Progenity announces expansion of board of directors

February 21, 2019

Company focused on diagnostic and therapeutic precision medicine solutions in prenatal and perinatal healthcare, oncology, and gastroenterology.

SAN DIEGO, February 21, 2019 -- Progenity, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company, today announced the expansion of its board of directors with four new directors to support the company as it executes its plans to develop and commercialize precision medicine solutions across its genomic/epigenomic, proteomic, and microbiomic platforms. Progenity is pleased to welcome Jeffrey D. Alter, John T. Bigalke, Samuel R. Nussbaum, MD, and Lynne Powell to its board of directors.

“Our pipeline of diagnostic and therapeutic applications under development continues to grow with innovative solutions aimed at transforming prenatal, perinatal, and gastrointestinal healthcare,” said Harry Stylli, PhD, CEO, Chairman of the Board, and Founder of Progenity. “These accomplished individuals, with their combined experience in finance, risk management, managed care, business and clinical strategy, and policy will be a valuable resource for Progenity in advancing future products into clinical practice and driving its mission to make healthcare more precise and personal.”

Progenity’s pipeline of precision medicine solutions under development includes novel products for noninvasive prenatal screening for monogenic diseases, and assays related to preeclampsia, preterm birth, oncology, and others. Progenity also aims to transform gastrointestinal (GI) based healthcare and improve clinical outcomes through development of ingestible molecular diagnostics and therapeutic products for GI disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Jeffrey D. Alter has extensive experience in health plan management, business strategy, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Alter is currently President of Arcturus One Consulting and was formerly CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s Commercial Group. During Mr. Alter’s 14 years with UnitedHealthcare, he led its largest business unit, generating $51 billion in revenue. He was instrumental in instituting strategic initiatives that significantly improved organic growth, client relationships and retention rates. He also developed strategies that expanded the geographic footprint and diversification of the business portfolio, acquired new businesses, and improved product margin stability. Mr. Alter also successfully led UnitedHealthcare’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Prior to this, he served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Financial Planning for Oxford Health Plans, served as Vice President of Finance, Underwriting and Operations at Vytra Health Plans, and spent ten years in finance and operations roles for Grumman Aerospace Corporation and Harris Corporation. Mr. Alter serves on several boards, including the Long Island Association, the Board of Governors of St. John’s University, and CityMD. He received a BS in marketing and an MBA in finance from St. John’s University.

John T. Bigalke is a seasoned financial expert and a board member and advisor to healthcare and life science companies. He is a Board Leadership Fellow with the National Association of Corporate Directors. Mr. Bigalke founded and is currently CEO of Second Half Healthcare Advisors, where he consults on business strategy for companies competing in the rapidly changing health care environment. His previous roles were U.S. National Industry Leader and Senior Partner, Global Health Care and Life Sciences at Deloitte LLP, where he led the growth to become the leading professional services firm serving the industry. Mr. Bigalke led a wide range of engagements over 18 years at Deloitte and 40 years in the industry, providing audit, litigation support, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory advisory and strategic planning services. He also served as the National Director of Public Policy, leading the development of Deloitte’s public policy strategy. Mr. Bigalke serves as chairman of the Advisory Board at VaxCare Corporation and is a member of the Board of Directors at Advent (formerly Adventist) Health Systems. He is a Senior Advisor to Concord Management Services LLC. He previously served on the Board of Directors of Deloitte LLP and the Healthcare Financial Management Association, among others. He received a BS in Financial Management from Clemson University and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant.

Samuel R. Nussbaum, MD, is a clinical leader, academic physician, and policy advisor to top healthcare companies. Dr. Nussbaum has expertise in technology assessment and health economics for health plans and private and public sector policy organizations. He currently serves as a strategic consultant for EBG Advisors and a senior advisor to Sandbox Industries and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Previously, Dr. Nussbaum served as Executive Vice President, Clinical Health Policy, and Chief Medical Officer at Anthem for 15 years, where he oversaw clinical strategy as well as medical and pharmacy policy. He was responsible for over $100 billion in annual healthcare expenditures through business units that focused on care management, health improvement, and network contracting. He was instrumental in developing contracting approaches that encouraged value-based care in hospitals, and he built partnerships with federal agencies and academic institutions to advance comparative effectiveness and outcome research. Prior to that, Dr. Nussbaum was Executive Vice President, Medical Affairs and System Integration at BJC Healthcare where he was instrumental in developing alternative businesses and strategic acquisitions that enabled business and clinical portfolio expansion. He also spent two decades in academia at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he led the clinical endocrine group practice. Dr. Nussbaum is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine and a senior fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. He currently serves on a number of boards, including Motus GI, Coherus Biosciences, and PhyMed. He received a BA from New York University and an MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Lynne Powell is a commercial leader in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industry. Ms. Powell is currently Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and is responsible for formulating global commercial strategy and building the commercial organization to launch BioCryst’s portfolio. Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President, North America, at CSL Behring, where she was accountable for the financial performance and general management of all commercial activities within the U.S. and Canada. Throughout her 17-year career at CSL Behring, she assumed increasing responsibilities within the R&D and commercial functions of the organization. She has significant global experience gained as Vice President, Global Commercial Development and Head of Business Development & European Marketing. Ms. Powell has launched multiple products globally and in the U.S. Prior to her time at CSL, she held positions of increasing responsibility within Glaxo Wellcome’s commercial strategy and clinical research organizations. She received an MBA from Monash University in Australia.

These new appointees join Dr. Stylli, along with the other current Progenity board members, Jeffrey Ferrell, Managing Partner of Athyrium Capital Management, and Howard Slutsky, Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at Progenity.