Scorpius' leadership team has 150+ combined years of biologics experience. They've come to San Antonio from across the country -- and from CDMO, emerging biotech, big pharma, and academia. They've released hundreds of cGMP batches, passed dozens of audits, and filed countless INDs. They've been in your shoes, and are ready to treat your program like it's their own.
Jeff Wolf
William Ostrander
Joe Payne
Throughout his career, Mr. Wolf has specialized in building new life-science companies from the ground up and plays an active role in supporting the growth of his companies. Mr. Wolf's start-ups include Avigen (co-founder and director), a NASDAQ-listed gene therapy company; TyRx Pharma (co-founder and chairman), which was focused on the development of novel biocompatible polymers and acquired by Medtronic; and EluSys Therapeutics (co-founder and founding CEO), a biodefense company focused on the development of Anthim® antibody therapeutic, an approved medical countermeasure to mitigate the effect of anthrax exposure after a natural incident or intentional attack.
Mr. Wolf received his M.B.A. from Stanford Business School, his J.D. from New York University School of Law, and his B.A. from the University of Chicago where he graduated with honors in economics.
Joe Payne is the President and Chief Operating Officer at Scorpius BioManufacturing. He has over two decades of biopharma industry experience, including at both biopharmaceutical companies and CDMOs, including companies like Teva Pharmaceuticals (Manager, Operations & Risk Assessment), Alcami Corporation (VP, Quality & Regulatory), and Tergus Pharma (VP, Quality & Compliance).
He joined Scorpius in 2023 as VP of Quality and Regulatory Affairs. He has participated in 40+ regulatory inspections and has extensive knowledge of global regulatory agency requirements. Joe has a broad range of experience in drug development, operational execution, and executive management in addition to QC and compliance.
In his role as President and COO, he oversees quality, manufacturing, process sciences, and commercial operations.
Joe earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.
Matthew LeClair
Brian O'Mara
Ania Szymanska
Matthew LeClair is the Vice President, Manufacturing Operations at Scorpius BioManufacturing. He is a 30+ year veteran in the biopharmaceutical industry, with extensive experience in all phases of development from R&D through commercial manufacturing. He has expertise in cell culture, manufacturing, technical operations, and site management. Prior to Scorpius, Matthew spent nearly 20 years at Takeda, including as site head at both international and U.S.-based biologics facilities. He then joined Abzena as the SVP and Site Head of Operations for the company’s San Diego CDMO facility.
He honorably served in the United States Navy as an Aviation Electricians Mate 2nd Class. His service experience included roles as Instrument Systems Specialist assigned to Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department – Avionics, an Instrument Shop Supervisor, a Collateral Duty Inspector (Quality Assurance), and a Nuclear Emergency Team Leader. Matthew earned his B.S. in Business Administration from Colorado Technical University.
Brian O’Mara is the Vice President, Process Sciences at Scorpius, which operates a multi-use, cGMP compliant contracting manufacturing facility. He is responsible for the cGMP manufacturing-related activities of biologics, including technology transfer, process characterization, facility fit, and manufacture of clinical grade biologics.
Brian has more than 20 years of industrial biotechnology experience in downstream process development of early- and late stage protein therapeutics from mammalian and microbial expression systems. He also has extensive experience the development of protein conjugates, including antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), bi-specifics, and PEGylated molecules. He has experience in scale-up and technology transfer, CDMO management, process characterization, preparation and oversight of PPQ campaigns, and associated CMC regulatory filings.
See more insights from Brian in his blog, “What Does It Take to Be a Biologics CDMO Serving Today’s Mammalian Clinical Manufacturing”, and his “Four Critical Aspects of Clinical Development, Manufacturing, and Analysis” webinar.
Ania Szymanska is the Site Head of Quality at Scorpius BioManufacturing. She brings over nineteen years of leadership and management experience in Quality Control, Quality Assurance, and Compliance at pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
Ania joined Scorpius from Marker Therapeutics, Inc. where she was Vice President of Quality. While at Marker, she built the Quality Management Systems and played a critical role in the design, construction, and qualification of their state-of-the-art cell therapy GMP manufacturing facility and Quality Control laboratories. Prior to Marker, Ms. Szymanska served as Director of Quality Control for Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from May 2016 to March 2019, where she developed Quality Control department and was responsible for aseptic facility qualification. She also served as Quality Validation Specialists of Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. from August 2015 to March 2016 and in roles of increasing responsibility at Woodfield Pharmaceutical, LLC (formerly Pernix Manufacturing, LLC) from 2008 to August 2015, most recently as Director of Microbiology.
Ms. Szymanska earned an M.S. in Microbiology from the University of Warsaw.
Chris Barnett
Juan Lagos
Chris Barnett has more than 35 years in the biotechnology industry as a molecular biologist, protein chemist, analytical biochemist, physical biochemist, formulations, and process engineering. He serves as Senior Director, Head of Process & Analytical Development at Scorpius, which operates a multi-use, cGMP compliant contracting manufacturing facility designed for the development and manufacture of regenerative medicine and gene therapy.
He has extensive background in R&D program management, process development and technology transfer to manufacturing, in both the industrial and pharmaceutical arena. He also has extensive experience as a technology leader of business units to develop and introduce new products to market and manage technical implementation of those products.
As Senior Director, Chris provides technical and business leadership for all aspects of process development, technical transfer, and analytical methods development for regenerative medicine products for phase 1 and phase 2 clinical testing. Chris is also integral in customer-facing activities during initial client interaction and ongoing projects and programs.
Read more from Chris Barnett in his article, “Evaluating Single-Use Technologies for Biomanufacturing.”
Juan Lagos brings more than 20 years of experience in cell culture and upstream process development from lab bench to cGMP manufacturing. He leads Scorpius’ cell-based technologies team, which is responsible for analytical and cell therapy processes.
Prior to joining Scorpius, Juan was the Associate Director MS&T / LVV Suspension Process Development at Rocket Pharmaceuticals. His industry experience also includes director-level and senior engineering roles at Allakos and Bristol Myers Squibb. He also has experience at biopharma service providers like WuXi Apptec and Patheon.
Juan holds a dual B.S. in Computer Science and Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University, where he continues to pursue a Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering.