James Olson, M.D., Ph.D. – Founder & Chairman

Dr. Olson is a pediatric oncologist practicing at Seattle Children’s Hospital and an Associate Member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Dr. Olson's laboratory studies the gene expression programs controlling neural differentiation, brain tumor genesis, and neurodegenerative diseases. His team has conducted laboratory research that led to five national clinical trials for children with brain tumors. Dr. Olson trained at the University of Michigan School of Medicine and Department of Pharmacology.

Jim Towne – Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Towne brings a wealth of business expertise, having been the first outside President of Microsoft Corporation, and the CEO or President of several successful companies. He began his career at Tektronix, advancing to VP of a $600 Million division before moving on to Microsoft. He served in Army Military Intelligence in Asia in the 1960s. In addition, Mr. Towne was Founder of multiple companies that achieved successful exits in the medical and technology industries, including Metheus, Photon Kinetics, MCV and Osteo Sciences. He has also has served as a Board Member and, often, Audit Committee Chair for many major corporations and start-up companies. He is very active in community and charitable organizations, and has been active in the Boy Scouts for more than 60 years. He received his BA from Stanford University and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business Administration.

 

Nathan Caffo – President

Mr. Caffo is a life sciences professional whose seventeen-year industry career has been focused on personalized medicine and applications of genomic technology. Prior to joining Presage as its first full-time employee he consulted for a UK-based diagnostic company, Curidium Medica and led the efforts to identify an acquirer for that business. Mr. Caffo also led drug in-licensing at Perlegen Sciences, a genomic medicine spin-off of Affymetrix. Prior to that, he worked at Applied Biosystems (now Life Technologies), and its sister company Celera (now Quest Diagnostics) for 11 years in a number of technical and business roles including managing the company’s genomics service business. Mr. Caffo has a BS in Microbiology from the Pennsylvania State University.

 

Richard Klinghoffer, Ph.D. – VP of Research & Development

Dr. Klinghoffer is an experienced R&D team leader with 12 years post Ph.D. research experience. He was a Research Fellow at Merck and Co., Inc., since 2005 where he led a team of scientists focused on identifying and validating cancer targets and predictive biomarkers of potential novel chemotherapeutics for Merck's Oncology franchise. Dr. Klinghoffer earned his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his BS in Biology from Bucknell University.

 

Michael K. Jackson - VP of Finance & Administration

Mr. Jackson is a seasoned finance and accounting professional whose career has focused on early-stage high-tech and bio-tech companies. Prior to joining Presage, he served as Interim Chief Financial Officer of Poniard Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2010-2012. Mr. Jackson also served as a Finance Director and Controller of Poniard from 2003-2010. Prior to joining Poniard, Mr. Jackson served as Controller for Xylo, Inc., an internet development company, from 2001 to 2003 and as Director, Finance Operations at Spacelabs Medical, a public medical device company, from 1998 to 2001. From 1992 to 1998, Mr. Jackson served as Controller for Ride, Inc., a public recreational consumer products company. Prior to that, Mr. Jackson served in increasingly senior finance and accounting roles with high technology firms, Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse. Mr. Jackson is a certified public accountant and received his M.B.A. in finance and B.S. in mathematics from Brigham Young University.