Founding Team
Martin G. Reese, Ph.D.
Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board.
Dr. Martin Reese is an internationally recognized expert in medical informatics and bioinformatics with a track record of bringing strong, grounded scientific knowledge to the corporate sector. Prior to founding Omicia, Dr. Reese served as Vice President of Discovery Informatics for ValiGen. He organized the state-of-the-art Genome Annotation Assessment Project and was a member of the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project. This project provided the essential proof-of-concept platform for Celera's famous shotgun sequencing technology, which is now internationally recognized - as driving a new standard of excellence in sequencing. It was while at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories that Dr. Reese developed gene-finding algorithms for the Human Genome Project. He holds a Masters degree in Medical Informatics from the University of Heidelberg and a Ph.D. in Genetics jointly from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Hohenheim, Germany.
Edward S. Kiruluta
Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer.
Edward Kiruluta is responsible for product development, operations, and IT at Omicia. From 2008-2010 Mr. Kiruluta was the Vice President of Development at Symyx Technologies, Inc, where he managed the company's transition to an Agile development methodology and was directly responsible for the development of Symyx Notebook, the world leading Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) product. From 2005-2008 Mr. Kiruluta was the Vice President of Engineering at DemandTec where he led the Econometrics, Operations Research, and Database teams and saw the company through a successful IPO. From 2002-2004 Mr. Kiruluta was Senior Director of Informatics at Merck Research Labs (MRL) where he led the development of the Target Genome Index (TGI), a software environment to help researchers gain better insights into biological function and drug response by integrating clinical data with genomics technologies. From 1995-2002 Mr. Kiruluta was Chief Technology Officer at DoubleTwist (formerly Pangea Systems). At DoubleTwist, Mr. Kiruluta led a team of scientists and engineers to develop Prophecy, the first comprehensive annotation of the human genome, and DoubleTwist.com, the first web portal for life science researchers. Mr. Kiruluta studied Electrical Engineering at Memorial University in Canada.
Paul Billings, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-founder and Board Member
Dr. Billings, a board certified internist and clinical geneticist, is the Chief Medical Officer at Life Technologies (NASDAQ:LIFE). Prior to joining Life Technologies in 2010, he was the founding and acting Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Genomic Medicine Institute at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA. Dr. Billings served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of CELLective Dx Corporation from 2007 through 2009, the year it merged with Exalan, Inc. He is a Founder of CBR Systems Inc., the worldwide leader in cordblood stem cell banking, and GeneSage Inc., an early provider of expert genomic information and testing on-line. He was Executive Chairman of Signature Genomics Laboratories LLC (SGL), the leading national provider of molecular cytogenetic products and services. He has served as a Director of CLDx, SGL, BioScale Inc., Cyntellect Inc., Lipomics, Inc, and the Council for Responsible Genetics. He is a member of the HHS Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genomics, Health and Society, the NIH Special Study Section on Salivary Diagnostics, and the Genomics Oversight Committee of the Department of Veterans Affairs. From 2002-2007, he was Senior Vice President and Senior Geneticist at Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings Inc (LH). Prior to joining LH, Dr. Billings was Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief of General Medicine at the Palo Alto VA Healthcare System and Stanford Medical School, and then CMO and Deputy Network Director of VISN 17 in the Department of Veterans Affairs. He has been Professor of Anthropology (adjunct) at UC Berkeley and has published extensively on topics in immunology, genetics and medicine. Dr. Billings received an A.B. summa cum laude from UC San Diego, and both his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University.
John Stuelpnagel, D.V.M.
Co-Founder, Advisor to the Board of Directors
John co-founded Illumina Inc., a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of life science tools and integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and biological function. He served as Acting President and Chief Executive Officer from 1998 to 1999, Vice President of Business Development from 1999 to 2002, Senior Vice President of Operations from 2002 to 2005 and Chief Operating Officer from January 2005 to April 2008. He was also General Manager of Illumina's Microarray business from 2007 to 2008. Dr. Stuelpnagel served as an associate with CW Group Inc., a venture capital firm, from 1997 to 1998 and with Catalyst Partners, a venture capital firm, from 1996 to 1997. While at CW Group, he uncovered what would become Illumina’s BeadArray technology at Tufts University and negotiated an exclusive license to that technology which led to the founding of Illumina Inc. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Illumina Inc. from April 1998 until April 2008. Dr. Stuelpnagel received his B.S. in Biochemistry and his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the University of California, Davis and his M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.