Board of Directors

Gregory C. Critchfield, MD, MS – Chairman.

Dr. Critchfield currently also serves as Chairman, President and CEO of Sera Prognostics. In 2010, he retired as President and Board Member of Myriad Genetic Laboratories, which he built into one of the world’s leading molecular diagnostic companies.  Prior to joining Myriad in 1998, he was Chief Medical and Science Officer at Corning Clinical Laboratories, which became Quest Diagnostics, Inc., with responsibility for science medicine and innovation.  Dr. Critchfield also served on the faculty of three medical schools:  University of Minnesota, Wayne State University and Duke University.  He also worked as a practicing clinical pathologist with Intermountain Healthcare for nine years.  Dr. Critchfield served as a reviewer and study section chair for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for more than 15 years in biomedical computing programs for SBIR, STTR and R01 programs. He has served and is serving as an independent director in industry associations and various other life science companies.  Dr. Critchfield received a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology with a minor in Chemistry from Brigham Young University in 1976, an MD degree from the University of Utah in 1980 and a master’s degree in Biophysical Sciences from the University of Minnesota in 1985.

Kevin Harter, CEO & President.

Until taking his position as CEO, Mr. Harter was co-founder and Senior Vice President of the Life Sciences Greenhouse (LSG), a public-private life science investment partnership, where he manages a portfolio of early-stage biotech, medical device and diagnostic companies.  From 2007-2011, he served as chairman of Saladax Biomedical, which is an LSG-portfolio company, where he led multiple successful funding rounds and strategic deals for the Company.  He has represented LSG on various for-profit boards and as interim senior management when appropriate. Mr. Harter previously co-founded Keystone Medical Systems in 1990 and managed it through significant growth until its acquisition by publicly held Continental Medical Systems.   Prior to Keystone, Mr. Harter held several positions within the Pennsylvania Blue Shield organization, including Vice President, Technology. He contributed significantly to the development of the field of electronic medical claims, electronic medical records and physician practice management.  He has held more than two dozen board seats in healthcare, technology and financial companies. Recognition for his professional and volunteer achievements includes the Entrepreneur of the Year award and the Alumni Fellow and Philip Philip Mitchell Service Awards from Pennsylvania State University.  He holds a bachelor’s of science in Information Systems and an MBA from Penn State University.

Salvatore J. Salamone, PhD, Founder, Sr. VP & Chief Scientific Officer.

Dr. Salamone has more than 25 years’ experience in the health care and medical device industries. Prior to founding Saladax, Dr. Salamone was Vice President of Research and Development, Roche Diagnostics, where he was responsible for North American research and development efforts for the Laboratory Systems Division. Dr. Salamone’s efforts during his 17-year tenure at Roche resulted in the launch of seven major reagent product lines, comprised of more than 70 FDA-approved prod- ucts and more than 200 instrument applications. These products have generated in excess of $1 billion in cumulative revenue to date. Five of these product lines are based on nanoparticle technology similar to that utilized in the MyCare product line. Dr. Salamone is world recognized in the field of drug monitoring with more than 100 publications, including textbook chapters, books, patents and articles on the subject. He serves as a reviewer for several scientific journals and is on an NIH study section for SBIR-STTR grants.   Dr. Salamone received two bachelor’s degrees from Villanova University, a master’s and a PhD degree from Rutgers University and was a SERC Post-Doctoral Fellow at Oxford University.

Adrienne Choma, Esq, Founder, Sr. VP & Chief Operating Officer.

Ms. Choma has more than 30 years’ experience in the health care field.  She began her 20-year career at Hoffmann-LaRoche as an attorney and joined the Diagnostic Division where she held titles of Director, Business Research & Planning; Vice President, New Product Development and Regulatory Affairs; Vice President, Operations; Vice President, International Drug Monitoring Business Unit; and Vice President, Marketing & Sales for the U.S.  She worked closely with Dr. Salamone in the successful development and launch of four reagent product lines at Roche. Before founding Saladax, Ms. Choma served as Chief Operating Officer of Alfa Wassermann, Inc., with global responsibility for the diagnostic division of the Italian pharmaceutical company. Ms. Choma earned her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and her JD degree from New York University where she was a recipient of the Root-Tilden Scholarship.

Edward L. Erickson, Director.

Edward L. Erickson has 30 years of executive and board level experience in diagnostics, therapeutics, and life science research products having served as president, CEO or a director of over a dozen companies in these industries. He is currently Chairman of the Board of MDXHealth S.A. {EuroNext:MDXH}, a molecular diagnostics company that develops and commercializes advanced epigenetic tests to support cancer treatment. He currently serves as a director of Saladax, where he was previously President and CEO. He also serves as a director of CertiRx Corporation, a privately-held company in the field of document and product authentication and anti-counterfeiting. Prior to joining Saladax, he served as President and CEO of BioNanomatrix, Inc., a privately-held genomics company developing and commercializing proprietary DNA analysis systems. Previously, he was the Chairman, President and CEO of Cellatope Corporation, a private company developing diagnostic products in the field of autoimmune diseases. Prior to that, he served in top leadership roles, including president, CEO and/or chairman, of three venture-capital backed medical products companies, Cholestech, Immunicon, and DepoTech, which successfully completed initial public offerings under his leadership. Earlier in his career, he held senior executive positions at The Ares-Serono Group and Amersham International. Mr. Erickson holds an MBA with High Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He did military service as an officer in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine force.

Joel Gross, Director.

Mr. Gross is a veteran of more than 25 years in finance and was a highly ranked Wall Street analyst for seven years. He currently is a consultant and investor, and is a guest speaker at several universities.  Mr. Gross graduated with honors from Rutgers University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and has an MBA with honors from Penn State University.

James F. Hensel, Director.

Mr. Hensel has a lifetime of business experience, most recently serving as CEOs of Pac-West Telecomm and Metro One Telecommunications (NASDAQ: INFO).  He previously served as Senior Vice President at Columbia Ventures Corporation (www.colventures.com), a family fund, where he had operational oversight of CVC telecom and non-telecom investments in Ireland, Iceland, New Zealand and Australia as well as the U.S.  Mr. Hensel is a serial entrepreneur. Prior to his most recent engagement at CVC, Mr. Hensel started a medical device company, HemCon Medical Technologies, Inc. (www.hemcon.com).  Earlier, he built and oversaw the operations of a $315 million aluminum smelter in Iceland for CVC (www.nordural.is), and financed and built microbreweries around the western United States. Mr. Hensel was previously a partner at Ater Wynne, a large law firm in Portland, Oregon. He holds a BA from Harvard University and a JD from Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon.

Enrico Petrillo, MD, Director.

Dr. Petrillo is Managing Director of Excel Venture Management.  He has more than 20 years of experience as a venture investor, healthcare consultant, entrepreneur and physician.  He initiated multiple investments in life science companies, including Aileron, MedVentive, US Genomics, BioTrove, Quovadx (now Healthvision), eBenX (acquired by SHPS) and Morphotek (acquired by Eisai) and serves on multiple boards.  Dr. Petrillo is an advisor to the US Department of Defense and serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at Boston University. Dr. Petrillo earned both his undergraduate and MD degrees from Tufts University and completed his internship and residency at Harvard-affiliated hospitals in Boston.