December 23, 2015 8:00am
An icon who built “our’ cell therapy universe …
CLBS appointed Robert A. Preti, Ph.D., SVP, Manufacturing and Technical Operations and Chief Technology Officer to its Board of Directors.
CLBS appointed Steven S. Meyers; previously the Board’s lead independent Director, as interim Chairman of the Board, subsequent to the resignation of Robin L. Smith, M.D, as Chairman of the Board and a Director.
CLBS appointed Robert A. Preti, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Manufacturing and Technical Operations and Chief Technology Officer of Caladrius Biosciences, to its Board of Directors.
With these changes, the Caladrius Biosciences Board remains at eight Directors.
The Bottom Line: Say a lot … that a CEO is NOW reporting to a BOD comprised by a division head and NOT stepping-up to a Chairman role … as he thanks “Dr. Smith for her many years of service to the Company and its Board and wish her well in her future endeavors.”
She <Dr. Robin Smith>made it, and you <David Mazzo> broke it …! Let’s see how long the CEO lasts …?
The CEO has placed himself in a new self-styled HQ <his former defunct company “digs”> far away from the ebb and flow of employees who were part of building this company – for years.
Bob Preti is a solid “citizen” who has built PCT a manufacturing and development services company.
Dr. Preti is the President and co-founder of PCT, a Caladrius company, and has built it over much of the last two decades. As Chief Technology Officer of Caladrius he is involved in assessing and directing the development of Caladrius’ cell therapy pipeline, as well as participating in setting the Company’s strategic direction.
As the cell therapy field has grown, so too has PCT— the company has now served over 120 clients and performed more than 20,000 cell therapy procedures. His leadership has been instrumental in creating PCT’s client-focused model that helps bridge the gap between discovery and patient care through efficient transfer of cell-based therapies from laboratory to clinical practice to commercialization.
Before assuming his role at PCT, Dr. Preti held a number of positions within the cellular therapy and blood banking fields. From 1996 to 1999, he was the director of hematopoietic stem cell processing and applied research at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J. He served in several capacities with the New York Blood Center from 1990 to 1997, including tissue bank director, director of hematopoietic stem cell processing, scientific director and associate investigator. He also worked as a research scientist for Marrow-Tech Incorporated, which went on to become Advanced Tissue Sciences (ATIS), where work in his laboratory lead to the Dermagraft product currently marketed by Organogenesis.
In addition, Dr. Preti has served on the Stem Cell Banking Committee and Cord Blood Subcommittee of the New York State Department of Health and on the New Jersey State Department of Health’s Blood Bank Advisory Committee, chairing the Hematopoietic Progenitor Cell Processing Subcommittee. He has served in a leadership capacity for many professional organizations, including treasurer and founding member of the International Society of Hematotherapy and Graft Engineering, now called ISCT (International Society for Cellular Therapy). He has published and presented extensively on a variety of topics relating to cellular therapies. He recently completed a five year term as a director for AABB, and is currently Vice Chairman for the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), where, among other activities, he co-chaired the Standards and Technology Committee.
Dr. Preti holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Fordham University, and a Master of Science degree and Doctorate, both in biology, from New York University.
<Disclosure: I consider Bob Preti, a friend>