Corporate Board

The Strategic Partners Behind the Work

Our strategic, supportive Corporate Board lends us their experience and expertise to guide our work and operations. At Cytotheryx, our Corporate Board acts as stewards of our business, providing their strategic insights and ideas to our ongoing operations and management. Moving beyond our platform technology, our Corporate Board guides our business by providing review and approval of our objectives, budget, and more. They support us with their unique industry expertise, which ranges from law and business development to scientific research and investment.

Susan Slocum

Chair of the Board

Susan (Sue) Slocum, the Chair of the Corporate Board, is the Chief Investment Officer at Children’s Minnesota, where she manages $2.1 billion in assets for the institution and an additional $2.6 billion in related ERISA funds. In her management and allocation of funds, Sue optimizes returns in accordance with the institution’s risk tolerance. As part of her ongoing work, Sue has developed a Strategic Healthcare Impact Portfolio within the private market allocation of the portfolio, which emphasizes the ability to improve child health. By collaborating with Children’s Minnesota’s internal researchers and subject matter experts, Sue is improving both the institutional view of innovative science and the fund managers’ view of practical use. In addition, Sue has actively rebalanced the public equity exposure across sectors as part of her advocacy of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Tim Argo

Tim Argo is a Senior Director of Licensing at Mayo Clinic. In his role, Tim manages an IP Portfolio, and is responsible for evaluating and advancing the commercial potential of Mayo Clinic’s medical inventions and clinical and research discoveries. Tim is also responsible for the identification of commercial partners and the negotiation of license agreements and commercialization arrangements. He provides expert advice to physicians and scientists at Mayo to support the protection of intellectual property and technology-based business matters. He is also heavily involved in start-up formation and funding. Beyond his work with intellectual property at Mayo, Tim is involved in the biomedical industry, and regularly maintains strong relationships with experts in his field.

Cassie Edgar

Cassie J. Edgar is a scientist and attorney with over 20 years of corporate and private practice experience. Cassie’s expertise is vast but is centered around working to translate innovation into revenue for technologies that feed the world and keep it healthy. She has held positions in research and development, legal, and management in biotechnology to this end. Before moving to private practice, Cassie served as Chief IP & Regulatory Office for Genus plc, where she created global IP and regulatory strategies for gene editing. In that role, she was also accountable for patent protection, and drafting and negotiating research and licensing agreements. Previous roles include IP Counsel, Senior Regulatory Counsel, and Research and Development Director at Pioneer DuPont, now Corteva. Cassie has a B.S. in Molecular Genetics from The Ohio State University, an M.S. with an emphasis on Biomathematics from North Carolina State University, and a J.D. from Drake University; she is also an alumna of Harvard Business School after completing the General Management Program in 2013.

John Swart

John R. Swart, Ph.D., has over 25 years of experience in the biomedical research industry, with an emphasis on business development and operations management, and is the CEO of Cytotheryx and Ponte Biosciences. Previously, John served as President and CEO of Exemplar Genetics, an innovative biomedical research company that developed models of rare genetic diseases and was a leader in its field. Prior to co-founding Exemplar Genetics, John worked in the global animal health business of Boehringer Ingelheim. In his current role as CEO of Cytotheryx, John is responsible for leading the team developing this innovative platform technology.

Stuart Winter

Observer

Stuart Winter is the Chief of Research and Medical Innovation at Children’s Minnesota, where he has been promoting and supporting all 10 research departments at the institution since 2017. Given Children’s Minnesota’s commitment to value-based care, quality, safety, equity, and inclusion, Stuart’s work is increasingly important to the success of the institution. In his role, Stuart manages the creation and implementation of basic and applied research projects, the evaluation and development of new processes, technologies or products, and partnerships with surrounding academic institutions. In addition, he is an affiliate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, and acts as co-chair of the Child Health Advisory Committee, which aims to understand and mitigate determinants of childhood health. Stuart also has over three decades of experience as a practicing clinician-scientist, including in all phases of clinical trial design and implementation.

Don Lehr

Donald Lehr is the Chief Legal Officer for Precigen and has broad experience in a wide variety of types of law, including corporate, securities, and general business. Before joining Precigen, Don practiced with the law firm Hogan Lovells LLP, formerly Hogan & Harston, LLP. While there, Don’s practice included the representation of corporations held both privately and publicly across numerous industries. This work gave him experience in fields such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, software, technology, and manufacturing, which he now brings to Cytotheryx. Don has also served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Irma S. Raker of the Court of Appeals of Maryland and received a B.A. degree from Swarthmore College and J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law.