ABOUT US

TREY FOSKETT

Chief Executive Officer

Trey applies pioneering methods in directed evolution and enzyme engineering to enable novel genomic applications. As Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Kapa Biosystems, Trey led the company’s global commercial and scientific teams in the development of high-growth, innovative products for next-generation sequencing (NGS), qPCR and PCR. Following the acquisition of Kapa Biosystems by Roche in 2015, Trey served as Vice President of Sequencing and Life Science Commercial Operations for Roche North America. He is listed as an inventor on 3 issued patents and 2 pending patents.

BRIAN KUDLOW, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer

Formerly Vice President of Research and Development at ArcherDX, Brian led a team of scientists and software developers in the design, development and launch of the company’s flagship products for RNA/DNA-based cancer genomics, liquid biopsy and immune repertoire profiling. Prior to ArcherDX, Brian was a Senior Scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific in the Dharmacon business unit (now Dharmacon, a Horizon company) where he developed and commercialized innovative technologies for functional genomics. He is a co-author on over 20 peer-reviewed publications in cell biology, genetics and molecular pathology and is listed as an inventor on several patents and applications.

STEPHEN PICONE

Chief Strategic Officer

Stephen Picone has extensive experience in enzyme manufacturing and supply chain solutions. As Co-Founder, CEO and Chief Strategy Officer at Enzymatics, Stephen managed the scientific operations, coordinated strategic initiatives and developed the company’s proprietary purification technologies to support high-growth NGS companies. Following the acquisition of Enzymatics by QIAGEN, Stephen served as Executive Director of Corporate Development at ArcherDX. Prior to founding Enzymatics, Stephen was a product manager at New England BioLabs, focused on manufacture and quality control of a variety of DNA-modifying enzymes. He is listed as an inventor on several patents and patent applications.

BRIAN DENEAU

Chief Operating and Finance Officer

Brian joined Watchmaker as COO and CFO in August of 2019, bringing global leadership experience in both operations and finance. After graduating from Purdue University in May of 1996, Brian joined the audit team of Price Waterhouse Coopers where he became a CPA and spent 7 years developing relationships with clients, including Roche. He joined Roche in 2003 in their Diagnostics Division, serving as a leader in the North American core finance function. In 2007 he led the Commercial Finance Team for the Roche North American Diabetes Care division. During 2011-2016 he joined the Roche Diagnostics Global Operations team based in Rotkreuz, Switzerland. In 2016, Brian returned to the US and helped lead the integration of the newly acquired Kapa Biosystems into Roche. It was during this assignment that Brian met Trey.

KERRI STELLATO

Chief Commercial Officer

Kerri joined Watchmaker Genomics as Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Sales Operations in February of 2021, bringing over 20 years of industry experience in genomics to her role. Throughout her career Kerri has worked for early-stage start-up genomics companies to help build commercial organizations from the ground up. In 2012, Kerri joined Kapa Biosystems to manage the expansion of the sales team and bring new NGS products to market. Following Kapa Biosystems' acquisition by Roche Diagnostics in 2015, Kerri went on to manage the US Life Sciences Sales organization for Roche. Later she served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for seqWell before joining Watchmaker Genomics. Kerri earned her BA in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Chicago.

ERIC VAN DER WALT

Chief Innovation Officer and Managing Director, South Africa

Eric is a molecular biologist with particular interests in evolution and biotechnology. When he joined Kapa Biosystems in 2006, he was initially responsible for developing and implementing production processes for enzymes and formulations. Eric subsequently transitioned to an R&D role, establishing and leading an R&D team that produced a number of commercially successful PCR- and NGS-related products. After Roche Sequencing Solutions acquired Kapa Biosystems in 2015 Eric served as Head of Research and Early Development for Sample Preparation, focusing on areas including directed enzyme evolution and NGS sample preparation. He is an inventor on 2 issued patents and 4 pending patent applications.

CHRISTIAN ROYER

Vice President, Commercial Development

Chris has built a career on developing long term strategic supply partnerships across a broad range of biotechnology applications. His initial experience supporting customers in regulated markets included custom phosphoramidite projects to support therapeutic oligo development and commercialization, as well as custom nucleotide chemistries advancing both molecular diagnostic and NGS applications. Most recently, Chris led the NGS OEM business at KAPA Biosystems and then spearheaded the integration into Roche Sequencing Solutions. Chris has focused intensely on leveraging his experience to build the Watchmaker commercial organization with a relentless focus on customer satisfaction through maximum flexibility, dependability, and responsiveness.

REBECCA STALLWORTH

Vice President, People & Culture

Rebecca joined Watchmaker in January 2022, bringing 20 years of professional experience in operations, human resources, strategy, and executive leadership. The bulk of her career has been in the healthcare sector including chief operating officer roles with physician-owned radiology and outpatient clinics, private equity-backed infertility labs, and hospital settings. Rebecca earned her BS in Finance and MBA from the University of Colorado.

JEFFREY A. JEDDELOH, PhD

Vice President, Business Development

Jeffrey Jeddeloh brings over 20 years of experience commercializing technologies in genomics and molecular biology. A classically trained geneticist, he completed his postdoctoral research developing vaccines at the U.S. Army's MRIID. He helped Orion Genomics build their epigenetic biomarker discovery and validation technologies, and later joined NimbleGen Systems R&D team, where he led market development focused product prototyping. For Roche, he contributed to sequencing-based diagnostics through M&A initiatives. Most recently, he supported DNA Script, an enzyme-focused DNA synthesis startup, in both market and corporate development. Jeff holds a PhD from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin. His 50 peer-reviewed publications have more than 15,000 citations in oncology, epigenetics, genetics, and genomics.

PETER J. BRUESEHOFF, PhD

Vice President, Quality Assurance

Peter joined Watchmaker as Head of Global Quality Assurance in July 2021. Peter received his BA in chemistry and biology from Carthage College in 1998, and his PhD in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2003. Since that time, he has worked across multiple areas of Systems and Operations Quality Assurance at several biotechnology and diagnostics companies, including Abbott Laboratories, Promega Corporation, and Roche Diagnostics. As part of his time at Roche, Peter served as the local site Head of Quality for Roche Diagnostics in Cape Town, South Africa, from 2018-2020 and the head of Manufacturing Science and Technology for Roche Diagnostics in Suzhou, China, from 2020-2021.

ERICK SUH

Executive Director, Global Sales and Strategy

Erick joined Watchmaker to develop the international go-to-market strategy and to build out a team for global expansion. As a member of the executive team, Erick contributes to the company’s strategic vision, plan and execution. For the past 20 years, he’s worked closely with founding entrepreneurial teams to help build, scale and optimize commercial operations. During his tenure at Kapa Biosystems and Agencourt Bioscience, leading edge NGS tools and applications were developed and gained significant market share in the sample prep market. As a passionate commercial leader and investor, Erick has a proven track record of delivering high revenue growth, customer loyalty, and brand recognition.

HEATHER MAASDORP

Director of Global Support

Heather joined Watchmaker as Director of Global Support in September 2022, bringing industry experience across technical support, product management and business leadership. Prior to this, she was the International Business Leader for the KAPA Library Prep and Target Enrichment portfolio at Roche Diagnostics, with a strong focus on business planning, strategic partnerships and global product management. Heather received her MSc (Med) in Human Genetics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.