Team
Founded in 2009, SpeeDx is an Australian-based private company with offices in London and the US, and distributors across Europe. Supported by strong equity base, we are a rapidly growing company with a dynamic portfolio of technology at the
cutting edge of molecular diagnostics.
Directors
Jonathan O. Clark | Chairman
Mr. Clark currently serves as an Advisor to Northpond Ventures. Northpond Ventures is a multi-billion-dollar science-driven venture capital firm based in Cambridge, MA; San Francisco, CA; and Bethesda, MD. Northpond has consistently been named one of the most active lead life science investors in venture industry rankings. It is deeply engaged in the academic ecosystem, having founded The Laboratory for Bioengineering Research and Innovation at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University; launched the MIT-Northpond Program – Advancing Life Science & Engineering Innovation; launched the Northpond Laboratories — Program for Research and Innovation at Stanford Medicine; and sponsored a prize for women entrepreneurs at MIT. It has led or co-led over 60 financings over the past several years and sits on the board of the vast majority of these businesses.
Mr. Clark joined Northpond Ventures in 2022 and advises across a broad range of operational and strategic challenges faced by Northpond Ventures’ portfolio companies. In 2023, Mr. Clark was appointed to serve as Chairman of the Board of SpeeDx, one of Northpond Ventures’ portfolio companies.
Mr. Clark comes to Northpond Ventures after a diverse career of over 35 years in global operational roles across a broad base of industries and regions. Mr. Clark spent 19 years at Danaher Corporation in expanding operational and executive roles. He most recently reported to the CEO as the Senior Vice President of High Growth Markets where he was responsible for Australia, Asia- including China, Africa and Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Central and South America.
Mr. Clark brings a range of public, private, and non-profit board experiences which include serving as a board member of TOA DKK, a leading Japanese instrumentation company; Envista- a leading publicly-traded dental technology company; and H2O Care, a private equity-backed platform of water solution providers. Mr. Clark also serves as an Executive Advisor to the largest charter school in New York, New York. On a personal level, Mr Clark and his wife have founded a not-for-profit foundation – Education for Hope, which sponsors young adults in Kaberamaido, Uganda who are pursing their dream to become a nurse or midwife. Mr. Clark serves as a board member as well as the treasurer and secretary to the foundation.
Throughout his career, Mr. Clark and his family have worked and resided in the United Kingdom; Shanghai, China; Dubai, UAE, as well as the USA. Mr. Clark earned his B.A from the University of Buffalo majoring in Business Administration
Bianca Ogden | Non Executive Director
MBio PhD
After spending some time at Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis researching new HIV drugs (one of which has been approved and is in use today), Dr. Ogden went on to complete a PhD at University College London, investigating Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus. She then migrated to Australia and joined Johnson & Johnson as a molecular biologist, researching new drug targets in oncology.
Dr. Ogden embarked on a career change in 2003 and joined Platinum as an investment analyst. Her rich knowledge base in molecular biology and first-hand insights into the pharmaceutical and biotech industry give her a unique ability to delve deeply into the fundamentals of healthcare companies.
At Platinum Bianca manages the Platinum International Health Care Fund and leads the healthcare sector team.
Vicki DiFrancesco | Non Executive Director
Ms. Vicki DiFrancesco, one of the most influential leaders in the laboratory industry, was formerly responsible for building and executing XiFiN’s corporate business development strategies including acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic partnerships that advance company growth. After retiring from XiFiN, she is now a Strategic Advisor for the company.
Prior to XIFIN, Vicki served as President and CEO of Pathology Inc., the west coast’s premier women’s health laboratory that was acquired by LabCorp in March 2016. Previously, DiFrancesco was Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Spectrum Laboratory Network where she grew revenues and drove expansion into new markets. She also served as Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Specialty Laboratories Inc., where she oversaw marketing, customer service and was instrumental in sale of company to Ameripath in 2005.
Earlier in her career, Vicki worked as the Vice President of Hospital Sales and Marketing at Quest Diagnostics, Inc.. She has also held executive level positions with American Medical Laboratories, sold to Quest Diagnostics, and Laboratory Corporation of America. Vicki formerly served on the Board of Directors of PWNHealth, LLC, sold to Spectrum Equity.
Ingo Chakravarty | Non Executive Director
Ingo Chakravarty is an Operating Partner at Northpond Ventures.
He has 30 years of experience in building, scaling and leading high-performance teams and companies in the diagnostics and precision medicine sectors.
Ingo was recently President and CEO of Mesa, which he successfully sold to Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2021.
Prior to Mesa, Ingo held multiple executive roles in the diagnostics and precision medicine sectors, including CEO of Navican Genomics, SVP and GM of GenMark Diagnostics, (acquired by Roche), VP and GM of Gen-Probe (acquired by Hologic), and various leadership roles at Ventana Medical Systems (acquired by Roche). He received a degree in electrical engineering from the Friedrich Heacker School in Germany.
Executives
Founded in 2009, SpeeDx is an Australian-based private company with offices in London and the US, and distributors across Europe. SpeeDx employs a growing number of team members across our three offices in Sydney, Austin, and London. Follow us on LinkedIn for more information about SpeeDx careers.
Jeremy Stackawitz | Chief Executive Officer
Jeremy Stackawitz brings over 25 years of life sciences experience, with more than 15 years in diagnostics. Most recently he was CEO of Senzo, a London-based early-stage point-of-care company focused on infectious diseases.
Previously Jeremy was President and CEO of Alba/Quotient (now AliveDx), where he spent over a decade leading the Edinburgh/Geneva based company from early-stage to IPO. During his leadership, the company brought over 80 products through FDA approval, established significant industry partnerships, and achieved meaningful customer and market traction.
Earlier in his career, Jeremy held leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson companies including Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Therakos, and Ortho Biotech. He was also a consultant for Monitor and McKinsey & Company.
Jeremy holds a B.A. in Biochemistry from Dartmouth College and an MBA in Healthcare Management from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Elisa Mokany | Chief Technology Officer
PhD
Elisa Mokany is a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer at SpeeDx. In this role she leads the development of innovative diagnostic technologies and commercialization of infectious disease and antibiotic resistance tests. Elisa has over 20 years’ experience in medical research, she has worked for St Vincent’s hospital developing tests for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer and later at Johnson & Johnson Research (JJR) where she developed diagnostic tests for leukemia and was involved in the commercialisation of proprietary technology known as DzyNA PCR.
While at JJR, Elisa undertook studies towards her PhD, which involved co-invention of the novel nucleic acid technology, PlexZymes®. Elisa is an inventor on 8 patents/patent applications involving nucleic acid analysis including the novel PlexPrime technology which has multiple applications in the in vitro diagnostic field. Elisa studied at the University of NSW, obtaining a BSc (Hons 1st Class) and later completed her PhD at JJR in conjunction with the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Science at the University of New South Wales.
She has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation (2022); the Australian Company of the Year (2021) and ATSE’s Clunies Ross Award for Innovation (2020).
Alison Todd | Chief Scientific Officer
AM, FTSE, PhD
Alison Todd is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of SpeeDx Pty Ltd. Her career has focused on developing and commercialising diagnostics tools for cancer and infectious diseases with application to both initial diagnosis and subsequent tailoring and/or monitoring of personalised therapy. She is a serial inventor with over 200 granted patents describing the suite of inventions which underpin SpeeDx’ product portfolio, and other products sold through SpeeDx’ Licensees.
Prior to founding SpeeDx, Alison spent nearly 20 years within the pharmaceutical industry working at Johnson and Johnson Research Pty Limited, Sydney. She obtained a BSc (Hons 1) and a PhD through the University of Sydney and maintains an active involvement with the academic community through her appointment as an Adjunct Professor at the University of New South Wales. Alison serves on numerous committees and advisory groups including the AusBiotech NSW Leadership Committee and UNSW BABS Industry Advisory Committee.
Alison is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM, 2023) and an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (FTSE, 2020). She has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation (2022); the Australian Company of the Year (2021); ATSE’s Clunies Ross Award for Innovation (2020) and the Johnson & Johnson Philip B. Hofmann Research Scientist Award (1997).
