With over 30 years of Diagnostics and Medical Device experience Neil has a comprehensive knowledge of the global diagnostic and sequencing markets. He brings direct experience of commercial operations, product launches, product development, clinical, quality and regulatory processes and strategy development.
Most recently he was CEO of IDbyDNA, who had a successful exit in June 2022 with the acquisition by Illumina. IDbyDNA was a precision metagenomic company headquartered in Salt Lake City and the Bay Area, California. The company developed an innovative approach to infectious disease diagnostics that utilized Next Generation Sequencing. Prior to joining IDbyDNA Neil was the President of Roche Sequencing Solutions (RSS) where he oversaw all aspects of the business and managed a team of ~ 900 people.
During his 5 year tenure his team developed and launched over 20 products a year as part of the clinical work flow, analysis software and assays run on commercially available sequencers.
The team were responsible for developing the nanopore sequencer. Prior to his role as President of RSS he held the role of Head of Business in Roche’s Molecular Diagnostic global business unit. During the eight years of his leadership his team was responsible for over 120 diagnostic product launches (Instruments, assays, Software) with the principle focus on IVD clinical market and a fully regulated process.
These included the cobas 8800/6800 high through put PCR testing instruments, the cobas HPV assay (the first FDA approved assay for primary screening of cervical cancer) and multiple assays for HIV/HBV/HCV.
Neil holds a Ph.D in Marine Microbiology and an MS in Biology from Portsmouth Polytechnic, UK as well as a BS in Biology from Nottingham Trent University, UK. He has been based in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 20 years after he relocated from the UK with his wife Sarah, daughter Jessica and son Cameron in 2001.