Formulation Matters

Shanti Chari has over 25 years of experience in digital strategy, demand shaping, digital roadmaps, portfolio management, budgeting, and deployment of platforms supporting enterprise functions and operations. Shanti has a blend of consulting and life sciences industry experience and managed multi-year business transformation projects and global rollouts. She has managed partner relationships with senior/regional leadership and facilitated interfacing between corporate functions, global site functions, and IT services to streamline delivery. Prior to Landmark Bio, Shanti was head of IT systems for operations at Emergent and responsible for site manufacturing and clinical supply chain at Amgen.

Kris Ward joined the company in April 2022 and has played an instrumental role in the success of Landmark Bio. Under his leadership, the Business Development team built a strong pipeline and delivered 4-fold revenue increase year-over-year in an extremely challenging market. Prior to Landmark Bio, Kris was at Orchard Therapeutics for four years where he held various roles culminating with him leading Alliance Management and Business Operations. Prior to Orchard, Kris held Business Operations and Strategic Sourcing roles at Fresenius, Becton Dickinson (BD) and Hospira Pfizer. Kris has his MBA and an MS in Global Supply Chain Management from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, as well as a degree in Biological Sciences with a minor in Chemistry from Illinois State University.

Todd Howren brings over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry, including ten years of business development leadership experience. Before joining Landmark Bio, Todd served as the Vice President of Sales at Aldevron and later as the head of Aldevron’s RNA Business Unit. As the Vice President of Global Commercial Operations at Meridian Bioscience, Todd led the Life Sciences Division’s Sales, Marketing, and Product Management. He also spent nearly 15 years at Thermo Fisher Scientific Corporation in various business development positions of increasing responsibility, ending as the lead for global strategy focusing on human molecular diagnostics and mRNA therapeutics. After graduate school, Todd began his career at Sigma-Aldrich, ending as National Sales Manager for Functional Genomics.

Todd earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology from Baylor University, Waco, Texas, and his Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas. He has published several scientific papers and is an accomplished presenting expert at conferences and symposiums worldwide.

Emmanuel Abate works to bring out the best in his team so they can better serve the scientific community working on the next medical breakthrough. The Genomic Medicine business includes solutions to help advance the discovery and manufacturing of viral vector, cell therapies, and nucleic acid- based therapies.

As he is deeply connected to nature, our surroundings, and our role in protecting people and the planet, Emmanuel also leads the company-wide Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility strategy. This role involves continuous improvement in the way the company looks after customers and associates and enables positive societal change. 

Emmanuel’s career began in 1999 with GE Healthcare, where he worked in business development and eBusiness. He earned his MBA in 2004 and joined the Boston Consulting Group from 2004 – 2007, based in Paris. When he returned to GE Healthcare in 2007, he served in product and commercial leadership positions for Interventional Imaging, Women’s Health Imaging, and Radiology.

In 2018, Emmanuel became the General Manager of Genomics and Cellular Research, when the business was part of GE Healthcare Life Sciences, now Cytiva.

Emmanuel was appointed to his current position in September 2022. He lives in Paris with his wife and son.

In his role as Vice Provost for Research, John H. Shaw works to support the research enterprise of the University, including its twelve schools, fifteen practicing hospitals, and roughly 30 initiatives, centers, and institutes that bring together faculty across campus and University partners. He helps to advance Harvard’s mission by enabling foundational and transformative research and developing core research support. In this role, John serves on Boards and various committees of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, the Ragon Institute, the Kempner Institute for Natural and Artificial Intelligence, the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC), and other programs that support life and physical science research and technology translation. His office also helps the University navigate the federal regulatory landscape for research funding received by Harvard (totaling nearly $1 billion annually) and associated compliance requirements.

John also serves as the Harry C. Dudley Professor of Structural and Economic Geology in the Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) Department, and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering in the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). He is a structural geologist and applied geophysicist who investigates the nature of faulting in the earth’s crust, with applications to earthquake science. His research is also focused on energy systems and carbon storage, and the environmental impacts of these activities. Shaw offers courses on these topics through FAS and SEAS.

John served as chair of the EPS Department for thirteen years, supporting faculty, affiliated scientists, students, and staff. Activities in this role included strategic planning, faculty hiring and evaluation; oversight of student academic programs; fiscal management and planning; research compliance; fundraising; alumni relations; diversity and inclusion initiatives; and oversight of lab renovations and building operations. John has served on several School- and University-level committees focused on professional conduct and research policy. He recently served as the Chair of the Board of the Southern California Earthquake Center, an international research organization involving more than 90 institutions with federal and private sector funding sources. He is also co-founder of Seismix Reservoir Management, LLC, a firm that helps to assess environmental hazards of energy-related operations for companies, regulatory groups, and others.

Cynthia Barnhart is Provost, Professor of Operations Research, and Ford Foundation Professor of Engineering at MIT. Barnhart has served as MIT’s Chancellor, as the Associate and Acting Dean for the School of Engineering, and as co-director of the Operations Research Center and the Center for Transportation and Logistics.

Barnhart’s teaching and research are in the areas of large-scale optimization and analytics, with a focus on applications in transportation and logistics systems. She has supervised scores of graduate and undergraduate theses across a range of disciplines, and has published widely in the flagship journals of her field.

Barnhart is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS). She has served as the President of INFORMS, the President of the INFORMS Women in Operations Research and Management Science, and the President of the INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics Society. Barnhart’s awards include the INFORMS President’s Award, the INFORMS Franz Edelman Prize for Achievement in Operations Research and the Management Sciences, the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, and honorary doctorates from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the University of Toronto.

Barnhart received her SM in transportation in 1986 and her PhD in 1988 from MIT.