Advisory Board

(in alphabetical order)

Joe Cerro
Sesha Pratap
John Quackenbush, Ph.D.
Susan J. Ward, Ph.D.

Joe Cerro

Joseph Cerro is an Executive Technologist with nearly twenty years of experience in applying technology to solve scientific and business challenges. He is the President and Founder of The Schooner Group, LLC, a consultancy with practices in high-end informatics and data analytics, organizational design and leadership, and life sciences product development. In addition to health care, the firm has attracted clients in other industries, such as professional sports and entertainment, where data analytics are critical to competitive success.

Prior to founding The Schooner Group, Mr. Cerro contributed to the development of Bayer's High-Tech Platform for nearly a decade. As Head of Informatics at Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corporation, he was responsible for striking the proper balance among business, scientific, and information technology demands in order to discover innovative drugs as efficiently as possible. To this end, Mr. Cerro led or participated in due diligence studies of science and technology projects worth over US$2 billion, while helping to steer internal and external projects in the fields of functional genomics, pharmaco/toxico-genomics, proteomics, and systems biology. Mr. Cerro also served on Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corporation's Management Commitee for Information Systems, where he played a key role in developing industry-leading approaches to IT management and governance.

In recognition of his contributions as a Pharma industry thought leader, Mr. Cerro was named as a recipient of the 2005 Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences by the State of Israel and Global Capital Associates.

More recently, Mr. Cerro was elected to serve as the Executive Vice President of the Yale Science & Engineering Association, a group that has been promoting university engineering and science programs since 1914.

Mr. Cerro is one of the founding members of the Boston Technology Leadership Council, a forum for Chief Technology Officers from a range of industries to explore practical issues in technology and business management. In addition, he serves on the Life Sciences Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, an organization that "is dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship and promoting the success of companies that develop and deploy technology across industry sectors."

He is also a member of the Global Leadership Council of the Michael Nobel / Harriet Fulbright Institute of Business Technology Management, an international think tank focused on improving the strategic management of technology in the global economy.

Mr. Cerro earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry from Yale University, and he holds two Masters degrees from Columbia University.

Sesha Pratap

Sesha Pratap is a software entrepreneur and consultant with nearly twenty years of experience working with startups and investors.

Most recently, Sesha was a founding partner at Assembla Consulting, where he helps companies rescue delayed products and accelerate software development efforts through agile product management and agile development services.

Previously, Sesha was a senior consultant at Opera Solutions, where he was responsible for technology strategy and operations at several turnaround projects, including Delano Corp. (acquired by Divine, Inc) and Intellirisk Corp (now Iqor).

Previously, Sesha worked as management consultant in the Boston area providing software companies, internet startups, and venture capital funds with strategy consulting on product strategies, go-to-market strategies, business plans, and venture funding.

Sesha began his career as a co-founder and president of Centerline Software, a leading Unix software development tools company that grew to 150 employees and over $18 million in revenues. Centerline was funded by Greylock Partners and was acquired by Compuware.

Sesha is an honors graduate in Economics from Harvard University.

John Quackenbush, Ph.D.

John Quackenbush completed a Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1990, followed by a two-year postdoctoral position in experimental particle physics and phenomenology. In 1992 he received a five year fellowship from the National Center for Human Genome Research to turn his talents to the study of genomics. Since that time he has worked on various aspects of genomics, including mapping, sequencing, functional genomics and bioinformatics. Since making the transition to biology, he has worked at The Salk Institute, Stanford University, and The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR). In March 2005, Dr. Quackenbush joined the faculty at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute with appointments as Professor of Biostatistics and Computational Biology and as Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is on the editorial boards of five major journals and Editor-in-Chief at Genomics, recently completed a four-year appointment as a standing member of the NIH GCAT Study Section, and is a member to two National Research Council panels examining the applications of genomic approaches to the study of toxicology. Dr. Quackenbush’s work focuses on functional and comparative genomics and bioinformatics and its application to the study of human disease. Current research projects include the identification of expression fingerprints and genomic alterations that are relevant to colon and breast tumor metastasis, the development of novel computational approaches for the interpretation of large-scale datasets, and methods for data integration to facilitate gene discovery. His group produces a series of web-based gene annotation databases that have more than 7,000,000 yearly hits and his TM4 microarray software suite has more than 100,000 estimated users.

John Quackenbush holds appointments as Professor of Biostatistics and Computational Biology and Professor of Cancer Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is on the editorial boards of five major journals and Editor-in-Chief at Genomics and has served on numerous government review panels. Dr. Quackenbush’s work focuses on functional and comparative genomics and bioinformatics and its application to the study of human disease.

Susan J. Ward, Ph.D.

Dr. Ward has served as an interim executive helping Biotechnology and Life Sciences software companies transition technology into products since 2003. Beginning her career at Sterling Drug in 1982, Dr. Ward became a prominent researcher in the pain field, led the team that discovered new chemistries and the first known antagonists at cannabinoid receptors. In 1993, she joined Wyeth Research as VP Research (UK facility, and CNS Disorders worldwide). From 1996-2000, Dr. Ward led Wyeth’s global Project Management function, establishing one of the first project management capabilities in drug discovery in the industry, and overseeing the development of 30+ new and life cycle extension products, including global approvals for Enbrel, Mylotarg, Sonata, Rapamune and Protonix. In 2000, Dr. Ward joined Millennium Pharmaceutical as a corporate officer and Snr VP for the company’s Productivity and technology functions. Subsequently, she designed the lauded integrative infrastructure as EVP at Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc., developed the initial research strategy for Alnylam Pharmaceutical, a leading RNAi company, and led the creation of an innovative, integrated discovery-development platform for a major Pharmaceutical company to raise the quality of development candidates and the effectiveness of research investment.

Dr. Ward earned her Bachelors, Masters and PhD degrees in Pharmacology from the University of Manchester, UK. She has over 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals, holds 9 patents, and is a frequent invited speaker and topical writer on systems driving productivity in the industry. Dr. Ward serves as the external Director of the Board for Select X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and for the recently formed Provasculon. She co-founded ThoughtLynx Inc., chairs the Life Sciences advisory board of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, and is a Board Trustee for the Cambridge School of Weston, a leader in progressive education.