Management Team

Howard Greenman, Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Peter Verlander, Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Jeffrey Gruneich, VP, Business Development
Michael Pilato, VP, Marketing
James Andrews, Director, Digital Strategy
Matthew Shaw, Sales Manager
Gail Wiseman, Senior Manager, Biobanking
Jill Christians, Marketing Director

Howard Greenman

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Greenman was most recently Vice President and Interim CEO for HealthCare IT, Inc. (HCIT) – a biomedical software and services firm specializing in human tissue banking. While at HCIT, he formed partnerships with global pharmaceutical companies as well as major academic medical institutions to standardize the management of donated human specimens by using advanced logistics and clinical data management software and protocols. Prior to HCIT, Mr. Greenman led the strategic marketing function for Philips Medical System's Remote Patient Management Division, part of Philip's New Ventures organization. In this role, Mr. Greenman was responsible for commercialization and partnership strategy for a cardiovascular disease management platform technology. Prior to Philips, Mr. Greenman was Director of Business Development for Ardais Corporation, a biorepository management company that set the standard in tissue banking bioethics, logistics, and quality by building one of the largest repositories of research quality commercially available cancer tissue in the world. Mr. Greenman was the founder of medXtend Corporation, a venture backed healthcare services company providing medical devices and services for use by Radiologists and Primary Care Physicians. Additionally, Mr. Greenman worked in a variety of healthcare consulting roles within Accenture's Healthcare Practice, KPMG Peat Marwick's Healthcare Strategy Group, Oracle, and the Boston Consulting Group.

Mr. Greenman holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business in Healthcare Management.Back to Top ⇧

Dr. Peter Verlander

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Verlander was most recently the Associate Director for Strategic Development of the Laboratory for Molecular Medicine (LMM) within the Harvard Medical School - Partners Healthcare Center for Genetics and Genomics, where he helped transform the vision of personalized medicine into reality by translating research discoveries into breakthrough molecular diagnostic tests. Dr. Verlander led the team that developed the first clinical test for detection of EGFR mutations predicting therapeutic response in lung adenocarcinoma. Dr. Verlander is a molecular geneticist with nearly 15 years of experience in various aspects of human genetics in both academia and industry, including research at The Rockefeller University in New York on the molecular genetics of Fanconi anemia (FA), a DNA breakage disorder leading to bone marrow failure and increased risk of leukemia. In 2000, Dr. Verlander came to Boston to join Millennium Predictive Medicine’s Patient Management effort before joining the LMM in 2003.

Dr. Verlander received his PhD in Microbiology from Duke University.Back to Top ⇧

Dr. Jeffrey Gruneich

Vice President, Business Development

Dr. Gruneich was most recently a World Wide Provider Solution Sales specialist in IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences, focused on translational medicine and biobanking. He worked with government, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic organizations to foster complex relationships and partnerships in support of their strategic goals. As an example, Dr. Gruneich worked closely with a cancer-focused patient advocacy group to identify key strategic objectives which ultimately led them to support and fund a biobanking collaboration between multiple medical centers and researchers across the country. Prior to joining IBM, Dr. Gruneich was Chief Business Officer of Infoceutics, Inc., an anti-microbial bioinformatics company. He also co-founded and was Chief Strategy Officer for eTechtransfer.com, an online exchange for licensing life science intellectual property. He worked as a research scientist developing new immunodiagnostic tests for Charm Sciences.

Dr. Gruneich received his PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, developing new gene therapy technologies. Back to Top ⇧

Michael Pilato

Vice President Sales and Marketing

Mr. Pilato joins the Provia Labs team with more than twenty five years of global executive level experience leading a wide range of technology companies, turning them into successful and profitable businesses. Responsible for leading Provia’s Sales and Marketing efforts, he is a veteran of fast growing startups, mid-cap companies, and vertically integrated multinationals.

Prior to joining Provia he ran a business consulting practice providing strategy and go-to-market planning for early-stage technology companies as well as acquisition guidance to global companies looking to enter the North American market. As an entrepreneur, Mr. Pilato has been part of the founding team for numerous start-up ventures in Software, Identity Management and Healthcare Services; most recently as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Reach Systems, a SaaS platform for secure identity where he set strategy, and launched the service, doubling licensing revenue in the first year.

He has held executive leadership roles in several blue-chip companies including serving as a VP/ General Manager for ASSA ABLOY, a publicly-traded Swedish firm, where he helped lead a $200 Million global RFID division. Prior to that, he served as the Vice President of Strategic Marketing for Honeywell’s Integrated Systems Division where he was charged with integrating several business units into a single $125 Million enterprise better positioned for global competition. He also served as Vice President of Marketing for Software House (Tyco) where he transformed a niche player to category leader with global brand recognition, positioning the company to be acquired by Sensormatic (Tyco). He went on post-acquisition as Product Line GM to lead a $50 Million product division recognized as one of the best performing in the portfolio. Back to Top ⇧

Jill Christians

Director, Marketing
Jill Christians joins Provia Laboratories after 6 years as the Senior Marketing Services Manager for Remote Patient Monitoring within Philips Home Healthcare Solutions, based in Andover, Massachusetts. During her tenure at Philips, she managed the downstream marketing activities for Philips’ home telehealth business in the U.S. and helped launch a disease management platform sold in Europe. She worked closely with Philips Lifeline division, known for the strength of its referral network in driving B2C sales through professional healthcare channels. Jill served as Vice Chair on the Marketing Work Group of the Continua Health Alliance from its inception in 2006 to mid 2008. She has presented at various conferences focused on innovation in consumer healthcare technologies. Prior to Philips, Jill was a Vice President of retirement marketing and customer loyalty programs at the retail division of Fidelity Investments in Boston.

Jill holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Brown University. Her master’s thesis at MIT focused on customer satisfaction and marketing segmentation analysis.Back to Top ⇧

James Andrews

Director, Digital Strategy
Mr. Andrews brings extensive experience in website production and development, internet marketing strategies, interactive media programs and website analytics. Prior to joining Provia Labs, he served as the Digital Brand Director at Owater Inc. where he was responsible for the Brand development, web site traffic growth, web site UI and advertising. His previous positions include: Web Development Specialist at Wrycan Inc., where he lead the UI design and implementation of a content creation, management, publishing and delivery system as part of a Agile/Scrum development team; Branding & Development Director for SpotScout, Inc., where he created and developed the initial system and business logic, bridged the early gap between executive management and product development, managed US-based and outsourced development teams.

Mr. Andrews holds M.A. Hons. in Business Administration and French from St Andrews University and M.A. Hons. in Design from Central St. Martins College of Art.Back to Top ⇧

Matthew Shaw

Sales Manager
Mr. Shaw has nearly ten years of sales experience within the Biotechnology industry. Prior to Provia Labs, he worked over five years as a Clinical Sales Consultant at ViaCord, a leader in cord blood stem cell banking. At ViaCord, he worked closely with families as they made the important decision to bank their child's umbilical cord blood stem cells. Mr. Shaw was involved in sales situations that were escalated as highly competitive, and worked closely with operations and customer service to provide the highest quality level of sales and customer support responsiveness.

Mr. Shaw holds an M.Sc. in Experimental Surgery and a B.Sc. in Anatomy and Cell Biology with a Minor in Management from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.Back to Top ⇧

Gail Wiseman

Senior Manager, Biobanking
Gail Wiseman joins Provia Laboratories from HealthCare IT, Inc. (HCIT), a biomedical services firm specializing in human tissue banking. While at HCIT she worked closely with health care and life sciences professionals at academic medical research centers, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and commercial biobanking laboratories deploying best in class procedures for human tissue collection, transport, and preservation. Ms. Wiseman focused on defining the workflows and information requirements at diverse biospecimen collection sites. She then managed the implementation of information technology and procedures to support patient consenting, tissue handling, and sample logistics through training and ongoing support.

Prior to HCIT, Ms. Wiseman was the Product Manager for Ardais Corporation, a biorepository management company that set the standard in tissue banking bioethics, logistics, and quality by building one of the largest repositories of research quality commercially available human tissue in the world. While at Ardais, Ms. Wiseman was instrumental in the design and deployment of workflows and systems at major cancer centers around the country. Ms. Wiseman has held positions as a Registered Nurse in hospital and home health care institutions and as Clinical Implementation Manager at CareTools, Inc., a healthcare information system company.

Ms. Wiseman is a graduate of the Beth Israel Hospital School of Nursing, Boston, MA, and holds a B.S. in Health Care Administration from Emmanuel College.Back to Top ⇧