Our team

Mr. Daum is a serial entrepreneur in healthcare (diagnostics, medical devices, and health services). He has been President/CEO of several companies, including Castlewood Surgical (heart bypass surgery), Boston Heart Lab (heart diagnostic / Lipidology), BrainVital (epilepsy), Thermonix (in-stent restenosis), CardioTools (angiography), and Daum (MRI). Wolfgang relocated with a company acquisition from Germany to the US in 2001. He holds a M.S. in Physics from Univerity of Gӧttingen and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Technical University Hamburg-Harburg. He is a Board member of Avancen and PX Spine and an active angel investor with Beacon and Launchpad Angels in Boston and Keiretsu in San Francisco.

Jorge Conde has spent his entire professional career in the biotechnology industry, working in finance, business development, marketing and operations. Prior to Knome, Mr. Conde worked in strategic marketing and operations at MedImmune, Inc. He has also worked in business development at Helicos Biosciences Corporation, a DNA sequencing company, and in the life sciences group at Flagship Ventures, a venture capital firm. Previously, Mr. Conde was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley & Co., specializing in the biotechnology and genomics industries. Mr. Conde has been named one of the top 35 innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review and is an Overseer at the Boston Museum of Science. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from The Johns Hopkins University

Jim has over 30 years of experience in planning, creating, and maintaining sophisticated large-scale software information systems. He’s led teams that built Big Data applications in financial services, telecommunications, and most recently in human genome analysis and interpretation, turning huge volumes of data into actionable information. Jim has spoken at numerous conferences about practical approaches to large-scale computing problems and Big Data. He’s applied his experience in a wide variety of industries – including human genome analysis and interpretation, financial services, telecommunications, retail, oil and gas, manufacturing, and consumer products, and government – to develop innovative solutions, grounded in reality, yet still well-positioned for change as new technologies and new possibilities emerge. Jim joined Knome as CTO in 2009.

Mr. Lee has served as senior executive in several entrepreneurial ventures that pioneered new markets and technologies. As co-founder and general manager of Integrated Computing Engines, starting with a technology license from MIT, he brought to market a special effects supercomputer that generated $16m in annual sales within two years of launch. As the founder of giftcertificates.com, he led the development of the product, marketing, and financing activities needed to generate $64m in annual sales within three years of launch. As co-founder of Redbrick Partners, an innovative real estate investment company, he helped build the firm to over $100m in assets under management within three years of launch. Most recently, he served as COO and CFO of Verus Financial, a rapidly growing, big data-enabled services provider to financial regulators, where he was a core member of the founding management team. Prior to his entrepreneurial activities, Mr. Lee served as a management consultant with Bain & Company. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Brandeis University.

Dr. McManus has over 25 years of scientific software experience in product management, software development, product marketing, and strategic alliances. Michael received his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Before Knome, Dr. McManus was the President & CEO of the Integromics group of companies. Prior to Integromics, he led GenomeQuest’s corporate marketing, strategic alliances, product management, and product development efforts and served as Vice President of Business Development for the BioSciences Group of Fujitsu Computer Systems. He also served as Executive VP and COO of AnVil Informatics, Inc. and Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at CambridgeSoft Corporation. Dr. McManus started his career as a senior scientist with Eastman Kodak. He is the holder of 3 US patents.

Ari has a 16 year track record of successful product launches and quota-exceeding sales engineering in life science, technology, and pharmaceutical companies. Prior to Knome, Mr. Kiirikki was Director of Pharmaceutical Sponsorship at CancerSource.com, where he secured significant site sponsorship from companies such as OrthoBiotech, Amgen, SKB, and Pharmacia—helping to build CancerSource into one of the Internet’s most successful commercial cancer information websites. Prior to CancerSource, Ari was responsible for Sales and Business Development at HyperSoft Information Systems and led European Sales and Channel Development for DYS Analytics. Earlier in his career Ari worked as a pharmaceutical sales executive at Novartis and Quintiles (NovaQuest). He is a graduate of Brandeis University and Suffolk University Law School.

Marc Rubenfield has more than 20 years of experience in genomics and genomic services. Prior to joining Knome, he was responsible for the sequencing services product line at Beckman Coulter Genomics, including the introduction of next-generation sequencing. Previously, he worked with Agencourt Biosciences, where he led many of the company’s largest sequencing and genomics projects, and with Genome Therapeutics Corporation (GTC), where he helped establish and build one of the first commercial DNA sequencing services. Earlier in his career, he was also involved in several pioneering genomic developments, including the early development and application of multiplex sequencing.

Dr. Locke obtained his PhD in Genetics from Case Western Reserve University in 2004 from Dr. Evan Eichler’s lab and received postdoctoral training at both the University of Washington and The Genome Institute at Washington University. He has a long history of working with cutting edge genomics technologies in both evolutionary and human medical genetics. Dr. Locke was leader of the Orangutan Genome Sequencing and Analysis Consortium and a coauthor of the first cancer genome sequence. He has coauthored over 20 publications in genetics and genomics.

Dr. Salisbury’s career has been spent in the personalized medicine and genomics industries. Prior to joining Knome, he served in various scientific and management roles at Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Clinical Data, and Transgenomic. His expertise spans several areas of genetic research and its clinical application, including molecular diagnostics, personalized medicine, population and statistical genetics, and software and algorithm development. Dr. Salisbury holds degrees in biology from Yale University and the University of Michigan.

Mr. Cohen has twenty-five years’ experience as a biotechnology and diagnostics industry corporate, transactional and intellectual property strategy lawyer, and bioethics and public policy advisor. Mr. Cohen has worked with pioneering life sciences companies, including leadership roles at Genetics Institute, Genzyme Transgenics, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Foundation Medicine and, beginning June 2012, at Knome. A lecturer at Boston University School of Law, Mr. Cohen formerly was the Joe and Viola Jacobs Visiting Professor of Biotechnology Law & Ethics at the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences in Claremont, California. Admitted to practice law in Massachusetts (1986) and California (2009), he is frequently invited to speak on business and bioethics topics to, and serve on working groups with, national and international organizations. Mr. Cohen has an AB from Washington University in St. Louis (1982); a JD from Columbia Law School (1986); and an MPH (in health law, bioethics and human rights) from Boston University School of Public Health (2006).

Mr. Subramaniam has founded eight successful IT companies, four of which completed IPOs. He has previously served as Chairman of I-Cube, C-bridge, Open Environment Corporation, Worldstreet Corporation, Integrated Computing Engines, and as Managing Director of Cambridge Samsung Partners. Sundar graduated from Brandeis University with a major in Computer Science and Economics. He has an MBA from MIT and an MS from HST (Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology).

Jean Deleforge is the Corporate Vice President of the Molecular Unit at bioMérieux, a world leading group specialized in the field of in vitro diagnostics for medical and industrial applications. Jean has worked at bioMérieux since 2000 and has successively held positions in Portfolio Management, Business Development and BioMarker Research. He is member of the Board of several Biotech companies involved in in vitro diagnostic or therapeutics. Before 2000, Jean spent fifteen years in drug, vaccines development and new technologies for the veterinary market. He held Senior Management positions in Preclinical & Clinical development and Project management at Vetoquinol and Merial. Jean is a Doctor in Veterinary Medicine from Maisons-Alfort and holds a Master of Strategic Management of Innovation from HEC- Polytechnique schools in Paris.