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Exagen Inc. Expands Board of Directors with its Appointment of Chet Burrell, Tina Nova and Bruce Robertson
Exagen reinforces board with extensive experience across the laboratory testing and healthcare sectors
SAN DIEGO, CA & ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Exagen Inc., an organization dedicated to transforming the care continuum for patients suffering from debilitating and chronic autoimmune diseases by enabling timely differential diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring while optimizing therapeutic intervention, today announced the appointment of three new members to its Board of Directors: Chet Burrell, Tina Nova and Bruce Robertson.
Chet Burrell
Chet Burrell has held numerous CEO level positions and chairmanship roles in the US healthcare system for nearly 40 years in both the public and private sectors covering the for-profit and non-profit arenas. He has led major private payers providing healthcare coverage to millions of subscribers, as well as start-up and mid-stage health technology companies backed by private equity and venture partners.
Along the way, he has successfully overseen investments in over 40 healthcare technology and service companies especially in his leadership role as the CEO of the largest private payer and health benefits management company in the mid-Atlantic area (CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield).
Through much of his career, Mr. Burrell has led pioneering efforts to reform financing approaches to healthcare involving financial incentives for providers and value-based payment models to reward more cost effective, higher quality care. These efforts have been marked by joint efforts with government policy makers and regulators as public-private initiatives in attempts to find solutions to increasingly unaffordable healthcare costs in the United States.
Currently, Mr. Burrell is the Managing Member of Silavon Healthcare Holdings, LLC, an entity he established to pursue investments in the healthcare field. In this capacity, Mr. Burrell is now engaged in finding and overseeing highly selective investments in healthcare companies in the United States that are believed to offer both high social-impact value and high investment value potential. These efforts are typically undertaken in concert with other private equity players and family offices that share similar objectives.
Tina Nova
Tina S. Nova, Ph.D. has extensive experience growing dynamic commercial organizations in new markets within the molecular diagnostics field. Since August 2018, she has served as president and chief executive officer of Decipher Biosciences, Inc., a diagnostics company focused on urologic cancers.
Previously Dr. Nova was president and chief executive officer of Molecular Stethoscope, Inc., and served as senior vice president and general manager of Illumina’s oncology business unit. Dr. Nova was a co-founder of Genoptix, a medical laboratory diagnostics company, and served as its president and chief executive officer from 2000 to 2014. Genoptix was acquired by Novartis AG in 2011. Dr. Nova was co-founder of Nanogen, a provider of molecular diagnostic tests, and served as its chief operating officer and president from 1994 to 2000. She previously served as chief operating officer of Selective Genetics, and held various positions with Ligand Pharmaceuticals and Hybritech. Dr. Nova serves as the chair of the board of directors for Arena Pharmaceuticals and as a member of the board of directors of Veracyte, a diagnostics company.
Dr. Nova received a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of California, Irvine, and a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California, Riverside.
Bruce Robertson
Bruce Robertson, Ph.D. is a Managing Director of H.I.G. BioHealth Partners, the healthcare affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, a private equity firm with over $31 billion under management.
Dr. Robertson has been active in the life sciences sector for more than 30 years. Prior to joining H.I.G., heserved most recently as Managing Director at Toucan Capital, a venture capital fund focusing on healthcare investments. Prior to his private equity career, Dr. Robertson was Director of Business Development at IGEN International, where he was responsible for formulating and implementing IGEN’s partnering and M&A strategies. Dr. Robertson started his career as a Research Manager at W.R. Grace & Co., focusing on medical devices.
Dr. Robertson currently serves on the boards of Apollo Endosurgery, RxSight, CardioFocus, Clarus Therapeutics, Iconic Therapeutics, and Intact Vascular.
Dr. Robertson holds a BSE in Chemical Engineering and BA in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware, and an MBA with High Distinction from Harvard Business School.
Ron Rocca, CEO at Exagen, shared “we are delighted to have such talented and experienced individuals join our team bringing a critical range of expertise. With the deep understanding of the payer perspective from Chet Burrell, the track record of successful public companies of Tina Nova, and the deep understanding of the broader healthcare space from Bruce Robertson, we are positioning Exagen for success in the next phase of our growth.”
The three new members join the current Board of Directors which includes James Tullis, Beto Pallares, Brian Birk, Jeff Elliott, and Ron Rocca.
About Exagen Inc.
Exagen is dedicated to transforming the care continuum for patients suffering from debilitating and chronic autoimmune diseases by enabling timely differential diagnosis and optimizing therapeutic intervention. Exagen has developed and is commercializing a portfolio of innovative testing products under its AVISE brand, several of which are based on our proprietary Cell-Bound Complement Activation Products, or CB-CAPs, technology. CB-CAPs assess the activation of the complement system, a biological pathway that is widely implicated across many autoimmune and autoimmune-related diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, or SLE. Exagen’s goal is to enable rheumatologists to improve care for patients through the differential diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of complex autoimmune and autoimmune-related diseases, including SLE and rheumatoid arthritis. Exagen’s business model of integrating testing products and therapeutics positions Exagen to offer targeted solutions to rheumatologists and, ultimately, better serve patients. For more information, visit www.Exagen.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, or Instagram.
CONTACTS:
Westwicke Partners
David Clair
david.clair@icrinc.com
646-277-1266
Exagen Inc.
Brian McEvilly
info@Exagen.com
760.560.1506