Corporate

Management Team

David de Graaf, Ph.D.

President and Chief Executive Officer

David de Graaf, Ph.D.

Dr. David de Graaf joined Selventa in 2010 to define the company’s scientific strategy, direction and general operations. Additionally, he is responsible for developing key partnerships that will enhance the company’s significance.

Previously, Dr. de Graaf served as the Vice President of Biotherapeutics and Integrative Biology at Boehringer-Ingelheim, where he built a successful portfolio of clinical candidates, initiated key collaborations as well as managed scientific leadership and site operations. He also held roles with increasing responsibilities at Pfizer, AstraZeneca and the Whitehead/MIT Center for Genome Research with a focus on bringing innovative systems biology approaches to the early pipeline.

Dr. de Graaf completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel in pharmacogenomics of human olfactory systems. He also earned a Ph.D. in mammalian genetics from The University of Illinois at Chicago and a Masters of Science degree in evolutionary genetics from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. He was awarded a Feinberg Fellowship and is invited frequently to speak at scientific conferences.

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Patricia F. Deware

Vice President, Finance

Patricia F. Deware

Ms. Patricia Deware joined Selventa in 2011. She is responsible for providing the financial leadership for the company, including financial planning and forecasting, budget management, reporting and analysis, tax/treasury, and strategic support.

Ms. Deware brings over 20 years of experience working in manufacturing, financial services, consulting and life science companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies . She has consistently helped organizations build value by guiding them through periods of growth, restructuring and change. Prior to joining Selventa, Ms. Deware was a controller for Diagnostic Vision Corporation. She has also held senior and managing roles at Fidelity Investments and Avery Dennison.
 
Ms. Deware received an M.B.A. from Babson College, Master of Taxation from Bentley College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Stonehill College.

 

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David A. Fryburg, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

David A. Fryburg, M.D.

Dr. David A. Fryburg joined Selventa in 2011. His role is to critically oversee scientific strategies related to translational medicine and biomarker development. He brings over 20 years of clinical and pharmaceutical research experience to the team.

Previously, Dr. Fryburg was an Executive Director and Global Translational Medicine Lead for cardiovascular, metabolic and endocrine diseases at Pfizer. In these roles, he was responsible for the development, management and integration of diverse translational medicine strategies in these therapeutic areas across Pfizer’s R&D organization.

Dr. Fryburg served as an attending physician and a faculty member at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center after completing his fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at Yale University. Dr. Fryburg’s academic interests included the role of growth factors and hormones in metabolism and metabolic disorders, which were supported by numerous grant awards. He earned his M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Bachelor of Arts from The Johns Hopkins University. He has more than 30 peer-reviewed research publications and is invited often to speak at scientific conferences.

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William Hayes, Ph.D.

Senior Vice President, Platform Development

William Hayes, Ph.D.
Dr. William Hayes joined Selventa in 2012 to help implement advanced analytics as well as extend and refine Selventa Discovery Platform for biomarker discovery programs. He brings 15 years of experience managing and supporting innovative IT solutions. His responsibilities include extending the Selventa Discovery Platform to efficiently analyze new experimental assay data types and significantly increase the depth and breadth of capabilities for more sophisticated analyses.
 
Prior to joining Selventa, Dr. Hayes was the Director of Decision Support and Literature Informatics, R&D IT at Biogen Idec. In this role, he was responsible for providing decision support capabilities for R&D scientists. Notably, he evolved a Corporate Library into a Literature Informatics team using state of the art text analytics and visualizations to support Biogen Idec from Discovery to the Board Room and deployed an agile data management platform based on Semantic Web. Prior to Biogen Idec, William worked at AstraZeneca and GSK in the Bioinformatics Departments.
 
He received his Bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering and Ph.D. in Applied Biology and Bioinformatics from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA.
 
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Renée Deehan Kenney, Ph.D.

Vice President, Research

Renée Deehan Kenney, Ph.D.

Dr. Renée Deehan Kenney joined Selventa in 2006. With a unique perspective and understanding of both the industry and client needs, she develops custom strategies to translate scientific challenges into navigable solutions using the Genstruct Technology Platform. Additionally, she manages the project life cycle from inception to delivery through extensive collaboration that maximizes impact. As an expert in systems biology and biomarker panel development, Dr. Kenney communicates scientific and technological advantages to both existing customers and prospects. She also works collaboratively with Selventa’s scientific and engineering teams to drive innovation in the platform.

Dr. Kenney earned a Bachelor of Science Engineering degree in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Daphna Laifenfeld, Ph.D.

Senior Director, Scientific Research and Global Head, Therapeutic Diagnostic

Daphna Laifenfeld, Ph.D.

Dr. Daphna Laifenfeld joined Selventa in 2006. To ensure high scientific quality, a focused scientific strategy and cohesiveness of the scientific message, she leads, guides and coordinates scientific research collaborations. Dr. Laifenfeld has an expanded role as the Global Head of Therapeutic Diagnostics and is an expert in understanding molecular mechanisms of action with specific experience in toxicology, disease behaviors, and sensitivity and resistance predictive indicators. In addition, she has been involved in writing biological patents and has helped clients prepare scientific messages for regulatory submissions.

Prior to joining Selventa, Dr. Laifenfeld was a statistician at Gallup Israel and then a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude in psychology and statistics from Haifa University, a Master of Arts degree summa cum laude in psychobiology from Tel Aviv University and a Doctor of Philosophy degree cum laude in molecular biology from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Dr. Laifenfeld has authored many scientific publications and has been the recipient of multiple grants and awards in the U.S. and abroad.

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Louis Latino

Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing

Louis Latino

Mr. Louis Latino joined Selventa in 2008 to drive global sales supported by targeted marketing initiatives. He is building direct sales, sales support, marketing and business development infrastructure to support significant long-term growth consistent with the strategic direction of the company.

The majority of Mr. Latino’s career has focused on building value in a sales management capacity for early-stage life science companies. Prior to joining Selventa, Mr. Latino served as the Vice President of North America, Life Sciences Sales and Support for Accelrys, where he was responsible for both software and services. His more than 30 years of sales experience also included positions at Superscape Group PLC, Geneformatics and Biosym Technologies.

Mr. Latino earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Boston College.

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Andrea Matthews

Vice President, Operations and Alliance Management

Andrea Matthews

Ms. Andrea Matthews joined Selventa in 2003. She has been critical in supervising program and alliance management for scientific consulting and engineering projects. Ms. Matthews also coordinates the review of commercial partner contracts and agreements. Prior to this role, she held senior alliance management and scientific program management positions.

Ms. Matthews received a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in biochemistry and molecular biology from Boston University. A rising star, she was named one of Mass High Tech’s “People to Watch Under 30” in 2007.

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Hewan Small

Director, Human Resources

Hewan Small

Ms. Hewan Small joined Selventa in 2003. In this role, she is responsible for performance management, recruiting, company policies, legal compliance, agreement review, and benefits selection and administration.

Ms. Small earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in peace and justice studies and Italian from Wellesley College. She is an active member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council's (MBC) HR Committee.

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John Tagliamonte

Senior Vice President, Corporate Development

John Tagliamonte

Mr. Tagliamonte joined Selventa in 2011 to promote and establish strategic partnerships with global pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostics companies to optimize portfolio development through early patient stratification. He brings over 20 years of pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry experience.

Prior to joining Selventa, Mr. Tagliamonte was VP, Business Development at Anchor Therapeutics where he led a transformative partnership with Johnson & Johnson that enabled the company's Series B financing. Prior to Anchor Therapeutics, he led strategy and corporate development with ImmunoGen to advance the company's targeted anti-cancer therapeutics candidates through partnered clinical programs and managed company’s intellectual property estate. He previously held senior strategic corporate development roles in large and small biopharma and diagnostics firms completing dozens of partnerships collectively valued over $1B.

Mr. Tagliamonte earned his M.B.A. from Boston College and Bachelor of Science from Tufts University.

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