Alan K. Smith, Ph.D. is President & Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Smith joined Cognate BioServices in 2002. He also currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Chata Biosystems of Fort Collins, CO. Dr. Smith has over 20 years of combined experience in the biotechnology industry with the vast majority of that time spent in the cellular therapeutics area. Prior to joining Cognate, Dr. Smith served as Chief Operating Officer at Osiris Therapeutics where he held responsibilities for manufacturing, operations, facilities and research and development and also played a key role in devising clinical and regulatory strategies for the Company. From 1995 through 2000, Dr. Smith served as Vice President of Research, at Aastrom Biosciences, Inc., where he was responsible for development of processes for ex vivo expansion of bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, T-cells, dendritic cells and other cell types for therapeutic use Prior to that, Dr. Smith served as Vice President for Geneic Sciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. During his tenure with Titan Dr. Smith led development of cell therapy processes to effect recipient tolerization to solid organ and allogenic bone marrow transplants and implantation of cells for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. From 1988 through 1994, Dr. Smith was at Baxter Healthcare Corporation, where he served as Director of Cell Separation Research and Development, Immunotherapy Division. Prior to joining Baxter, Dr. Smith held various management positions at BioSpecific Technologies, Inc. and HyClone Laboratories. Dr. Smith received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Utah State University.
Aaron H. Heifetz, Ph.D. is currently Vice President Business Development joining Cognate in 2006. Aaron is responsible for general business development activities including sales of client services and customer support. Aaron has worked in increasingly responsible positions as an operating executive in biotechnology and health care companies. He has twenty years of industrial management experience in aggressive, creative environments within biomedical/biotechnology businesses with process and product development, manufacturing, and commercialization responsibilities. Before joining Cognate, Aaron was an associate at Toucan Capital serving in a variety of assignments. Previously, Aaron was Vice President, General Manager & Site Director of Cambrex Bio Science Baltimore, a contract developer and manufacturer of biologics and vaccines. At Cambrex, Dr. Heifetz was responsible for all technical and administrative functions, including Production, Quality, Business Development and Process Development. Under his guidance, several biological and vaccine products were developed, manufactured, and approved for clinical trials and commercial use. Aaron joined Cambrex in 1995 after ten years with W.R. Grace & Co.-Conn. At Grace, his product development and industrial research experience includes biotechnology and biomedical product development in the areas of gene transfer and expression, medical devices and specialty drug delivery. He was extensively involved in technology transfer to international cGMP manufacturing facilities, clinical study design and monitoring, and development of commercialization strategies. Aaron received a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences (Biochemistry) from The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Aaron received his BA at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Kevin R. McIntosh, Ph.D. is the Director of Research at Cognate BioServices (Baltimore, MD) where he coordinates the Immunology, Molecular Biology, and Preclinical groups to achieve company goals in the field of cellular therapeutics. Dr. McIntosh has more than 30 years experience as a cellular immunologist, with 10 years experience in the field of stem cell immunology. Prior to joining Cognate, Dr. McIntosh was Associate Director of Immunology at Osiris Therapeutics (1996-2002) and served on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (1981-1996). He performed his postdoctoral training at Georgetown University (1979-1981) and received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois (1979). At Cognate, Dr. McIntosh works with academic as well as industrial partners to determine efficacy of cellular therapies in preclinical animal disease models and in cell culture model systems. He has developed assays to assess stem cell immunogenicity as well as assays for immune monitoring of animals that have received allogeneic stem cell transplants. Dr. McIntosh’s main area of interest is stem cell regulation of immune responses and how this can be used to suppress transplantation responses to enhance allograft survival.
Mike Stella is Vice President and General Manager, Cognate-Memphis, joining Cognate in 2007. He also currently serves as General Manager for TC CEF the Joint Venture between TiGenix and Cognate in Memphis, TN. Mr. Stella has Over 16 years of Manufacturing and Operations experience in the biotech industry. Prior to joining Cognate, Mr. Stella served as Director of Operations at Cell Genesys, Inc where he held responsibilities for Manufacturing, Facilities, Environmental Health and Safety and Clinical Distribution for their Memphis, TN facility. Before joining Cell Genesys, Mr. Stella served as regional Manager for the Interstate Companies which was focused on the procurement and utilization of blood and blood components in therapeutic and diagnostic products.