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- T2 Biosystems Announces Changes to Board of Directors06/17/2020 - 3:34 PM
- The Rise of the Chief Regulatory Officer06/03/2020 - 3:20 PM
- Robin Toft, Founder/CEO, Toft Group Executive Search Wins Three Gold American Business Awards Maverick of Year – Woman of Year – Lifetime Achievement06/02/2020 - 10:55 AM
T2 Biosystems Announces Changes to Board of Directors
/in Press Releases /by ToftgroupLEXINGTON, Mass., June 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — T2 Biosystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTOO), a leader in the rapid detection of sepsis-causing pathogens, today announced three new Board of Director appointments. The three new directors will add significant clinical and commercialization experience and expand board diversity, coupled with a strong understanding of the Company’s customer base.
The new appointments include: Thierry Bernard, Chief Executive Officer, QIAGEN; Dr. Ninfa Saunders, President and Chief Executive Officer, Navicent Health; and Robin Toft, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Toft Group, a ZRG company.
“We are thrilled to add to our Board three individuals whose commercial expertise and combined background in molecular diagnostics, clinical care, and life science leadership will bring invaluable perspective and insight to our business, helping us to achieve our goals of accelerating our sales, improving our operations, and advancing our pipeline,” said John Sperzel, President and Chief Executive Officer, T2 Biosystems. “Our commitment to developing innovative technology that helps save lives and improve patient outcomes remains steadfast, and adding these three industry leaders will bolster our efforts to accomplish that in the coming months and years.”
Thierry Bernard is the CEO at QIAGEN. Mr. Bernard joined QIAGEN in February 2015 to lead QIAGEN’s growing presence in molecular diagnostics. Mr. Bernard previously held multiple roles at bioMerieux for fifteen years, most recently as Corporate Vice President, Global Commercial Operations, Investor Relations and the Greater China Region. Prior to joining bioMerieux, he served in management roles in multiple international environments. Mr. Bernard is a member of the Board of Directors of First Light Biosciences. He has earned degrees from Sciences Po (Paris), Harvard Business School, London School of Economics and the College of Europe, and is a member of French Foreign Trade Advisors.
Dr. Ninfa M. Saunders, FACHE, is the President and CEO of Navicent Health, the second largest hospital in Georgia and a tertiary regional teaching medical center. Dr. Saunders has more than 45 years of hospital administrative and clinical experience, and prior to her current role, served as the President and COO of Virtua Health, the largest health system in southern New Jersey. Dr. Saunders was recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of 2019’s Top 25 Women Leaders in the U.S. and was twice named one of the “Most Influential Women of the Mid-Market” in the U.S. by CEO Corporation. Dr. Saunders serves on the boards of the Georgia Hospital Association and the American Hospital Association, where she is the past chair for the Institute for Diversity. Dr. Saunders completed her Doctorate in Healthcare Administration at the Medical University of South Carolina, earned a Master’s of Business Administration from Emory University, and a Master of Science in Nursing from Rutgers University.
Robin Toft is the founder and CEO of Toft Group, a ZRG company, where she combines a deep inside knowledge of the life science industry with a passion for building game-changing management teams. Ms. Toft has placed hundreds of executives at innovation-led life science companies. A champion of diverse executive teams, she has built a reputation for recruiting women and minorities into C-level and board of director roles. Prior to founding Toft Group in 2010, Ms. Toft served 20+ years as a biotech executive, most recently as Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations at Roche Molecular Diagnostics. In the 2020 American Business Awards, Ms. Toft received three Gold awards for Lifetime Achievement, Maverick of the Year and Woman of the Year. She currently serves on The Clearity Foundation board for ovarian cancer care, and is Chairman of LEAD San Diego, dedicated to developing civically engaged leaders. Ms. Toft earned a Bachelor of Science from Michigan State University.
Along with these additions, the Company announced the departure of three long-standing board members: Michael Cima, Ph.D., Adrian M. Jones, and Stanley Lapidus.
“We are profoundly grateful for the passion, ingenuity and leadership exhibited by the departing board members over the past several years,” said John McDonough, Chairman of the Board of Directors, T2 Biosystems. “Their collective contributions have made a significant and lasting impact on the Company, for which we will remain forever grateful.”
The new board members will join the following existing board members:
About T2 Biosystems
T2 Biosystems, a leader in the rapid detection of sepsis-causing pathogens, is dedicated to improving patient care and reducing the cost of care by helping clinicians effectively treat patients faster than ever before. T2 Biosystems’ products include the T2Dx® Instrument, T2Candida® Panel, the T2Bacteria® Panel, and the T2Resistance™ Panel and are powered by the proprietary T2 Magnetic Resonance (T2MR®) technology. T2 Biosystems has an active pipeline of future products, including the T2Cauris™ Panel, T2SARS-CoV-2™ Panel, and T2Lyme™ Panel, as well as additional products for the detection of bacterial and fungal pathogens and associated antimicrobial resistance markers, as well as biothreat pathogens.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding growth in the Company’s sales, improvement in operations, and pipeline advancement, as well as statements that include the words “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “project,” “forecast,” “estimate,” “may,” “should,” “anticipate,” and similar statements of a future or forward looking nature. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, (i) any inability to (a) realize anticipated benefits from commitments, contracts or products; (b) successfully execute strategic priorities; (c) bring products to market; (d) expand product usage or adoption; (e) obtain customer testimonials; (f) accurately predict growth assumptions; (g) realize anticipated revenues; (h) incur expected levels of operating expenses; or (i) increase the number of high-risk patients at customer facilities; (ii) failure of early data to predict eventual outcomes; (iii) failure to make or obtain anticipated FDA filings or clearances within expected time frames or at all; or (iv) the factors discussed under Item 1A. “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and other filings the Company makes with the SEC from time to time. These and other important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates as of the date of this press release. While the Company may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, unless required by law, it disclaims any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause its views to change. Thus, no one should assume that the Company’s silence over time means that actual events are bearing out as expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.
Media Contact:
Gina Kent, Vault Communications
gkent@vaultcommunications.com
610-455-2763
Investor Contact:
Philip Trip Taylor, Gilmartin Group
philip@gilmartinIR.com
415-937-5406
The Rise of the Chief Regulatory Officer
/in Blog /by Rachael ThorBy Scott Jackson, Vice President
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Robin Toft, Founder/CEO, Toft Group Executive Search Wins Three Gold American Business Awards Maverick of Year – Woman of Year – Lifetime Achievement
/in Press Releases /by ToftgroupRobin Toft, the Founder and CEO of Toft Group, a leading executive search firm fully devoted to life sciences and healthcare, won Gold, the top award, in the American Business Awards for 2020. Toft won in three categories: Maverick of the Year; Woman of the Year and Lifetime Achievement – all in Business Services Industries.
Winners were announced on Monday May 18th, 2020. This year, a total of 3,600 companies/entrepreneurs entered the awards; the American Business Award competition is one of the top two business awards in the U.S. The awards will be presented in a special virtual ceremony on August 5, 2020, replacing a gala that was originally scheduled at the Marriot Marquis Hotel in New York City.
Toft won Gold for leading Toft Group, an executive search firm playing a key role in placing top talent researching a cure for Covid-19; for her focus on diversity including a 98% women-on-boards placement rate in 2019, which is five times the national average; and a 48% placement rate for women in senior level positions (Catalyst reports 29% of senior management roles held by women in 2019); and for Toft Group’s speed to placement.
In February of 2019, the awards “year,” Toft published a diversity-based book titled WE CAN, The Executive Woman’s Guide to Career Advancement. Inspired by Toft’s personal experience as a career executive, coupled with her first-hand observation that most female executives are “miserable” in their careers, the book is a bold blueprint for what’s needed: decisiveness; discipline; a career map; confidence; and the “power” to create professional value and ask for opportunities throughout your career. In 2019, Toft has mentored 1000s of women free-of-charge to assist them in building careers that matter to them, both professionally and personally.
The nomination included keynote addresses for major corporations, non-profit organizations and universities, including Qualcomm; Illumina; the top conferences for next -gen women leaders as well as in biotech and precision medicine.
For the Lifetime Achievement award in particular, Toft’s contributions in healthcare and biotech as a top executive for 20 years, working in virology and diagnostics, before starting her company ten years ago, played a part. These included launching the first global initiative to provide access to HIV testing during the early days of the HIV/ AIDS pandemic; and launching and commercializing the first HIV/AIDS genotype and phenotype test to guide doctors in making correct drug combinations. The latter was key in HIV becoming a chronic disease and no longer a fatal one.
In 2020, Toft turned WE CAN into a start-up company aimed at helping women – and men – “grow from the ‘outside IN.’”
About Toft Group Executive Search, a ZRG Company:
Toft Group, headquartered in San Francisco, is an executive search firm focused on innovation-driven companies at the intersection of biotech and high tech. In November 2019, Toft Group, was acquired by ZRG Partners, a global executive search firm. Toft Group’s WE CAN™ (Women’s Executive Career Advancement Network) and extensive track record of performance has proven its ability to quickly fill highly specialized leadership roles where talent is limited. For more information, please visit thetoftgroup.com.