Donato, Lewis and Gunselman will Guide Finance, Marketing and Clinical Operations
MASON, Ohio — (June 29, 2015) – Assurex Health, a precision medicine company providing treatment decision support to healthcare providers for patients with certain neuropsychiatric and chronic pain conditions, has announced appointments to three key leadership roles, according to Virginia C. Drosos, President and CEO.
The appointments include: Peter Donato, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer; Craig S. Lewis, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer; and Sandra J. Gunselman, PhD, Vice President, Clinical Operations.
“Assurex Health has made significant progress in clinical adoption, coverage, and reimbursement as health care providers across the country adopt our GeneSight combinatorial pharmacogenomic (CPGxTM) test to improve treatment of patients with mental health conditions,” Drosos said. “Each of these new leaders has deep industry experience, proven track records in elevating their organizations to new levels of performance, and most importantly, they share our vision and passion for helping people on the road to mental wellness.”
Healthcare Industry Veteran Donato Named Chief Financial Officer
Peter Donato has been named Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. Donato has 23 years of financial management and accounting experience, largely focused on leading financial management for healthcare companies.
Most recently, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Bovie Medical. Donato has also served as the Corporate Controller for Cyberonics, Inc., as Chief Financial Officer of Catsys Health, Inc., and as Chief Financial Officer for IRIS International, Inc. Donato is a graduate of the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University where he received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree in accounting, and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Akron.
Donato takes over for Stephen Stamp, who has held the position for the past two years.
Lewis Heads Marketing, Strategy
Craig S. Lewis has been named Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer. Lewis has more than 25 years of experience in domestic and global marketing, sales, product development and strategic planning in the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries. He launched multiple products and led product teams in neuropsychiatry, including ADHD and schizophrenia, in prior roles at Shire Pharmaceuticals, Marion Merrell Dow, Otsuka and Zimmer.
In this newly created position, Lewis leads Assurex Health’s efforts to promote adoption of the company’s GeneSight pharmacogenomic test and works with Assurex Health leadership in exploring new strategic areas to pursue. Lewis holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati and a Master of Business Administration degree from Xavier University.
Gunselman Leads Clinical Operations
Assurex Health also announced that Sandra J. Gunselman, PhD, has been named Vice President, Clinical Operations. Gunselman has over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and regulated medical device industries. She oversees the operations and laboratory research programs of the Assurex Health laboratories in Mason, Ohio and Toronto, Canada.
Most recently, she served as Vice President, Clinical Operations, at Transgenomic, Inc. She previously was laboratory director at Kailos Genetics, and served as a senior research scientist with the U.S. Army and Pacific Northwest Research Foundation. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Lipscomb University and a doctorate in cellular and molecular biology from Colorado State University.
GeneSight Acceptance, Coverage Growing
GeneSight is the only neuropsychiatric combinatorial pharmacogenomic test covered by Medicare and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which together provide coverage to nearly 60 million Americans. The VA is America’s largest integrated health care system with more than 1,400 sites of care, serving almost nine million veterans each year.
Assurex Health
Assurex Health is a commercial-stage, informatics-based precision medicine company focused on fundamentally improving the way clinicians select medications to treat patients with neuropsychiatric disorders and chronic pain. Assurex Health’s proprietary GeneSight technology is based on combinatorial pharmacogenomics (CPGx™) – the application of multiple genetic factors that influence an individual’s response to medications – as well as evidence-based medicine and clinical pharmacology. Assurex Health has licensed patented technology from Mayo Clinic and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, both of whom continue to be research collaborators. Learn more at www.assurexhealth.com.