Leadership

Leadership Team

Our leadership team is comprised of imaging scientists, clinical researchers, and healthcare industry veterans who are dedicated to making MMI a world-class leader in clinical image analysis. We understand the type of team that it takes to design and successfully execute a high-quality imaging study, and are committed to providing an “A+” team to every one of our clients.

Dr. Ruby Yanru Chen-Tsai

Ph.D., CEO, Founder, and President

Timothy J. Largen

Chief Operating Officer

Tammy Cameron

Chief Financial Officer

Dr. Alfonso Farruggio

Ph.D, Head of Research and Development

Dr. Cassandra Myers

Ph.D, Director, Sales and Business Development

Dr. Simon Wu

Ph.D, Director, Project Management and Technical Operation

Board Members

Dr. Ruby Yanru Chen-Tsai

Ph.D., CEO, Founder, and President

Matt Jenkins

Board Member

Jeff Edwards

Board Member

Frank Leo

Board Member

Vern Davenport

Board Member

Heidi Hagen

Chairman of the Board

Dr. Chen-Tsai received her Ph.D. from Cornell University and subsequently worked at Stanford University for 16 years as the Director of the Transgenic Research Center and the Associate Director of the Stanford Cancer Institute. Her research focused on Parkinson patient-specific iPS cell lines and their differentiation to dopaminergic neurons as a disease model-in-a-dish. Prior to becoming the CEO of Applied StemCell, Dr. Chen-Tsai led the ASC Therapeutics’ gene/cell therapeutic pipeline. She is a co-inventor of the TARGATT™ integrase technology for site-specific gene insertion.

Timothy J. Largen steps in as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at ASC. With a 25-year career marked by significant contributions to Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs), Tim’s experience spans GMP manufacturing, quality management, process engineering, business operations, and CMC regulatory affairs. Prior to joining Applied StemCell, Tim held key positions, including VP of Commercial Manufacturing at Aurion Biotech, VP of Manufacturing Science and Technology (MSAT) at RoslinCT (formerly Lykan), VP of Corporate Quality at Caladrius Biosciences (now Lisata), and over 8 years in commercial manufacturing and quality positions at Dendreon. Tim has held key management positions through many successful FDA pre-approval and routine inspections. Tim holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology and an MBA in Operations Management Sciences.

Tammy Cameron has over 20 years of experience developing and leading accounting and finance organizations in commercial, high-growth life science companies. Prior to joining ASC, Tammy served as CFO and VP Finance for companies such as Ceek Women’s Health, Intuity Medical Inc., Labcyte Inc., and Depomed. During her tenure at these organizations, she supported both private equity and debt financings and played a key role in building the internal infrastructure for commercial operations. Tammy received a B.S. in Accounting from California State University, East Bay, and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).

Dr. Myers received her PhD from the University of Georgia in genetics and has over 5 years of experience in the realm of scientific sales relating to gene editing services. She specializes in ASC’s iPSC technologies, CRISPR gene editing, and our new TARGATT™ integrase technology for site-specific gene insertion, as well as custom genetically modified animal models. She currently leads Applied StemCell’s global sales team. Her skilled and knowledgeable sales team shares her focus on building strong international client relationships and providing optimal custom solutions.

Dr. Wu received his Ph.D. from Duke University in biology and has over 20 years of graduate level scientific research experience. He worked as a research scientist at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and has experience with genome editing technologies such as TALEN and CRISPR. Before joining ASC, Dr. Wu was a Senior Research Scientist at the pharmaceutical research firm Abbvie. At ASC he has embarked on a new journey to support management and lead projects to completion, and lead the technical operation team.

Matt Jenkins is a Partner at QHP Capital. Prior to joining QHP Capital, Mr. Jenkins established and led the private equity investment portfolio at RTI International where he focused on precision medicine, clinical research, real world evidence, genomics, population healthcare, and consumer-oriented diagnostics. Prior to that, he held various Corporate Development leadership roles in companies such as M*Modal and AllScripts. He also was a co-founder of Cellective Therapeutics, a venture investor, and a consultant at Ernst & Young.

Jeff Edwards is a Partner at QHP Capital. Prior to joining QHP Capital, Mr. Edwards co-managed the Principal Investment Private Equity program at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Mr. Edwards’ previous experience also includes M&A advisory work for Raymond James Capital Markets focusing on middle-market companies. Mr. Edwards also worked as a consultant for State Street Global Advisors. Before moving back to the Capital Markets sector, Mr. Edwards worked in finance and administrative roles in the healthcare industry with Carolinas HealthCare Systems and HCA, Inc. He started his career with the middle market investment bank RW Baird.

Frank Leo is a 40-year veteran of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries having experience with publicly traded, private equity-backed, and start-up companies in the capacity of executive, investor, and advisor. Mr. Leo served as President and Group President of Sterile Technologies and Life Sciences at Cardinal Health. At Cardinal Health he oversaw the growth of the biotechnology and life sciences group, which was later spun out to form Catalent Inc. Mr. Leo is a serial entrepreneur, having been involved in business value creation and start-ups in the medical device, sterile drug, biotechnology, and healthcare technology spaces.

Vern Davenport is a Partner at QHP Capital. Before joining QHP Capital, Mr. Davenport was multi-time CEO, with executive and Board positions at Medfusion, CEO of Medquist (rebranded to M*Modal), Allscripts, Misys Healthcare, Kodak Health Group (now Carestream Health), Siemens, and Shared Medical Systems. Mr. Davenport started his career at IBM where he spent 11 years in sales, sales leadership, and executive management positions.

Ms. Heidi Hagen has extensive experience in operations management and commercializing innovative technologies for the last 30 years. Ms. Hagen’s roles have included the Chief Technology Officer of Sonoma Biotherapeutics, Interim CEO of Ziopharm Oncology, Co-Founder & CSO of Vineti, CCO of ZappRx, and numerous Board positions at therapeutics and service companies. Ms. Hagen spent ten years at both Dendreon and Immunex, holding senior operations roles at both companies.