Our Team

Developing a game-changing platform requires diverse expertise.

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Executive Team

Our team consists of diagnostic industry veterans, laser optics experts, engineers, scientists and manufacturing experts.

Boards

Board of Directors
Scientific Advisory Board

Better Together

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LightDeck Diagnostics is located in the beautiful foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado. We support our employees in their quest for balanced, sustainable lifestyles. At any time of the year, you will find teammates biking to work, or spending their free time hiking in the foothills, climbing a 14-er, running rapids and taking in all that Boulder has to offer. We provide a place where we do what we love and contribute to making a difference the world.

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Nick Traggis

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Traggis has held various operations leadership, business development, and engineering positions in both industrial manufacturing and technology development companies. Most recently, he has served as a consultant performing C-level directed projects in areas of technology transfer, contract negotiation, and mergers/acquisitions for point of care diagnostics, and high-tech manufacturing companies. Prior to that he worked as the General Manager of Precision Photonics; ultimately selling to IDEX Corporation, where he remained on as the Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Traggis brings a strong deal-making expertise to our team as well as an ability to strategically evaluate current and emerging opportunities.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in metallurgical and materials engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

Chris Myatt, PhD

Founder and Chief Innovation Officer

Dr. Myatt is the founder and CEO of LightDeck Diagnostics, Inc. Prior to LightDeck Diagnostics, Chris founded and led Precision Photonics Corporation, a successful laser and optical technology supplier that is now a division of IDEX. Trained as a physicist and measurement scientist, Chris invented and developed multiple technologies that formed the basis of his companies. He earned a B.S. in Physics and a B.A. in Mathematics at Southern Methodist University. Chris also earned a Ph.D. in Atomic Physics at the University of Colorado. He studied Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) under Carl Wieman (Nobel Prize, 2001), helping to create the first BEC condensate in the Wieman lab. He also studied quantum information under David Wineland (Nobel Prize, 2012) as a National Research Council (NRC) Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder.

Chris earned a BS/BA in Physics/Mathematics from Southern Methodist University and a PhD in Atomic Physics at University of Colorado at Boulder.

Frank Gill

Chief Product Officer

Frank is an entrepreneurial executive with over 20 years of experience building operational infrastructure and supply chains for IVD and Life Science companies, from initial start-up to worldwide commercial distribution. He has held senior leadership roles at 454 Life Sciences, Rheonix, iCarbonX and recently, as VP Operations & Site Head, led the turn-around of OPKO Diagnostics, culminating in the PMA approval of their Claros POC platform.

Frank earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Albright College.

Russ Peloquin

Chief Commercial Officer

Mr. Peloquin is deeply experienced in all aspects of commercial and strategy management and building clinical diagnostics organizations from various life cycle stages. Most recently he was Vice President of Global Commercial Operations for SQI Diagnostics Inc., pioneering the way for partnerships and new business lines that have revolutionized the way medicine is practiced in the fields of solid organ transplantation, COVID diagnostics, as well as point-of-care and direct-to-consumer lab testing. A portfolio of executive management experience includes the commercialization and international expansion of a product in molecular diagnostics that subsequently led to the successful acquisition of that company by DiaSorin. Prior to that he oversaw commercial operations for the largest geography in the diagnostics business unit of Luminex Corp, the world leader in molecular multiplexing. There he successfully created the market for and launched several diagnostic tests and automation systems that have become multi-million dollar revenue drivers. He was a nationally known leader for Quest Diagnostics Inc., the world’s largest clinical reference laboratory where is responsibilities included multi-million dollar contract negotiations, M&A activities including post acquisition integration, new laboratory technology evaluation, and sales and logistics management. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Advertising and Marketing from the University of Kansas.

Mike Lochhead, PhD

Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Lochhead is a co-founder of LightDeck Diagnostics and leads technical development, collaborator activities, and intellectual property strategy. He serves as Program Manager on our commercial partnerships and is Principal Investigator on multiple major contracts with agencies including NIH, NSF and DARPA. Mike leads our talented team of instrumentation engineers and assay development scientists, and he has overall responsibility for operational scale-up of the disposable cartridge production line. Previously, Mike developed and commercialized microarray surface chemistry products at Accelr8 Technology Corporation (now Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc.) where he was also part of the engineering team developing the company’s bacterial identification technology.

Mike earned a BS and BA in Chemical Engineering and Government from University of Notre Dame and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kenny Edwards

VP Finance, Chief Financial Officer

Kenny Edwards is an experienced, entrepreneurial CFO with over 25 years of diverse expertise in private and public company financial leadership. Kenny has previously served as CFO of CenterStone Technologies, Inc., CFO of StyleSelect Technologies, Inc., CFO of Exactis.com and Corporate Controller of Atlantes, Inc., all venture capital funded technology companies. He led the IPO of Exactis.com prior to its acquisition by Experian Marketing Services, where he served as SVP Finance of the Email Marketing Division.

Kenny earned a BS in Accountancy from Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Kathy Crawford

Chief People Officer

Kathy Crawford is an experienced Human Resources leader with a background growing cutting edge biosciences companies. Prior to joining LightDeck, Kathy served as Vice President, Human Resources for LivaNova, a global neuromodulation and cardiovascular medical technology organization. In addition, she has served in HR leadership roles at Arca Biopharma, Myogen, and Dharmacon /Fischer Scientific.

Kathy earned a BA in Philosophy from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois and has attained several senior level HR certifications.

Katie Erdley

Senior Director, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs

Katie Erdley is an experienced director of quality assurance with marked success under the ISO 13485 Medical Device Single Audit Program. Katie has successfully designed, implemented, and maintained highly-compliant and efficient quality management systems for companies that develop and manufacture therapeutic and diagnostic medical devices. Prior to joining LightDeck, Katie was the Director of Quality Assurance at Actuated Medical Inc., where she was instrumental in the design and development, manufacturing scale up, and 510(k) clearance of the company’s first commercial medical device.

Katie earned her B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Penn State, completed the ExecuStar executive training program at the Penn State Harrisburg School of Business, and holds certificates from the American Society of Quality.

Robert J. Silverman

Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board

Robert J. Silverman is a director and strategic advisor to the company since 2013. He served as the CEO of mtm laboratories AG, an in-vitro diagnostics company that developed and commercialized a portfolio of products for the early detection and diagnosis of cervical cancer. Bob was instrumental in raising capital and building mtm laboratories into a global, fully-integrated commercial business. He led the company to a $240 Million exit to Roche Diagnostics. Prior to leading mtm laboratories, he held senior executive positions at Viacell, Cytyc Corporation, Pasteur Merieux and Abbott Laboratories Pharmaceuticals. While Bob was a part of the Cytyc Management Team, the publicly traded value of the company grew from $150MM to $3BB, and ultimately Cytyc was sold to Hologic for $6.2BB. He earned his Master’s Degree in Marketing and Finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Bob received his B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Michigan. He currently works with several life science companies in a Board and Advisory capacity.

Michael Chang, MBA

Director

Michael Chang is the CEO of YesVideo, the leading cloud platform for capturing and preserving family memories and handles all orders for Costco, Walmart and CVS. Previously, Michael founded Greystripe, a mobile advertising platform that provided smarter mobile solutions through full-screen ad formats. In 2011, Mr. Chang negotiated the company’s $70 million sale to ValueClick. Michael has served on the boards of iPass, YesVideo and Greystripe.

Andy Drenick

Director

Andy Drenick is Managing Director of Capital for Founders (CFF) LLC, which provides growth capital to founder-run businesses. Prior to founding CFF, Mr. Drenick was CEO of Qualmark Corporation, sold to Espec Corporation in 2015. Prior to Qualmark, he was CEO of Inovonics Corporation which exited to Roper Corporation in 2005. Mr. Drenick holds a BS in Engineering from Colorado School of Mines, an MBA from Stanford University, and is a licensed Mechanical Engineer.

Judy O’Brien, JD

Director

Ms. O’Brien has served as a senior business advisor and trusted partner to technology companies in many capacities, including as a member of their board of directors, corporate executive, investor and corporate lawyer, working in a broad range of industries, with companies ranging in size from start-ups to multi-billion-dollar revenue global companies. She is recognized for her strong partnership skills, effective and direct communication, candor, independence, sound judgment and engaging and effective leadership. She has served for over twenty years as a director of numerous public and private companies and has extensive experience in strategic relationships, financing, compensation, corporate governance and risk management.

Milton Chang, PhD

Founding Director, Emeritus

Milton Chang, Ph.D., is an angel investor mentoring and advising entrepreneurs (www.incubic.com). He is the author of Toward Entrepreneurship (www.miltonchang.com). Dr. Chang has served on many boards and was president/CEO of Newport and New Focus, taking both companies public. He has also successfully incubated more than a dozen startup companies. Dr. Chang earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering with highest honors from the University of Illinois and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology. He was awarded Distinguished Alumni by both universities and is a Trustee of Caltech. Dr. Chang has served on the Visiting Committee of NIST and also on an SEC advisor board.

Sally Hatcher

Corporate Secretary

Sally Hatcher, J.D. is a serial entrepreneur, advisor, startup accelerator faculty member, impact investor and board member. She co-founded and was President of two companies, including Precision Photonics, a laser & opto-electronics design and manufacturing company. Sally has worked with several digital women’s health companies, and spent a year as President/COO of Kindara. She regularly consults with diverse teams of innovators who want to spinout or start up a company. Sally’s business and law background comes from her time as a consultant with McKinsey & Co. and an Assistant Attorney General for Colorado. She sits on several boards and is active in environmental and women’s issues.

Ms. Hatcher earned a BA in Philosophy and History from Southern Methodist University and a JD from the University of Colorado School of Law.

Fred Apple, PhD

Hennepin Co Medical Center, Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute (HHRI)

Co-Director Clinical & Forensic Toxicology Laboratory. Principal Investigator, Cardiac Biomarkers Trials Laboratory. Professor, Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, University of Minnesota.

Judd Hollander, MD

Thomas Jefferson University

SVP of Healthcare Delivery Innovation. Associate Dean for Strategic Health Initiatives. Vice Chair of Finance and Healthcare Enterprises, Dept of Emergency Medicine.

Allan Jaffe, MD

Mayo Clinic

Chair of the Division of Clinical Core Laboratory Services in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

Frank Peacock, MD

Baylor College of Medicine

Associate Chair of Emergency Medicine. Founding member/ past President and Chief Medical Officer of the Accreditation Management Board of the American College of Cardiology

Robert Schooley, MD

UCSD

Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Executive Vice Chairman of the UCSD Department of Medicine and Associate Director of the UCSD Center for AIDS Research

Nelson Trujillo, MD

Boulder Community Health

Interventional Cardiologist

Alan Wu, PhD

UCSF

Professor, Laboratory Medicine. Co-core lab director, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

Richard Zane, MD

University of Colorado School of Medicine

Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine. Chief Innovation Officer for UCHealth