Leadership Team
Bruce Cohen, Chairman has spent more than 30 years in leadership positions in life science and high technology companies. He was the founding President and CEO of three early stage biotechnology companies: Acacia BioSciences, Cellerant Therapeutics and VitaPath Genetics. He also served as Chief Financial Officer for GeneSoft Pharmaceuticals prior to its merger into Oscient Pharmaceuticals. In addition, he held senior positions in business development and marketing at SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals and in the International, Management Services and Information Technology business units at Baxter.
Bruce was the President and COO of ViTel International, a privately held, pre-internet electronic messaging company. He also served as a management consultant with Monitor Company, working in the health care and high technology sectors. He was one of the founders of the Tufts Veterinary School and a co-founder of the Health Professions Information Bureau. He currently serves as Executive Chair of Xagenic, Inc. and as Interim CEO of Baysient LLC.. Bruce has an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School, and a BA and MA from Tufts University.
Michelle Peake, Director, has been working in the field of biotechnology for over 20 years, after graduating with a BSc with Japanese from Griffith University, Australia. She has worked for Agenix, a diagnostic company in Australia, and Cantab Pharmaceuticals in the UK, which was merged with Xenova Research in 2000. She has worked in all areas from research, to process development, with her main experience in cGMP manufacturing for biopharmaceuticals. She has extensive experience in protein purification, analytical assays and fill/finish.
In December 2003 Michelle was appointed as the Director of Manufacturing for Alpha Biologics and has since been based in Penang, Malaysia, where she has been responsible for the design and construction of the Alpha cGMP facility and equipment. She was promoted to Chief Executive Officer, Alpha Board of Directors and also to the board of the US parent company, Viropro. Michelle also held a board position at Progenix Research and helped establish the Malaysian ISPE affliliate
Kenneth A. Sorensen, Ph.D., Director, is a registered U.S. Patent Agent, serving at the U.S. Patent office in Washington, D.C. as a Patent Examiner in the biotechnology division and serving on the EST commission, a policy steering body that addressed patent issues surrounding the Human Genome Project and created the platform on which genomic patents are issued. Prior to founding Array Capital, Dr. Sorensen worked for M & Co., a New York based investment firm, where he managed a Private Equity Life Science Fund (Ariane Health, LDC). He was also lead manager for a number of biotechnology financings and mergers/aquisitions/partnering, including Ontogeny, Netgenics, Physiome and Avalon Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Sorensen’s scientific credentials include dual bachelor’s degrees from the University of Kansas, a Ph.D. in Developmental Neurobiology (molecular and cellular biology) from the University of Arizona, and published research in numerous scientific journals. As a researcher at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, he was an Amgen and a Damon Runyon Fellow, conducting independent research in brain development.
Joseph J. Vallner, Ph.D., Acting President, serves as a consultant primarily to small pharmas/biotech companies and was previously President of ORUUS Pharma, a cancer drug delivery company, Lumera Corp., a company that developed products for electro-optics applications, which was a publicly traded company on NASDAQ during the time Dr. Vallner was its President and CEO, and President and CEO of Capnia, a company that developed nasal delivery of therapeutic gas for migraine and other inflammation disorders.
Dr. Vallner has previously served as President and COO of Gell Genesys, Inc., and as EVP and COO of SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He received his BS degree in Pharmacy, his MS degree in Physical Chemistry and his PhD in Pharmaceutics (Biochemistry minor) from the University of Wisconsin.
