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Our Team

Nathan Johnson, Ph.D.

President & CEO

Dr. Nathan Johnson, Ph.D. is the President & CEO of Verne Bio. He has a hybrid of microbiology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics expertise across 15 years for food testing, oncology, immunology, stem cell biology, animal model development, and plant-related efforts. He has published peer-review scientific papers including in prestigious journals such as Nature, Cell, and Science, and held positions such as Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Takeda, H3 Biomedicine, and Mouse and Rat Resource Centers. He holds a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics & Computational Biology, MS in Biomedical Sciences, and a BS in biology and minor in chemistry.

Sebastian Mana-Capelli, Ph.D.

Chief Product Development

Dr. Sebastian Mana-Capelli has over 10 years of scientific experience where he has worked in the development and implementation of a variety of in-vitro and cell-based assays and received the 2014 publication of the year by the American Society for Cell Biology. In recent years, he developed extensive experience in genome engineering to dissect the specific contributions of genes to how cells make decisions based on their cellular environment conditions. Dr. Mana-Capelli holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology, an MS in Biochemistry, and a BS in Microbiology.

Mark Joubert

Chief Business Development Officer

Mark has been practicing law since 2002 primarily focused on patent law, who is extremely successful at resolving many intellectual property disputes between patent/trademark/copyright owners and alleged infringers, either by litigation, mediation, arbitration, or settlement. In addition to being a lawyer, he also holds a BS degree in both Biology and Chemistry and an MS in Molecular Biology. His unique perspective has allowed him to obtain many patents and registered trademarks for his clients in areas as diverse as mechanical, electrical, software, business methods, biotechnology, computer systems, energy, and cooling system innovations. Mark has a special interest and expertise in biotechnology and bioinformatics areas of patent law.

Seth Joubert

Testing Laboratory Manager

Seth is currently working at Verne Bio full-time after recently completed his Bachelor's in Biology from Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Mike Hilberman

CPA, CFO

Mike has been a start-up CFO since 2013, both as a full-time employee and as a fractional consulting CFO, delivering GAAP-compliant financials, driving revenue growth, fundraising, negotiating contracts, budgeting/forecasting, managing cash, and ensuring compliance. He has over thirty years of executive leadership and consulting experience in assisting both large and small organizations through difficult realignments of their strategy, finances, and business processes. Mike’s expertise includes driving both top and bottom-line financial performance for all types of businesses, aligning business strategy, improving operations, as well as managing HR, Legal and Operations teams. Mike is also an expert in financial modeling and developing scenario-based financial forecasts. He began his career at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, successfully helping large Fortune 500 companies like Chevron, Mobil Oil, Apple, Fox, First Nationwide and Bechtel. While consulting at M Squared, he helped Cisco on a series of programs including incubating and growing a multi-billion dollar sales initiative. Mike received an MBA in finance, marketing, strategy, and entrepreneurship from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, and a BA from Claremont McKenna College.

Yvonne Llenares

Sales & Marketing

Yvonne oversees the company's social media platforms, customer service and creating high-quality visual and written content as Verne's Sales and Marketing Manager. She also analyzes customer engagements and utilize social media strategies in order to build trends for customer interactions. Apart from Social Media Management, she develops and strengthen the company's marketing opportunities and sales activities.

Andi Dhroso, Ph.D.

Director of AI & Data Science

Andi is a computer scientist with 8+ years of interdisciplinary experience in bioinformatics of complex disease, computational genomics, biomedical data analytics, and database optimizations. Additionally, he has experience in machine learning, and statistical genetics. In particular, he has also developed computational methods, hardware-optimized algorithms to understand the evolution of animal and plant genomes on a large scale. In machine learning, Andi has worked on scalable inference methods for Support Vector Machine models to discriminate cancer from non-cancerous cell-lines irrespective of the tissue of origin. More recently, he created a framework to detect protein effectors in gram-negative bacteria across all six secretion systems without prior knowledge of bacterial secretion system(s) or cryptic secretion signals.   Specialties: Comparative & Computational Genomics, Machine Learning, Biomedical Data Mining, Information visualization, High-Performance Computing, Theory of Computation, Programming/Script Languages, Unix, Mobile/Web Applications.

Brian Walker

Business Development Associate, Cannabis Cultivation Consultant

Brian Walker is a seasoned professional with a diverse background spanning over two decades in the cannabis industry. With extensive knowledge and experience in the field, Brian has honed his skills to become an expert in all aspects of cannabis cultivation. Prior to his career in cannabis, Brian served his country as a dedicated Army veteran for 13 years. During his military service, he developed a strong work ethic, discipline, and attention to detail, qualities that have greatly contributed to his success in the cannabis industry. Brian's passion for plant health and well-being led him to pursue a formal education in greenhouse management at Southeast tech and also obtained a degree in construction management, which has provided him with the necessary skills to effectively oversee large-scale cultivation operations. As a plant health guru, he understands the importance of creating optimal growing conditions and implementing sustainable cultivation practices. With a deep understanding of plant physiology, nutrient requirements, pest management, and environmental controls, it allows him to consistently produce high-quality cannabis.

June Loriaga

Business Development Assistant

June provides companies the support needed to boost the company's growth, sales opportunities and has been assessing data and lead generation for 3 years. Working behind the scenes, he contributes to the development and success of company services and goals whilst promoting what they have to offer.

Jacob Lebo

Director of Capital Formation & Growth

Jacob is a serial entrepreneur, family office advisor and investment professional with experience across a multitude of industries including agriculture/cannabis, animal health, automotive/mobility, aviation, healthcare, hospitality, commercial & residential real estate, energy, sustainability, residential solar, construction, retail, SaaS, security & defense, web3 and more. Lebo brings an international focus with deep experience in origination, DD, capital formation, valuations, strategy, international expansion, and financial reporting.

Madison Benoit

Lab Technician

Madi has eclectic experience from the cannabis industry, pharmaceutical research, factory operations, customer service and business management. She graduated from Roger Williams in 2019 with a BS in Biology and double minor in Computer Science and Robotics. Madi currently works in the lab while assisting on various side projects from all departments.

Melissa Israel

Director of West Coast Business Development

Melissa is an accomplished sales professional with a proven track record in sales management, specializing in building departments and leading teams to surpass revenue goals. Her expertise lies in selling SaaS solutions across diverse industries as she served as the Channel Sales Manager at Roosted Inc, AI technology startup, and worked collaboratively with cross-functional teams to establish uniform compensation, training, and incentive programs, while also maintaining key customer relationships and implementing strategies for expanding the company's customer base. Her ability to design and build enablement for partner success, coupled with her keen insights into the competitive landscape, positions Melissa as a valuable asset in driving business development on the West Coast.

A Co-Founder & Partner at Cannova, a licensed medical cannabis farm, she plays a key role in cultivation, planning, strategy and selling craft indoor cannabis to medical cannabis dispensaries. Notably, her achievements as a Senior Territory Sales Manager at Fivestars by SumUp include breaking records for all-time sales, achieving an outstanding close rate, and consistently ranking in the top 5% of sales reps.

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