Management Team

Panna Sharma – President and  Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Sharma became a member of our board of directors and our Chief Executive Officer in May of 2010. Mr. Sharma was at TSG Partners, a specialty life sciences consultancy and advisory company, from 2001 to 2010, where he was the Managing Partner and founder. At TSG he led the development of strategic initiatives, corporate growth strategy and corporate turnarounds for both public and private companies. He also led over 70 buy and sell-side transactions for life sciences, healthcare and biopharma companies. At TSG, he established the Global Diagnostics Index, the Global Biotools Index and several other life science capital markets indices that are still used in the life science industry.

Prior to founding TSG, Mr. Sharma was the Chief Strategy Officer for iXL Enterprises, Inc. (“iXL”), a public e-business consultancy where he led strategy development and acquisitions activity and was part of the management team that aided in taking the company public in June 1999. At iXL, he also managed the specialty e-business strategy practices group that grew from under $4 million in revenue in 1998 to over $75 million in 2000. From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Sharma was a partner at Interactive Solutions, Inc., a marketing and strategy consultancy focused on health care and financial services in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was sold to Omnicom, Inc., one of the largest global market analysis and marketing companies. Prior to that time, Mr. Sharma served as a consultant to Putnam Investment Management, LLC and Bank of America Corporation. Mr. Sharma has also served on the board of directors of EpicEdge, a health care and government focused IT services firm, from 2001 to 2003 and as chairman of the Advisory Board for EndoChoice, a global leader for the gastrointestinal treatment market from 2008 to 2010. Mr. Sharma attended Boston University from 1987 to 1992 in the University Professor’s Program.

Elizabeth Czerepak – Chief Financial Officer

Elizabeth Adkins Czerepak brings 18 years of pharmaceutical industry experience and nine years of venture capital experience to Cancer Genetics.  Elizabeth co-founded Bear Stearns Health Innoventures (BSHI), a $212 million venture capital fund that led investments in thirteen biotechnology companies, seven of which she served as a board member. Concurrent to BSHI, she held the position of Managing Director of Bear, Stearns & Co., and later JPMorgan, where she was an NASD Registered Representative.  Earlier, Elizabeth held senior positions in licensing, business development, and finance at BASF Pharma, Hoffmann-La Roche, and Merck & Co., where she led or supported over 30 licensing and M&A transactions, including Roche’s acquisition of PCR technology from Cetus, and the licensing of the P53 gene from Johns Hopkins University.   Elizabeth holds an MBA from Rutgers University and a B.A. magna cum laude from Marshall University and is a member of the Licensing Executives Society.

Jane Houldsworth, Ph.D. – Vice President of Research and Development

Dr. Houldsworth came to CGI in 2007. She has a long standing interest in the biology and genetics of lymphoma and male germ cell tumors, with over 20 years experience in translational research. Dr. Houldsworth has published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers, 15 chapters, and continues to consult on academic research projects. She is a reviewer for multiple scientific journals. She is an active member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Dr. Houldsworth was awarded several grants from the National Institutes of Health, Lance Armstrong Foundation and other private foundations. In 2005, Dr. Houldsworth attained her New York State certificate of qualification as a laboratory director for oncology, molecular and cellular tumor markers. Before coming to CGI, Dr. Houldsworth was an Associate Attending Geneticist and an Associate Laboratory Member within the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Dr. R.S.K. Chaganti’s laboratory. As Vice President of the Research and Development,  she leads several ongoing research projects including the establishment of proprietary FISH-based testing and the development of CGH microarrays, such as the Mature B-cell Array (MatBA™), which was licensed by Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) in November 2010 and New-York State licensed in March 2011.

Lan Wang, M.D. – Medical Director

Dr. Wang came to CGI in 2007. Her career focus is in diagnostic hematopathology, centered on lymphomas and leukemias. Dr. Wang is an active member of the Society of Hematopathology, United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology and the College of American Pathologists. Her work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Wang is certified by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology, as well as Hematopathology. In New Jersey, Dr. Wang holds a Medical License and Bioanalytical Laboratory Director License from the Board of Medical Examiners. She also has a Certificate of Qualification from New York State as a Laboratory Director in Histopathology, Cytopathology, Hematology, Immunohematology, Oncology-Molecular and Cellular Tumor Markers, and Cellular Immunology-Malignant Leukocyte Immunophenotyping. Dr. Wang holds the position of Staff Pathologist/Hematophathologistand serves as a cancer liaison physician at Chilton Memorial Hospital in New Jersey. Upon coming to CGI, Dr Wang monitored the set up of the anatomical pathology and flow Cytometry laboratories. CGI’s laboratory has grown significantly since Dr. Wang’s arrival, both in volume and testing. She assisted in maturing CGI’s focus to become full-service laboratory that targets hematological oncologists and pathologists.

Weiyi Chen, Ph.D., HCLD (ABB) – Molecular Diagnostics Director

Dr. Chen came to CGI in 2005. Her scientific focus has been on the identification and characterization of genomic alterations in B-cell lymphoma and their prognostic implications using modern molecular techniques, including microarrays. While at MSK, she was trained in the Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory at the New York Presbyterian Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Chen is certified as a High-complexity Clinical Laboratory Director (HCLD) from American Board of Bioanalysis (ABB), and a certificate of qualification as a laboratory director from the New York State Department of Health. She is an active member of the Association of Molecular Pathology. At CGI, Dr. Chen supervised the establishment of the molecular diagnostic laboratory as well as validated and acquired licensure for clinical assays at CGI with New York State and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA). She oversaw the setting up of an automated system in CGI’s molecular diagnostic lab. Now she manages the operation of the molecular lab, reviews and reports test results, as well as directing the development and validation of new clinical tests.

Pal Singh-Kahlon, Ph.D., FACMG – Cytogenetics Director

Dr. Singh-Kahlon brings more than 30 years of experience in clinical cytogenetics to CGI since joining in 2010. He has over 20 years of experience in Director positions, including the last seven years in cancer, at leading commercial cytogenetics laboratories, LabCorp and Genzyme, and earlier at the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco. Dr. Singh-Kahlon is an active member of the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG), American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) and the Association of Molecular Pathology (AMP). Since being at CGI, Dr. Singh-Kahlon is focused on delivering high quality diagnostic reports while maintaining industry leading turnaround times. He is involved in the expansion of CGI’s FISH test menu by introducing new testing such as the cIg-FISH used in the diagnosis of multiple myeloma, and further FISH testing validation for molecular markers such as HER2 and in Gliomas used in clinical management of solid tumors.

Cory Hickmon – Director of National Clinical Sales

Cory Hickmon joins Cancer Genetics with over twenty three years of oncology sales and sales leadership experience. His focus for the past 21 years has been the esoteric oncology testing market, with much of his career devoted to building and leading successful sales teams in the rapidly growing genetic and genomic space. Cory began his career with Impath, a recognized leader in the area of oncology and pathology esoteric testing. After several promotions, he became the Midwest Regional Manager in 1998, where he was in charge of all sales activities in one third of the US market. In this role, Cory was involved in one the earliest targeted therapy marketing campaigns in the country, the launch of Her-2/neu which qualified patients for Herceptin therapy. In 2004, Impath was acquired by Genzyme Genetics, and Cory was promoted to Southwest Regional Director based on his success at Impath. In this role, he oversaw two unique sales forces; one which was focused on oncology, the other was in the growing area of reproductive genetic and molecular testing. Again, his skills in building out sales teams were used as Genzyme went through rapid expansion during this time. In 2010, Genzyme Genetics was purchased by LabCorp. Cory graduated from the University of Houston with a B.B.A. in Finance.