Pennsylvania Bio Announces Five New Board Members

WAYNE, PA – Pennsylvania Bio, the statewide trade association representing the Commonwealth’s life sciences community, announced today the appointment of five new members to its Board of Directors:

• Brian K. Halak, Ph.D.
• Partner
• Domain Associates

• John Hubbard, Ph.D., FCP
• Chief Executive Officer
• BioClinica

• David H. Ledbetter, Ph.D., FACMG
• Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer
• Geisinger Health System

• Bruce J. Shook
• President and Chief Executive Officer
• Intact Vascular, Inc.

• Bryan Wolf, M.D., Ph.D.
• Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President
• The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

“On behalf of the Pennsylvania Bio Board of Directors, we are honored to welcome five industry leaders whose leadership, expertise and dedication will be essential assets to the Board of Directors and the Association,” said Robert Bazemore, Chair of the Pennsylvania Bio Board of Directors and President & CEO of Epizyme, Inc.

“As the trade association for the life sciences in Pennsylvania, including biopharma, medical devices, diagnostics and digital health, these additions to our Board present opportunities for both the industry and health systems to work together to ensure Pennsylvania is a global leader in the life sciences,” added Pennsylvania Bio President and CEO Christopher P. Molineaux.

Brian K. Halak, Ph.D. joined Domain in 2001 and became a partner in 2006. Prior to Domain, Brian was an associate with Advanced Technology Ventures where he participated in the firm’s investments in Plexxikon, Percardia and Emphasys.  Previous to that, he was a consultant at the Wilkerson Group, where he developed strategy for pharmaceutical and medical device companies. 

Dr. Halak is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the Department of BioEngineering of the University of Pennsylvania and serves as an advisor to Elm Street Ventures. Dr. Halak serves on the following Boards of Directors: Alimera Sciences (NASDAQ: ALIM), BioNano Genomics, Carticept Medical, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: DRNA), Kona Medical, Medico (Hong Kong) Limited and Oraya Therapeutics.

Dr. John Hubbard is the President and CEO of BioClinica, a specialty clinical trials services provider that enhances the development of new medical therapies.  Dr. Hubbard is a leader in the Clinical Services and Biopharmaceutical R&D industries, with over three decades of experience including executive level positions at Pfizer, ICON, Parexel and Hoechst Marion Roussel Pharmaceuticals.

Prior to joining BioClinica, Dr. Hubbard was Senior Vice President and Worldwide Head of Development Operations for Pfizer, where he directed and oversaw clinical trial operations and management of more than 450 clinical projects.  Dr. Hubbard was also a founding member of the Board of Directors of TransCelerate Biopharma, Inc.  Before joining Pfizer, Dr. Hubbard was Group President, Clinical Research Services at ICON Clinical Research, a top five global clinical research organization.  He is also a Board Member of Agile Therapeutics, a Board Member of the Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO), and an Advisory Board Member and Fundraising Vice-chair for the Children's Brain Tumor Foundation.

Dr. David H. Ledbetter is Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Geisinger Health System, a not-for-profit integrated health system in Danville, PA.  Dr. Ledbetter came to Geisinger from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta where he was the Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Director of the Division of Medical Genetics in the Department of Human Genetics.  He previously held academic and leadership positions at the University of Chicago, the National Center for Human Genome Research (now NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health and Baylor College of Medicine.

After his early discovery of the genetic causes of Prader-Willi syndrome and then Miller-Dieker syndrome, Dr. Ledbetter has focused his research efforts on discovering the underlying etiology of childhood developmental disabilities such as autism, and the translation of new genomics technologies into clinically useful genetic tests for early diagnosis and intervention.  His current research interests include leveraging the massive amount of genomics data generated during routine patient care for knowledge generation and integration of this information into electronic health records in a clinically useful manner.  Dr. Ledbetter has been a strong advocate of genomic data-sharing to accelerate knowledge and improve patient care, and served as a plaintiff in the recent Supreme Court case, Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics (June 13, 2013), which overturned the patentability of human genes and will now allow increased access and improved quality of genetic testing in the United States.

Bruce Shook is the President and CEO of Intact Vascular, Inc. in Wayne, PA.  Intact Vascular is a clinical stage, privately held medical device company that develops minimally invasive peripheral vascular products.  Prior to joining Intact Vascular, Mr. Shook was President and CEO of Neuronetics (Malvern, PA), a privately held medical device company that develops and markets therapeutic neuromodulation products for psychiatric and neurologic diseases.  Mr. Shook co-founded Neuronetics in 2003 and was responsible for all facets of the company’s operations.  Prior to Neuronetics, Mr. Shook co-founded Neuron Therapeutics (Malvern, PA), a privately held company developing drug/device combination products for the treatment of traumatic CNS disorders.  Prior to Neuron Therapeutics, Mr. Shook was President of Abiomed (NASDAQ: ABMD), a publicly traded manufacturer of advanced cardiac assist technology, where he worked to bring the first ventricular assist device to the U.S. market and was responsible for all commercial operations.  He has also held positions in engineering, clinical research and regulatory affairs with Cordis Corporation.  Mr. Shook has thirty years of experience in the medical device industry including venture finance of medical technology companies.
Mr. Shook currently serves as a Director on the Boards of Surgiquest, Inc (Milford, CT), a commercial stage medical device company marketing innovative access technologies for minimally invasive surgery, the Penn State Research Foundation, and ACHIEVEability, a Philadelphia based non-profit organization focused on breaking the cycle of poverty for homeless families.  He is a past Director for Respicardia, Inc (Minnetonka, MN) and CoTherix, Inc (purchased by Actelion). 
Bryan Wolf received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Paris, France, and completed post-doctoral training (Biochemistry), residency (Laboratory Medicine) and a fellowship (Clinical Chemistry) at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes Hospital in Saint Louis. Since 1990, he has been on the faculty of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine where he is currently a tenured professor. His primary area of research focused on the signal transduction mechanisms of insulin secretion in the eta-cell of endocrine islets.

In 2015, Dr. Wolf was appointed Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Director of the CHOP Research Institute.  He recognizes the critical need for pediatric health researchers to collaborate with patients, parents, and clinicians to generate knowledge at the point of care and to rapidly translate that knowledge into healthcare decision making. He serves as the institutional leader representing CHOP in the CDRN Steering Committee and governance activities.

About Pennsylvania Bio
Pennsylvania Bio is the statewide trade association for the life sciences in Pennsylvania and serves as a catalyst to ensure Pennsylvania is a global leader in the life sciences by developing a business and public policy environment which fosters life science growth and success. More information is available at http://www.pabio.org.