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

FOUNDER

Steve’s research programs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory were influential in the development of the first acoustic focusing flow cytometer and his more recent programs at the University of New Mexico are the basis of BennuBio’s technology. As a recognized world leader in the field Steve continues to be actively involved in BennuBio’s daily R&D activities and to provide vision and leadership to the company.

Matthew Hess

PRESIDENT & CEO

Matthew has over 20 years’ experience helping start-up companies bring innovative technology to market. With a background in software engineering and deep experience in life sciences tools, Matthew was instrumental in the success of IntelliCyt which pioneered the concept of high-throughput flow cytometry.

Travis Woods

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

As head of BennuBio’s engineering team, Travis has over 18 years’ experience with acoustics, optics, cell biology and general flow cytometry. Before coming to BennuBio, Travis ran the flow cytometry user facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory as part of the NIH National Flow Cytometry Resource, and later transitioned to the University of New Mexico’s Shared Resource.

James Freyer

CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER

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. Jim’s decades 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

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

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.

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. Videos she developed have won multiple national and international awards.

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.

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. 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 specializes in mechanical design and fabrication, including high performance medical instrumentation. 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.

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.

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.

Jason Urvanejo

ELECTRICAL ENGINEER

Jason 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 graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Chemistry from the University of New Mexico. He has managed and worked on different STEM educational programs from public and private grants on behalf the UNM School of Engineering.

Najeeb Shamoon

PRODUCTION ENGINEER

Najeeb hails from Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan and has an undergraduate and a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering. He’s currently working on design and fabrication of acoustic flow cells. He is experienced in computational modeling and simulations for engineering applications.

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.

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. 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 in the Bioscience division and the Nuclear and Radiochemistry division.

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. Her future goals are to obtain a PhD in Immunology and Infectious diseases to aid better vaccine development and infectious disease diagnosis.

Danielle Pacheco

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Danielle Pacheco is the Administrative Assistant at BennuBio Inc. who brings over 15 years of administrative experience to the company with a focus on Logistics. She worked for tech giant Apple Inc., in both retail and corporate levels and managed 5 retail locations with over 600+ employees as a Store Preservation and Operations Specialist.