Management Team
Our company was founded and organized as Axial Biotech, Inc. in 2002 by Jim Ogilvie, M.D., Kenneth Ward, M.D., John Braun, M.D., and John Climaco.
Kenneth Ward, M.D.
Chairman of the Board and Chief Scientific Officer
Kenneth Ward, M.D. is a Company Founder, Director, and the Chairman of the Board for Axial Biotech, Inc. Dr. Ward is among the few physicians in the country who are board certified in four sub-specialties: Obstetrics/Gynecology, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Medical Genetics, and Molecular Genetics. Dr. Ward was the past Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women's Health at the University of Hawaii. As Professor of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Human Genetics at the University of Utah, Dr. Ward founded and ran the university's DNA Diagnostic Laboratory. He led the efforts to discover a number of human disease genes including Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return, Hereditary Multiple Exostosis. In addition, he discovered genetic associations for several pregnancy related diseases including pre-eclampsia and pregnancy induced hypertension. Dr. Ward has founded, managed, and operated a number of successful biotechnology companies.
John M. Climaco
President and Chief Executive Officer
John M. Climaco is a Company Founder and the President and Chief Executive Officer of Axial Biotech, Inc. Mr. Climaco has been involved with start-up ventures in various capacities for the last twelve years. Prior to founding Axial Biotech, Mr. Climaco served as director of programming for Quokka Sports, a venture-backed online media company that went public in 1999. While with Quokka, Mr. Climaco closed deals with Intel, Microsoft WebTV, NBC Sports, and National Geographic.
An attorney by training, Mr. Climaco began his legal career with Gunderson Dettmer, one of Silicon Valley's leading firms. Mr. Climaco continued his career as a partner with Fabian & Clendenin in Salt Lake City, and has handled a wide range of transactions from IPOs, venture, private equity, and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions and intellectual property licensing transactions. Mr. Climaco holds a BA in Philosophy (Cum Laude) from Middlebury College and a JD from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.
James Ogilvie, M.D.
Chief Medical Advisor
James Ogilive, M.D. is a Company Founder, Director, and Chief Medical Officer of Axial Biotech, Inc. He was the past President of the Scoliosis Research Society and Associate Editor of the Spine Journal since 1987. Dr. Ogilvie is currently a staff surgeon at Shriners' Hospital for Children. He was a Professor and Vice-Chair of the University of Minnesota Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and has served on the staff of the Twin Cities Spine Center of Abbott Northwestern Hospital.
Dr. Ogilvie has three recently issued patents pertaining to methods and instrumentation for spine surgery. He has received multiple NIH and industry grants during his years of practice and has authored dozens of peer reviewed scientific papers, book chapters, and abstracts. Dr. Ogilvie mentored Dr. John Braun during Dr. Braun's spine fellowship at the Twin Cities Scoliosis Spine Center.
Eric Olson
Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Eric Olson joined Axial Biotech, Inc. in 2008 having had 18 years of experience in the medical device industry. He has led top-producing sales and marketing organizations at several companies including Smith & Nephew and Medtronic. Immediately prior to joining Axial Biotech, he was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Facet Solutions, a privately-held venture backed company focused on surgical devices for the treatment of facet related spinal disorders.
Mr. Olson has also worked as the VP of Sales and Business Developement for Sorenson Medical, Inc a wholly owned subsidiary of Sorenson Development, Inc. In addition, Mr. Olson was the founder and President of Protech Medical, Inc. in San Francisco, California. Mr. Olson obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Behavioral Science and Health Administration with a minor in Japanese from the University of Utah. He also completed a Master's level internship at the University of Utah.
Lesa Nelson
Vice President of Clinical Operations
Lesa Nelson has over 20 years experience in genetic research. She is a Founder of Taueret Laboratories, LLC. She was the Laboratory Director of EmerGen Laboratories managing the research effort. Ms. Nelson and Dr. Chad Nelson have developed a proprietary technology for gene discovery used to address the current rate-limiting step in disease gene discovery and molecular diagnostic testing, GeneMass® . She was previously the Assistant Director and Technical Supervisor for the University of Utah DNA Diagnostic Laboratory , Reproductive Genetics Division. She has served as an Independent Consultant to ARUP laboratories, a large clinical testing laboratory, and Affiliated Genetics, a parentage testing laboratory.
Her primary role in the clinical genetics field has been research and development to provide the link from research discoveries to applied clinical genetics. As a member of the Reproductive Genetics Division she was also the Research Laboratory Supervisor and managed various projects relating to pregnancy complications. Early in her career, she was involved as part of a research team at the University of Utah that mapped many disease genes including the genes for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis and familial adenomatous polyposis. As part of the laboratory team involved in the Human Genome Project, she worked on constructing high-resolution linkage maps of the chromosomes.
Joe Ross
Vice President of Strategic Initiatives
Joe Ross joined Axial Biotech in 2008, bringing with him more than 12 years of experience in Orthopaedic medical devices and biologics. Prior to his most recent position as Vice President Global Marketing for Stryker Biotech, Mr. Ross worked 11 years with the DePuy Spine division of Johnson and Johnson Corp. in roles of increasing responsibility including Worldwide Vice President for New Business Development.
Mr. Ross has extensive experience partnering with physician and industry leaders to advance innovative clinical solutions. He has led numerous successful product and business development efforts and has been granted multiple U.S. patents. He holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of Notre Dame, an MS in Management from Troy State University and served proudly for five years as an officer in the United States Navy.
Roberto Macina, Ph.D.
Vice President of Research and Development
Roberto A. Macina joined Axial Biotech, Inc. in early 2009 and has over fourteen years of experience in the fields of molecular biology, genomics, cancer research, and molecular diagnostics. He was one of the scientific founders of diaDexus, Inc., holding many different managerial roles and made major contributions to the identification and development of patent protected diagnostic and therapeutic targets with high potential clinical value. Previous to working at diaDexus, Dr. Macina worked with the molecular diagnostics department at SmithKline Beecham in the discovery and characterization of novel genes differentially expressed in breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer. Previously in his career, Dr. Macina worked at The Wistar Institute as part of a team involved in the Human Genome Project, cloning and mapping the telomeres of human chromosomes to study their involvement in aging and cancer. He also worked in the mapping of the PAX3 gene that encodes a transcription factor associated with Waardenburg syndrome and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. Dr. Macina holds a B.S. degree in Biology and a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and completed his Post-Doctoral Fellowship at The Wistar Institute.
