Leadership Team
Meet iSpecimen's experienced leadership team with a shared commitment to our mission.
Tracy is an experienced, results-oriented business builder focused on leading iSpecimen’s vision for progressive financial performance, expansion and growth in today’s dynamic healthcare and biotechnology research markets.
Tracy brings three decades of experience in public accounting and corporate finance for both publicly traded companies and emerging companies like iSpecimen. Before joining iSpecimen, Tracy served as a partner at CohnReznick LLP, a national accounting firm, where she led the creation and development of an emerging markets commercial audit practice team focused on recruiting and providing audit services to private and public emerging growth companies in the technology and life sciences industries. Earlier, and as a partner at Marcum LLP, a national accounting firm, Tracy led the northeast regional high-tech practice for the firm with a focus on expanding the client base to provide a full range of accounting, tax and advisory services for private and public emerging growth companies in high tech industries such as technology, life sciences and advanced manufacturing. Tracy has also served as a partner at Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico, LLP (MFA), a proactive, Boston-based consulting firm with national and global reach, where she led the creation and development of a public company audit practice focused on recruiting and providing audit services to public emerging growth companies.
Tracy received her Master of Accountancy and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from Kansas State University. She also attended the United States Military Academy. She is a certified public accountant licensed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Ben brings 25 plus years of executive and senior information technology experience to iSpecimen. In his role at iSpecimen as Chief Information Officer, Ben is responsible for technology delivery and data strategy and services. He most recently served as the Chief Information Officer at GNS Healthcare, a leading casual machine learning product and services company, and as Director of Academic Technology at Harvard University. Prior to his work at GNS and Harvard, Bielak was the Chief Information Officer at Dovetail Health, a high-growth product and services company focused on reducing costs through pharmacy-focused interventions. He previously held roles as Manager of Development and Integration at Boston Medical Center and Senior Manager of Technology at Sapient.
Bielak holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Bentley University, where his studies focused on change management, and a master’s degree from Boston University in computer science. He maintains two certifications, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Certified Healthcare Chief Information Officer (CHCIO) and the Health Information Management System Society (HIMSS) Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS).
David is responsible for ensuring that iSpecimen meets the medical research needs of customers. This includes ensuring that specimens are of the highest quality and that iSpecimen technology will continue to meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of the academic, pharmaceutical, and government research communities.
Prior to joining iSpecimen, David served as Senior Medical Director at Quintiles, the world’s largest clinical research organization, where he supported both large pharmaceutical companies as well as smaller biotech organizations in a wide variety of clinical oncology programs. David has worked in both start-up biotechs and large pharma. David began his career working on the clinical development of novel drug-device combinations for blood decontamination at Cerus Corporation. He then worked on clinical trials at Wyeth that led to the development of Xyntha®, a drug used to treat hemophilia. After a brief stint assisting institutional investors on healthcare technology opportunities at Leerink-Swann’s Medacorp, David then moved on to ARIAD Pharmaceuticals where he turned to cancer research, working on ARIAD’s mTOR inhibitor for solid tumors as well as initiating ARIAD’s phase I trial for chronic myeloid leukemia drug, Iclusig®. David next joined EMD Serono where he worked on phase I-III trials of immune-agents for oncology. David holds an MD and PhD from the University of Virginia School of Medicine where he focused on the basic science of oncology. He then completed a residency at the University of California, San Francisco and a fellowship in hematopathology at Boston’s Beth Israel hospital.
Mr. Langlois has been serving as Chief Revenue Officer since January of 2023, overseeing the departments of Site Development, Marketing, Sales Operations, Sales, and Customer Success. Prior he served as iSpecimen’s SVP of Sales and Business Development since arriving in Jan of 2016 driving results leading to a successful IPO. Prior to joining iSpecimen, Eric served as Global Head of Sales for The Reprocell Group of companies. He helped build and manage a sales teams driven by the demands of integrating four portfolio companies with products and services in Cellular Reprogramming, Stem Cells, 3D cell culture, genomics, and biospecimens. Prior to that, he held rapidly increasing positions from Regional Sales Manager to VP of Sales with Genomics Collaborative, SeraCare Life Sciences, SeqWright, and BioServe. Eric has amassed 25 years of experience in life science research going from bench laboratory science into business development and executive management. Eric and his teams have proven quite successful at driving revenue using a consultative, customer-centric approach. Eric holds a BS in Biotechnology/Biochemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Dawn and her team manage all aspects of daily operations at iSpecimen, from understanding researcher requirements through fulfillment, working closely with iSpecimen’s network of partner laboratories and biorepositories.
Dawn has over 25 years of clinical laboratory management experience with an emphasis on regulatory oversight. Dawn was formerly the Director of Operations for the Partners Biorepository for Medical Discovery, where she was responsible for providing the Partners research community with a repository and related services to support clinical, translational, and basic science research programs. Prior to that she was on the management team at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital blood transfusion service where she managed day-to-day activities and special initiatives including the implementation of a new laboratory information system.
During her time at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, she sat on the AABB Immunohematology Reference Laboratories Standards Committee. She was a committee member for the 4th and 5th edition of standards and committee chair for the 6th edition of standards.
She received a BS in Clinical Laboratory Science from Georgia State University earning MT(ASCP) certification. Later, she earned a Specialist in Blood Banking (SBB) certification. She holds an MS in Computer Information Systems from Boston University as well as Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification from Villanova University.
Annette is responsible for driving and managing all aspects of company sales and business development. In this position, she applies her strategic vision as well as her skills in negotiation, facility management (FM) and management. Additionally, she plays a key role in analyzing and developing the supply partner network in order to meet the demands of iSpecimen’s rapidly expanding customer base.
Annette has over 20 years of experience working in sales. Before joining iSpecimen, Annette was Manager of Business Development at Folio Conversant. There, she was responsible for supporting and growing business within existing accounts, and developing new accounts, through direct customer sales. Prior to Folio Conversant, she moved from Business Administrator to Client Account Manager at Biblioteca. For over a decade, Annette and her teams have established solid relationships with R&D groups, grown business revenue substantially, and streamlined project workflows for vital accounts. Annette holds an AS in Computer Science from Keene State College.
Carly and her team are focused on bringing the unique iSpecimen offering to life science customers who are seeking streamlined, compliant solutions for procuring archived pathology, banked, and prospective or custom-collected human biospecimens. The team is also focused on engaging new partners interested in joining the iSpecimen network, enabling deep and far-reaching access to millions of human biospecimens and patients that have consented to donate them.
Carly has led marketing strategies, integrated programs, and high-growth initiatives for Life Science organizations for more than 20 years. Before joining iSpecimen, she worked as a marketing consultant for more than a decade serving clients in the healthcare and life science industries. Most recently, she managed global, digital marketing and eCommerce programs responsible for driving double-digit growth in the cell culture consumables division of Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Evan brings nearly 20 years of Product Management and leadership experience to iSpecimen. In his role at iSpecimen, Evan is responsible for creation and management of the long-term roadmap and strategy plan for our industry leading iSpecimen Marketplace application. Prior to joining iSpecimen, Evan held several key senior management roles at Definitive Healthcare Corp., a provider of healthcare commercial intelligence, most recently as Associate Vice President, where he led the product management team. Before that, he held multiple product strategy and decision support roles at Change Healthcare, a healthcare technology company, where he focused on artificial intelligence and natural language processing to streamline existing workflows.
In addition, Mr. Cox co-founded DSE Analytics, a company that used natural language processing to integrate qualitative and quantitative information available on Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys to deliver providers deep insights into their satisfaction scores. He also served as Senior Product Manager of Data Analytics and Research at Press Ganey Associates and Product Lead of Clinical Data Management at WebMD.
Jeff brings over fifteen years of experience in software engineering to iSpecimen’s software team, leading them in building out our online marketplace platform. By driving the consistent evolution of the iSpecimen Marketplace, Jeff and his team creates an increasingly user-friendly environment for our researcher clients to find the correct specimens they need to do ground-breaking research.
In the past, Jeff has designed and implemented web applications, created platforms that mobilize enterprise data to native apps across various devices, led software release processes, and managed geographically distributed development teams. Before joining the iSpecimen leadership team, Jeff worked on the engineering team at high-growth corporations such as Wayfair and Charles River Development to develop applications that would revolutionize both the consumer experience and the field of financial advising. Most recently, Jeff worked as the director of engineering at the Predictive Index. There, he led the monolith to microservices architecture transformation, grew the engineering team, and created an innovative training and onboarding program for new engineers.
Board of Directors
In addition to our original Founder, Christopher Ianelli, the following individuals sit on iSpecimen's board of directors:
Andrew Ross
Board Member
Andrew L. Ross has been serving as our director since 2012. He has been an entrepreneur and investor for almost 50 years. He developed, financed, owned and managed through controlled entities multiple real estate assets, including apartment units, hotels, a golf course, a condominium project, several office and retail commercial properties.
Since 2010, Mr. Ross has focused on angel and early-stage investments primarily in biotech and collaborative consumption businesses. He has invested in and advised multiple early-stage enterprises as a seed, angel or A-round investor. Mr. Ross served as a director on the board of Q-State Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Q-State Biosciences, Inc., a precision medicine company, from 2013 to February 2020. He is well-qualified to serve on our Board due to his extensive experience in investment.
Andrew Ross
Board Member
George “Bud” Scholl
Board Member
George “Bud” Scholl has been serving as our director since 2014. He has been an entrepreneur for most of his professional life, primarily focused on purchasing and working out distressed assets across a variety of industries and asset types. He has developed and invested in financial, real estate, service and technology companies.
Mr. Scholl currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of OneBlood, which was formed in 2012 as a result of a merger he organized when he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Blood Centers of Florida, one of the three largest blood centers in the southeastern United States. Mr. Scholl also currently serves as the Mayor of the City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, where he was elected in 2014 after serving as City Commissioner for 7 years. Mr. Scholl is a graduate of the University of Florida and holds an engineering degree in computer science. He is well-qualified to serve on our Board due to his extensive experience in investment.
George "Bud" Scholl
Board Member
Steven Gullans
Board Member
Steven Gullans, Director has been serving as our director since October 2020. From May 2018 to December 2019, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer and Director of Gemphire Therapeutics, until it was acquired by NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals. While at Gemphire, he oversaw activities related to clinical trials, manufacturing, finances, business development, R&D and intellectual property. Prior to Gemphire, he was Managing Director at Excel Venture Management, LLC (“Excel”), a Boston-based venture capital firm which he co-founded, from March 2008 to May 2018.
At Excel, he focused on investing in life science technology companies with a particular interest in disruptive platforms that can impact multiple industries. Prior to Excel, Dr. Gullans co-founded RxGen, Inc., a pharmaceutical services company, where he also served as Chief Executive Officer and a director from February 2004 to February 2008. Prior to that, he was the Chief Scientific Officer of US Genomics, Inc., a company that develops technology to analyze DNA for pathogen detection, from November 2002 to January 2004. Dr. Gullans serves as a director at Orionis Biosciences, a drug development company.
He was previously a board member of Activate Networks, Inc. which was acquired by Decision Resource Group, nanoMR Inc., which was acquired by DNA Electronics Ltd, Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc. which went public in 2013, and Molecular Templates, Inc. which was merged into a public entity in 2017. Dr. Gullans was a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital for almost 20 years. Dr. Gullans holds a B.S. from Union College and a Ph.D. from Duke University. He is well-qualified to serve on our Board due to his extensive experience in biopharmaceutical industries and his expertise in medical and pharmaceutical research.
Steven Gullans
Board Member
John L. Brooks III
Board Member
John L. Brooks III, a director nominee, will join our board of directors upon the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. He currently also serves as a director of Hemoshear Therapeutics since November 2008, Noxilizer since March 2009, Hygieia since June 2016 and Atentiv since March 2020. He also serves as the chairman of Thermalin, Inc. since January 2009.
In January 2012, Mr. Brooks founded Ammonett Pharma and continues to serve on its board of directors since then. He has also served as the managing director of Healthcare Capital LLC since February 2007. Previously, Mr. Brooks served as the Chief Executive Officer, President and a director of NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from March 2018 to December 2019 and as the chairman of Cellnovo, Ltd. from 2012 to December 2019.
Mr. Brooks is also involved with several non-profit organizations. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Worldwide Network for Innovation in Clinical Education and Research (WNICER) since January 2019 and also serves as a director of T1D Exchange since March 2020, the ADA New England Chapter since January 2015, Population Health Alliance since January 2014, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst Foundation since January 2012.
He also chairs the College Diabetes Network since January 2011 and is also on the board of trustees of Suffolk University since March 2012. Mr. Brooks received his BBA and MSBA in Accounting from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is well-qualified to serve on our Board due to his expertise in healthcare and life sciences.
John L. Brooks III
Board Member
Joseph J. Basile
Board Member
Joseph J. Basile has an extensive body of work with companies and investors in cross-border and domestic mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, financial restructurings, control and minority investments, joint ventures and strategic alliances in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. He has been serving as founder and managing director of Pari Passu M&A Mediation, LLC, an alternative dispute resolution firm, since July 2022, and as a Senior Advisor of Hogan Lovells US LLP, a global law firm, since July 2022. He is also a member of each of the Board of Directors, Executive Committee, and Health Care Task Force of Massachusetts Business Roundtable.
Previously, Mr. Basile was a Partner and Co-chair of the Mergers & Acquisitions practice group at Foley Hoag LLP from March 2014 to June 2022. Prior to that, he worked at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP as a Partner and from May 2008 to February 2014 and as Managing Partner of Weil’s Boston office from September 2011 to February 2014. From 2000 to 2008, he was a Partner of mergers & acquisitions and financial restructuring practice groups at Bingham McCutchen LLP.
Mr. Basile has held several board or committee positions, including as a member of Audit Committee and Finance Committee of Stonehill College, as a member of Board of Trustees of Saint Columbkille Partnership School, and as a member of Massachusetts State Ethics Commission. He received his A.B. from Stonehill College and J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Joseph J. Basile
Board Member
Advisors:
Robert Babkowski, MD, FCAP
Chair of Pathology, Stamford Hospital
Martin Ferguson, PhD
Consultant, National Cancer Institute
Bill O'Donnell
Chief Executive Officer, Blade
Ed Trautman, PhD
VP, Informatics, Analytics and Business Intelligence LabCorp
Jim Vaught, PhD
Editor in Chief, Biopreservation & Biobanking Journal