Executive Team
Rick Wilson, Ph.D.: Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Wilson comes to the company with over twenty years of global energy commercial and technology experience, recently including Vice President of British Petroleum’s Global Derivatives Chemicals business unit. He received a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University, where he focused on energy efficiency. During his seventeen years at BP/Amoco, Dr. Wilson held a variety of technical, trading and executive positions and was also responsible for BP’s $3.5 billion petrochemical business, ultimately spun out as Ineos. Dr. Wilson has also served as a Senior Advisor to the CEO of Codexis, where he led the development of a business strategy for enzyme development technology in connection with a joint venture with Shell.
Pamela R. Contag, Ph.D.: Chief Technology Officer and Founder
Prior to founding Cobalt, Dr. Contag founded and served as President of Xenogen Corporation, during which time the company received multiple R&D 100 awards, the “Top 25 Young Businesses” award, and the “Top 25 Women in Small Business” award from Fortune magazine. With more than 25 years of microbiology research experience, Dr. Contag is widely published in the field of non-invasive molecular and cellular imaging and holds a number of consulting and board positions in public, private and not-for-profit institutions. She received her Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1989 and completed her postdoctoral training at Stanford University School of Medicine.
David DeNola: Chief Operating Officer
Mr. DeNola has over 25 years of biotech and life sciences experience in preparing start-ups for rapid growth in global markets. Recently, he served as VP of Operations at Xenogen Corporation. Prior to Xenogen, Mr. DeNola served for five years as VP of Operations at Ciphergen Biosystems, a proteomics company. Before returning to the U.S. from Israel in 2000, he was Chief Operating Officer for Gamida-Cell, a stem cell company. During his time in Israel, David spent over ten years developing, building, and operating systems for mammalian cell culture microfiltration and virus free plant cell fermentation and production.
Steven Shevick: Chief Financial Officer
Steve Shevick has extensive experience in financial management, fundraising and merger and acquisition transactions from both a financial and legal perspective, and has served as Chief Financial Officer for both public and private companies. Most recently, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Ausra, Inc., a start up in the solar thermal energy industry. Prior to Ausra, Steve served as Chief Financial Officer at Synopsys, Inc., a billion dollar public company, where he was instrumental in leading the largest acquisition in the history of the electronic design automation industry, and Wyse Technology, a thin computing company.
Ben Carter: VP, Finance & Business Development
Mr. Carter has served in a number of senior executive roles in medical technology, information technology, and biotechnology companies over the past fifteen years. Prior to joining Cobalt, Mr. Carter was Divisional VP, Business Development for Xenogen Corporation, where he played an instrumental role in Xenogen’s successful commercialization of its novel molecular imaging technology for pharmaceutical R&D.
David Walther, Ph.D.: Director, Engineering
Dr. Walther has over ten years of experience directing research teams focused on developing and implementing microsystems in the areas of biosensing, power and energy. Prior to joining Cobalt, Dr. Walther was employed at the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center where he directed research teams focused on projects sponsored by NASA, DARPA, Chevron, and Toyota, among others. Dr. Walther was granted Exceptional PI status for several US Government, State of California and Industry Sponsored Research Grants.
Hendrik Meerman, Ph.D.: Director, Bioprocessing
Dr. Meerman is an acknowledged expert in fermentation technology and bioprocess development, possessing a keen understanding of microbial physiology. Prior to joining Cobalt, Dr. Meerman served for over ten years in process development at Genencor International, where he was responsible for developing and transferring several scalable processes that quickly moved product concepts from the bench to commercial manufacture.
Stacy Burns-Guydish, Ph.D.: Director, Microbiology
Prior to joining Cobalt, Dr. Burns-Guydish held various research positions with the Stanford University School of Medicine where she was awarded with the NIH service award. Dr. Burns-Guydish developed and optimized in vivo models to monitor bacterial infection and immune response utilizing bioluminescence imaging. Dr. Burns-Guydish is an expert in genetic engineering, bacterial pathogenesis, and biophotonic imaging.