Experience

Experience

"Our ability to meet and exceed the expectations of our pharmaceutical clients is directly tied to the expertise and responsiveness of our staff. Management's top priority at Tandem Labs is to recruit the most qualified personnel and to provide them with a work environment and the resources that result in a high level of achievement and job satisfaction. Our focus on job fulfillment for each employee promotes internal stability, which in turn results in a thorough understanding of our client needs."

Executive Management

Denis C. K. Lin, Ph.D.
President and CEO

Denis Lin joined Tandem Labs in 1994 as president and CEO. Prior to joining the organization, Dr. Lin was president of ETC, an environmental testing laboratory, from 1992 to 1994, where he also served as founder, board member, and vice president of research and operations. From 1988 to 1992, Dr. Lin was the co-founder, president, and CEO of National Express Laboratory, Inc. (NatEx). Prior to NatEx, he was senior vice president of operations at Enesco, which owned the startup bioanalytical laboratory known as PPDI, Inc. From 1977 to 1981, Dr. Lin served as the manager of the environmental and health chemistry division of Battelle Columbus Laboratories. Dr. Lin earned his doctorate in mass spectrometry from the University of Manitoba and completed a post-doctorate fellowship at the University of Montreal.

William S. Barth
Vice President and CFO

William Barth oversees the finance and human resources departments for Tandem Labs. Mr. Barth previously served as the senior financial officer for Albion Instruments, Cardiopulmonics, and Sonic Innovations, Inc. Mr. Barth earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Weber State University and gained CPA certification while working for Deloitte & Touche early in his career.

Patrick Bennett, M.S., M.B.A.
Vice President and Senior Laboratory Director
General Manager, Bioanalytical Division, Massachusetts Facility

Patrick Bennett manages the technical operations at Tandem Labs. Previously, Mr. Bennett was the general manager of NACL, Inc.; a consultant and principal for PharmaKnowledge, Inc.; and the laboratory director for Advanced BioAnalytical Services, Inc. (Advion Bioservices). Mr. Bennett was also a research scientist with Bristol-Myers Squibb and an analytical toxicologist for SmithKline Bioscience Laboratories.

Ira S. DuBey, M.S., M.B.A.
Vice President and General Manager, Biomarker and Immunoanalytical Division

Ira S. DuBey joined Tandem Labs in December 2004. Mr. DuBey came to Tandem Labs with over 25 years of senior level management experience in laboratory-based businesses. From 1998 until joining Tandem, he directed the immunochemistry business for Covance Labs, Inc. in Chantilly, Virginia. Prior to Covance, Mr. DuBey held the position of department head of forensic toxicology for Quest Diagnostics, Inc. in Baltimore, Maryland. Before Quest Diagnostics, Mr. DuBey held senior management positions in the public sector, directing criminalistics laboratories in Maryland and New York.

Richard A. Etter, Ph.D.
Vice President, Quality Improvement and Corporate Planning

Richard A. Etter oversees continuous quality improvement and corporate planning at Tandem. Previously, Dr. Etter held several executive positions at ARUP Laboratories, most recently as vice president of new business ventures. He is a certified healthcare executive and diplomate of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Dr. Etter earned his Ph.D. in administration from Boston College.

Rodger Foltz, Ph.D.
Vice President and Senior Technical Director

Rodger Foltz is internationally recognized for his contributions in the development and application of mass spectrometry for the analysis of drugs in biological samples. He has co-authored over 100 papers, been an invited speaker at numerous conferences and symposia, and has served as a consultant for the United Nations, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Dr. Foltz is also a research professor in the Department of Pharmacy and Toxicology at the University of Utah. Previously, he served as a senior research leader at Battelle Columbus Laboratories where he directed a NIH-funded mass spectrometry facility.

Jean Pineault, M.S.
Vice President of Sales & Marketing; General Manager, New Jersey Facility

Jean Pineault is the vice president of sales and the general manager of the New Jersey facility. Prior to Tandem Labs, Mr. Pineault served as the general manager of the bioanalytical laboratory at Maxxam Analytics, Inc. Mr. Pineault was previously employed by Dade Behring and Roche Diagnostics. He was also a successful laboratory consultant.

James K. Wilfahrt, M.B.A.
Vice President of Operations and General Manager, Utah Facility

James K. Wilfahrt is vice president of operations and the general manager of the Utah facility. Mr. Wilfahrt joined Tandem Labs in 1991 as quality control manager. Mr. Wilfahrt held the positions of business development manager and operations manager prior to his current position. Before Tandem, Mr. Wilfahrt was the laboratory director for the division of infectious disease at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Edwina White, M.B.A.
Vice President of Human Resources
Ms. White has over 20 years of Human Resources experience in the pharmaceutical industry, mostly at GlaxoSmithKline and Wyeth and as a consultant for Aventis, Endo, The Medicines Company, and Teva.  Edwina has a B.A. degree, cum laude, from Brooklyn College in Psychology and a M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Senior Management

Edward Brewer, M.S.
Senior Laboratory Director, Bioanalytical Division, New Jersey Facility

Edward Brewer leads laboratory operations for both discovery and GLP work at the New Jersey facility. He joined Tandem Labs in 1999 and has been involved in bioanalytical mass spectrometry since 1987. His expertise comes from experience within large pharma and contract research organizations. Mr. Brewer was formerly the section head of drug discovery at Advanced BioAnalytical Services, Inc.

Laura Cojocaru
Laboratory Director, Bioanalytical Division, New Jersey Facility

Prior to Tandem Labs, Ms. Cojocaru served as the director of the bioanalytical department for Huntingdon Life Sciences. Previously, she was a senior manager in the bioanalytical department at Phoenix International Life Sciences in Montreal, Canada and a laboratory supervisor at Anachemia Canada, Inc., among others. Ms. Cojocaru brings more than 25-years of laboratory management experience to Tandem Labs. Ms. Cojocaru also possesses several inventor certificates for a number of procedures including one for obtaining L-Cysteine HCL and one for the extraction and purification of a hyaluronidase inhibitor of animal origin.

Roger Demers, B.Sc.
Senior Research Scientist

Roger Demers is based in West Trenton, NJ. Mr. Demers has 17 years of experience with various mass spectrometry platforms, including 15 years with triple quadrupoles. He was one of the first in the world to use an API-III+ in 1989 (S/N 008) to quantitate NCEs in biological matrices commercially. Previously, Mr. Demers was the senior mass spectrometry scientist at Maxxam Analytics, Canada. In the past several years, Mr. Demers has developed and validated hundreds of bioanalytical methods on LC/MS/MS. His practical experience and expertise makes him one of the best method development scientists in the industry. He joined Tandem Labs, New Jersey in October 2004.

Joanne R. Ramundo, M.S.
Quality Assurance Director

Prior to Tandem Labs , Ms. Ramundo was the quality assurance director of U.S. clinical trials for LabCorp, encompassing both preclinical and Phase I-IV studies. Prior to LabCorp, Ms. Ramundo was a manager for Johnson & Johnson in compliance and resource management and a regulatory compliance manager for GlaxoSmithKline, among others. Ms. Ramundo has 25 years of quality assurance experience in GLP and GCP environments. She also has an extensive background in facility inspections and vendor audits. Ms. Ramundo earned her Master of Science in Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. She is also an active member of the Society of Quality Assurance.

Lily Li , Ph.D.
Laboratory Director, Massachusetts Facility

Dr. Lily Li was the president of PharmaKD and is the newly appointed Laboratory Director of Tandem Labs-New England. Dr. Li joins Tandem Labs with significant expertise in biomarker discovery, high throughput protein binding assays, metabolite profiling and identification, pharmacokinetics, and antibody-based biotherapeutic assays. Prior to PharmaKD, Dr. Li was the director of Mass Spectrometry Analytics for Cantata Pharmaceuticals and the lead of High Throughput Analytics for Cereon Genomics/Monsanto, among others. Dr. Li earned her Ph.D. in lipid chemistry from Cornell University.

Xiguang (Lisa) Li , M.D.
Research Scientist, Biomarker and Immunoanalytical Division

Dr. Li adds nearly 35-years of senior research experience to Tandem Labs’ Biomarker and Immunoanalytical Division. Prior to Tandem Labs, Dr. Li was a research associate for Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Immunomedics, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck and Co., among others. Dr. Li brings with her a remarkable background in the development, validation, and sample analysis of assays using ELISA and other advanced technologies. She also has extensive experience in conducting flow cytometry experiments on cell lines as well as in immunogenicity and pharmacokinetics. Dr. Li earned her M.D. in Clinical Medicine from the Third Military Medical University of China in Chong Qing, P.R. China.

Luca C. Matassa, Ph.D.
Laboratory Director, Utah Facility

Luca C. Matassa oversees laboratory operations for GLP work at the Salt Lake City facility. He joined Tandem Labs in June 2004. Dr. Matassa earned his doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 1989. Prior to joining Tandem, Dr. Matassa was the associate director of operations for bioanalytical chemistry at Covance where he directed the startup of its bioanalytical laboratory. From 1993 to 2000, he was the manager of the bioanalytical department at Maxxam Analytics. Dr. Matassa has over 16 years of experience in bioanalytical analysis and has published over 40 scientific papers and posters.

Min Meng, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Method Development, Utah Facility

Min Meng joined Tandem Labs in 1998 from the American Health Foundation. Her research prior to her appointment at Tandem Labs focused on identification and quantification of carcinogens, metabolites, DNA, and protein adducts by HPLC, GC/MS/MS, and LC/MS/MS. Dr. Meng leads the method development team and oversees all method development and validation projects at the Salt Lake City facility.

Keith W. Ohm , Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, Massachusetts Facility

Keith Ohm has ten years of experience interfacing informatics and instrumentation for high quality scientific output. From 2004 to 2006, Dr. Ohm was a senior scientist at PharmaKD, Inc. where he developed MarkerScan™, a biomarker discovery and screening informatics process that efficiently identifies potential biomarkers derived from high mass resolution data obtained from two complimentary mass spectrometry platforms: MALDI/TOF/TOF and LC/QTOF. Prior to PharmaKD, Dr. Ohm worked in bioinformatics at the Center for Genome Research at MIT and as a software developer for Rocket Software. Dr. Ohm earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Miami University in Oxford, OH.

Renuka C. Pillutla, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Method Development & Validation, Biomarker and Immunoanalytical Division

Dr. Pillutla joins Tandem Labs with more than ten years of senior research experience in laboratory-based settings. Prior to Tandem Labs, she was a senior research scientist in the Biological Methods Development Group for Global Biologics Supply Chain, LLC, a corporate division of Centocor and Johnson & Johnson. Prior to this position, Dr. Pillutla was a senior scientist in the Department of Molecular Biology for DGI Biotechnologies, Inc. in Edison, NJ. Dr. Pillutla comes to Tandem Labs with an extensive background in the drug discovery and biopharmaceutical arenas. Her expertise encompasses several areas ranging from target identification and target validation to assay development. She is also extremely familiar with ligand-binding studies and epitope mapping. Dr. Pillutla earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Scott A. Reuschel, M.S.F.S.
Associate Director, Bioanalytical Division, Utah Facility

Scott Reuschel joined Tandem Labs in November 1993 and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. In his role as Associate Laboratory Director, Mr. Reuschel oversees the efficient, reliable operation of the laboratory; directs operational improvements and evaluations of new technologies, software platforms, and laboratory information management systems; and actively participates in strategic planning and process improvements. Mr. Reuschel has 15 years of experience in the bioanalytical field and is recognized as a technical expert in method development and validation. Prior to Tandem Labs, Mr. Reuschel worked at AccuTox Analytical Laboratories in Attalla, Alabama.

KC Van Horne, B.Sc.
Director, Research and Development

KC Van Horne joined Tandem Labs in August 2004 and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mr. Van Horne has 22 years of experience in the bioanalytical field and is recognized in the industry as an expert in chromatography. His career has included positions as senior technical consultant, vice president of technology, president and CEO, and project leader. At Tandem Labs, Mr. Van Horne oversees the implementation of laboratory automation and expansion into other analytical services and products.

Michael VanTyne
Director, Information Systems

Michael VanTyne oversees Information Systems at Tandem Labs. Previously, Mr. VanTyne was the Regional Business Manager at SoftPointe, Inc. where he developed and managed new proprietary software projects. Mr. VanTyne is an accomplished information systems professional with an outstanding track record in strategic planning, compliance efforts, and technical direction. His efforts at Tandem Labs have included implementing several comprehensive applications such Citrix Metaframe, VelQuest SmartLab and SmartShell, and Thermo Watson LIMS.  Mr. VanTyne has an Oracle Master Certification and has been a featured speaker on various subjects, most recently on “System Ergonomics in a GLP Laboratory” at the International Meeting on Automated Compliance in May 2005.