Leadership
R. Ian Lennox
Chairman and CEO
Ian Lennox is chairman and CEO of Ricerca Biosciences, a private, preclinical contract research drug development company based in Concord, Ohio. Previously, he served as president and CEO of MDS Pharma and Biotechnology Markets; president and CEO of Phoenix International Life Sciences; and chairman and CEO of Drug Royalty Corporation, Inc. In addition, he has held numerous executive positions in North and South America with Monsanto Company.
Mr. Lennox currently serves on the boards of directors of Spectral Diagnostics Corporation and Tekmira Biosciences. His previous board experience includes serving as chairman of Stressgen Biotechnologies and Drug Royalty Corp. He has also served on the boards of GenSci Regeneration, Inc., Marsulex, Inc., Hemosol, Inc., and MDS Capital.
Mr. Lennox received an HBSc in physiology and pharmacology and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario, London. He attended Columbia Business School.
Gerald Jacobson
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
As the executive vice president and chief financial officer for Ricerca, Gerald "Gary" Jacobson is responsible for the financial, legal, human resources, facilities and IT aspects of Ricerca.
He previously served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Harlan Sprague Dawley, Inc., chief operating officer of Harlan Europe, senior vice president and division manager of LaSalle National Bank and senior vice president of new business development at American National Bank.
Mr. Jacobson is a graduate of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and holds a certificate in political economy from the Adam Smith School of Economics in Glasgow, Scotland. He received his MBA from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.
Heidi B. Nelson-Keherly, Ph.D.
Vice President, Global Client Services/Project Management
Heidi Nelson-Keherly is responsible for proposal generation and project management and acts as a liaison between business development and operations. She formerly held the post of business manager for bioanalytical and analytical chemistry at Ricerca where she was responsible for departmental financial profitability, proposals and program management. Prior to joining Ricerca, Dr. Nelson-Keherly held numerous positions from R&D scientist to laboratory director at Lark Technologies, a molecular biology CRO.
Dr. Nelson-Keherly has a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin, as well as a BS in biology from Duke University.
Robert Béland
Chief Operating Officer
As Chief Operating Officer, Robert Béland leads the three operating units of Ricerca Biosciences: the discovery pharmacology/DMPK unit based in Bothell, Washington, and Taipei, Taiwan; the chemical development and drug safety and metabolism unit based in Concord, Ohio; and the drug safety and metabolism unit based in Lyon, France. The three units consist of close to 500,000 square feet of laboratory space and employ more than 800 collaborators. He has more than 25 years of global general management experience, as well as expertise in operations, business development and scientific affairs.
Before joining Ricerca, Mr. Béland served as senior vice president, discovery and preclinical for MDS Pharma Services; vice president, corporate and scientific affairs for Jamieson Laboratories; vice president and general manager for the Nutrition Division of R.P. Scherer; and president, North America for Arkopharma, LLC.
Mr. Béland majored in health sciences at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf and received a BS in chemistry from the Université de Montréal. He has been a member of the Quebec Order of Chemists since 1982.
Stéphane Bulle
Senior Vice President and General Manager
As senior vice president and general manager, Stéphane Bulle is responsible for the operations and client services performance at Ricerca’s Lyon, France, drug safety and metabolism site. He joined the Lyon site as finance and administration director and later became vice president. He was promoted to general manager in 2003.
Prior to joining Ricerca, Mr. Bulle held various positions in financial audits and banking for Coopers and Lybrand, Crédit Lyonnais and Maytag Corporation.
Mr. Bulle graduated in 1982 from the ICN Business School located in Nancy, France.
Michael E. Placke, Ph.D., DABT
Senior Vice President and General Manager
Michael Placke is responsible for the operations and business performance of Ricerca’s Concord, Ohio, drug safety and metabolism and chemical development site.
Before joining Ricerca, Dr. Placke served as vice president, drug safety, at Wyeth Research (now Pfizer) in Chazy, New York, and as vice president, pharmaceutical development, and chief scientist at Battelle Pharma, Inc., in Columbus, Ohio.
Dr. Placke received his BS in animal science and his MS in physiology from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and his Ph.D. in pathobiology from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut.
James W. Baumgartner, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President and General Manager, Discovery Pharmacology
As vice president, discovery pharmacology, Dr. Baumgartner provides potential clients with service choices that efficiently match their needs with feasible and cost-effective experimentation. He also provides custom model design and technical guidance for both clients and operational employees when necessary. It is his duty to provide leadership on the harmonization and balance of in vivo/in vitro offerings across discovery pharmacology sites.
Previously, he served two years as a research scientist for Zymogenetics and six years as an associate director for Amgen. Additionally, he worked as a research fellow at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.
Dr. Baumgartner obtained a BS in biochemistry at the University of California at Davis. He went on to receive a MS and Ph.D. at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington.
Fong-Chi Cheng, Ph.D.
Vice President, Discovery Pharmacology and Taiwan
With over 35 years of pharmacology experience, Dr. Fong-Chi Cheng brings special expertise in primary pharmacological screening for new drug discovery as well as secondary profiling and efficacy studies for compounds under development to his post at Ricerca. Dr. Cheng started his career with CRO pioneer Panlabs in 1974, then stayed with the company when it became MDS Pharma Services in 1995 and Ricerca Biosciences in 2010. He has considerable therapeutic expertise in CNS, cardiovascular, inflammation and oncology, and demonstrates ability in efficient lab operation and R&D achievement.
Dr. Fong-Chi Cheng earned his BS in pharmacy from Taipei Medical University and his Ph.D. in pharmacology from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.
Eric M. Hess
Vice President Global Business Development
Eric Hess leads global business development with major concentrations in Europe, North America, Japan and China. Prior to joining Ricerca, he was vice president of business development for discovery pharmacology for MDS Pharma Services, vice president of supply chain management, facilities and global business operations for MDS Pharma Services, director of sales operations for PerkinElmer and analytical study director at the BASF Agricultural Research Center.
Mr. Hess holds a BS degree in microbiology from North Carolina State University and an MBA in international management from Mercer University.
Matthew S. Jones
Vice President Business Development – Europe
Matthew Jones oversees Ricerca’s business development efforts in Europe. Previously, he served as vice president of business development for MDS Pharma Services where he drove strategic partnering models and collaborative opportunities from an early clinical arena before moving to non-clinical and supporting clients at the key stage in their drug development programs. Mr. Jones oversaw non-clinical sales and marketing directors and led growth for these divisions.
Mr. Jones received his BS in biology from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and a degree in business management at the London Business School.