Kevin Caldwell
CEO, Co-Founder & President
CEO, Co-Founder & President
“Humanity’s deepening understanding of biology is driving a revolution in bioengineering that parallels the industrial revolutions that followed the birth of modern physics and chemistry. Ossium is driving this progress forward by making the building blocks of life the raw materials of therapeutics. We’re building a future in which healthcare is about preserving health, not just treating symptoms.”
CEO, Co-Founder & President
As CEO, Co-Founder & President of Ossium Health, Kevin Caldwell has built Ossium from a small startup into a clinical stage bioengineering company. Kevin set the company’s mission to improve human health through bioengineering and designed its platform-based model for cellular therapeutics development. Kevin has led the company’s successful pursuit, negotiation, and execution of more than 50 business relationships, including 5 successful fundraisings and dozens of supply partnerships, clinical partnerships, and commercial contracts with biopharmaceutical companies.
Prior to founding Ossium, Kevin served as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey’s San Francisco office where he advised clients in the biotechnology and healthcare sectors. His projects ranged from due diligence of acquisition targets in the biotech startup ecosystem to restructuring distressed biopharma companies. Mr. Caldwell led more than 20 engagements with more than a dozen clients, leading teams that advised clients on revenue growth, go to market strategy, and organizational restructuring.
Before McKinsey, Kevin served as a Senior Investment Associate at Bridgewater Associates where he did quantitative research for the firm’s global macro investments. Mr. Caldwell studied Physics and Economics at MIT before receiving his JD from Harvard Law School. Mr. Caldwell is a member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO), and a Fellow of the Leaders in Tech Program.
Chief Science Officer, Co-Founder, EVP, CLIA Laboratory Director
“Human beings are complex biological systems upon systems. Cell therapies offer a chance to utilize biology to do things we are just incapable of with current pharmaceutical approaches. Cells as medicine allow a therapy to interpret what is going wrong with the system and respond accordingly – not just with one molecule, but with dozens, in specific ratios leading a symphony of healing.”
Chief Science Officer, Co-Founder, EVP, CLIA Laboratory Director
Dr. Woods has devoted his career to advancing cell selection, culture and cryopreservation to facilitate mainstream clinical use of cellular therapies. Originally co-founding and leading General BioTechnology, LLC (GBT), a commercial cryobank, contract cell-manufacturing and R&D company, which he led for 15 years through successful acquisition by COOK Medical in 2012. During that time, he ran a continuously grant funded research program that created numerous successful technologies, including the first closed-system cryovial for cellular therapeutics, now marketed as CellSeal® by Sexton Biotechnologies, and the first mass produced human platelet lysate product, marketed as Stemulate®, both now used globally.
Following acquisition of GBT, Dr. Woods served as Senior VP of COOK Regentec and oversaw the scale up manufacturing of products in the US and Europe, and managed global projects involving multiple teams. Additionally, he served as an officer in Medistem, Inc., an early phase cell therapy company, where he developed isolation, manufacturing, and cryopreservation methods and prepared the CMC for their proprietary allogeneic Endometrial Regenerative Cell (ERC) technology IND and assisted in that company’s successful acquisition by Intrexon Corp.
Dr. Woods has a proven track record of developing new cell processing and banking technologies and translating them to the clinic. Over his career, he has been responsible for overseeing clinical laboratory operations as a board certified High Complexity Clinical Laboratory Director (HCLD), and in that capacity he ran the only FDA registered commercial sperm bank and the only umbilical cord blood bank in the state of Indiana, obtaining State Licensure, CLIA certification for testing, and American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) Accreditation.
Dr. Woods is a Fellow and Past President of the Society for Cryobiology and has published numerous peer reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and holds multiple patents in the field. Dr. Woods received his BA from Indiana University, his PhD from Purdue University, and he completed his postdoctoral research at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Vice President, People & Talent
Vice President, Research
Vice President, Finance
Chief Medical Officer, Senior Vice President
Vice President, Technical Operations
Vice President, Donor Operations
General Counsel & Senior Vice President
Vice President, People & Talent
Ms. Gardner is a hands-on People leader with deep experience supporting high-growth startups across SaaS, cleantech, and fintech. Her focus is building scalable People and Talent infrastructure that emphasizes connection and engagement across multiple locations, teams, and levels.
Before joining Ossium, Ms. Gardner established the People team as employee #18 at Turntide Technologies, a cleantech electric motor startup with backing from Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Robert Downey Jr. During her tenure, she cemented the People team as the connective tissue for a before-its-time hybrid model of 6 offices and 40% remote staff, and drove 555% headcount growth across the company. At Turntide she rolled out multiple people-focused initiatives including introducing OKRs, creating a recruiting playbook, founding a DEBI (Diversity, Equity, Belonging, & Inclusion) team, and building out the onboarding program Turntide 101. Ms. Gardner also spent 4 years in HR Consulting, working with startups across the nation to implement HR systems and best practices. Her team supported between 30-40 clients at any given time to onboard companies’ first hires, create a foundational HR base, and set the company up for future success with a focus on proactive consultative HR.
Prior to finding her calling in the People space, Ms. Gardner worked in guest operations at San Francisco’s two science museums: The California Academy of Sciences (where she presented public engagement shows underwater as a scuba diver) and the Exploratorium. Ms. Gardner received her BA in Feminist Studies from Stanford University, where she won a national championship as a member of the women’s water polo team and was named to the All-American team all four years. She also spent six months playing professional water polo overseas in Greece.
Vice President, Research
For the past 20 years, Dr. Johnstone has been actively involved in translating adult stem cell therapies into treatments for a host of diseases affecting the major organs of the body. In 2004, he co-authored one of the first studies demonstrating the potential for treating cardiovascular diseases with novel adult stem cells isolated from fat.
Since then, Dr. Johnstone has continued to develop and test new medical uses for adult stem cells as part of his own research as well as in collaboration with international academic centers and pharma / biotech firms.
Outside of the research setting, Dr. Johnstone co-founded NeuroFx, an early-stage biotech firm developing a novel therapy for neurological disorders. Dr. Johnstone led the R&D program at NeuroFx for two years, where he was directly responsible for preclinical and chemistry, manufacturing, and controls development activities. He continues to act as an advisor for NeuroFx. Additionally, Dr. Johnstone has formed two other biotech companies, Chemigen, which is developing a small molecule drug for treating Lou Gehrig’s disease, and EmphyMab Biotech (now Allinaire), which is developing biologics to treat serious lung diseases.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Dr. Johnstone was an early employee at Sangamo Biosciences for 6 years, where he managed the preclinical development program for their lead gene therapy candidate for cardiovascular diseases, which is currently in Phase II clinical testing. Dr. Johnstone received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Vice President, Finance
Ed Jun is a thoughtful leader who empowers and inspires his teams to deliver exceptional performance in alignment with the company’s goals. He is a seasoned finance leader with a strong life sciences background who drives decision making based on the needs of the business and analytical acumen.
Before joining Ossium, Mr. Jun developed and led the Finance, Planning & Analysis team at Caribou Biosciences. As Caribou transitioned into a public company, he was instrumental in shaping new financial processes such as leading the budgeting, forecasting, board financials, and other financial analyses. Mr. Jun also led the FP&A function at Audentes Therapeutics, where he worked to integrate the company’s processes and financials into Astellas Pharmaceuticals. He also led the North America retail FP&A team at Activision Blizzard and spent 10 years at Pfizer in various commercial finance and FP&A roles. In 2016, Mr. Jun was recognized by the Asian American Business Development Center as one of the top 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in business. Mr. Jun received his BS in Mechanical Engineering and his MBA in Finance, both from Cornell University.
Chief Medical Officer, Senior Vice President
Dr. Sagar Munjal has more than eighteen years of experience in drug development and product strategy. His expertise spans clinical development (phase I-IV), clinical operations, medical affairs, R&D, and global product launches. Dr. Munjal has worked in eight therapeutic areas and has brought four products to market. He has worked extensively with regulatory and government agencies, including the FDA, EMA, MHRA, ANVISA, and the DCGI. Dr. Munjal has drug development experience in small molecules, drug-device combination products, and biologics.
Dr. Munjal has managed global teams in the US, Europe, and India. He has worked with CROs of all sizes, investors, and scientific advisors. Dr. Munjal successfully negotiated a complex failed phase 3 study with the FDA to achieve product approval.
Before joining Ossium, Dr. Munjal worked at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Inc (USA), and was Chief Medical Officer at Promius Pharma LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dr. Reddy’s. Previously, he worked at Johnson & Johnson, Altria, and in the clinic as an investigator. Dr. Munjal has published more than 30 manuscripts related to clinical studies, presented more than 60 abstracts at various scientific meetings, and was the recipient of the 2017 Harold G. Wolff award from the American Headache Society for key scientific contributions to the migraine field. Dr. Munjal received his MD from Karnataka University Dharwad and his MS in Clinical Research and Biostatistics from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Vice President, Technical Operations
Hans Nowak is a seasoned executive known for his leadership and expertise in manufacturing and supply chain operations, engineering, and business analytics. His strategic business experience, grounded in a robust technical foundation, has enabled him to optimize operational excellence and drive transformative growth across multiple complex, regulated industries.
Currently serving as the Vice President of Technical Operations at Ossium Health, Mr. Nowak leads day-to-day manufacturing, supply chain, and engineering operations, overseeing production output, product quality, and distribution. He also shapes our strategic operational vision to expand the product range, innovate for company growth, bolster manufacturing capabilities, and drive continuous competitive improvement while maintaining a safety-first and quality-always mindset.
Prior to Ossium, Mr. Nowak served as a Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, where he led pharmaceutical and medical device companies through their most challenging operations and analytics problems. His projects ranged from heading the operational, quality, and digital transformations of manufacturing networks and sites to building product development strategies that significantly reduced development time, leading to rapid approvals of new molecular entities.
Before joining McKinsey, Mr. Nowak spent over a decade in engineering and operations leadership positions in industries ranging from nuclear engineering and defense to manufacturing operations and pharma. In these roles, he directed operations and maintenance of a reactor plant, consulted on manufacturing strategy, implemented cutting-edge automation and robotics solutions, led teams to formulate and aseptically fill medicine, and created advanced analytics tools to optimize operations and supply chains for Fortune 100 companies.
Mr. Nowak is a Navy submarine veteran and a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, where he received his BS in Applied Mathematics and BS in Quantitative Economics. He continued his education at MIT as a Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) Fellow and Siebel Scholar, graduating first in his class and receiving his MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT’s School of Engineering and his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Mr. Nowak is certified in nuclear engineering, operations research, and business analytics, and he has shared his expertise by teaching courses at prestigious institutions such as IUPUI and MIT.
Vice President, Donor Operations
Kathleen Vasilopulos is a seasoned operations executive, with a background in nursing, healthcare, legal consulting, business development, and organ and tissue donation. She is focused on mission-driven, life-saving healthcare initiatives.
Prior to joining Ossium, Ms. Vasilopulos held leadership positions in healthcare and medical legal consulting. As Vice President of Hospital Development & Family Services at Donor Network West, Ms. Vasilopulos directed teams in Northern California and Nevada, significantly improving organ authorization and donation rates. At OneLegacy, the world’s largest organ, tissue, and eye procurement organization, her leadership contributed to record-breaking years for organ donation and transplantation.
Ms. Vasilopulos also served as Vice President of Business Development at Recruitment Specialists Inc., where she secured key contracts and managed national projects that generated millions in sales. Her career also includes successful tenures at Progressive Nursing Staffers, where she drove substantial sales and growth.
Ms. Vasilopulos started her healthcare career as a Cardiovascular ICU Nurse and Team Lead. With a BSN and an MBA from the University of Illinois, as well as certifications in procurement transplant and tissue banking, she has built a reputation for exceptional leadership across various industries, consistently driving organizational growth and operational excellence.
General Counsel & Senior Vice President
Chip Walker-Wilson is the General Counsel & Senior Vice President, and he is responsible for overseeing Ossium Health’s legal and corporate governance functions.
Prior to joining Ossium Health, Mr. Walker-Wilson served as legal counsel at Cytokinetics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with development programs in the areas of cardiovascular and neurological diseases. At Cytokinetics, Mr. Walker-Wilson primarily supported the Research & Development Department, including the Clinical Operations, Non-Clinical Development, Research, Biometrics and Informatics groups. Prior to Cytokinetics, Mr. Walker-Wilson served as legal counsel at Dynavax Technologies Corporation, a biotechnology company with development programs in vaccines, cancer immunotherapies and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. At Dynavax, Mr. Walker-Wilson provided support across the company, including the Research & Development, Technical Operations, Corporate Governance, Business Development, Information Technology, Regulatory, Quality, Human Resources and Medical Affairs groups. Prior to Dynavax, Mr. Walker-Wilson served as legal counsel at Abbott Laboratories. Mr. Walker-Wilson supported Abbott Diabetes Care, which is a medical device manufacturer that develops and sells blood glucose monitoring products. At Abbott, Mr. Walker-Wilson primarily worked with the Sales, Marketing, Strategic Partnership and Alliances, Business Development and Customer Service groups. Prior to Abbott, Mr. Walker-Wilson worked at the law firms of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, where his practice focused primarily on corporate and securities law and finance law.
Mr. Walker-Wilson received his B.A. in Legal Studies (with a minor in Rhetoric) from the University of California, Berkeley and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.