Our Team
Management
- John Burr, President and CEO
- Dan Chambers, General Counsel
- Richard Schneeberger, PhD, Head of Technology Development
- John Serbin, PhD, Chief Business Officer
Business and Scientific Advisors
- Charles J. Cashion, Member Board of Directors
- David R. Higgins, PhD
- Charles H. Squires, PhD
- Venkiteswaran “Mani” Subramanian, PhD
- Olaf F. Walter, PhD
John Burr, President and CEO
John has over thirty years of direct industry experience in both large multinationals and in pre-IPO companies. He has been President and CEO of Innovase, a joint venture formed by Dow and Diversa to commercialize innovative products for the industrial enzyme market and where John launched the company’s first product. John was President and CEO of Resource21, where he secured over $250M in strategic partner investments from The Boeing Company, British Aerospace and Farmland Industries to provide satellite remote sensing of crop health and yield to farmers. He has been Chairman and CEO of Precision Farming Enterprises and attracted angel and venture backed funding, enabling the company to develop its information technology that helps farmers improve yields and reduce production costs. In addition, he was VP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Genencor where he grew sales from $40M to $300M and tripled the productivity of sales personnel. John has also held sales and management positions in the agricultural divisions of Novo Laboratories and Ciba-Geigy. John earned his BS degree in Agricultural Business Management from the California State Polytechnic University and completed the Executive Program in Business Administration from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
Dan Chambers, General Counsel
Dan has over fifteen years of legal experience as both a patent attorney and general counsel in pre-IPO and major biotech companies and also in private law firms. He was General Counsel of GeneFormatics, where he was responsible for all corporate legal matters and where he developed and implemented a unique and comprehensive patent and trade secret strategy to protect more than 15,000 independently patentable protein structures and functions. At Viagene, Dan was Assistant General Counsel of Intellectual Property and was responsible for prosecuting all patents, enhancing the IP portfolio with new patent applications, and all legal transactions regarding licensing. Dan has also been Corporate Counsel at Amgen, where he was responsible for all legal matters relating to Amgen’s KGF product and patent application preparation and prosecution of new applications for novel genes and proteins, new uses for known cytokines, and pharmaceutical formulations. In addition, Dan has worked in private law firms, including the Biotechnology Law Group; Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison; Lyon & Lyon; and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. He has also spent several years as a Research Associate in molecular biology. He had positions at Amgen, the Department of Botany at Duke University, and the Department of Plant Physiology at UCLA. Dan earned his BS degree in Biology from UCLA and his JD from Southwestern University. He is admitted to the bar in California and is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Richard Schneeberger, PhD, Head of Technology Development
Richard has 20 years of experience in molecular genetics and agricultural biotechnology including over 10 years of industrial experience. As the second scientist hired by Ceres Inc., Richard led the development of several high throughput functional genomics projects which led to the discovery and functional characterization of hundreds of useful genes from multiple plant species. During this time, Richard introduced the use of robotic automation and Laboratory Information Management Systems to high throughput plant screens. His strong experience with gene expression and characterization technologies will be a great asset to iDiverse’s technology development. Prior to Ceres, Richard was a National Institute of Health and Pioneer Hibred postdoctoral fellow at U.C. Berkeley where he was involved in research on genes involved in plant cell specification. He earned his PhD in plant molecular genetics from Case Western Reserve University and his Bachelors of Science in Recombinant Gene Technology from SUNY Fredonia, New York. Richard has been widely published in peer reviewed journals and is a named inventor on over 20 patents and patent applications.
John Serbin, PhD, Chief Business Officer
John has over thirty years of experience in commercializing innovate technologies from early-stage companies and major multinationals. At Idun Pharmaceuticals, John closed a $48M joint venture with Elan for the treatment of stroke while VP of Corporate Development. He was VP of Marketing and Corporate Development at POINT Biomedical and closed a $9M Series B financing after repositioning the company’s vision and business strategy. As Director of Business Development at Chiron, John at all times managed a 30-40 deal portfolio and closed a major acquisition and collaboration with Baxter for the treatment of graft vs. host disease. At Viagene, he was Director of Business Development and helped close a $37M deal with Chiron that provided an anchor for Viagene’s IPO and its eventual acquisition by Chiron for $140M. John was educated at Monmouth College, where he earned his BA in Biology, and at the University of Illinois, where he earned his MS and PhD degrees in Human Physiology and, concurrently, his MBA in Marketing and General Management.
Charles J. Cashion, Member Board of Directors
Mr. Cashion is Sr. VP, CFO, and Co-founder of Conatus Pharmaceuticals in San Diego, CA. He has 30+ years experience in finance mainly at the senior executive level. Mr. Cashion has raised several hundreds of millions of dollars in private and public financings and has participated in the acquisition of companies and technologies. He received his MBA and BS degrees from Northern Illinois University.
David R. Higgins, PhD
Dr. Higgins has a diversified background spanning research, project management, and business development. He has held positions at Invitrogen, Chiron, and Idun Pharmaceuticals and was most recently EVP, Business Development and Head of US Operations for BioMedica, Inc. Dr. Higgins was trained in biology and earned his PhD in molecular biology and genetics from the University of Rochester.
Charles H. Squires, PhD
Dr. Squires is a Senior R&D Leader at Dowpharma where he is responsible for the development of a technology for microbial based biopharmaceutical production. In addition, he has made significant contributions to Energy BioSystems Corp. and Synergen, Inc. in the areas of pharmaceutical protein production by bacteria and the elucidation of bacterial metabolic pathways. Dr. Squires earned his BS, and MS degrees in biology from the University of Dayton, and his PhD degree from Purdue University. He is a named inventor on 10 issued US patents and is widely published in scientific journals.
Venkiteswaran “Mani” Subramanian, PhD
Dr. Subramanian is a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and is the Director of the Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing (CBB) at the University of Iowa. The CBB is a state-of-the-art bioproduction facility established to promote local economic development by working with biotechnology companies, as well as for student training, contract research, and process development. Prior to joining the University of Iowa, Dr. Subramanian had 25 years of industrial research experience in agricultural biotechnology companies including Maxygen, Novartis/Sandoz Agro, and The Dow Chemical Company where he mainly served at the Director/Leadership positions. Dr. Subramanian earned his BSc in chemistry and biology and his MSc in chemistry and biochemistry from Bangalore University, and was awarded his PhD in biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science. He has published over 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is the co-inventor of 16 issued and 7 pending patent applications.
Olaf W. Walter, PhD
Dr. Olaf Walter was educated as a chemical engineer in Germany and earned his PhD in Public Health Engineering from Portsmouth Polytechnic, Portsmouth, Great Britain. He has 20+ years experience mainly at The Dow Chemical Company where he was responsible for a wide variety of operations including most recently Senior Technology Leader of Manufacturing and Engineering for Dow’s Industrial Biotechnology Business. Dr. Walter’s expertise spans fermentation technologies, whole plant derived bioproduction, chemical manufacturing, process development, business and competitive analysis, and sophisticated economic modeling.