Leadership Team
Executive Leaders
Darren Head
Chairman & President
Darren Head
Darren Head is Chairman & President of Bionova Scientific. He also served as Chairman of Bionova’s Board of Directors from 2019 until the company was acquired by Asahi Kasei in 2022. Darren also serves as CEO of Cellipont Bioservices, a cell therapy CDMO based in the San Diego area.
Prior to joining Bionova, Darren was CEO of MaSTherCell, a global CDMO specializing in cell and gene therapy products. He steered MaSTherCell through a period of rapid growth leading to its acquisition by Catalent in 2020.
Prior to MaSTherCell, Darren spent nearly 10 years as President and CEO at Cytovance Biologics, which he successfully built into a premier biologics CDMO, culminating in its acquisition by Hepalink USA in 2015.
Darren joined Cytovance after nearly 20 years of biologics operations leadership experience. At Immucor, he served as vice-president of worldwide operations, overseeing the manufacturing of biological products in the US, Europe, and Canada. Darren also served as operations manager and project manager for companies such as Aronex Pharmaceuticals (The Woodlands, TX), Allergan Optical (Waco, TX), and Abbott Laboratories (Rocky Mount, NC).
Mr. Head holds a B.S. in biology and attended the executive M.B.A. program at Texas A&M. Additionally, he served in the United States Air Force during Operation Desert Storm.
James Glover, II
Chief Operating Officer
James Glover, II
James Glover, II is Chief Operating Officer of Bionova Scientific.
Prior to joining Bionova, James was Executive Vice President of Manufacturing at Athersys, a clinical-stage biotechnology company. James provided strategic direction for the company’s manufacturing operations, leading all Phase III and commercial manufacturing activities.
Prior to Athersys, James led manufacturing operations in leadership roles at Emergent BioSolutions, Pharmaceutics International, Inc. (Pii) and Dynavax Technologies. James began his career in manufacturing operations as a front-line operator before moving into operations management roles at Bayer and Novartis.
James has led teams covering technical, quality and operational support functions for multiple therapeutic modalities, including vaccines, cell therapies, small molecules and biologics. Throughout his career, James has used his extensive operations experience to steer his teams to higher levels of productivity and quality.
James holds a B.S. in biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He also attended the Senior Business Management Program at Notre Dame and the PMP Certification Program at Boston University.
Jesse McCool, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Jesse McCool, Ph.D.
Jesse McCool, Ph.D. is Chief Scientific Officer at Bionova Scientific.
Prior to joining Bionova, Jesse was the founder of Wheeler Bio, a niche biologics CDMO in Oklahoma City, OK. At Wheeler, Jesse served as the company’s founding CEO and later as CSO. His roles there included leadership of Process Development, Manufacturing Sciences and Technology (MST), Manufacturing Operations, Facilities & Engineering, and Supply Chain including Warehouse. He was also instrumental in Wheeler’s customer relations, business development and technology alliance efforts.
Jesse also served as CEO and CTO at Cytovance Biologics, where he led R&D Services and built a team focused on solving difficult customer technical problems. He led the expansion of Cytovance’s microbial process development labs, including a pilot laboratory, pDNA, and additional analytical capabilities including mass spectrometry. Jesse also played a central role in Cytovance’s strategic planning and market intelligence.
Earlier in his career, Jesse held scientific roles with Lonza, including Director, Process Development and Associate Director, Purification Development.
Dr. McCool is the author of several peer-reviewed technical articles and papers, as well as many conference presentations and editorial pieces.
He earned his Ph.D. (Microbiology) and B.Sc. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and completed postdoctoral work at Dartmouth College (Thayer School of Engineering, Tillman U. Gerngross Laboratory).
Rodney Fuhriman
Chief Financial Officer
Rod Fuhriman
Rod Fuhriman is Chief Financial Officer of Bionova Scientific.
Prior to joining Bionova, Rod spent 14+ years at FibroGen (a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company), where his most recent role was Vice President of Finance & Accounting. At FibroGen, Rod was involved in nearly all aspects of the company’s financial operations, including serving as the lead point person for audit and compliance matters and external liaison with legal and banking teams leading up to and during the company’s IPO.
Prior to FibroGen, Rod served in finance leadership roles at several life sciences and technology companies, including Sunrise Telecom, Epiphany, and Symphonix Devices.
Rod earned his B.S. in Accounting from Brigham Young University and his M.B.A. from Purdue University. He is a Certified Public Accountant in California.
Michelle Chen
Senior Vice President
PD Mammalian & Plasmid and Plasmid Manufacturing
Michelle Chen
Michelle Chen is Senior Vice President, PD Mammalian & Plasmid and Plasmid Manufacturing at Bionova Scientific.
Prior to joining Bionova, Michelle was Senior Director of Manufacturing at PACT Pharma, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company where she led the company’s plasmid and cell therapy manufacturing operations.
Prior to PACT Pharma, Michelle led teams across multiple operational areas in roles at Sutro Biopharma and Genentech. Michelle began her career as an MSAT engineer at Genentech, eventually moving into roles of increasing responsibility in manufacturing and quality assurance. Michelle has a strong track record of leading transformational change in biopharmaceutical operations.
While at Genentech, Michelle led or was a member of multiple Key Teams, including the Bispecific Technical Development Team and Steering Committee, CAPA Improvement Team, Production Services Leadership Team and TRACK (Teamwork, Recognition, Awareness, Communication, Knowledge) Team. At Sutro Biopharma, she led the manufacturing department, successfully transitioning seven products from development to GMP. In every role she has held, Michelle has significantly increased efficiencies and productivity through thoughtful collaboration with her teams.
Michelle holds a B.S. in Chemical & Biochemical Engineering from the University of California at Davis and a Master of Biotechnology from San Jose State University.
Carolina Valoyes
Senior Vice President
Quality and Compliance
Carolina Valoyes
Carolina Valoyes is Senior Vice President of Quality and Compliance at Bionova Scientific.
Carolina is an accomplished international leader with over 20 years of experience in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and diagnostics operations. She has held various leadership roles and has a proven track record of success in managing manufacturing and quality teams in both clinical and commercial settings. Prior to joining Bionova, Carolina served as the Head of Global Quality Systems at Boehringer Ingelheim (Germany), where she was responsible for defining and deploying Boehringer Ingelheim’s Quality Management Systems strategy. Previously, she held leadership positions in Quality and Manufacturing organizations at Gilead, Novartis, Amgen and Bayer, where she played pivotal roles developing teams and ensuring compliance and quality in end-to-end operations.
Carolina holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia and a master’s degree in industrial and systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Hung Huynh
Vice President
Manufacturing
Hung Huynh
Hung Huynh is Vice President of Manufacturing at Bionova Scientific.
Hung joined Bionova Scientific in 2015 as Director of Operations and was instrumental in building our Research and Process Development teams.
Prior to joining Bionova, Hung was Manufacturing Supervisor at Boehringer Ingelheim where he managed a GMP Upstream Manufacturing team and performed more than 10 successful GMP campaigns. He previously held several roles at Amgen, primarily in upstream process development. His work included equipment and process validation for commercialization of Vectibix® and he executed the PC studies and QbD studies for filings.
At Amgen, he was also involved in GMP facility design and led facility fit analysis for upstream tech transfer projects including 15 kL scale GMP production campaigns. He also worked on upstream process development at lab scale in 3L bioreactors and Pilot plant up to 100L tech transfers, and supported troubleshooting on GMP runs including Panitumumab (Vectibix®), Etanercept (Enbrel®), and Denosumab (Prolia®). Hung started his career in cell line development and research material generation projects at Abgenix.
Hung earned his B.S. in Biology at UCLA.
Sandhya Khurana
Vice President
Program Management
Sandhya Khurana
Sandhya Khurana is Vice President, Program Management at Bionova Scientific.
Sandhya has 25 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry experience at companies including LifeScan (a J&J company), Abgenix, Amgen, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Abbvie-Stemcentrx, Dermira, Omniox, and most recently at Revance Therapeutics. Sandhya’s responsibilities have included program management, regulatory submissions (IND to BLA), PAI readiness, Quality Systems, product launch, portfolio management, budget oversight, and merger/acquisition/integration activities. In addition, she has managed relationships with customers, CDMOs, corporate alliances, and strategic partnerships.
Sandhya earned her B. A. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and M.B.A. from Santa Clara University. She is also a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and board member of the East Bay Chapter of the Association for Women in Science.
Brad Larson
Vice President
Corporate Planning/Strategy
Brad Larson
Brad Larson is Vice President of Corporate Planning/Strategy at Bionova Scientific.
Prior to joining Bionova, Brad spent over six years with Samsung Biologics in Incheon, South Korea. During his tenure with Samsung, Brad held leadership roles in project management, sales and business development, leading cross-functional teams, building tools/systems and consulting directly with clients from kick-off to commercial production. At Samsung, Brad successfully reduced average project timelines by 75% and improved customer satisfaction. He also instituted and led routine deviation review boards to improve deviation management and quality. He advised and guided clients and internal departments in preparation for first Pre-Approval Inspections (PAI) and follow-up regulatory inspections and responses. Brad has regularly interacted with all major global regulatory agencies throughout his career in both the US and South Korea.
Before joining Samsung Biologics, Brad spent 22+ years with Jubilant HollisterStier (formerly Bayer Corporation then Hollister-Stier) a global CDMO. At Jubilant HollisterStier, Brad held senior leadership roles of increasing responsibilities in Manufacturing, Logistics and Project Management. He was responsible for building or leading teams, departments, and aseptic manufacturing facilities to support Jubilant’s North American Aseptic Manufacturing and Operations.
Brad earned his B.S. in Botany at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.
Douglas Mogensen
Vice President
Business Development
Douglas Mogensen
Douglas Mogensen is Vice President of Business Development at Bionova Scientific where he leads the company’s business development, marketing and partnering efforts.
Prior to joining Bionova’s Business Development team, Douglas held several senior business development and commercial operations roles at Catalent Biologics, Inc. with a focus on biologics development and manufacturing, nucleic acid therapeutics and biologics analytical services.
Most recently, he was Senior Director, Strategic Commercial Operations (US) with responsibility for developing and driving commercial strategy for Biologics Analytical Services across multiple Catalent sites, which included protein therapeutics and emerging modalities. He was also Senior Director and Head of Business and Commercial Development for Nucleic Acid Therapeutics and Director for Biologics Development and Manufacturing.
Prior to joining Catalent in 2014, Douglas held scientific and technical positions at Hologic, Inc., PPD (part of Thermo Fisher Scientific) and Pentair.
Douglas holds his B.A. in Biochemistry from Lakeland University (Sheboygan, WI) and his M.S. in Biotechnology from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (Madison, WI). Douglas is based in Boston, MA.
Ruben Omega
Vice President
Supply Chain
Ruben Omega
Ruben Omega is Vice President of Supply Chain at Bionova Scientific, where he leads the Procurement, Planning and Warehouse teams.
Prior to joining Bionova, Ruben was Director of Planning at the Center for Breakthrough Medicines, where he led planning for Cell Therapy, Viral Vector, and Plasmid products. He was also responsible for Master Data Management. Previously, Ruben spent 16 years at Bayer supporting their biotech Operational Excellence program as a Master Black Belt, and later as a Project Manager & Supply Manager for the Pharmaceutical division supply chain, including a 1-year assignment in Berlin focused on small molecules. He started his Biotech career at Baxter, where he did assay development and downstream process development for monoclonal antibodies.
Ruben graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. He is a Certified Supply Chain Professional (from APICS) and a Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt (from BMGI, now Lean Methods Group).
George Scott
Vice President
Facilities & Engineering
George Scott
George Scott is Vice President of Facilities and Engineering at Bionova Scientific.
George has worked in the biopharmaceutical and cell therapy manufacturing industry for 25 years with significant leadership roles in facilities, plant engineering, qualification, automation, capital projects, and technical compliance at Bayer, Abgenix, Amgen, Boehringer-Ingelheim and Allogene. George’s experience includes bringing manufacturing plants from greenfield construction, through PAI and commercial launch.
George earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Biochemistry from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, a Master’s in Engineering and an MBA from San Jose State University
Functional Leaders
Li Zhang
Senior Director
Analytical Science and Formulation Development
Li Zhang
Li Zhang is Senior Director of Analytical Science and Formulation Development at Bionova Scientific.
Li has over 25 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry experience at companies including Cell Genesis, Abgenix, Amgen, Biehringer-Ingelheim, LakePharma, Anthera, and Coherus. Li has worked in research, Process Development and QC with extensive experience in CMC analytical activities, including analytical method development, transferring, qualification and validation for in-process, release and stability testing for DS, DP and final product, reference standard generation and qualification, specification setting, comparability, and characterization for therapeutic protein drugs. Prior to joining Bionova Scientific, Li was QC product lead for an approved therapeutic drug submission in 2021 at Coherus Biosciences.
Li earned her M.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University of California, San Diego and her B.S. in Chemistry from Lanzhou University, China.
Youjin Kim
Senior Director
Manufacturing, US & DS
Youjin Kim
Youjin Kim is Director of Downstream Process Development at Bionova Scientific.
Prior to joining Bionova, Youjin was in the engineering group at Samsung Biologics where she sup-ported the overall facility design of a new 12X15KL bioreactor facility and led overall procurement, design, construction and validation activities to implement 30 stainless steel bioreactors and 9 ATF systems.
She also led group efforts to qualify single use vendors by performing technical audits. Before Sam-sung, Youjin led various upstream process development projects at Boehringer Ingelheim, including scale-up/scale-down studies from 2L to 12KL and equipment modifications to accommodate different operation modes for bioreactors.
Youjin started her career in MedImmune’s manufacturing team, where she supported tech transfer of an egg-based influenza vaccines process into a new facility and was extensively trained in cGMP practices. At Medimmune, she also worked on upstream project development, including media de-velopment, optimization of chemostat and fed batch processes and scale-up experiments.
Youjin earned her M.S. Chemical Engineering at San Jose State University, her B.S. in Chemical En-gineering with a Minor in Chemistry and Music at the University of California Berkeley.
Minni Aswath
Senior Director
Process Development
Minni Aswath
Minni Aswath is Senior Director of Process Development at Bionova Scientific.
Prior to joining Bionova, Minni spent several years at Boehringer Ingelheim in various technical leadership roles, including protein purification, process validation, process development and technology transfer. In her most recent role there, Minni led a team of scientists engaged in downstream process development, NPI and manufacturing support, process characterization (PCS), small scale validation studies, and regulatory filings (IND and BLA). She was responsible for 10 late stage and commercial programs as the interim head of Process Validation.
Minni was also a key member of CMC teams providing technical leadership, accountable for coordination with teams within the Process Science department as well as other departments in the organization. She led successful technical transfer, NPI, and process characterization/ validation activities for several major CMB, biosimilars, and novel monoclonal antibodies in clinical and commercial phases.
Before Boehringer Ingelheim, Minni held scientific roles at Merck Research Labs, Perseid Therapeutics and Maxygen, Inc.
Minni earned her M.S. in Microbiology and Molecular Biology at San Jose State University and her B.S. in Microbiology at The Ohio State University.
Lillian Jiang, M.D.
Director
Project Management
Lillian Jiang, M.D.
Lillian Jiang, M.D. is Director of Project Management at Bionova Scientific where her responsibilities include managing client projects in research material generation, commercial cell line development, upstream and downstream process development, and tech transfer.
Prior to joining Bionova, Lillian gained laboratory and industrial experiences as a scientist at Applied Viromics. She enrolled in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at University of Toronto where she studied mechanism of action of pharmaceuticals, experimental design and data analysis for clinical trials. She participated in Dr. Roger S. McIntyre’s (co-chair of Canadian Network of Mood and Anxiety Treatment Task Force) research team on characterizing association between mood disorders, cognitive function and medical comorbidity.
Lillian received her medical degree in clinical medicine from Harbin Medical University at Harbin, China and was a clinical physician in cardiology. She earned her B.S. with Distinction in the Pharmacology and Toxicology Specialist Program at the University of Toronto, St. George Campus.
Melissa Lucero-Nguyen
Director
MSAT
Melissa Lucero-Nguyen
Melissa Lucero-Nguyen is Director of Upstream and Lab Services at Bionova Scientific.
Since 2017, Melissa has managed the Upstream and Laboratory Services Groups at Bionova Scientific and served as interim Cell Line Development Manager. She was instrumental in establishing Bionova’s single-use platform and our best-in-class in-house perfusion operations platform. She is also an integral part of the team supporting GMP facility buildout.
Prior to joining Bionova, Melissa was a Senior Engineer at Boehringer Ingelheim where she worked in the worked in Process Science Cell Culture, Clinical Supply and Upstream MSAT groups. She worked on tech transfers, GMP troubleshooting and made significant contributions to the establishment of a single-use platform at BI Fremont. As a member of a global team, Melissa helped harmonize operational practices across 3 sites and collaborated on implementing new technology. Melissa led operational teams in the planning and execution of new product introduction (NPI) and clinical manufacturing tasks; as well as owning and managing change controls and deviation investigations. She was a member of the Inspection Readiness Team and participated in client audits as well as PAI readiness audits. Melissa also worked cross-functionally on facility design and estimating CAPEX, OPEX and plant capacity. She served as project manager to onboard and validate equipment for the disposable manufacturing facility.
Melissa also held prior positions at Eli Lilly and Biogen, where her work included media optimization studies, process simplification, stability studies, scale down modeling, and the investigation of perfusion technology in various cell culture stages. Melissa also led a small team of scientists working on various development projects.
Melissa earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.
Ashi Sisodiya
Director
Human Resources
Ashi Sisodiya
Ashi Sisodiya is a strategic and people-focused HR leader with nearly two decades of experience driving talent strategy, organizational development, and culture transformation within the life sciences and biotech sectors. Currently serving as Director of Human Resources at Bionova Scientific, Ashi partners closely with senior leadership to align people practices with business goals, foster a high-performance culture, and support employee engagement and growth.
Throughout her career, Ashi has worked with dynamic biotech organizations including the Stanford facility supporting Owens & Minor, Avellino Labs, and now Bionova Scientific. Known for her expertise in startup environments, Ashi has successfully built HR functions from the ground up, enabling companies to scale and grow exponentially.
Ashi holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology and an MBA in Human Resources from DAVV University, India. She is a Certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and has completed advanced training in Leadership and Business Communication from UC Berkeley.
Deeply passionate about meaningful work and continuous learning, Ashi brings a balanced approach of strategic insight and hands-on execution to everything she does—from talent acquisition and workforce planning to employee relations and leadership coaching.
When she’s not immersed in HR strategy, you’ll find her reading books, running long-distance tracks, exploring the outdoors, or connecting with like-minded professionals who are shaping the future of work.
Scientific Advisory Board
Amy Kong
Co-Founder & Scientific Advisor
Amy Kong
Amy Kong is Co-Founder of Bionova Scientific, where she led the company through rapid growth and expansion from its early days as a start-up CRO to its current state as a full-service CDMO. She now serves as a Scientific Advisor to the company.
Prior to co-founding Bionova in 2014, Amy held several scientific roles at leading biopharmaceutical firms including Boehringer Ingelheim, Amgen and Abgenix. At Boehringer Ingelheim, Inc. and Amgen, Amy spent several years as a Senior Research Scientist where her responsibilities included managing the Upstream Process Development group, leading media development activities, process development and process characterization (including characterizing the production bioreactor unit operation for a commercial process), process transfer and process improvements. In these roles, Amy prepared cell culture filings for the FDA QbD pilot program. She also evaluated the impact of critical raw materials on the productivity and product quality for a commercial process, resulting in 30% improvement in titer and improved process consistency.
In a prior role at Abgenix, Amy specialized in commercial cell line development and vector performance improvement. She successfully developed high producing cell lines for production and an IND filing using a DHFR-amplified system and also worked intensively with several CHO host cell lines, including CHO-DG44, DUXB-11, and CHO-K1. At Abgenix, Amy also developed protein expression vectors and evaluated them through small scale cell culture. She successfully improved vector performance by optimizing the promoter, introns and other vector enhancing elements.
She started her career as a molecular biologist at Scios, Inc., where she focused on vector constructs, gene expression and cloning.
Amy has published several peer-reviewed scientific articles and is the inventor of record for a U.S. patent involving mediators of signal transduction.
Amy earned her M.S. in Chemistry at the University of Minnesota and her B.S. in Biology at Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Chung Chun
Co-Founder & Scientific Advisor
Chung Chun
Chung Chun is Co-Founder of Bionova Scientific and now serves as a Scientific Advisor to the company.
Prior to co-founding Bionova in 2014, Chung spent nearly 20 years in the biopharmaceutical industry, establishing an impressive track-record of delivering technical results and achieving business goals. Much of her pre-Bionova career was at Abgenix, Amgen and Boehringer Ingelheim.
Most recently, Chung was a Senior Manager at Boehringer Ingelheim overseeing process development, tech transfer, and GMP campaigns for BI’s CDMO operations.
During her prior tenure at Abgenix (and later as part of Amgen), she was instrumental in the development and production of Vectibix®. For 10 years, she shepherded the product from the R&D stage, through IND and BLA filings, and into commercial GMP production.
Chung’s technical experience and expertise focuses on clinical and commercial upstream process development, process characterization; cGMP facility design and buildout including stainless steel and single-use technologies; manufacturing operations including Tox, Phase I, II, III and commercial; clinical and regulatory affairs including IND & BLA filings; and commercial product audits including FDA, EMEA, KFDA, ANVISA, PMDA & CFIA.
Chung earned her B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley.
