Biosortia’s leadership team is equipped with the research and business experience necessary to accelerate its objective in becoming the premier, aquatic natural products company with a primary focus in drug discovery. Biosortia has attracted a strong management team, as well as experienced and diverse advisors, to lead its success.
Ross O. Youngs, Founder, and CEO – Ross has spent over 30 years inventing products, technologies, and processes for a variety of industries, and holds over 75 patents worldwide. He is driven to innovate by a focus on what is better, faster, and less expensive. Ross’ recent major innovations include an R&D 100 Award for collaboration on biopolymer technologies. In 2009, Biosortia was awarded a $6 million ARPA-E (U.S. Dept. of Energy R&D) grant for its algal harvesting technology, which helped lead to the development of Biosortia’s drug discovery platform.
In 1998, Ross was awarded the Ernst & Young Ohio Entrepreneur of the Year award. Additionally, the U.S. Small Business Administration honored him as their national “Business Person of the Year" in a presentation made by Vice President Al Gore.
Guy T. Carter, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer – Dr. Carter has over 30 years of experience working in Pharmaceutical R&D, primarily in the discovery and development of microbial products. In the course of his career in the pharmaceutical industry, he worked as a natural products discovery scientist and advanced through levels of scientific management to gain the overall leadership of the Natural Products Discovery function at Wyeth Research (later acquired by Pfizer), as well as directing other elements of the Chemical Technologies Department. Guy received a doctorate in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and then pursued marine natural products research on an NIH-sponsored post-doctoral fellowship with Kenneth Rinehart at the University of Illinois.
Haiyin He, Ph.D., VP of Research – Dr. He has more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical R&D, specializing in the discovery of drug leads from natural products and their semi-synthetic analogs in oncology, infectious disease, and other therapeutic areas. Haiyin worked as a Principal Scientist III and group leader at Wyeth Research. After the merger between Pfizer and Wyeth, he continued on to work at Pfizer World Wide Medicinal Chemistry as an associate research fellow in the area of antibody-drug conjugates for cancer chemotherapy. Haiyin received a Doctorate in marine natural products at Scripps Institution of Oceanography with John Faulkner, and then acquired a postdoctoral experience in the chemistry department of Cornell University with Jon Clardy.
David R. Coho, Vice President of Operations & Finance – David has over 20 years of innovation, technology development, and commercialization experience across a range of industries, primarily focused on technology and life sciences. He leads operations and finance teams with added responsibilities as Company Secretary and Treasurer. David contributes to the strategic direction and executive leadership of Biosortia.
In 2009, David was instrumental in Algaeventure Systems awarding and execution of a $6 million U.S. Dept. of Energy grant from its esteemed ARPA-E program. David received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Miami University.
Chad Hummell, Sr. Business Development, Launch and Project Manager – Chad has been with Biosortia since its founding in May 2012. During that time, he has demonstrated success in developing new B2B and academic partnerships and collaborations, winning over $8.2 million in grants and projects, and helping to create and commercialize product and technology innovations.
Before Biosortia, Chad helped lead product launches with Ross and his Univenture Companies, including UniKeep’s Enviro products, Algaeventure System’s SLS technology, and Biobent. Chad previously served in a director’s role for government and non-profit programs through the Ohio EMTEC/PTAC (Procurement Technical Assistance Center) in Dayton, where he helped businesses get introduced to the government and learn how to sell their products and services.
Chad began his career in management, sales, and company building inside the machining, printing, and agriculture industries for the Harrah and Reynolds companies in Huntington, WV. Chad received his Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics/Management from Ohio Northern University.