Management & Staff

MANAGEMENT TEAM

Our leadership team has more  than 80 years combined experience in cellular analysis, particle analysis, flow cytometry, and instrument development. In addition, our technical experience in cellular and particle analysis instrumentation evolved from active research by Graves (25 years), Woods (17 years), and Freyer (40 years) in the field of flow cytometry.

Steven Graves

CEO & PRESIDENT

Steve’s research programs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory were influential in the development of an acoustic flow cytometer. His programs at UNM are the basis of our parallel acoustic flow cytometry. He has experience in running large scientific programs responsible for the scientific execution and financial management of over $10M of scientific funding for the past years. He has 20 years of experience in the field of flow cytometry and has had significant experience working with many leaders of the flow cytometry field. This includes leaders at most of the major instrumentation manufacturers.

Matthew Hess

Matthew Hess

COO

Matthew Hess has over 20 years’ experience helping start-up companies bring technology to market. With a background in software engineering and deep experience in life sciences tools, and flow cytometry. Matthew was instrumental in the success of IntelliCyt which pioneered the concept of high-throughput flow cytometry. After over a decade at IntelliCyt Matthew spent two years with IsoPlexis, a pioneer in the field of single-cell proteomics.

“What I love about start-ups is that each individual has the ability to make a difference. In a start-up, everything matters. Every decision is critical, and everyone influences the success of the company.”

Travis Woods

CTO

Travis has 17 years of flow cytometry experience, beginning with running the user facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory as part of the NIH National Flow Cytometry Resource, and later transitioning to the University of New Mexico’s Shared Resource. While working at these institutions he also developed skills in cell biology and assay development.  His skills repairing and modifying instrumentation lead him to help develop and advance numerous flow cytometry-based research projects centered around acoustics, optics, and assay technologies.

James Freyer

CSO

James is the former director of the NIH National Flow Cytometry Resource and leader of the flow cytometry team at LANL, with over 40 years of experience in flow cytometry. He is in charge of instrument benchmarking, application testing and new instrument development. He is also the lead for non-dilutive funding through SBIR grants for expanded instruments and new applications. Jim’s 40 years of experience in the field of multicellular spheroids contribute to our spheroid screening and large particle analysis systems

Terry Dunlay

SENIOR ADVISOR

Terry is the former CEO and co-founder of Intellicyt, which was acquired in 2016 by Sartorius, a multinational bio-pharmaceutical company. Terry has extensive experience leading flow cytometry startups and cell analysis companies. He serves as a board member and adviser on all aspects of the company.

Stephen McKernan

CFO

Steve is the former CEO of the UNM Health Sciences Center. He has extensive experience in business operations, financial modeling, and provides leadership in all aspects of business operations. He is serving as a consultant at this time.

Ben Alderete

VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Ben has decades of research and assay development in flow cytometry and cell analysis. He has contributed publications on virology, oncology and genetics while at Texas Primate Center, MD Anderson and Mayo Clinic. He helped launch the first sales of disruptive, cell analysis platforms in both large corporations and the early start ups, Guava Technologies and Amnis.

STAFF TEAM

Susan Blumenthal

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

Susan has decades of experience as a technical writer and scientific video developer. As a freelancer her clients have included Sandia National Laboratories, the FDA, Cray, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as well as multiple tech start-ups. She has written about topics ranging from nanotechnology, high performance computing and robotics to wind and solar energy and bio-prospecting. Videos she developed have won multiple national and international awards. Susan is the author of three books, and multiple articles on subjects ranging from medical, to literary, to quirky.

Benjamin Brown

DESIGN ENGINEER & CNC PROGRAMMER

Benjamin has been a tradesman for nearly fifteen years and has extensive experience transforming ideas to reality. He is dedicated to function, form and providing the very best in design and fabrication to BennuBio and its clientele. His free time is spent creating mathematical works of art such as fractals and this passion informs his professional life

Bruce S. Edwards, PhD

DATA SYSTEMS CONSULTANT

Bruce is an inventor and developer of novel high throughput flow cytometry technologies that support biopharmaceutical research and drug discovery programs at the University of New Mexico Center for Molecular Discovery. He co-founded IntelliCyt which was acquired by Sartorius, a multinational bio-pharmaceutical company. He is a consultant responsible for the creation and continuing development of software tools to support parallel acoustic flow cytometry analysis. His more than 30-year experience in cell biology, immunology and cancer research is also supports biological application development.

Jose Lopez

TECHNICIAN

Jose completed a Bachelor of Science in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of New Mexico in May 2020. He has been working with BennuBio since it was founded.

Gian Maestas

MECHANICAL ENGINEER

Gian excels at mechanical design and fabrication, including high performance medical instrumentation and garage-built performance vehicles. He graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. As an undergrad he assisted in the design and fabrication of acoustic flow cells, this work ultimately led to two publications in the American Chemical Society journal Analytical Chemistry. Gian has been with BennuBio since it was founded. He is committed to designing the highest quality products, with emphases on robustness and reliability in an elegant package. Other interests include mountain biking, skiing, backpacking, and restoring old cars

Andrew P. Shreve, PhD

MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS CONSULTANT

Andy has 30+ years of experience in developing optical-based measurement systems for spectroscopy, imaging and sensing, most recently as a Professor Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of New Mexico where he worked closely with Dr. Graves on development of parallel acoustic flow cytometry. Prior to his work at UNM, he was a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he was part of the team that founded the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, jointly operated by Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories. He consults with BennuBio on continued development and implementation of all aspects of the measurement and analysis components of cytometry platforms.

August Swanson

SOFTWARE ARCHITECT

August has been a software developer and entrepreneur for 30+ years. He graduated from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering. August has extensive experience testing mainframe computers and developing data acquisition systems. This drove him to start his own company, which focuses on creating commercial computer graphics products. He loves digging into difficult problems and delivering practical solutions. Other interests include working on his classic cars, running an Aikido dojo, and mountain biking.

Jason Urvanejo

ELECTRICAL ENGINEER

Jason is an Electrical Engineering graduate from the University of New Mexico. As an undergrad he participated in everything from basic audio amplifiers to an in-situ temperature monitoring system for Molecular Beam Epitaxy. He is currently focused on the development of the control systems for BennuBio devices, designing custom boards and assisting in the software development for implementing functionality.

Sergio Valora

SALES & MARKETING ASSISTANT

Sergio is graduating with a BS in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Chemistry from the University of New Mexico Summer 2021. He has managed and worked on different STEM educational programs from public and private grants on behalf the UNM School of Engineering. During his undergrad he led the Hispanic Engineering & Science Organization treasury and developed multiple fundraising campaigns. Sergio hopes to combine his passion for science and administration to assist developing a business marketing platform for the company.

Najeeb Shamoon

PRODUCTION ENGINEER

Najeeb hails from Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan and has an undergraduate and a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering. His interests lie in fluids and thermal engineering design, mechanical design, piping and instrumentation design and he’s currently working on design and fabrication of acoustic flow cells. He is experienced in computational modeling and simulations for engineering applications and has previously worked on the optimization of fuel cells. Najeeb enjoys playing cricket and video games.

Danielle Sedillo

OFFICE MANAGER

Danielle has associate’s degrees in accounting, business administration and applied science. An interest in biology and anatomy lead to a career as a surgical technologist with a specialization in neurological surgery.

Her current work at BennuBio allows her to continue assisting doctors and scientists as they invent systems to help treat patients outside of the operating room.

In her free time Danielle enjoys hiking, jewelry fabrication and learning about food fermentation.

Diane Yost

BIOLOGY TECHNOLOGIST

Diane has an undergraduate degree in ecology and a master’s in microbiology. She has experience in ecological field work, environmental education, animal husbandry, microbial ecology, and lab research. Her thesis in graduate school involved researching the potential use of phage therapy as a viable treatment for Apis mellifera hives infected with American Foulbrood. Following a year of teaching at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the College of Southern Nevada, she spent nearly four years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, gaining research experience in the Bioscience division and the Nuclear and Radiochemistry division. Diane joined BennuBio in the fall of 2019.

Ayomide Oloyede

APPLICATION SCIENTIST

Ayo is from Ogun State, Nigeria. She graduated with a BS in Biochemistry and a minor in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico in May, 2020. Her future goals are to obtain a PhD in Immunology and Infectious diseases to aid better vaccine development and infectious disease diagnosis. She hopes to make use of her skills learned in her current position for the betterment of the company’s research and also the biomedical industry at large.

Kimberly Martinez

ANALYSIS INTERN

An Albuquerque native, Kimberly is working towards a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry after working the medical field. She is interested in research that will benefit the medical field but has not chosen a specific topic.

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