Advanced Animal Diagnostics (AAD), a developer of technologies for the rapid diagnosis of farm animal diseases, has restructured its board of directors following the close of its $11.3 million Series B round of equity financing in March. Randall Marcuson, former president and CEO of Embrex, will serve as chairman of the board for AAD. Also joining the board of directors are Jimmy Rosen, partner at Intersouth Partners, Dr. Simon Wheeler, managing director at Novartis Venture Fund, and Joy Parr Drach, AAD’s president and CEO.

AAD is an innovative R&D company dedicated to bringing highly accurate, rapid animal diagnostic tests to the farm. The company’s first on-farm product will focus on improving milk production and quality by earlier, more accurate detection of mastitis, an infection of the milk-producing gland. The QuickSmear rapid differential slide for researchers was the first product commercialized by AAD in 2009.

“I’m excited about being part of another innovative company with so much to offer food animal producers,” said Randall Marcuson, newly elected chairman of the board of AAD. “With its initial focus on early, rapid and accurate detection of mastitis in dairy cows, AAD’s technology will provide real, measurable benefits to dairy producers and consumers of dairy products. This dairy platform will also serve as the basis for expansion of AAD’s diagnostic technology to other production animals.” Marcuson and other former Embrex executives have also invested in the Series B financing along with Intersouth Partners and Novartis Venture Fund.

Marcuson is the former president and CEO of Embrex, a North Carolina-based biotechnology company focused on the global poultry industry. Marcuson shepherded the company from product launch through IPO to private sale to Pfizer in January 2007. Embrex had revenues of nearly $55 million in 2006 and more than 320 employees worldwide with operations in all major poultry producing countries. Its process was used for more than 90 percent of U.S. broiler production and more than 35 percent of the global industry.

Prior to Embrex, Marcuson served as vice president of American Cyanamid’s international animal health business for five years and spent 10 years with Monsanto Agricultural Products Company in both domestic and international sales, marketing and product management positions.

Charlie Galanaugh, former CEO and chairman of the board, has retired, but will remain an advisor to the company. “Charlie’s unique ‘zoom lens’ ability to navigate high-level strategic issues and yet still contribute to the engineering accomplishments of the company has been invaluable,” said Parr Drach. “We wouldn’t be at the point of commercialization today without his years of service.”

Jimmy Rosen joined the life science team at Intersouth Partners in 2005. Previously, he spent 15 years in clinical, research and financial positions in the health care and biotechnology sectors. He was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship in 2011 by General Colin Powell.

Before joining Intersouth, he worked on a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsored program at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was also an equity research analyst at Brean Murray & Co. for three years, covering biopharmaceuticals, genomics, generics, drug delivery and medical device companies. He has worked in clinical research roles at Duke University Medical Center’s Comprehensive Cancer Center and completed projects for the National Cancer Institute. At the beginning of his career in health care, Rosen spent five years in Emergency Medical Services as a mountain search rescue and ambulance medic.

Dr. Simon Wheeler is a veterinarian and managing director with Novartis Venture Funds. He has held several commercial, clinical, educational and management roles in academia and the animal health industry and serves as an adjunct professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University. Wheeler’s veterinary specialty is neurology, having been awarded a PhD by the University of London and subsequently gaining the Diploma of the European College of Veterinary Neurology, of which he is a past-president. He has been a practicing veterinarian and authored several textbooks and more than 115 articles. He has also lectured throughout the world on veterinary neurology and neurosurgery.

In academia, Simon has held faculty positions at the Royal Veterinary College at the University of London and North Carolina State University. He has been in the veterinary pharmaceutical industry for the last 12 years, currently working with the Novartis Venture Fund where he is responsible for identifying and evaluating investment opportunities related to animal health.

Joy Parr Drach joined AAD in fall 2009 as president and was named CEO in March 2011. She previously served as a consultant to the company while at Entira, a management and marketing consulting firm that she founded in 2002 focused on agribusiness. She is also actively involved in her family’s purebred cattle and grain farm. PD

—From Advanced Animal Diagnostics news release