Foundation Medicine CEO and Leadership

Dr. Brian Alexander was named Chief Executive Officer of Foundation Medicine in March 2021. He previously served as the company’s Chief Medical Officer since 2019, and is a practicing radiation oncologist specializing in neuro-oncology at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, and a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Medical School.

Since joining the company in September 2018 as a Senior Vice President of Clinical Development, Dr. Alexander has played a pivotal leadership role in Foundation Medicine’s decision insights strategy, helping oncologists, both in community and academic settings, determine the right treatment, at the right time, for each unique patient. Under his leadership, Foundation Medicine’s medical team has expanded its molecular tumor board program to include over 90 leading oncology centers globally, launched a cross-functional genomics and health disparities effort, and has developed hundreds of studies and publications to advance the clinical utility of genomic profiling.

Dr. Alexander was the founding director of the Program in Regulatory Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Harvard/MIT Center for Regulatory Science. He also co-founded the Global Coalition for Adaptive Research, a non-profit organization focused on clinical trial innovations to accelerate the discovery and development of cures for patients with rare and deadly diseases, and served as chair of the FDA/Project Datasphere task force on external control arms. Dr. Alexander is an affiliated researcher at the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering and affiliated faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School Healthcare Policy Program. He was named to Boston Magazine’s “Top Doctors List” in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

Previously, Dr. Alexander served as a White House fellow and Special Assistant to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, where he helped prepare the VA for the transition of administrations, worked to develop a public reporting system for quality, and served as a health policy advisor to the Secretary. Dr. Alexander organized the standup of the VA’s Coordinating Council on National Health Reform and directed the activities of its multi-team Health Reform Working Group. He was also a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Governance and Financing of Graduate Medical Education.

Dr. Alexander’s research interests focus on innovations in clinical evidence generation to support the development of therapeutics, biomarkers, and novel endpoints. He co-authored a book titled “Diagnostic Test Interpretation and Reasoning Under Uncertainty,” detailing the use of Bayesian approaches to clinical decision-making. Dr. Alexander was the founding principal investigator of INSIGhT, a multi-institutional genomic biomarker-based Bayesian adaptively randomized trial for patients with glioblastoma. He is the recipient of the Burroughs-Wellcome Innovations in Regulatory Science Award for his work applying such approaches to clinical trial design.

Dr. Alexander received his B.A. from Kalamazoo College, M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School, and M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his training in radiation oncology at the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program.

Human capital strategist and CEO confidant who delivers transformational business results that align with changing organizational imperatives. Unconventional human resources executive grounded with finance experience and extensive international depth, having lived in Asia, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, leading diverse global HR teams in both publicly traded and private equity environments. A forward-looking thinker and catalyst for change, leading by listening, influencing, and collaboration with an empathetic and thoughtful approach based on discipline and conviction. Noteworthy and significant accomplishments designing and implementing people focused solutions in high-growth, global growth, M&A, reorganizations, and startup companies. Distinguished leadership presence applying sound and pragmatic judgement with board-level interaction and visibility.

Cultural Transformation: Recognized excellence assessing, designing and implementing programs that transform and support organizational culture and align with strategy to drive positive change, competitive advantage and business performance.

Talent Acquisition: Extensive proficiency building and managing integrated talent management programs, including value propositions in attracting, nurturing, developing and engaging employees during the full life cycle of employment. At Serono International, recognized by Training Magazine as a Top 125 learning and development organization.

HR Operational Excellence: Broad and deep capability developing HR metric-driven roadmaps creating synergies and alignment across geographies and businesses. Implemented competency-based performance model and integrated system into fabric of employee lifecycle in attraction, development, and engagement initiatives. Designed career portals and programs that define, differentiate and deliver true candidate care.

Executive Compensation: Significant expertise in the design, implementation, and communication of executive metric driven compensation programs, including equity based plans that drive the attraction and retention of key leadership across diverse geographies with differing legal regulations and compliance requirements.

Cindy Perettie joined Foundation Medicine in February 2019 as its Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Perettie is passionate about improving the care of cancer patients and brings more than two decades of scientific and commercial experience with global biopharmaceutical organizations. Prior to joining Foundation Medicine, Ms. Perettie served as senior vice president in global oncology product strategy for Roche’s Oncology unit, where she led one of the largest global oncology portfolios in the industry. Ms. Perettie began her tenure at Genentech as a program team leader for bevacizumab, and she led several successful therapy launches in the U.S. and abroad for Roche and Genentech across the oncology portfolio, including in lung cancer, breast cancer and hematology. Since joining in 2004, she held roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech, including vice president of global regulatory operations and regional head of Europe, Middle East and Africa operations and global development. In 2012, Ms. Perettie took a hiatus from Genentech to join Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI) as President, Global Development Innovations where she gained invaluable insights into the day-to-day care of people living with cancer. During her tenure, she was responsible for leading and growing SCRI’s contract research organization globally, driving critical oncology clinical trials to further expand options for cancer patients and access precision medicine. Before joining Genentech, Ms. Perettie lead portfolio management at IVAX Pharmaceuticals and was the director of global program management at Élan Corporation. Her pharmaceutical experience began as a research scientist associate director role at Chiron Corporation. She started her career as a senior research associate at Johns Hopkins University following her continuing education program there. Ms. Perettie holds an MBA in marketing and finance from St. Mary’s College of California and received her bachelor’s degree in biology, with a minor in chemistry from State University of New York College at Potsdam.

Mr. Fiedler joined Foundation Medicine, Inc. in November 2016 as general manager of international markets. He brings with him more than a decade of global leadership experience at world-renowned companies, including, Linde Group, Danaher and General Electric.

Prior to joining Foundation Medicine, Inc., Mr. Fiedler was head of innovation at Linde Healthcare, Germany where he led the development of medical devices, hospital efficiency solutions, and innovative business models to better manage chronic diseases at home. During his time, he served as a board member of HealthXL, a digital health accelerator located in Dublin, Ireland.

He joined Linde from Danaher, where he was a member of the global executive team of Leica Biosystems division serving as vice president, Advanced Staining. There, he led the global Tissue Diagnostics business unit, located in the U.K. and Australia and, during his tenure, expanded the product portfolio towards Class III devices and the regional footprint by opening a companion diagnostics development facility in the U.S.

Winnie Swan joined as the General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer at Foundation Medicine in 2019. She brings nearly 25 years of experience as a corporate lawyer in the medical device industry, providing legal support to regulatory and public policy efforts, mergers and acquisitions, business development, intellectual property, and litigation.

Previously, Ms. Swan served as the Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel at NxStage Medical, a medical device and dialysis services company that was acquired by Fresenius Medical in 2019. Ms. Swan oversaw all legal and investor relations work including corporate governance, compliance, securities, intellectual property and other corporate activities. Ms. Swan was pivotal in managing the company’s transition from a startup to a public company with global sales and manufacturing operations and over 4,000 employees.

Ms. Swan also brings extensive medical device experience from her role as Senior Corporate Counsel at Boston Scientific, where she supported public company mergers and acquisitions, new business development, and served as legal liaison for the clinical research and reimbursement and outcomes planning departments. Ms. Swan started her legal career as an associate at Goodwin, a Boston-based law firm.

Priti Hegde, Ph.D., joined Foundation Medicine as the Chief Scientific Officer in August 2019. Dr. Hegde oversees clinical product development, cancer genomics, and early-stage research, as well as regulatory and quality assurance, to accelerate advancement of the Company’s leading comprehensive genomic profiling portfolio. She is passionate about innovation in cancer research and translating innovations to precision medicine tools to advance care for patients.

Dr. Hegde has spent nearly two decades in the biopharmaceutical industry, with a proven track record in drug development, registration, and commercialization of therapeutics with companion diagnostics in cancer immunotherapy.

Prior to joining Foundation Medicine, Dr. Hegde spent 12 years at Genentech, a member of Roche Group, where she held roles of increasing responsibility. Most recently, Dr. Hegde served as senior director and principal scientist in oncology biomarker development at Genentech, during which she established and led the biomarker group accountable for translational science strategies in cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Hegde was instrumental in the approvals for atezolizumab in both the United States and European Union, as well as its forthcoming diagnostic filings.