Dede Willis, President & CEO and Board Member

Dede Willis has over 25 years of international leadership experience in start-ups and turn-arounds. She was on the Board of Directors of Panion Animal Health AB, a Swedish animal health company until its acquisition by CombiGene AB. Prior to co-founding Orbit Genomics, she was co-founder and COO of Boulder Diagnostics Inc, whose technology was acquired by Oxford Immunotec. Prior to that, she was CEO or COO of numerous life science start-ups in the US and Germany. She has expertise in strategic planning & execution, product development from concept to commercialization, capital build outs including CLIA laboratories and cGMP manufacturing, FDA and CE Marking regulatory processes for drugs & devices, as well as sales & marketing. Dede spent the first 15 years of her career with the former Hoechst Group (now Sanofi, Celanese and DuPont) where she worked in several corporate start-ups in the U.S. and Germany. Her last position with the Hoechst Group was President and CEO of a $100 million coatings subsidiary. Dede has a B.Sc. Degree in Chemical engineering from Clemson University and an executive MBA from the University of Houston.

Harold “Skip” Garner, Chief Scientific Officer and Board Member

Harold “Skip” Garner is the inventor of Orbit Genomics’ platform technology. He has a corporate and academic background as a physicist, engineer and biomedical researcher. Previously, he was the Executive Director, Primary Care Research Network and the Center for Bioinformatics and Genetics and Vice Provost for Research Development and Associate Dean for Biomedicine at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM). He is a serial entrepreneur and has held multiple founder, board and advisor positions in the biotech industry, including Light Biology which was acquired by Nimblegen and subsequently Roche and BioAutomation acquired by LGC Biosearch Technologies. He is an adviser and reviewer for various US and international government agencies, publishers and journals. He has contributed to 10 books, has over 200 peer reviewed publications and has over 30 issued and pending patents. Skip has a B.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Missouri, an M.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Plasma Physics from the University of Wisconsin.

Randy Berholtz, General Counsel and Vice President Business Development

Randy Berholtz has more than 25 years of experience as an executive and general counsel to public and private life science companies.  He also has over 15 years experience as an angel and venture capital investor into seed and early stage life science companies.  His experience includes advising on various corporate, financing, mergers and acquisitions, licensing, collaborations, patents, trademarks and litigation for companies in the genomics, diagnostics, therapeutics, device and other related healthcare fields.  He worked for large law firms in New York and San Diego and was the general counsel for Nanogen, Inc. (Nasdaq), the ACON group of Chinese and life science companies, (Apricus Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq), Convalo, Inc. (Toronto Venture Exchange) and for Innovus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTC Markets).  He is also a Senior Advisor to Mesa Verde Venture Partners, a San Diego-based venture capital fund and is on the board of directors if Life on Earth, Inc. (OTC Markets).  He is a graduate of Cornell University, Yale University Law School, Oxford University (where he was a Rhodes Scholar) and the University of San Diego School of Business.

Cathy Luo, CFO

Cathy Luo has over 25 years of unparalleled expertise in financial leadership across IPOs, M&A, equity and debt financing, revenue recognition, and operational strategy. Her reputation as a trusted strategist is built on a proven track record of scaling startups, guiding executive teams, and fostering investor relationships. Before joining Orbit, Cathy excelled as VP of Finance at Genapsys Inc., a genomics sequencing company, where she spearheaded a $70M crossover financing, secured $30M in debt funding, and steered IPO preparations alongside leading a Deloitte audit. Cathy’s career began with global powerhouses like DHL and Visa, and she later transitioned into Silicon Valley’s high-tech space. She has held key finance roles in digital health, biotech, enterprise SaaS, and digital marketing, serving as Controller and Head of Finance in various organizations. She holds an MBA in finance, a BA in logistics, and a Series 7 security license, embodying a commitment to excellence and leadership in the financial domain.

Angie Purvis, Laboratory Director

Angie Purvis brings a wealth of experience leading diagnostic products to market by successfully combining her broad scientific and product development skills and her regulatory expertise to create high-quality in vitro diagnostics and laboratory-based diagnostics. She is a Board-certified Laboratory Director with over 15 years of experience directing high-complexity molecular, immunological, and clinical chemistry laboratories that develop and perform laboratory developed tests (LDT). She has worked with companies of all sizes to build or improve quality management systems that are compliant with ISO13485 and 21 CFR 820. Angie has extensive experience navigating complex regulatory pathways for medical products in the USA, EU, and developing/emerging markets and has a strong track record in diagnostic tests for infectious disease and oncology. Angie received her BS in Biology from Centre College. She earned a PhD in Biochemistry from Washington University, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute in proteomics.

Sarah Urfer, Director of Laboratory Operations

Sarah received her B.A. in Biochemistry, with a minor in Chemistry, from the University of Colorado Boulder and an M.S. in Forensic Science from the University of Illinois Chicago. She is a board certified Diplomate of The American Board of Forensic Toxicology (D-ABFT-FT). After the completion of her M.S., Sarah was hired by ChemaTox Laboratory, Inc. where she became the Laboratory Director and in 2009, she purchased ChemaTox. Under her leadership, ChemaTox went on to gain lab certification for High Complexity Testing through the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), in addition to maintaining Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment certification for drug and alcohol testing in all four offered categories of certification and was a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) registered lab for all controlled substances. Sarah and Dede Willis first met and worked together when Boulder Diagnostics, Inc. leased space and services from ChemaTox Laboratory. Through the collaboration, Boulder Diagnostics was able to have its laboratory testing operational in three months.

Nicholas Kinney, Director of Bioinformatics

Nick Kinney has spent over ten years working in a variety of fields from biomarker discovery to polymer physics. Along the way Nick gained experience with high performance computing, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, molecular dynamics simulation, and data science. Nick joined the Garner lab in 2016 with the goal of better understanding the human repeatome; i.e. genomic dark matter. Since then, he has discovered new candidate biomarkers for medulloblastoma, breast cancer, and Lung cancer. In addition to biomarker discovery, Nick has a special interest in population structure, ethnicity, and ancestry which could expedite Orbit’s discovery pipeline. Nick’s unpublished work brings another layer of sophistication to the OrbiSeq platform; in particular, using neural networks to predict disease state from blood samples. Nick’s broad expertise has been cultivated alongside an array of skills bolstered by working with small teams. As part data scientist, statistician, back-end engineer, and programmer; Nick is well-equipped to make a breakthrough.

Kyle Caltrider, Director of Quality and IT

Kyle has over a decade of combined experience in life sciences, quality management, and research and development. He began his journey with an undergraduate degree in molecular, cellular, & developmental biology coupled with embryonic development research at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Along with years of quality assurance and research experience, Kyle has studied as a full stack web developer combining data science with backend and frontend development. Kyle has worked as a forensic & analytical chemist and ran the method development department for the clinical and forensic toxicology laboratory ChemaTox Laboratory, Inc. He worked for Boulder Diagnostics as a research scientist where he contributed to developing novel cell-based assays for the detection of pathogens and disease states. He has also operated the quality and research & development departments for a Colorado based contract manufacturing company with a range of product specializations and consults on the development of quality systems for analytical testing laboratories.

Patricia Tate, Director of Human Resources

Patricia Tate is an executive human resources professional who has shaped multiple high-performing cultures. She has built and led global teams covering all aspects of HR including talent acquisition, employee engagement and retention, total rewards, compensation, organizational and leadership development, employee relations, workforce planning, and mergers and acquisitions. Previously, as a member of the executive team, Patricia partnered with business leaders to develop the best talent and build a culture of engagement, agility and innovation in three of the fastest growing technology companies in Colorado. Patricia earned her bachelor’s arts degree at the University of Texas at Austin., She completed graduate level course work in human resources at the University of Colorado, Boulder and she holds SPHR and SHRM-SCP certifications. She completed numerous executive leadership and management training programs during her career.