Board of Directors

Spearheading Cell Treatment Globally

Dr. Xu has served on the Board of Directors since March 2016. In November 2016, the board of directors elected Dr. Xu as president and chief executive officer. He brings over 15 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and has contributed to numerous successful product launches. In 2009, Dr. Xu founded Boyalife Group, a global diversified life sciences holding company and is currently the principal shareholder of ThermoGenesis Holdings, Inc. Prior to founding Boyalife, Dr. Xu served as a project leader at Pfizer, as a director of research at two publicly traded companies and as a vice president at Founder Group. Dr. Xu’s expertise spans several diverse therapeutic areas, including arthritis & inflammation, cardiovascular disease, autoimmunity, oncology, and diabetes. He has authored over forty publications and has been recognized by numerous professional societies for his contributions to biomedical research. Dr. Xu received his Ph.D. in immunology from Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, USA) and an executive MBA from Emory University (Atlanta, USA).

Ms. Zhu joined ThermoGenesis in 2004 and was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2018.  During her time with the Company, she has served in various roles with increasing managerial responsibilities in research and development, customer service, global sales and operations. Additionally, Ms. Zhu has helped the Company’s clients and partners build over a dozen premier stem cell banks in different regions around the world. Ms. Zhu brings over 20 years of technical and marketing experience in stem cell field and has contributed significantly to the establishment of ThermoGenesis’ commercial global presence. Prior to joining ThermoGenesis, Ms. Zhu worked as a technical professional at BioTransplant Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that develops proprietary pharmaceuticals and organ transplantation systems and conducted biomedical research in the stem cell laboratory at Harvard Medical School, focusing on HIV vaccine research. Ms. Zhu received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Shanghai University of Science & Technology and completed an advanced biostatistics program at Boston University. We believe Ms. Zhu is well qualified to serve as a director due to her extensive experience in the stem cell banking and cell and gene therapy fields. As a Director, Ms. Zhu will continue to be a valuable asset to the Company and its Board by providing insight and knowledge with respect to the Company’s commercial operation activities.

Dr. Thomis was appointed to the Board of Directors in January 2017. He brings more than 40 years of experience in drug discovery, clinical development and commercialization. After a short period in academia, Dr. Thomis played a major role in the development and registration of eight commercially successful cardiovascular and infectious disease products while at Bristol-Myers Squibb. He has also held senior clinical development roles at Quintiles, a global provider of pharmaceutical services, where he was instrumental in the growth of clinical research in Europe. He also specialized in designing and implementing effective regional and global clinical strategies as well as repositioning and restructuring organizations. Dr. Thomis is currently Chairman of the Board of Glasgow Memory Clinic Holdings, a private company, offering patient services in the neurosciences area. He is also Chairman of WP Clinical, a private company, offering access services in unlicensed medicines. He previously served on the EMEA and American management boards of Quintiles as well as on the board of PDP Courier Services, Idis Group Holdings, Quotient Sciences and NovaQuest LLC. Dr. Thomis is one of our independent directors pursuant to applicable NASDAQ rules.

Dr. Medford was appointed to the Board in February 2017. He is chairman and CEO of Covanos, Inc, an Atlanta-based development stage medical device company, developing advanced computational technologies for the non-invasive diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. He is a senior executive with over 25 years private and public company experience as Chief Executive Officer and Board member of multiple public and private biotechnology, medical technology, digital health and other health related companies, organizations and research institutes. Dr. Medford serves as Chairman of Board of Directors of the Center for Global Health Innovation (CGHI, 501c3) and its operating division, the Global Health Crisis Coordination Center.  Previously, he was Chairman of Global Health ATL, Founding Vice-Chairman of the Georgia Global Health Alliance and a past Chairman of Georgia BIO.  He is a board-certified physician, serves on the Executive Committee/Board of Directors of the Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI, 501c3) at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT), External Advisory Board for GIT’s Petit Institute of Bioscience and Bioengineering, Chairman of Oncospherix, Inc, a development stage oncology therapeutics company, Inaugural Fellow of the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences of the American Heart Association, and a past member of Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s (BIO) Board of Directors (2002-2014), Co-Chairman of BIO’s Bioethics Committee, Chairman of the BIO’s 2009 International Convention Steering Committee (held for the first time in Atlanta, Georgia) and a member of the Advisory Council of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.  From 1995 to 2009, Dr. Medford served as co-founder, President, CEO and Director of publicly-held AtheroGenics, Inc (Nasdaq: AGIX) and was a founding Board Director of publicly-held Inhibitex, Inc. (Nasdaq: INHX).  Dr. Medford is one of our independent directors pursuant to applicable NASDAQ rules and is qualified as an Audit Committee Financial Expert as defined in Regulation S-K Item 407(d)(5)(ii).

Ms. Liu was appointed to the Board of Directors in June 2022.  Since October 2018, Vivian Liu has served as Head of Corporate Affairs for PREMIA Holdings (HK) Limited, a developer and manager of clinical-genomic oncology databases in Asia and service provider to pharmaceutical companies seeking to operate clinical trials throughout Asia.  Ms. Liu served as a member of Board of Directors and President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer for Innovus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (OTCQB: INNV) from December 2011 to February 2020 and from December 2011 to January 22, 2013, respectively.  From January 2011 to December 2011, she served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of FasTrack Pharmaceutical which was acquired by Innovus Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Liu was the Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of ThermoGenesis Holdings, Inc. from February 2017 to October 2018 and November 2016 to October 2018, respectively.   From February 2013 to March 2017, Ms. Liu served as Managing Director of OxOnc Services Company, an oncology development company.  In 1995, Ms. Liu co-founded NexMed, Inc., which in 2010 was renamed Apricus BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: APRI).  Ms. Liu was NexMed’s President and Chief Executive Officer from 2007 to 2009. Prior to her appointment as President of NexMed, Ms. Liu served in several executive capacities, including Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Corporate Affairs. She was appointed as a director of NexMed in 2007 and served as Chairman of its Board of Directors from 2009 to 2010. Ms. Liu has an M.P.A. from the University of Southern California and has a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.  Ms. Liu is one of our independent directors pursuant to applicable NASDAQ rules and is qualified as an Audit Committee Financial Expert as defined in Regulation S-K Item 407(d)(5)(ii).

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