MaxCyte Leadership
Maher Masoud
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Masoud was named President and Chief Executive Officer of MaxCyte in January of 2024. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, including 17 years as an attorney and general counsel, to his new role at MaxCyte. Mr. Masoud has most recently served as Executive Vice President, Head of Global Business Development, and Chief Counsel at MaxCyte. During his tenure, MaxCyte’s strategic platform license (SPL) partnerships grew to include 29 partners (as of September 2024).
Mr. Masoud started his biopharmaceutical career as a research associate with Glen Research, a Maravai company, before joining Human Genome Sciences as Director and Corporate Counsel, overseeing legal activities for the company’s global clinical trials, until its acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline. Prior to joining MaxCyte, he oversaw the operations of six business subsidiaries at Wellstat, a life science holding company. During his tenure at Human Genome Sciences and Wellstat, Mr. Masoud supported the launch of three FDA approved therapies, Benlysta®, Vistogard® and Xuriden®.
Mr. Masoud earned his Juris Doctor degree from Michigan State University College of Law after completing his Bachelor of Science degree in cell and molecular biology genetics at the University of Maryland.
Maher Masoud
President and Chief Executive Officer
Douglas Swirsky
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Swirsky is a seasoned financial leader with more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare sector, including as a public company executive at Nasdaq-listed organizations. He previously held various executive leadership positions at several biotechnology companies including AavantiBio, Rexahn Pharmaceuticals and GenVec. He also worked in the investment banking industry at Stifel Nicolaus, Morgan Stanley, UBS, PaineWebber and Legg Mason. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Cellectar Biosciences.
Mr. Swirsky is a certified public accountant and CFA® charterholder. He received a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago and a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Boston University.
Douglas Swirsky
Chief Financial Officer
Ali Soleymannezhad
Chief Commercial Officer
Mr. Soleymannezhad brings 20 years of technical sales, strategic marketing, and bioprocessing and bioanalysis product management and development to his role at MaxCyte. Recently, as an Executive Vice President for the Separations and Purification Business at Tosoh Bioscience, he led a 140-member global team across four sites. During his tenure at Tosoh, Mr. Soleymannezhad was also Vice President of Global Marketing and Business Development, Director of Sales and Marketing – Americas, and served on the boards of Tosoh Bioscience, LLC, and Semba Biosciences. Mr. Soleymannezhad holds a Master of Business Administration from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business as well as master's and bachelor's degrees in chemical and biochemical engineering from the University of Western Ontario.
Ali Soleymannezhad
Chief Commercial Officer
Ron Holtz
Executive Vice President of Administration
Mr. Holtz is a well-established executive leader with more than 30 years of experience in the biotechnology and financial industries. Previously, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of both public and private companies as well as the Senior Consultant at Ernst & Young’s Financial Advisory Services Group.
Mr. Holtz is a certified public accountant and earned a Master of Business Administration in finance from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business after completing his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Ron Holtz
Executive Vice President of Administration
Thomas Ross
Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing
Mr. Ross has extensive experience in commercial operations and more than 30 years of successful life sciences and clinical diagnostics sales and marketing leadership. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at OpGen. Mr. Ross also served as Chief Commercial Officer at Predictive Biosciences and Vice President of North America Medical Diagnostics Sales at Qiagen (formerly Digene). He previously held senior leadership roles in manufacturing operations at Life Technologies (now Thermo Fisher Scientific) and Cambrex.
Mr. Ross holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the Tommy and Victoria Baker School of Business at The Citadel in South Carolina.
Thomas Ross
Executive Vice President of Global Sales
James Brady, PhD
Senior Vice President of Technical Applications and Customer Support
Dr. Brady is an experienced biotechnology industry professional with expertise in gene and cellular therapy, biologics, and drug discovery. Previously, he was a Senior Scientist at Genetic Therapy, a Novartis subsidiary, where he worked on lentiviral-based gene therapy treatments and a Group Leader at MetaMorphix, managing the company’s transgenic and genetic research programs.
Dr. Brady earned a Master of Business Administration in finance from The Johns Hopkins University. He completed his postdoctoral fellow at the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, after obtaining a PhD in genetics from Indiana University in Bloomington and a Bachelor of Science in biology from the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
James Brady, PhD
Senior Vice President of Technical Applications and Customer Support
Jay Gelfman
Senior Vice President of Operations
Mr. Gelfman’s diverse experience as a cross-functional finance, information technology and operations leader has allowed him to guide numerous organizations through successful business transformations over the past 25 years. Previously, he was the Vice President of Finance at MaxCyte after serving in several leadership positions of increasing responsibility at Innate Pharma, AstraZeneca, MedImmune and Accenture.
Mr. Gelfman earned a Master of Business Administration in finance and information systems from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business after receiving a Bachelor of Science in finance from the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University.
Jay Gelfman
Senior Vice President of Operations
Jeremy Kolenbrander
Senior Vice President of Engineering and Product Development
Mr. Kolenbrander has been pushing the boundaries of innovation in a variety of industries for more than 30 years. He was the team leader that invented and brought to market SpectraOptia, an apheresis device used all around the world that collects the primary starting materials for cell and gene therapy. A continuous innovator, he has contributed novel ideas to many products, such as sterile tubing welders, whole-blood processing devices, centrifuges, bioreactor systems, and even consumer products like a snow globe that rains. Mr. Kolenbrander has 15 years of experience in cell and gene therapy, serving as an advisor on the initial cell processing work at Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies and directing the systems engineering for Cellares.
Mr. Kolenbrander earned a Master of Engineering from Stanford University. He completed his Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has also been a registered professional chemical engineer in Colorado.
Jeremy Kolenbrander
Senior Vice President of Engineering and Product Development
Jill Mayer
Senior Vice President of Human Resources
Ms. Mayer has more than 20 years of broad, cross-industry human resources leadership experience. With a passion for people, she has developed comprehensive human resources programs and partnered with leaders in both public and private companies to build strong, engaged organizations and teams. Previously, she served in various human resources leadership roles at Fluke Networks, EntreMed, the American Chemical Society and Peak Technologies.
Ms. Mayer holds a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Delaware as well as a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
Jill Mayer
Senior Vice President of Human Resources
David Sandoval
Senior Vice President, General Counsel
Mr. Sandoval has more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He served as Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer at Leadiant Biosciences, Inc., and as Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Compliance Officer at Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. In addition to his in-house experience, Mr. Sandoval began his legal career working at major U.S. law firms.
Mr. Sandoval is a member of the New York and New Jersey Bar and earned his Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law after completing his Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University.
David Sandoval
Senior Vice President, General Counsel
Benjamin Elsener
Vice President of Information Technology
With over 15 years of experience in technology strategy and operations, Mr. Elsener has played a pivotal role in driving digital transformation and business process optimization at MaxCyte. As the Vice President of Information Technology, he leads critical technology programs in enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), data integration, portfolio and project management, analytics, network infrastructure, and cybersecurity risk management. Mr. Elsener began his career in consulting with Accenture and previously held leadership positions at Georgetown University.
Mr. Elsener earned a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Benjamin Elsener
Vice President of Information Technology
Jack Horgan
Vice President of Corporate Development
Mr. Horgan is an experienced corporate development and strategy leader that has spent his career supporting organizations in strategy development, mergers and acquisitions, strategic commercial and research collaborations and other growth initiatives. He most recently held an operating role at CSafe Global. Prior to that, he held various corporate development and strategy roles at Sigma-Aldrich and its successor company, MilliporeSigma. He began his career at PwC in audit and due diligence consulting.
Mr. Horgan is a certified public accountant. He received a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Jack Horgan
Vice President of Corporate Development
Jessica Wanamaker
Vice President of Sales for the Americas
Ms. Wanamaker brings over 20 years of extensive commercial experience driving multimillion-dollar revenue growth in the biotech industry as well as scientific expertise in molecular biology, cell signaling, proteomic, immuno-oncology, cell and gene therapy and 3D organ-on-a-chip products. She is experienced in building commercial teams as they grow from early stages to large national and global organizations. Ms. Wanamaker has held various leadership positions at Cell Signaling Technology, Chemicon Upstate (now part of MilliporeSigma), Continental Lab Products and, most recently, at Emulate.
Ms. Wanamaker holds a Bachelor of Science in animal physiology with a minor in behavioral psychology from Northwestern University in Chicago.
Jessica Wanamaker
Vice President of Sales for the Americas
Gene Zhu, PhD
Vice President of Regulatory Affairs
For more than 25 years, Dr. Zhu has been instrumental in helping companies receive regulatory approvals of several biologics, including for the treatment of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, breast and lung cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, asthma, gout, and cytokine release syndrome. Previously, he served as the Head of Regulatory Affairs CMC at Atara Biotherapeutics and also held various leadership positions at Daiichi Sankyo, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Savient Pharmaceuticals and Chugai Pharma USA.
Dr. Zhu earned his PhD in genetic engineering from Ghent University in Belgium and his Bachelor of Science in human and animal physiology from Fudan University in Shanghai, China.
Gene Zhu, PhD
Vice President of Regulatory Affairs
Advisors
Doug Doerfler
Founder
Mr. Doerfler founded MaxCyte in 1999 as one of three cofounders who started MaxCyte to commercialize flow electroporation technology and served as the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer through 2023. He has more than 35 years of experience in biotechnology product and company development, commercialization and international financing. Previously, Mr. Doerfler was President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Immunicon Corporation and also held various executive leadership positions with Life Technologies (now Thermo Fisher Scientific). He is an active life sciences industry advocate, serving as Chair Emeritus on the Tech Council of Maryland and member of the executive committee for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
Doug Doerfler
Founder
