Management
Fred Marroni
Fred Marroni, INDIGO’s CEO, is a successful entrepreneur with more than 25 years of executive management and engineering experience. His career has spanned multiple industries, technologies, and organization stages including turn-around management of an Internet technologies company that had 100% growth of a $15 million business unit within 24 months. His attention to details, team motivational skills and operational experience were key factors in this accomplishment. His expertise ranges from being the founding executive of several companies to senior management of a Fortune 1000 business. He has lead efforts in merger and acquisitions and contract negotiations. For the past 10 years, he has focused on evaluating and funding of early stage life science companies.
In his first two years at Clarion Research Group as Chief Operating Officer, Fred led early stage funding that exceeded $3 million. During this time, he helped to develop go-to-market strategies for two medical products that will launch within 18 months of the funding. Prior to his role at Clarion Research Group, he was an executive with the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG), an economic development organization responsible for due diligence and investments across 25 portfolio companies. As a result of his efforts with many entrepreneurs, companies within his portfolio raised more than $7 million in grants and angel funding. Several of the early stage companies that he was associated with have collectively raised more than $12 million in funding. Fred earned his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Penn State University and his Operations Management certificate from Union Pacific Corporation.
Dr. John (Jack) Vanden Heuvel
Dr. John (Jack) Vanden Heuvel is one of The Company’s original founders, and currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Vanden Heuvel is a recognized expert in the field of nuclear receptor biology and toxicology with over 100 peer-reviewed publications. In addition to his role as CSO at INDIGO, Dr. Vanden Heuvel is a Professor at Penn State University where he is Program Coordinator of the undergraduate Toxicology Program, Co-Director of the Center of Excellence in Nutrigenomics and leads an extramurally funded research program.
Dr. Bruce A. Sherf
Dr. Bruce A. Sherf joined The Company in 2008 as the Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Sherf, who has worked in the biotechnology industry since 1994, has particular expertise in cell-based reporter assay design and optimization, product development, and high-throughput screening applications for drug discovery. As CTO, he oversees INDIGO Biosciences’ product development, manufacturing, and technology transfer initiatives, as well as directing all Contract Services related activities.