Scott Elster has been the CEO of Prolacta Bioscience since 2006. With over 30 years of experience in the biosciences and financial sectors, Scott’s experience encompasses planning, finance, strategy development, supply chain, and operations. Prior to joining us, Scott was director of operations and supply chain at Clinical Micro Sensors (CMS)—a Motorola Company.

At CMS, Scott successfully prepared operations for the company’s first commercial launch including U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a good manufacturing practice facility. He led the quality control function, the manufacturing team, and operational strategy development. His team was also responsible for materials and inventory management, as well as distribution and warehousing.

Before joining CMS, Scott spent 13 years at Baxter, focusing directly on plasma products worldwide. His leadership roles at Baxter included management of strategic planning, business development, finance, and strategy for the hyperimmune business unit, and director of global supply chain. Scott began his career at Deloitte & Touche as a financial statement auditor.

Scott received his bachelor of science from California State University, Northridge, and his master of business administration from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at University of California at Los Angeles. He is a board member and past chairman of the board for Monrovia Growers.

Scott Eaker joined Prolacta in 2007 and currently serves as our COO. Scott is responsible for our manufacturing, milk resourcing, quality, supply chain and regulatory affairs. He has over 20 years of experience in the bioscience and nutrition sectors. Scott began his career in the microbiology laboratory at Baxter’s first recombinant factor-VIII manufacturing facility. He supported the start-up of the bulk manufacturing and fill/finish operations, implemented numerous test protocols, led failure investigations, and rapidly became a supervisor of laboratory operations.

Scott also held a role serving as the subject matter expert in the areas of microbiology and aseptic processing for Baxter. In this position he was responsible for developing and deploying standardized quality systems across multiple biologic and medical device manufacturing facilities in the US and Europe. Scott was also responsible for quality in the plasma fractionation area and ultimately served as director of quality technical support for the bioscience division at Baxter.

Scott received a bachelor of science degree in microbiology from the University of California at Davis.

Dr. Melinda Elliott joined us in 2016 as senior director, clinical education and professional development, and is currently our CMO. She serves as the voice of the patient, working to ensure that the needs of premature infants are being articulated and that relevant treatment and product opportunities are identified. She also continues to serve as a clinical neonatologist with the Pediatrix Medical Group.

After holding professional and clinical positions at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Union Memorial Hospital, and Franklin Square Hospital Center, she joined the faculty at The Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital at Sinai in Baltimore and the Pediatrix Medical Group.

Melinda has committed her career to the care of vulnerable, premature infants and has researched the benefits of an Exclusive Human Milk Diet (EHMD) for extremely low birth weight premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). She has investigated breastfeeding practices of mothers of very low birth weight infants and her clinical research is published in academic journals. Melinda is an experienced neonatologist, educator, mentor, and leader in neonatal intensive care. 

Melinda earned her doctor of medicine degree from West Virginia University School of Medicine. A champion for babies since the inception of her medical career, she trained and taught extensively at the University of Florida including residency training in pediatrics, a faculty position as chief resident in pediatrics, and fellowship training in neonatal-perinatal medicine.

Aly Fuller is responsible for the cultivation, maintenance, defense, and enforcement of our extensive intellectual property portfolio. She also oversees our advocacy and international government affairs teams, and plays key roles in our research and development and business development teams.

Aly created and leads the Women’s Leadership Development Academy (WLDA) at Prolacta. This group provides professional development and mentorship and is designed to educate and empower the women of Prolacta and our communities.

Aly has over 12 years of experience as a patent agent/attorney working in the life sciences and pharmaceutical sectors. Prior to joining Prolacta in 2017, she served as our outside counsel for nearly nine years during her tenure at Cooley LLP.

Aly’s practice at Cooley focused on a holistic approach to IP including not only the preparation and prosecution of domestic and international biotechnology and pharmaceutical patent applications, but also due diligence, EPO oppositions, United States Patent and Trademark Office Reexamination proceedings, and the preparation of business-focused invalidity/non-infringement, freedom to operate, and patentability opinions. Aly is skilled at building strategic intellectual property assets and helping turn those assets into business opportunities including strategic partnerships, product acquisitions, and capital transactions.

In addition to her responsibilities at Prolacta, Aly also devotes significant time to the pro bono representation of LGBTQ individuals fleeing persecution in their home countries and seeking asylum in the US.

Aly graduated, cum laude, from Gannon University with a bachelor of science in biology from Northwestern University with a doctor of philosophy degree in immunology, and cum laude from The Catholic University Columbus School of Law with a doctor of jurisprudence. She is admitted to practice in Washington state, Washington, DC, and before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Vincent Gaspar joined us in 2017, and today serves as vice president of new markets and global strategic marketing. He leads the strategic direction and growth of the company’s Nutrition business globally.

Vincent has over 20 years of experience in sales and marketing leadership within the medical device industry and healthcare service companies. Throughout his career, Vincent has gained extensive experience in mergers, acquisitions, and integrating businesses. He also has a proven track record in commercial organization management, development, and restructuring.

Previously, Vincent served as senior vice president of global blood centers at Terumo BCT, as well as leading the Asia-Pacific commercial operations based. Prior to those responsibilities, he led the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region for five years, including the integration of CaridianBCT with Terumo in the region.

Vincent began his career with the distributor for Beckman Coulter Diagnostics in Belgium, then joined Valleylab, Inc (a division of Pfizer, now with Medtronics) to lead their business in the Middle East, Africa, and southern Europe.

During nine years at Kimberly-Clark’s health care division, Vincent led the EMEA region as the marketing director then as general manager. Subsequently, he relocated to the global headquarters in Roswell, Georgia, to form and lead global strategic marketing for Kimberly-Clark’s healthcare division.

Vincent earned his master’s degree in biotechnology from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

Alan Kofsky joined Prolacta in 2009 and leads our sales and marketing efforts throughout North America and Europe. Alan began his 33-year career working for Mead Johnson’s Infant Nutritional Division. He has held senior sales and marketing positions at both start-up and turnaround companies, as well as at companies in rapid growth circumstances.

While serving as the vice president of sales at Whatman, Inc, Alan led three business units: Bioscience, OEM and Distributor Sales, and was instrumental in reviving the company’s struggling DNA microarray business.

Prior to Whatman, Alan spent 13 years at Baxter where he held senior sales and marketing positions in the BioScience division. He led the successful global launch of Gammagard S/D which is a biologic used to treat numerous immune disorders. He also directed the launch of TISSEEL VH, a product used in the operating room for hemostasis, sealing, and gluing. Additionally, Alan served in a vital leadership role for the successful development of Baxter’s BioSurgery Division which sells and markets a variety of biologics for the hospital operating room.

Alan received his master of business administration from Adelphi University in New York and received his bachelor of art degree in psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

John Nelson serves as our CAO, leading human resources, information technology, legal, and administration functions.

John has over 30 years of leadership experience in human resources, working for both public and private companies in a variety of industries including insurance, education, manufacturing, and retail. Before coming to Prolacta in 2019, John served as the executive vice president, chief administrative officer at Employers Holdings, Inc., a publicly traded worker’s compensation insurance carrier based in Reno, Nevada where he was responsible for leading the human resources, shared services and administration functions for the organization. Prior to his role at Employers Holdings, Inc., John served as the vice president, human resources and administration at Fielding Graduate University, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.

John earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a master’s degree in organizational management from Antioch University. He is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) by the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI) and as a Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) by the Society for Human Resource Management.

David Steinberg joined us in 2022, and serves as our Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He oversees Prolacta’s financial operations, including financial planning, reporting, accounting, business development, and investor relations.

David brings more than 25 years of experience in biopharmaceutical equity research. As one of the first analysts to introduce specialty pharmaceuticals to Wall Street as a major growth opportunity, he has a long list of accolades. He has been regularly voted by portfolio managers to the Institutional Investor "All America Research Team." Most recently, he was ranked No. 2 in the sector for 2021 and has been recognized as a top stock picker by surveys such as The Wall Street Journal’s “Best on the Street.”

Prior to joining Prolacta, David served as managing director for Jefferies and Deutsche Bank. In addition to being widely recognized as a thought leader in the life sciences industry, he has deep expertise with capital fundraising and has been instrumental in launching more than 50 successful pharma and biotech initial public offerings (IPOs), and has been involved in helping entrepreneurial biopharmaceutical companies raise more than $30 billion in equity and equity-linked securities.

David earned his Bachelor of Arts in economics from Colby College and received his Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Adam Sun is vice president of research and development, responsible for the product and process development activities, product innovation, clinical manufacturing, and manufacturing technical support and validation. Adam has over 30 years of experience in nutrition, biological drugs, and medical devices. He has a long, successful career in developing lifesaving products from the bench-scale, to the commercial scale, through hiring, training, developing, coaching, and mentoring team members with diverse backgrounds.

Prior to joining Prolacta in 2014, Adam was head of research and development for plasma processes of Baxter Bioscience’s fractionation facilities. He also held roles serving as the subject matter expert in the process development, pilot plant operation, process improvement, validation, and technology transfer.

Adam received three bachelor of science degrees (physics, biology, and chemistry), a master of science, and a doctor of philosophy degree in biochemical engineering from University of California, Irvine. He is also certified as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Carol joined Prolacta in 2023 and currently serves as our Vice President of Global Clinical Research and Development (CRD). She is responsible for directing, building, and developing the CRD organization to meet our evolving needs, shape and execute plans and programs, advance product development, and oversee clinical trials.

Carol is a certified family nurse practitioner and clinical research professional who brings over 30 years of extensive global drug development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry across clinical operations, program management, data management, clinical safety. She has experience in multiple therapeutic indications including drugs, biologics, devices, and combination products from early- to late-stage development, life-cycle management.

Prior to joining us, Carol was a senior clinical operations consultant offering clinical development and program management to clients based on their program’s current lifecycle. She has held senior positions at Saniona as Vice President of Global Clinical Operations and Global Clinical Development, Seres Therapeutics as Vice President, Clinical Operations & Data Management.

Carol received her Master of Science in Nursing and Family Nurse Practitioner Certification from the University of California, San Francisco, and has a Master’s Degree in Strategic Studies from the Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, and a Program Management Certification from Boston University.

Joe Fournell joined Prolacta Bioscience in 2006. Throughout his career at Prolacta, Joe has served in a wide variety of leadership areas as the company continued to grow. Today, he is our CIO overseeing our IT. Joe has nearly 20 years of experience in the field of operations and supply chain management in the high-tech and bioscience sectors. Throughout his career, he has held leadership roles in operations, manufacturing execution systems, forecasting, supply planning, process engineering, and logistics.

Prior to joining Prolacta, Joe served as director of global logistics for Baxter. In this capacity, he managed the transportation, warehousing, and distribution of over $3 billion of product globally. He led strategy planning sessions for operations, regulatory, and human resources. Joe became Baxter’s first certified Six Sigma Black Belt in North America, working on process improvements in the manufacturing and supply chain arenas.

Joe received his bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, with an emphasis on process engineering. He also received a master of science degree in industrial engineering at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, with a focus on factory automation, funded with a grant through NASA Ames and Raytheon Technologies.

Ramon Gutierrez joined us in 2020, and today serves as vice president of global marketing. He helps to ensure our commercial organization is focused on growing our business in North America and expanding internationally.

Ramon is an accomplished business professional with over 20 years of international experience within life sciences across five countries, and a wide scope of local/global roles in marketing and sales. His career has focused on improving business results, either turning around declining trends or accelerating growth. He is also experienced in organizational transformation, functional competency development, digital strategy, and innovation.

Before Prolacta, Ramon spent 13 years at Danone Nutricia, serving in various roles, including business unit director of Iberia, marketing director for the Nordics, global category manager for metabolics and epilepsy, and marketing manager for their largest brand within the allergy therapeutic area. He also worked at Nestlé Health Science as a category development manager and associate product manager.

Ramon earned his master’s degree in business, consumer, and product management from the Kenan Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina.

Mark Hannon joined Prolacta in 2016 and leads various departments including manufacturing, engineering and maintenance, milk procurement, validation, technical services, and environmental health and safety. He has more than 25 years of leadership experience, including 15 years in manufacturing and quality management in the biotechnology, medical, pharmaceutical, and food industries. Prior to joining Prolacta, Mark led the Hershey company’s second-largest manufacturing operation in the US.

Mark’s career in biotechnology started with Baxter, where he held leadership roles in manufacturing, planning, and purchasing operations associated with current good manufacturing practice plasma fractionation, bulk suspension and formulation, sterile bulk preparation, aseptic filling, lyophilization, pasteurization, and packaging of plasma-derived products. His other roles at Baxter included quality director for a medical device operation as well as director of manufacturing and plant manager at one of the largest contract manufacturing sites of sterile products (syringes, vials, and cartridges) in North America.

Mark is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served as a US Army Airborne Ranger Infantry Officer in roles ranging from platoon leader to company commander.

Martin Lee is officially employee number one at Prolacta and was a part of the origins of our company in 2001. While he has held several roles throughout his tenure with us, today he oversees our data analysis efforts throughout the world.

In addition to his role with us, Martin is also an adjunct professor in the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a professor of Internal Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Science and Medicine. Martin is the author or co-author of over 240 scientific papers. He is a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and the Institute of Biomedical Science; and a member of the American Statistical Association, the Biometrics Society, and the International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis.

Martin received a bachelor of arts degree in Mathematics (summa cum laude), and a master of science and PhD in biostatistics from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has worked for more than 40 years in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries as head of clinical and regulatory functions for these organizations.

Dr. Gregory McKenzie serves as our vice president of product innovation, charged with developing novel therapeutic products derived from human breast milk. He has had roles of increasing responsibility over 20 years in biotech and has developed multiple new technologies, including human therapeutics and microbial diagnostics.

Gregory was an early member of the Seres Therapeutics, Inc. (MCRB) team that developed the novel clinical-stage live microbiome therapeutics SER-109 and SER-287 both in late stage clinical development. He also co-led the Seres development team for SER-155, an innovative live microbial therapy for infection and GVHD in hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients.

As founding chief scientific officer for ConsortiaTX, Inc., Gregory developed CTX-944 – an orally-delivered, defined consortium of live commensal bacteria of human origin to prevent and cure food allergy, a condition for which there are currently no effective treatments.

Gregory has seven issued patents, received his PhD in molecular and human genetics from Baylor College of Medicine, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He earned his bachelor of science with first class honors in cell biotechnology from the University of Alberta in Canada.

Dr. David Rechtman has been a member of our team at Prolacta since our first year in 2001. Prior to joining Prolacta, David was a part of Baxter, where he was responsible for product safety for the entire product line and medical affairs for immunological and infectious disease products. While at Baxter, he was instrumental in popularizing a highly effective therapy for a serious complication of bone marrow transplantation as well as helping to achieve new indications for existing products.

Subsequently, David spent several years as medical director for Ribi Immunochem Research, Inc where he was the medical officer for the first phase III trial of a commercial therapeutic cancer vaccine, targeted against malignant melanoma. He also directed the team developing a product for the prevention of sepsis in high-risk patients.

For nearly a decade, David provided consulting services to various pharmaceutical and biotech companies. These activities subsequently developed into a successful contract research organization that designed and ran clinical trials internationally. David has been an invited speaker at professional gatherings in the US and Europe, has published original research and written chapters for several textbooks, and has given guest lectures to undergraduate and graduate university students in the areas of infectious and immunological diseases and therapies and their development.

David received his doctor of medicine degree from State University of New York (SUNY) - Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine. Following a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in infectious diseases, he served on the faculty of SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn while helping to establish and lead the multidisciplinary AIDS care team at the affiliated Kings County Hospital.

John Shields joined Prolacta as vice president of legal affairs, general counsel, and corporate secretary in 2015 after representing Prolacta as outside counsel since 2006. John oversees all legal matters for the company including commercial and capital-raising transactions, corporate and regulatory compliance, securities law, employment practices, board and stockholder matters, business development, and litigation.

Prior to joining Prolacta, John was in private practice counseling a variety of companies and investors in the pharmaceutical, medical device, information technology, and manufacturing industries. His legal career has focused on public and private securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and strategic licensing and joint venture transactions, first at Fenwick & West in Silicon Valley and later as a corporate partner with Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth in Orange County, California.

John received his bachelor of arts degree in political science and philosophy at Stanford University and his doctor of jurisprudence from the University of Virginia, where he was article editor for the Law Review and a Dillard Fellow and a staff member the University of Virginia Patent Foundation, supporting its public-private licensing efforts. Prior to his legal career, John was a national security analyst with the Carnegie Endowment and with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in Washington, DC, working for the US Department of Defense and the Joint Staff on international security and defense policy.