StemoniX Appoints Andrew D. C. LaFrence As Chief Financial Officer

MAPLE GROVE, Minn., Oct. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- StemoniX, Inc., a leader in human microOrgan® platforms for drug discovery and development, today announced the appointment of Andrew (Andy) D. C. LaFrence, CPA, as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Mr. LaFrence brings 35 years of accounting, finance, and operations experience to StemoniX, including executive management positions at public and private life sciences companies.

As CFO, Mr. LaFrence will be responsible for leading StemoniX’s finance and capital markets activities, as well as implementing initiatives to support the growth and market penetration of the company’s microOrgan technology platforms.

Ping Yeh, co-founder and CEO of StemoniX, said: “StemoniX has grown substantially in the past few years, and we have reached a point of inflection where a CFO with deep investor connections coupled with a proven ability to drive internal and external growth is advantageous. Andy is ideally suited for this role at StemoniX given his experience working with private and public life sciences companies to execute growth strategies that leverage disruptive technologies and ‘greenfield’ market opportunities to maximize both investor interests and business development. I greatly look forward to working alongside Andy to capitalize on the enormous potential that StemoniX and our microOrgan technology offer across the entire pharmaceutical and biotechnology landscape.”

Prior to joining StemoniX, Mr. LaFrence served as Senior Vice President and CFO of Biothera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from May 2018 to July 2019, and for five years prior to that as Vice President Finance, Information Systems, and CFO at Surmodics, Inc. Mr. LaFrence also previously served as CFO for CNS Therapeutics, a venture-backed intrathecal drug company. He was an audit partner at KPMG LLP where he focused on supporting venture-backed, high-growth medical technology, pharmaceutical, biotech, and clean tech private and public companies. Mr. LaFrence is a certified public accountant and has a bachelor’s degree in accounting with a minor in business administration from Illinois State University.

Andy LaFrence, CFO of StemoniX stated: “The opportunity for StemoniX and its microOrgan platforms and data analytics capabilities to help our partners discover and develop medicines more accurately and quickly is unprecedented. As CFO, I am eager to utilize my depth of experience to strengthen StemoniX’s finances and position the company to identify key investor partners and decision-makers that are essential to our success and the creation of shareholder value.”

About StemoniX
StemoniX is accelerating the discovery of new medicines to treat challenging diseases via the world’s first ready-to-use assay plates containing living human microOrgans^®, including electrophysiologically active neural (microBrain^®) and cardiac (microHeart^®) cells. Predictive, accurate, and consistent, StemoniX’s products combined with its proprietary data management and analytical tools enable a simplified high throughput screening workflow to quickly and accurately evaluate drug efficacy and toxicity. Through its Discovery as a Service branch, the company partners with organizations to screen compounds as well as to create customized microOrgan models and assays tailored to individual discovery and toxicity needs. Visit www.stemonix.com to learn how StemoniX is helping global institutions humanize drug discovery and development to bring the most promising medicines to patients.

Tiberend Strategic Advisors, Inc.

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SOURCE StemoniX