Chris has spent 25 years in the healthcare industry, specifically in diagnostics and cell therapies (pharmaceuticals). He started his career right out of BYU at a molecular diagnostics company called AutoGenomics during his gap year before medical school. He found that he had a greater passion for the intersection of business and science than in medical practice, so after 3 years exited the company and went to graduate school – first a master’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UCLA and then a doctoral degree in molecular immunology from Oxford University. Chris has graduate business degrees from London Business School (General Management) and ESADE Business School (Open Innovation and Corporate Entrepreneurship).

Chris was hired in an executive leadership development program from Roche, one of the largest international healthcare companies. He completed four six-month rotations in India (finance), China (process development), Switzerland (business development / mergers and acquisitions), and the United States (marketing). He then led a sales organization for a few years before heading the North American medical organization where he was responsible for all clinical education, non-registrational study management and field support covering all business areas. He reviewed technologies proposed in the United States by external parties for partnership through license, acquisition, or joint ventures.

Chris left Roche to be Chief Medical Officer of BioPorto, a Danish biotech company that struggled with their clinical performance of a kidney diagnostic test. After 3 years of developing and executing the trials to obtain FDA approvals, the products were approved by all global regulatory agencies. Chris then left BioPorto to start his own cell therapy company. He co-founded Chimeris, a novel technology firm that extracts T-cells from cancer patient’s blood and upgrades the cells in vitro with their novel patented technology, subsequently transfusing them back into the patients to enable the body’s immune system to perform their role the way they were meant to. After two years, Chris was bought out of the company by his investors and currently consults and teaches courses and serves on a number of boards.

Chris lives with his wife and 5 children (two of which are currently serving missions in Houston, Texas and Saltillo, Mexico) in San Diego, California.