Meet the Team

Matt Foehr

Chief Executive Officer

Matt Foehr is President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of OmniAb, and has more than 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience managing operations, technology development and global research and development programs. Mr. Foehr previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer at Ligand Pharmaceuticals from 2015 to 2022 and prior to that, served as Ligand’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer since 2011. Prior to joining Ligand, he was Vice President and Head of Consumer Dermatology R&D, as well as Acting Chief Scientific Officer of Dermatology, in the Stiefel division of GlaxoSmithKline. Following GSK’s acquisition of Stiefel in 2009, Mr. Foehr led the R&D integration of Stiefel into GSK. At Stiefel Laboratories, Mr. Foehr served as Senior Vice President of Global R&D Operations, Senior Vice President of Product Development & Support, and Vice President of Global Supply Chain Technical Services. Prior to Stiefel, Mr. Foehr held various executive roles at Connetics Corporation including Senior Vice President of Technical Operations and Vice President of Manufacturing. Mr. Foehr serves on the Board of Directors of Viking Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly-traded biotechnology company and served as a director of Ritter Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2015 until its merger with Qualigen Therapeutics, Inc. in 2020. Mr. Foehr received his BS degree in biology from Santa Clara University.

Kurt Gustafson

Chief Financial Officer

Kurt Gustafson has served as OmniAb’s Executive Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer since March of 2022. Prior to joining OmniAb, Mr. Gustafson served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, a position he held since 2013. Prior to joining Spectrum, Mr. Gustafson served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, where he was responsible for finance, information technology, facilities, and human resources. Before joining Halozyme in 2009, Mr. Gustafson worked at Amgen Inc. for over 18 years, holding various roles including Treasurer, Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Amgen International based in Switzerland. Mr. Gustafson is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Xencor, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company. Mr. Gustafson received a BA in Accounting at North Park University and an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Charles Berkman, JD

Chief Legal Officer and Secretary

Charles Berkman, JD has served OmniAb’s Chief Legal Officer and Secretary since March of 2022. Previously, Mr. Berkman served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Ligand Pharmaceuticals from 2018 to 2022 and prior to that as Ligand’s Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary from 2007 to 2018. Mr. Berkman joined Ligand in November 2001 as Associate General Counsel and Chief Patent Counsel. Prior to that, Mr. Berkman was an attorney at the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie and an attorney at the law firm of Lyon & Lyon, where he specialized in intellectual property law. Mr. Berkman earned a BS in Chemistry from the University of Texas and a JD from the University of Texas School of Law.

Yasmina Abdiche, PhD

Vice President, Exploratory Research

Yasmina Abdiche, PhD is OmniAb’s Vice President of Exploratory Research. Dr. Abdiche has more than 19 years of experience in protein engineering and biopharma industry experience focused on the application of analytical biosensor technologies and label-free interaction analysis in early-stage drug discovery. Dr. Abdiche joined the OmniAb team in September 2023 from FairJourney Biologics where she previously served as the Chief Technology Officer. Prior to that, Dr. Abdiche previously held senior management roles at biotechnology companies and contract research organizations including Carterra (where she co-founded the LSA biosensor platform), ImmunoPrecise Antibodies, ALX Oncology, and Revelar, after a 12-year career at Rinat, Pfizer’s biotherapeutic division. Dr. Abdiche received her PhD in Biological Chemistry and her master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Oxford. Dr. Abdiche has authored more than 45 peer-reviewed publications and has had 25 patents granted in the therapeutic antibody space.

Laurel Bernstein, PhD

Vice President, Intellectual Property

Laurel Bernstein, PhD is OmniAb’s Vice President of Intellectual Property. Dr. Bernstein joined the OmniAb team in November of 2022 from Ligand Pharmaceuticals where she previously served as Director of Patents starting in 2018. Prior to Ligand, she served as Executive Director of Intellectual Property at Lpath, Inc. and Executive Director of Patents at Ionis Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Bernstein earned a BA in Biology from University of Virginia and a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from Brown University.

Neil Castle, PhD

Vice President, Biology

Neil Castle, PhD, has served as Vice President of Biology for the Icagen Ion Channel Technology since March 2016. Prior to that, as part of Pfizer’s Neuroscience and Pain Research Unit, Dr. Castle was Director of Biology and a member of the Pain Research Unit leadership team. Dr. Castle was a scientific leader during the founding of Icagen Inc. in the early 1990’s and has taken on increasing levels of responsibility, including direct responsibility of leading multiple partnered programs. Dr. Castle previously was a Postdoctoral Fellow and then Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and received his Bachelor of Science and Doctorate in Pharmacology from University College London.

Bob Chen, PhD

Sr. Director, Discovery Systems

Bob Chen is Senior Director of Discovery Systems at OmniAb. Dr. Chen leads the development of our xPloration^® platform. Dr. Chen previously was the Chief Technology Officer and a co-Founder of xCella Biosciences, an antibody discovery and technology company based in Menlo Park, California, that was built on scientific research from Stanford University and MIT and acquired in 2020. Dr. Chen earned a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT and a PhD in Bioengineering from Stanford University.

Ellen Collarini, PhD

Sr. Director, Cell Biology

Ellen Collarini is Senior Director of Cell Biology at OmniAb. Dr. Collarini joined the OmniAb team in 2017 following the acquisition of Crystal Bioscience where she was a key player in the development of the OmniChicken^® platform, as well as being responsible for managing multiple partner antibody discovery projects. Previously, she was Director of Cell Biology at Trellis Bioscience, where she co-developed the CellSpot platform, and was the lead in using that platform for discovering human antibodies. Dr. Collarini received her PhD in Biological Chemistry from the University of Michigan and completed post-doctoral training at University College London. She has over 40 research publications and multiple patents.

Bill Harriman, PhD

Sr. Vice President, Antibody Discovery

Bill Harriman is Senior Vice President of Antibody Discovery at OmniAb. Dr. Harriman has more than 25 years of biopharma industry experience in the development of innovative antibody-focused technology and project management. Dr. Harriman joined the OmniAb team in 2017 following the acquisition of Crystal Bioscience, where he was co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, contributing key technology to enable the development of the OmniChicken^® platform, and overseeing its implementation in corporate partnerships. Prior to Crystal, Dr. Harriman was an R&D Director at Trellis Bioscience, where he managed antibody discovery projects and was co-inventor of the company’s CellSpot technology platform. Dr. Harriman has also held positions at Abgenix and Roche Diagnostics and is a listed inventor on more than 30 issued or pending patents in the antibody field. Dr. Harriman received his PhD in Immunology from the University of California San Francisco and MBA from the University of California Berkeley.

Christel Iffland, PhD

Sr. Vice President, Antibody Technologies

Christel Iffland is Senior Vice President of Antibody Technologies at OmniAb. Dr. Iffland joined the OmniAb team in 2017 from Merck KGaA/EMD Serono where she previously served as Associate Director of Antibody Technologies, a Senior Scientist of Phage Technologies and Structural Biology and Group Leader of Antibody Display Technologies and was one of the first industry users of the OmniRat^® technology. Dr. Iffland supports current and new partnerships and collaborations for OmniAb, providing scientific guidance and input. Additionally, she contributes to the continued growth and next-generation innovation of the technology, and to the technical assessment of new opportunities. Dr. Iffland received her PhD. in molecular and cell biology from the Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis in Nice, France and completed post-doctoral research training at both the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Iffland is an author of numerous scientific publications and patents.

Shelley Izquierdo, PhD

Sr. Director, Antibody Discovery

Shelley Izquierdo is Senior Director of Antibody Discovery at OmniAb. With over 15 years of experience in developing antibody discovery technology and leading project management at Trellis Biosciences and Crystal Bioscience. Dr. Izquierdo joined the OmniAb team in 2017 following the acquisition of Crystal Bioscience, where she developed and optimized the best-in-class GEM assay for multiplexed analysis of single B cells. The GEM assay has become a cornerstone for recovering antibodies from immunized chickens, including the OmniChicken^®, which is the world’s first transgenic chicken producing human sequence antibodies. In addition to continuing to implement technological process improvements, she oversees a wide variety of OmniChicken partner projects, where she primarily focuses on discovery programs to generate antibodies to high homology targets and when partner requirements call for broad epitope coverage and high species cross-reactivity. Dr. Izquierdo received her PhD. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California Berkeley.

Doug Krafte, PhD

Site Head – Durham, North Carolina
Sr. Vice President, Ion Channels/Transporters

Doug Krafte is Senior Vice President of Ion Channels/Transporters at OmniAb and has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry managing research sites and R&D programs. Previously, he was Chief Scientific Officer at Icagen, Inc. and an executive officer there where he helped establish collaborative programs with Roche and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Dr. Krafte previously was Executive Director & Site Head for the U.S. arm of Pfizer’s Pain & Sensory Disorders Research Unit, where on the Emerging Science Fund he evaluated a wide range of asset and technology opportunities across all therapeutic and platform areas. He has also held positions at Boehringer Ingelheim and Aurora Biosciences focused on drug discovery projects and technology development. Dr. Krafte is the author of multiple peer-reviewed scientific papers and several patents and has advised entrepreneurial groups for North Carolina universities. Dr. Krafte completed his post-doctoral training at the California Institute of Technology in Molecular Neurobiology, received an MS/PhD in Physiology from the University of Rochester and a BS in molecular biology from Vanderbilt University.

Phil Leighton, PhD

Fellow

Phil Leighton is a Fellow at OmniAb. He joined the OmniAb team in 2017 following the acquisition of Crystal Bioscience. Dr. Leighton has been responsible for the development and validation of lines of transgenic chickens used for the discovery of human antibodies including OmniChicken^®, which has been used for antibody discovery programs by pharmaceutical industry partners since 2016. More recently, he helped develop the OmniClic^® line, which is used for discovery of antibodies with a common light chain for bispecific antibody development. He has authored many scientific publications and holds numerous US patents. Dr. Leighton earning is BS and MSC degrees from Stanford University and received his PhD in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, followed by post-doctoral studies at the University of California, San Francisco.

Cia McCaffrey

Vice President, People and Talent

Cia McCaffrey is Vice President of People and Talent at OmniAb, Inc. Ms. McCaffrey has more than 25 years of experience creating, implementing, and scaling People processes, systems, and programs. She has deep expertise in scaling early to mid-size companies. Prior to OmniAb, Ms. McCaffrey was VP of People at Freenome, a San Francisco-based biotech company where she implemented employee engagement programs and drove the Talent Acquisition strategy contributing to the company’s significant growth. She has held the top people management role at Arterys, a cloud-based medical imaging analytics platform, and multiple technology companies with successful outcomes. Ms. McCaffrey holds a BA in Business Administration and Management and is SHRM certified.

Anil Nair, PhD

Vice President, In Silico Discovery

Anil Nair is the Vice President of In Silico Discovery and joined the OmniAb team following the acquisition of Icagen in 2020. He leads and coordinates all activities in computational chemistry, medicinal chemistry and in silico drug discovery. Dr. Nair joined Icagen, Inc. in 2016 following a successful career at Sanofi, which he began in 2001. At Sanofi, Dr. Nair had positions of increasing responsibility including Global Coordinator for Structure, Design and Informatics. Dr. Nair received his PhD in Quantum Chemistry at Banaras Hindu University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Missouri.

Todd Pettingill, CFA

Vice President, Business Development and Strategy

Todd Pettingill is Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at OmniAb. Prior to OmniAb, Mr. Pettingill joined Ligand Pharmaceuticals in 2013 and served in various roles including Mergers and Acquisitions, Business Development, Strategy and Investor Relations. At Ligand, Mr. Pettingill participated or led more than 10 company and asset acquisitions or divestitures, including acquisitions which formed the scientific basis and original business foundation of OmniAb. Previously, Mr. Pettingill was a member of the Mergers and Acquisitions investment banking group at Deutsche Bank. Prior to Deutsche Bank, he began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he provided accounting advisory and valuation services to the Biotechnology and Venture Capital industries. Mr. Pettingill holds an MBA in Finance from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a BS in Accounting from Brigham Young University. Mr. Pettingill holds the CFA designation.

Chris Silvia, PhD

Vice President, Data Sciences and Corporate IT

Chris Silvia is Vice President, Data Sciences and Corporate IT, and has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He is responsible for all IT and business technology activities at OmniAb. Dr. Silvia began his employment with Icagen, Inc. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, where he cloned and expressed ion channels and holds several patents related to ion channel molecular biology. Over the course of his career, Dr. Silvia has had increasing levels of responsibility in the information technology and informatics areas, including during Icagen, Inc.’s tenure as part of Pfizer, where he managed global rollout of data management tools. Dr. Silvia received a Doctorate in Pharmacology from Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island and completed postdoctoral training at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Duke University.

Eric Vajda, PhD

Vice President, Preclinical R&D

Eric Vajda is Vice President, Preclinical Research and Development at OmniAb. Dr. Vajda has more than 20 years of biopharma experience in pharmacology and preclinical development. Prior to OmniAb, Dr. Vajda was VP of Preclinical R&D at Ligand Pharmaceuticals. From 2002-2022, Dr. Vajda had leadership roles in multiple research projects at Ligand including the Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator (SARM) program, Interleukin-1 Receptor Associated Kinase 4 (IRAK4) program, and Glucagon Receptor Antagonist program. Prior to Ligand, Dr. Vajda was a Sr. Research Scientist at Bayer Corporation in the osteoporosis and cancer research. Dr. Vajda has served as a reviewer for multiple scientific journals and has authored more than 50 scientific publications and presentations. Dr. Vajda earned a BS from Yale University and PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Utah, and also held a research fellowship position at the Klinik Wilhelm Schulthess in Zürich, Switzerland and completed postdoctoral research in the Division of Radiobiology at the University of Utah.

Marie-Cecile van de Lavoir, DVM, PhD

Sr. Vice President, Technical Operations and Genetics

Marie-Cecile van de Lavoir is Senior Vice President of Technical Operations and Genetics at OmniAb. Dr. van de Lavoir joined the OmniAb team in 2017 following the acquisition of Crystal Bioscience, where she was co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer. Starting as a staff veterinarian, Dr. van de Lavoir’s career and research has focused on animal reproduction and she has been at the forefront of many new reproductive technologies in mammals and birds. Dr. van de Lavoir established the cell-based system that allowed the creation of transgenic chickens and she is considered a global authority on avian primordial germ cells (PGCs). For over a decade, she has been involved in efforts to use the PGC technology for endangered species conservation. She has authored many scientific publications and holds numerous U.S. patents. She was a Fulbright scholar and MRC fellow (Canada). Dr. van de Lavoir holds a DVM from the University of Utrecht and a PhD. in animal reproductive physiology from the University of Guelph, Canada.

Donna Ventura, CPA

Sr. Vice President, Corporate Controller

Donna Ventura has served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Controller of OmniAb since June of 2022. Previously, Ms. Ventura was with Arena Pharmaceuticals as VP and Corporate Controller where she led the accounting staff and implemented several process improvements supporting growth for Arena. Ms. Ventura’s extensive finance experience includes overseeing the accounting function for the City of Oxnard, and over 19 years with Amgen in a variety of senior management roles in FP&A, Tax, Project Management and Corporate Strategy functions. Ms. Ventura began her career with KPMG and holds a CPA license in California. She earned an MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA, and a BA in Accounting from Pace University.