FRANKLIN D. WICKS, JR. PH.D.

Dr. Wicks served as Executive Vice President and President of Applied Markets of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, a publicly-traded life science and high technology company located in St. Louis, Missouri, until his retirement in 2015. Dr. Wicks worked for Sigma-Aldrich since 1982, beginning as a research chemist and subsequently working in marketing, then as President of Sigma Chemical and Vice President of Worldwide Operations, Sigma-Aldrich. He served as President, Scientific Research Division, Sigma-Aldrich from 1999 to 2002 and was responsible for operations in 34 countries. Prior to his appointment as Executive Vice President and President of Applied Markets of Sigma-Aldrich, Dr. Wicks served as President-SAFC. After receiving his Ph. D., Dr. Wicks served for four years on the staff of the Navigators at the Air Force Academy and at the University of Colorado at Boulder before joining Sigma-Aldrich. He is currently a member of the CEO Forum, serves as a trustee of Covenant Theological Seminary and has been a member of the board of directors of Cass Information Systems since 2006

DAWN M. von ROHR

Ms. von Rohr serves as Senior Vice President, Strategy, for Albany Molecular Research (AMRI). Prior to joining AMRI in 2016, she served as vice president and general manager of global APIs for Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and was on the executive leadership team that led the successful spin-off of Mallinckrodt from Covidien. After joining Mallinckrodt in 1994, she held positions with increasing responsibility in research and development and sales and marketing. Prior to Mallinckrodt, Ms. Von Rohr was in the quality department at Schering Plough. She served as an extended board member of the Drug, Chemical & Associated Technologies Association (DCAT) from 2013 to 2015. She holds a bachelor of science in chemistry from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

stuart morse

Stuart Morse is an accomplished executive coach and strategy consultant and President of The Morse Group.  For nearly 30 years, Stuart been working as an innovative resource to leaders and teams looking to achieve better results and go beyond what is the accepted standard.  Clients have engaged Stuart to work across their businesses from Strategy to Culture.  Through this broad scope of work, Stuart has been continually advancing a holistic methodology and set of tools that bring clarity to the often complex worlds in which leaders and teams operate.   The source and inspiration for providing successful solutions has come from a unique career path that includes engineering and the fine arts and has resulted in a balanced approach that combines Analytic and Creative Thinking.  This holistic style of thinking has provided a foundation to design and deliver logical and practical solutions for leaders and teams to accelerate and gain more momentum.   Through his company, the Morse Group, Stuart has had the opportunity to work with and learn from extraordinary leaders to deliver adaptive results based solutions.  This has built a trusted network of aligned resources that provides expertise and scale to address the range of challenges that leaders encounter.  A fulfilling aspect of Stuart’s professional work with leaders and teams is that it aligns with his passion to create positive change.

marie lamont

Ms. Lamont is a seasoned healthcare operating executive with broad global and functional leadership experience in biotech, pharmaceuticals, healthcare delivery/distribution and business intelligence/analysis with a background in performance excellence, developing teams and managing change. Ms. Lamont was most recently President of Patient Services for Dohmen Life Science Services.  She served previously in a wide variety of roles with Sanofi Genzyme and Genzyme Corporation including: Global Head of Business Strategy and Commercial Operations; Integration Vice President; and International Group Vice President, Operations & Finance. She holds a BA in Business and has completed executive education programs at the Kellogg and Harvard Business School and completed Sanofi's Catalyser Women's Executive Leadership Program. 

heather holemon, pH.D.

Dr. Holemon serves as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the St. Louis BioGenerator. She has extensive scientific, strategy and business development experience.   Before joining BioGenerator, she was Head of Life Science Reagents and Kits for MilliporeSigma.   Prior to the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich by Merck, Dr. Holemon worked at Sigma-Aldrich for over ten years in varied roles including Principal Scientist, R&D Manager, Manager of Strategy and Corporate Development and Director of Business Development for Applied Markets.  Earlier in her career she served in senior scientific and R&D roles with Incyte Genomics, Mattson Jack Group, ProteoPlex, EMD Biosciences and Orion Genomics. She holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and an M.B.A. from Washington University.

GILLES COTTIER

Gilles Cottier is an exceptionally skilled operating executive who brings a wealth of global expertise and experience in fine chemicals and research chemicals. He has a demonstrated track record of building and leading large global teams of up 2,200 professionals and managing P&Ls of up to $700 M. His experience includes driving revenue growth in the European and Asia -Pacific regions. Mr. Cottier has served as an independent business consultant since 2017. Previously, he was Executive Vice President and President of the SAFC Group of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, a publicly-traded life science and high technology company located in St. Louis, Missouri, until his retirement in 2015. Previously he served as President of Research Essentials and a number of progressive roles at Sigma-Aldrich. He holds a degree in organic chemistry from ESCIL and is a graduate of the AMP Program at Harvard Business School. 

Ruben Mella

Ruben Mella serves as an advisor to Overcrest.  Ruben serves as Senior Director of Investor Relations for Benson Hill, a leading food science company. Previously Ruben has served as VP of Communications and IR at Energizer holdings and VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications for Aegion, a St. Louis based infrastructure company. He has also worked as Director of Investor Relations for Monsanto, a world leader in crop science and Director of Investor Relations for Anhueser-Busch after a progression of managerial finance and planning roles.  He began his career as an aerospace engineer with the Pratt Whitney business of United Technologies where he worked on engine design matters for military aircraft. ​