Agendia CEO and leadership

Mr. Mark R. Straley joined Agendia Inc. in August 2015 as the company’s CEO, bringing more than 25 years of international experience developing and commercializing clinical diagnostics and laboratory services. Most recently he served as President, Anatomical Pathology of Thermo Fisher Scientific of Waltham, Massachusetts. Prior to this position he was President and CEO of Metamark Genetics of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a biotech company focusing on the development of prognostic and predictive diagnostic tests for personalized treatment of cancer patients. From 2005 to 2010, Mark held positions at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, a J&J company, first as Worldwide Vice President of Marketing and then as Worldwide President. Prior to his assignment with J&J, Mark worked for such brand name companies as Bayer Healthcare and Abbott Laboratories where he held positions of increasing responsibility. Mark earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Miami University.

Professor Dr René Bernards brings extensive experience in oncology as a researcher and entrepreneur. He received his PhD in 1984 from the University of Leiden. He performed his post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Robert Weinberg’s group at the Whitehead Institute. He joined Harvard University as an assistant professor in 1988 to study function of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes.

In 1992 he was appointed senior staff scientist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute where he studies mammalian cancer genetics.

In 1994 he was appointed part time professor of molecular carcinogenesis at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. His laboratory focuses on the development of new tools to perform genome-wide genetic screens to identify novel genes that act in cancer relevant pathways.

He was a co-founder of Prolifix in 1993 (currently TopoTarget) and co-founded Agendia in 2003, for which he also acts as scientific director.

He assists in the evaluation of investment opportunities.

Kurt joined Agendia in March of 2012 and has more than fifteen years of experience in financial management and analytics in healthcare, banking and aerospace industries. His previous public company experience has been at Alphatec Spine, Wells Fargo and UTC Aerospace. Kurt holds a Master’s of Science in Business Administration degree from San Diego State University with a focus on Finance and a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Dr. William Audeh is a medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer, with nearly 30 years of experience as a clinician and clinical researcher at the Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center in Los Angeles, where he continues to be a member of the Medical Staff. Prior to joining Agendia, and in addition to his clinical practice, he served as the former Director of the Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center and Medical Director of the Wasserman Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Program. Dr. Audeh also served as Director of the Medical Oncology Training Program for Breast Surgery and Surgical Oncology Fellowships at Cedars-Sinai, and is Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. Dr. Audeh has been Principal Investigator on a wide variety of national and international clinical and translational trials, and has authored numerous publications in the field of breast cancer, cancer genomics, and targeted cancer therapy.

Dr. Audeh received his medical degree from the University of Iowa and an M.S. Degree in Genetics from the University of Minnesota. He went on to complete his residency in Internal Medicine as well as a fellowship in Medical Oncology at Stanford University Medical Center. He is board certified on internal medicine and medical oncology, and is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and American Association of Cancer Research.

Bas van der Baan is Chief Clinical and Business Development Officer at Agendia and joined the Company shortly after its founding in 2003. Bas holds a degree in molecular sciences and has over 15 years of healthcare experience in commercial roles, and has held positions at Unilever and other biotechnology start-ups.

Brian Dow joined Agendia in June 2020 as Chief Financial Officer with more than 25 years of financial, accounting and operations experience with a focus on public and emerging life sciences companies. Most recently, Brian served as Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration of Pulse Biosciences, a medical technology company developing a novel energy-based tissue treatment platform. Prior to that role, he was the Vice President and Principal Accounting Officer of Pacific Biosciences of California, a leading provider of next generation genetic sequencing instruments. In addition, Brian held a series of financial officer positions, more recently serving as the Chief Financial Officer with Northstar Neuroscience, Inc., a development stage medical device company. Brian began his career as a manager with Ernst and Young after earning his Bachelor of Science degree in Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Brian is also recognized as a licensed Certified Public Accountant by the Washington State Board of Accountancy.

Roopom is a life science business leader with 20 years’ experience covering strategy, financial advisory, operational and scientific roles. He has broad experience with startups to global Fortune 500 companies advising on corporate strategy, portfolio design, product development and commercialization, financing, partnerships and acquisitions. Most recently, he was President and CEO of RainDance Technologies (acquired by BioRad Labs) and led the company to become a pioneer in Liquid Biopsy for detecting cancer from a blood test.

Previously, Roopom led teams at McKinsey, Leerink and Goldman Sachs where he completed 80+ healthcare transactions raising over $10Bn in capital financings, 30+ IPOs, and 20+ M&A transactions. His earlier career spanned scientific cancer research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Human Genome Project.

A biochemist and economist by training, Roopom has a graduate degree from Harvard and two undergrad degrees from MIT where he was elected a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholar.

Professor Dr René Bernards brings extensive experience in oncology as a researcher and entrepreneur. He received his PhD in 1984 from the University of Leiden. He performed his post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Robert Weinberg’s group at the Whitehead Institute. He joined Harvard University as an assistant professor in 1988 to study function of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes.

In 1992 he was appointed senior staff scientist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute where he studies mammalian cancer genetics.

In 1994 he was appointed part time professor of molecular carcinogenesis at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. His laboratory focuses on the development of new tools to perform genome-wide genetic screens to identify novel genes that act in cancer relevant pathways.

He was a co-founder of Prolifix in 1993 (currently TopoTarget) and co-founded Agendia in 2003, for which he also acts as scientific director.

He assists in the evaluation of investment opportunities.

Professor Dr René Bernards brings extensive experience in oncology as a researcher and entrepreneur. He received his PhD in 1984 from the University of Leiden. He performed his post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Robert Weinberg’s group at the Whitehead Institute. He joined Harvard University as an assistant professor in 1988 to study function of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes.

In 1992 he was appointed senior staff scientist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute where he studies mammalian cancer genetics.

In 1994 he was appointed part time professor of molecular carcinogenesis at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. His laboratory focuses on the development of new tools to perform genome-wide genetic screens to identify novel genes that act in cancer relevant pathways.

He was a co-founder of Prolifix in 1993 (currently TopoTarget) and co-founded Agendia in 2003, for which he also acts as scientific director.

He assists in the evaluation of investment opportunities.