quality for the CDMO, Miltenyi Biotec Inc., in San Jose, California. Previously, Einav was the Head of Quality Assurance at Taro Pharmaceuticals in Israel and led Compliance for Novartis’ San Carlos, California site. Einav earned a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology and a Masters in Quality Engineering, both from the Technion, The Israel Institute of Technology.

Don Yuen is Director of Analytical Development at Cellares. He has more than 10 years of experience in assay development, working on molecular control of lymphangiogenesis and CAR-T therapies. At Pfizer/Allogene, he was the group leader, overseeing the development of CAR-T product phenotyping assays. He earned a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in biochemistry with honors from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Following his doctoral degree work there, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Cleveland Clinic.

Mike DeRenzi is VP of Development at Cellares. He has more than 15 years of experience working in product development and servicing diverse market segments including the medical and life science fields. Prior to joining Cellares, he served as Director of Engineering at Purigen Biosystems. Previous roles include Project Director at Acorn Product Development and stints in life science and green technology start-ups. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, San Diego.

Becca Hennessy is the Senior Director of People Operations at Cellares. She brings expertise in Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, and HR Operations. Becca’s background includes selecting and implementing HR software and workflows to build efficient people ops strategies and processes from the ground up. Prior to joining Cellares, she was a consultant focused on identifying operational gaps, providing solutions, and acquiring top talent for scaling startups. She also served as the Director of Recruiting at Ladder Insurance and worked in Campus Recruiting at KPMG LLP. She graduated from Idaho State University and holds a SHRM-SCP certification.

Daniele Malleo is VP of Research and Development at Cellares. He has more than 12 years of experience inventing, developing and commercializing complex analytical and biomedical instruments for clinical and research markets. Prior to joining Cellares, he held the positions of Senior Manager of Systems Engineering at BD Biosciences, R&D Manager and Principal Systems Engineer at Abbott Laboratories, and Technology Lead at Berkeley Lights. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Southampton.

Marc Beban is Director of Business Development at Cellares. He has over 20 years experience helping life science technology companies commercialize differentiated products and services. He has commercialized products and led teams in a diverse range of life science technologies including multiplexed imaging for immuno-oncology applications, sample preparation for genomic and proteomic analysis, liquid handling and lab automation for high throughput screening, and cheminformatics. Prior to joining Cellares Marc worked at IONpath, Agilent Technologies, Velocity11, and MDL Information Systems. As an independent consultant he devised a portfolio strategy for the lab automation business unit of Perkin Elmer. Outside of the life sciences, he founded and managed a 501(c)(3) non profit corporation dedicated to inspiring young adults to pursue their passion for creative writing. He received his undergraduate degree in Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley, and his doctorate in Biochemistry from the Johns Hopkins University.

Wilson is the VP of Technology at Cellares. He has over 25 years of engineering experience in creating innovative, cutting-edge analytical systems for bioresearch and medical device industries. His portfolio includes leading roles in systems design and mechanical engineering at several Bay Area companies such as Molecular Devices, Fluxion Biosciences, and Cutera. He excels in merging the fields of fluidics, optics, electronics, and precision injection-molding to create innovative systems for clinical diagnostics, drug discovery, and medical devices. His talents extend beyond just development of robust platforms as Wilson has successfully launched and commercialized 5 products over the past 10 years. Wilson’s passion is creating elegant solutions that meet challenging design criteria from customer’s needs, R&D, Sales and Marketing, and Manufacturing. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

John Tomtishen is Vice President of Operations at Cellares. He has more than 10 years of experience in cell and gene therapies, biologics, and vaccines, with diverse roles in Business Operations, CMC/Technical Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering/Facilities, and Operational Excellence. Prior to joining Cellares, John served as the Site Managing Director of Legend Biotech’s corporate headquarters, where he was responsible for Legend’s U.S. Manufacturing and Technical Operations teams and the development of robust global CMC strategies for Legend’s cell and gene therapy product portfolio. He also supported the clinical development and BLA filing of Ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Cilta-cel) in collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

Prior to joining Legend, John worked for Novartis Pharmaceuticals within Cell and Gene Technical Development & Manufacturing where he drove and oversaw CMC activities for cell and gene therapy products from late-stage clinical development through commercial lifecycle management. John also had an integral role in the filing and approval of the first CAR-T BLA (Kymriah™-tisagenlecleucel). Previous experience included roles at Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories, and Fox Chase Cancer Center. John earned a Bachelor of Science degree with Honors in Cell Biology/Biochemistry from Bucknell University.

Arturo Araya is Cellares’ Executive Vice President of Commercialization, currently leading and executing on the go-to-market strategy for the Cell Shuttle, an automated and closed end-to-end manufacturing solution for scaling cell therapies. He joined the company in 2023 with over a decade of executive experience commercializing cell and gene therapies. Notably, Araya served as Chief Commercial Officer for Novartis’ cell therapy unit during the early development of Kymriah, as well as Vice President for Global Commercial Strategy for several multi-billion dollar Novartis Oncology products. Previous roles also include Chief Commercial Officer of Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics, Chief Commercial Officer at cell and gene therapy COI/COC software developer TrakCel, and Associate Director of Marketing Research and Business at Bristol-Meyers Squibb.

Tim Lai is Director of Operations, GMP Facilities at Cellares. He has more than 12 years of experience in GMP facilities asset life cycle management in the biopharmaceutical industry.  Prior to joining Cellares, he held various roles in engineering, maintenance, utilities, and facilities operations at Genentech and Boehringer Ingelheim. He earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, San Diego, and a doctor’s degree in business administration from Northcentral University.

Jeremy Kolenbrander is the Director of Systems Engineering. Most recently the Senior Manager for Product Development for TerumoBCT, Kolenbrander has more than 30 years of experience leading complex, multi-functional teams from feasibility to development to clinical trials to product launch to ongoing quality improvements. He was the team lead for development of the Spectra Optia apheresis device and has lived and worked in many countries worldwide from Asia to Europe to Australia. He is also passionate about team building, talent development, and increasing access to therapies worldwide. Jeremy holds an MS in Civil Engineering (cellular separations) from Stanford University and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado.

Gary Lo is the Chief Financial Officer at Cellares. He has extensive experience in finance and IT. Prior to joining, Gary was the Vice President of Finance at Legrand Building Control Systems managing global finance functions including cash management, accounts payable/receivable, credit and collections, cost accounting, and general accounting. Previously, he was the Vice President of Business Development and IT at Sparta Systems spearheading Sparta’s M&A strategy, execution, and integration. He also served as CFO for 1WorldSync, a cloud-based product database company with over 15,000 customers across 50 countries.

Gary worked for 10 years at Johnson & Johnson as a Finance Director supporting numerous product lines and geographies. He has held management positions at Siebel Systems, Boston Scientific Corporation, and PWC as well. Gary earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and graduated magna cum laude with a BS from Boston College. He is a Certified Public Accountant.

Antinea is the Vice President of Technical Operations at Cellares. She brings over a decade of experience in the Life Sciences industry, having held senior leadership responsibilities in Cell Manufacturing, Technical Operations, MSAT, Supply Chain, Engineering, and Program Management.

Prior to joining Cellares, Antinea oversaw the design, build, and deployment of Synthego’s High-Throughput Genome Engineering Technology, a cell-line agnostic platform accelerating researchers’ CRISPR-mediated target identification and validation initiatives. She led the commercial launch of CRISPR-edited iPSCs and Engineered Cell Libraries to upend mainstream therapeutic development approaches, enabling researchers to gain valuable diversity, toxicity, and efficacy insights in-situ, de-risking costly therapeutic endeavors far ahead of traditional patient trials. In partnership with the NIH, she led the generation of isogenic-induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines to establish a national repository to characterize how individual mutations impact cellular pathways and contribute to Alzheimer’s and other neurological indications.

At Novartis, Antinea drove readiness and successful completion of FDA pre-approval inspections (PAI). She holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbial Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and has made it her mission to understand, optimize, and accelerate access to curative therapeutic modalities reinforced through years of innovative, customer-centric genomic advancements across all stages of the drug development process.

Meredith Daviou is the Director of Finance at Cellares. Meredith has more than 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry as an accounting professional and is a licensed CPA, with a specialization in accounting in both her undergraduate degree and master’s of business administration. Prior to joining Cellares and through the acquisition of Array BioPharma, she was finance lead over the BRAFTOVI & MEKTOVI franchise in Oncology at Pfizer (leading indications of Melanoma and Colorectal Cancer), a significant asset in Pfizer’s research and development budget in Oncology. As finance lead, she was responsible for all budgeting, forecasting and accounting for both early and late-stage clinical studies, including pharmaceutical sciences, supporting the franchise as well as other key programs in oncology. Prior to the acquisition by Pfizer, Meredith was Assistant Controller at Array BioPharma and was responsible for leading all finance initiatives to support commercialization of Array’s first approved therapies. Her prior role at Gilead as Collaborations Accounting Manager involved management of over 100 collaboration agreements in both research and development and commercialized therapies. Meredith started her career in public accounting and served as Audit Manager at Grant Thornton serving a variety of both private and SEC clients in manufacturing, technology and life science industries.

Isabel Tian is the Associate Director of Process Development at Cellares. She brings expertise in a wide range of automated cell therapy instruments for target cell selection, sorting, electroporation and expansion. Prior to joining Cellares, she led the process development, optimization and technology transfer efforts of both autologous and allogeneic immune cel therapies at the CDMO site of Miltenyi Biotec, Inc. She received her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from New York University, and her doctorate in Nanoscale Engineering from SUNY Polytechnic Institute.

Joe Passanisi is the Director of Field Service Engineering at Cellares. He has more than 20 years of experience in the life science industry with a proven track record of building highly motivated and talented engineering and service teams responsible for installing Process Control Systems for life science facilities around the globe. Prior to joining Cellares, Joe served as Director of Field Service at Finesse Solutions, where he was responsible for building a global service team installing and supporting cGMP and Development bioreactor systems at client facilities worldwide. Most recently Joe was the I&C Manager of the Instrument and Controls team at NECI. Joe began his life science career as an Automation Engineer at Lonza Biologics supporting day-to-day manufacturing operations, new suite construction, new facility construction, start-up, and validation activities.

Jarett Scalzo is the Senior Director of Compliance & Quality Systems at Cellares. He has over 15 years of experience in biopharmaceuticals as well as the cell and gene therapy markets with diverse roles in Quality Control, Quality Assurance, and Regulatory and Compliance. For the past 4 years, Jarett has owned and operated Compliance & Control Consulting, a consulting company specializing in the development, buildout, implementation, and maintenance of Quality Management Systems and Contamination Control Programs. He has worked with industry-leading organizations to ensure Quality Compliance programs are robust, appropriate, and commensurate with the level of the organization.

Prior to Compliance & Control Consulting, Jarett worked for Kite Pharma in the Quality Control Microbiology department where he drove and oversaw many of the contamination control validation activities for the commercial manufacturing team ultimately leading to a successful BLA approval for Kite’s CAR-T Drug Product, Yescarta®. Other previous experience included roles at Astellas Pharma and Biotest. Jarett earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Florida Atlantic University and a Master in Business Administration with emphasis on Pharmaceutical Marketing from Saint Joseph’s University. He is a Certified Quality Auditor (CQA) from the American Society for Quality, has been a speaker at the PDA Conference on Pharmaceutical Microbiology, and has hosted various webinars on contamination control and compliance.

Felix Quagliarello is Director of Business Development at Cellares. He brings significant cell and gene therapy expertise in manufacturing, business development, client relationship management, technical process consulting and contract negotiation. Early in his career, Felix served as a researcher throughout the biotech and Pharma sectors as well as academia, most recently with the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Immunology under E. John Wherry.

Felix has extensive experience in supporting global clients with CDMO services from his tenure at WuXi Advanced Therapies as an Associate Director of CDMO service sales as well as technical expertise in cell therapy process development and manufacturing through his experience at Danaher, GE Life Sciences and STEMCELL Technologies as a Cell and Gene Therapy Technical Sales Specialist.

Felix has earned a Master degree in Cell, Molecular and Developmental biology from Villanova University as well as a bachelor’s degree in Life sciences from Penn State University.

Greg Tse is Director of IP at Cellares. He has more than 15 years of experience working as a practicing attorney on technologies including surgical robotics, orthopedics, prosthetics, and cardiovascular systems. Prior to joining Cellares, Greg was senior IP counsel at Auris Health, Inc., which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2019. He earned a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from UCLA, and a J.D. from UC Hastings.