Management

Tim Harkness

President and Chief Executive Officer
Tim Harkness was formerly the Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Nektar Therapeutics. Prior to joining Nektar, Mr. Harkness served as Chief Financial Officer of Molecular Devices Corporation, an international life sciences tools company, from 1998 through April 2007, when the company was acquired by Toronto-based MDS, Inc. While at Molecular Devices, he also had responsibility for worldwide manufacturing and corporate development as the Senior Vice President of Operations from 2005 to 2007. Prior to 1998, Mr. Harkness was Vice President of Business Development at Vivra Specialty Partners, a physician practice management company. From 1994 to 1997 Mr. Harkness worked in the health care investment banking practice at Montgomery Securities, and from 1989 to 1992 he was with Arthur Andersen & Co. Mr. Harkness serves on the board Symyx Technologies (Nasdaq:SMMX), a scientific software, systems and research company and on the board of ForteBio, a private life science tools company. Mr. Harkness holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, a B.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, and is a C.P.A.

Jason Novi

Chief Financial Officer
Jason Novi serves as the Chief Financial Officer of Cell Biosciences since June 2008, with responsibility for the finance, manufacturing and administrative functions. Prior to joining Cell Biosciences, Mr. Novi was the Vice President of Finance at Nektar Therapeutics, responsible for strategic corporate finance, planning and analysis, and treasury. Prior to joining Nektar, Mr. Novi served in various senior financial leadership roles at Molecular Devices Corporation, including most recently as Director of Finance, from October 2000 to June 2007. Mr. Novi was responsible for the worldwide accounting, finance and treasury functions at Molecular Devices, and played a key role in the execution and integration of its corporate development activities. From 1997 to October 2000, he was with Ernst & Young LLP, based in San Francisco, California. Mr. Novi holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and is a C.P.A.

Walter Ausserer, Ph.D.

Vice President of Marketing
Dr. Ausserer joined Cell Biosciences in December, 2007. He has more than 15 years experience developing and commercializing new analytical systems for the life science research. Prior to joining Cell Biosciences, Dr. Ausserer directed product development at Axela Biosensors, a developer of label-free protein characterization systems located in Toronto, Ontario. He previously held senior product development and marketing positions at Caliper Life Sciences (Hopkinton, MA) and Dionex Corporation (Sunnyvale, California). Dr. Ausserer holds a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Cornell University and received postdoctoral training in cancer biology at SRI International.

Robert Gavin

Vice President of Engineering
Robert Gavin brings nearly 20 years of experience to the Cell Biosciences development team. Most recently, he served as Director of Engineering at MDS Analytical Technologies (previously Molecular Devices, Inc.), where he directed multidisciplinary teams of mechanical, electrical, firmware, and systems engineers. Mr. Gavin has a strong record of creating highly successful laboratory systems, including industry-leading optical plate readers and high throughput screening platforms. Prior to Molecular Devices, Mr. Gavin managed a team of engineers at Affymax Research Institute developing automated peptide and small molecule synthesis and compound-handling instruments. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Stanford University.

Wilhelm Lachnit, Ph.D.

Vice President of Research and Development
Wilhelm Lachnit has two decades of experience in pharma/biotech and life sciences. Dr. Lachnit joined Cell Biosciences from Molecular Devices where he was most recently Director of Drug Discovery Sales and Support for North America. From 2002 to 2003, he held marketing and product development management positions overseeing the successful launch of the IonWorks™ product line. Dr. Lachnit joined Molecular Devices as Director of Business Development in 2000 where he was involved with the acquisition and integration of multiple acquisitions into the organization. Prior to that, he held research management and scientific positions at Roche and Syntex (acquired by Roche) where he pioneered the early adoption of automated cell-based assays. Dr. Lachnit holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology-Toxicology from the University of California, Davis.

Richard Lussier

Vice President of Sales and Worldwide Operations
Mr. Lussier has more than 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry. He started his career with Applied Biosystems where he worked for 13 years in roles of increasing responsibility in both Applera businesses (Applied Biosystems and Celera Genomics). He was president and general management of Applera’s Japanese subsidiary for five years. Mr. Lussier then worked for a series of entrepreneurial ventures, establishing global sales, support, and marketing organizations, including Japanese and European subsidiaries. At Solexa, now part of Illumina Corporation, he established the worldwide field organization to sell, service and support the Solexa Genome Analyzer. Most recently Mr. Lussier established the U.S. subsidiary of Progenika BioPharma, a European personalized medicine company, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He holds an MBA from Temple University in Philadelphia, conducted post-graduate studies in Molecular Biology at the University of Vermont and received a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from Rhode Island College.