Management Team
Keith Murphy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, is a veteran of biotechnology startup Alkermes, Inc, where he played a central role on the development team for their first approved product, Nutropin (hGH) Depot. He moved to Amgen in 1997 and developed several other novel formulation and device products. He has 17 years of experience in biotechnology, including serving in Product Strategy and Director of Process Development roles at Amgen. His 10 years at Amgen included four years as Global Operations Leader for the largest development program in Amgen’s history, Phase 3 osteoporosis/bone cancer drug denosumab. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from MIT, and is an alumnus of the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Gabor Forgacs, Chief Scientific Officer, is the Executive and Scientific Director of the Shipley Center for Innovation at Clarkson University and the George H. Vineyard Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Missouri. He developed Organovo’s breakthrough organ printing technology while leading a team of top regenerative medicine scientists from multiple universities, with the backing of a $5MM National Science Foundation Grant. Professor Forgacs is the author of more than 150 peer reviewed journal articles and the textbook Biological Physics of the Developing Embryo, (with Stuart Newman), published by Cambridge University Press. He holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the Roland Eotvos University, Budapest Hungary. He moved to the United States in the 1980’s from the Institute of Physics of the French Atomic Energy Agency in Saclay to accept a professorship at Clarkson University.
Barry Michaels, Chief Financial Officer, has more than thirty years of financial and general management experience in the medical device and biotechnology industries. Mr. Michaels has served as Chief Financial Officer of three private and three publicly traded companies: Cardima, Inc. (NASDAQ), Lipid Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ), IntraTherapeutics, Inc., VIA Medical, Inc., Webster Laboratories (now a division of J&J/Cordis known as Biosense-Webster), and ICN Biomedicals, Inc. (AMEX). He has also served as an independent consultant to medical device and biotechnology companies since 1997. Mr. Michaels began his medical industry career in 1979 with Baxter Healthcare, where he held various management and executive positions in accounting and finance through 1988, most recently as Vice President and Controller of the Parenteral Products Group, before continuing his career as Vice President and Corporate Controller of Medtronic, Inc. Mr. Michaels holds an MBA in finance from San Diego State University and is a graduate of the Executive Program at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Sharon Collins Presnell, Executive Vice President of Research & Development, has over 15 years of experience in the leadership of product-focused R&D. As an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Presnell’s research in liver and prostate biology and carcinogenesis produced cell- and tissue-based technologies that were outlicensed for industrial applications. She joined Becton Dickinson (BD) in 2001 and played a key role in the early discovery and development of BD’s Discovery Platform and FACSTM CAP tools for the optimization of in vitro culture environments and flow cytometry-based characterization of cells. In her role at BD, she grew and led a large multi-disciplinary team to establish feasibility for the Discovery Platform and FACS CAP in multiple therapeutic areas, including diabetes, and stewarded both technologies through revenue-generating commercial partnerships. Sharon joined Tengion, Inc. in 2007 as the Vice President of Regenerative Medicine Research, and was responsible for the discovery and early development of Tengion’s Neo-Kidney AugmentTM technology, to which MedTronic secured first rights to purchase in a 2011 deal. Dr. Presnell holds a Ph.D. in Pathology from the Medical College of Virginia.
Board of Directors
In addition to Professor Forgacs and Mr. Murphy the following individuals serve as Board Members of Organovo, Inc.:
Robert Baltera, Jr. , MS, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of Amira Pharmaceuticals
Bob is a seasoned pharmaceutical industry executive, who acquired a wealth of business and product management experience during 17 years with biotech pioneer Amgen. In his role leading Amira Pharmaceuticals, he has been instrumental in focusing the company’s development efforts, strengthening and developing its pipeline and forging key collaborations with partners such as GlaxoSmithKline. Before becoming Amira’s CEO, Bob held a number of senior management positions at Amgen, the last being vice president of corporate and contract manufacturing. He successfully used his collective experience to serve as team leader responsible for the approval of Kineret™ in rheumatoid arthritis, a highlight of his many accomplishments while at Amgen. Bob has a master’s of business administration from the Anderson School at UCLA and earned his bachelor’s degree in microbiology and a master’s degree in genetics from The Pennsylvania State University.
Andras Forgacs, MBA, Managing Director, Richmond Global Andras is Managing Director of Richmond Global, an international early-stage venture fund focused on technology enabled services. His focus is the day-to-day management of Richmond's existing portfolio of direct and indirect investments as well as sourcing new investment opportunities.
Prior to Richmond, Andras was a consultant in the New York office of McKinsey & Company advising pharmaceutical companies, academic medical centers, financial institutions and private equity/venture capital firms. Previously, Andras helped found the client-facing E-commerce Group of Citigroup developing award-winning products to support Citi's corporate and investment banking clients. Andras began his career with Citigroup as an investment banker in the Financial Strategy Group advising the bank's largest corporate clients on a range of financial and capital structure issues.
In addition to co-founding and serving as a director for Organovo, Andras also serves on the board of Voxiva and as board observer of AdChina, LearnVest, Fiksu Mobile and Yobrand. He is also Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the international non-profit Resolution Project. Andras is a Kauffman Fellow with the Center for Venture Education and a Term Member with the Council on Foreign Relations.
Andras holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts with honors from Harvard University.