Governance

Jason Kelly is the co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks. He has served as a member of our board of directors since Ginkgo’s founding in 2008. He has also served as a director of CM Life Sciences II Inc. (Nasdaq: CMII), a special purpose acquisition company with a focus on the life sciences sector, since its initial public offering in February 2021. Dr. Kelly has a Ph.D. in Biological Engineering and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Reshma Shetty co-founded Ginkgo Bioworks in 2008. As President, Chief Operations Officer, and member of our board of directors, she has seen the company grow to over 500 people. Reshma has been active in the field of synthetic biology for 15+ years, and in 2006, she was an advisor to the iGEM competition where she was best known for engineering bacteria to smell like bananas and mint. Forbes magazine named Reshma one of 2008’s Eight People Inventing the Future, and Fast Company named her one of 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2011. Dr. Shetty has a B.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Utah and a Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from MIT.

Marijn E. Dekkers is founder and chairman of Novalis LifeSciences LLC, an investment and advisory firm for the Life Science industry that he founded in 2017.

From 2010-2016, Dr. Dekkers served as CEO of Bayer AG in Leverkusen, Germany. From 2002-2009, he was CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific in Waltham, MA, USA. He started his career in 1985 as a research scientist at General Electric’s Corporate R&D Center in Niskayuna, NY, USA.

Dr. Dekkers received his PhD and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Eindhoven and his B.S in chemistry from the Radboud University, both in the Netherlands. He holds dual U.S. and Dutch citizenship.

Christian is the CEO of Pacific Biosciences and was previously the CFO and COO at Illumina where he was responsible for the development and implementation of the company’s commercial strategy. In addition to driving the strategy, he is responsible for global sales, marketing and service. He joined Illumina in 2005 and served in a number of roles, including Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (2005-2009); Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Financial Officer (2009-2010); Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and General Manager, Life Sciences (2010-2012); Senior Vice President and General Manager, Genomic Solutions (2012-2014), and Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer (2014-2015).

Mr. Sankar has served in various positions at Palantir since 2006, most recently as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President. Mr. Sankar holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University and a M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

Harry E. Sloan is the Chairman and CEO of Eagle Equity Partners II, LLC. Under Sloan’s leadership, the company has acquired and taken public, through SPACs, several companies including, during 2020, DraftKings and mobile gaming company Skillz. Earlier in his career, Sloan was the Chairman and CEO of MGM Studios and founded and led two public companies in the entertainment media arena, New World Entertainment and SBS Broadcasting, S.A., one of Europe’s largest broadcasters. Sloan is an Associate Professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and is a Trustee of The McCain Institute. Sloan earned a B.A. from UCLA and a J.D. from Loyola Law School.

Arie Belldegrun, MD, FACS, is the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Allogene Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on pioneering the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (AlloCAR T™) therapies for cancer. A visionary entrepreneur, Arie founded Kite Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative cancer immunotherapies, where he served as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer until the acquisition of Kite by Gilead Sciences in October 2017.

Arie has had a distinguished tenure in the life sciences, having been closely involved with the founding and advancement of several successful biopharmaceutical companies including Cougar Biotechnology and Agensys. Abiraterone (Zytiga), developed by Cougar, is a mainstay of therapy for patients with metastatic prostate cancer.

He currently serves as Chairman of Two River Group, UroGen Pharma, Kronos Bio, and Bellco Capital, and as co-Chairman of Breakthrough Properties LLC. He serves as director of IconOVir Bio, Inc and is also co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of Vida Ventures, a life science venture group with offices in Boston and Los Angeles. Arie is a Research Professor, holds the Roy and Carol Doumani Chair in Urologic Oncology, and is Founder and Director of the UCLA Institute of Urologic Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Prior to joining UCLA, Arie was at the National Cancer Institute/NIH as a research fellow in surgical oncology and immunotherapy under Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg.

He completed his MD at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, his post-graduate studies in Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and his residency in urologic surgery at Harvard Medical School. He has authored several books on oncology and more than 500 scientific and medical papers related to urological cancers, immunotherapy, gene therapy and cancer vaccines. He is certified by the American Board of Urology and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons.

Dr. Kewalramani has dedicated her career to improving the lives of patients, including the last fifteen years working on the development of new medicines. She joined Vertex in 2017 and was previously their Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Global Medicines Development and Medical Affairs. During that time, Vertex made remarkable progress to bring new medicines to more cystic fibrosis patients around the world, including the rapid approval of medicines to potentially treat up to 90% of all CF patients. Under her leadership, Vertex also advanced several programs outside of CF into the clinic, including programs in cell and gene therapies. Prior to Vertex, Dr. Kewalramani spent more than 12 years at Amgen where she held a variety of roles across Research and Development.

Dr. Kewalramani is a member of the Massachusetts General Hospital Board of Trustees, the Biomedical Science Careers Program Board and the Boston University School of Medicine Dean’s Advisory Board. She was the 2019 recipient of the TiE Boston Healthcare Leadership Award and the 2021 recipient of the International Institute of New England’s Golden Door Award.

Dr. Hannan is a former partner with KPMG, where she held several global leadership roles during her distinguished 30-year career. Her roles included Global Lead Partner & National Managing Partner for Diversity & Corporate Responsibility, Vice Chair of Human Resources, and serving as a leader in KPMG’s tax practice. In addition, she served on KPMG’s U.S. and Americas Management Committees and as a member of the Board of Trustees of The KPMG Foundation. Dr. Hannan currently serves on the Boards of Annaly Capital Management, Otis Worldwide Corporation, and Carpenter Technology Corporation. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Dr. Hannan holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Loras College, and a PhD in Leadership/Ethics from Benedictine University. She is a certified public accountant.