Chris Wagner

President and CEO

Chris Wagner has more than 25 years of experience in commercialization and product development in the life sciences industry.

Mr. Wagner was recently CEO and Director at Emerald Health Therapeutics. During his time at Emerald, the company filed 17 patents, launched an international brand and increased the market capitalization of the company by 400%.

 Prior to Emerald Mr. Wagner held several executive positions including Founder & CEO of Contextual Genomics and CEO of Sirius Genomics. Contextual Genomics is selling its medical products globally and Sirius Genomics was sold to a strategic investor.

 Prior to Sirius Genomics, Mr. Wagner was with Aspreva Pharmaceuticals as a Founding Officer and Vice President of Business Development & Global Marketing. During his five-year tenure at Aspreva the valuation of the company was increased from $3 million to over $1 billion.

 Prior to Aspreva, Mr. Wagner was with Eli Lilly working in Europe, North America and Asia with positions based in Toronto, Indianapolis, and Boston. He worked on the development and commercialization of 15 products including biologics and small molecules with annual sales ranging from tens of millions to over $4 billion dollars per year.

 Mr. Wagner is an Accredited Director and has received an education in Business from Wharton, and in Organic Chemistry from the University of British Columbia. 

Dr. Vernon Oi

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Vernon Oi is a world-renowned Immunologist with over 200 peer reviewed publications and patents. 

He received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and doctoral degree from the Stanford University School of Medicine. In addition, he studied in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California at Berkley and the Medical Research Council and Agricultural Research Council in the UK before joining the Stanford University faculty in the Department of Genetics. 

As a research faculty member in Stanford’s Genetics Department, Dr. Oi and his colleagues made break-through discoveries that set the course for what is now a department of 45 faculty members and the top ranked Genetics department in the USA. Much of this ascension to US & global prominence is a result of Dr. Oi’s discoveries and patented research. Dr. Oi is the co-inventor of two patents that are part of Stanford University’s top 5 largest revenue producing patents in its history. 

One of these patents is for Phycobiliproteins. Phycobiliproteins, proteins that occur naturally in algae, have been extensively used in the biotechnology research community as fluorescent tags for the tiny beacons of light they emit. Invented by Professor Lubert Stryer of Stanford, Professor Alexander Glazer of the University of California, Berkeley, and Dr. Vernon Oi of Stanford, the technology was licensed exclusively to Applied Biosystems (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and Becton Dickinson. This research resulted in the development of fluorescence-activated cell sorting appliances a market now valued at over $ 400 million.

Another of Dr. Oi’s Stanford patents is for Functional Antibodies. A process for generating functional antibodies, developed by Stanford inventors Leonard Herzenberg and Vernon Oi in collaboration with Sherie Morrison, formerly of Columbia University, is currently Stanford’s Office of Technology Licensing highest royalty producer.

Dr. Oi’s invention is used to produce drugs to treat a wide variety of diseases. Products include Remicade (Johnson & Johnson), Synagis (MedImmune) and others. In 2017 Remicade was the 6th most valuable pharmaceutical with annual sales of $6.4 billion.  In 2019 functional antibodies produced over $150 billion in revenues.

In 2017 Dr. Oi led a group that obtained one of Hawai’i’s eight medicinal cannabis licenses. The company, Hawaiian Ethos, LLC, has since specialized developing in non-pulmonary and highly reproducible micro-dosing technologies. 

Rob Hill, CPA, CA,

Chief Financial Officer

Rob Hill is an experienced Chief Financial Officer and corporate director of public and private companies. He has twenty-five years of experience building and leading organizations in Canada, the USA, and Japan.

In his most recent position, Rob was the CFO of a publicly traded Health Canada licensed producer of cannabis. In this role, Rob was responsible for the company's finance, HR, Investor Relations, and IT functions and was a key participant in the raising of over $100 million in capital. Rob's business sense and application of thorough analysis to complex business issues was crucial to the company's ability to understand and chart its path forward. 

Rob has been involved in acquisitions, financings and corporate reorganizations and has led and advised publicly traded companies in corporate governance, Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance, Canadian and U.S. securities disclosure requirements, and stock exchange listings.

Rob is motivated by opportunities to apply his experience and professional network to help manage through difficult times, address challenging issues faced by management, and the chance to work with talented executives and boards.

Rob obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of British Columbia and has lived and worked in Vancouver, British Columbia and Austin, Texas with his wife and three children.

Dr. David MacDonald

Chief Technology Officer

Dr. David MacDonald has an over 25-year record of achievement in drug development and leadership of biotech companies achieving important technical milestones for those businesses and meeting critical corporate objectives.

Prior to ImmunoFlex, Dr. MacDonald was at MSI Methylation Sciences Inc. a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company, leading the R&D efforts, focused on pharmaceutical product and clinical development.

Prior to that, Dr. MacDonald held leadership positions in a number of small and large pharma biotech companies where he was accountable for a broad range of technical departments and stages of development from discovery through to Phase 2 clinical trials.  Dr. MacDonald obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Alberta where his research was focused on enzymology.

Dr. Tim Cottrell

Head of Strategic Operations

Dr. Cottrell is head of the ‘Iolani School, the largest Episcopal School in the US and the only K-12 school in the State of Hawai’i ranked in the top 50 nationally. As head of School, Dr. Cottrell oversees innovative program development, finances, marketing & communication, fundraising, and general operations. Prior to `Iolani School, Cottrell was head of the Harley School in Rochester, NY and Chief Information Officer at The Lawrenceville School. Currently, Dr. Cottrell is the only school head to have twice been the recipient of the prestigious Edward E. Ford Foundation Educational Leadership Grant. 

Before entering the world of independent schools, Dr. Cottrell’s focus was on start-up companies. From 1993-1999 he was CEO of Princeton Teacher Associates Software, Inc., a leader in educational software for the high school market that produced top reviewed software in PC Magazine, Macworld, PC Shopper, and Family PC Magazine.  At PTAS, Inc. he authored multiple winning SBIR grant proposals, oversaw a second round private placement of capitalization, and led product development.

Dr. Cottrell serves on the boards of `Iolani School, the Blood Bank of Hawai’i and Continnum Dynamics, Inc. He earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from Syracuse University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton University.