We are pleased to announce that the acquisition of Avid Bioservices by GHO Capital Partners and Ampersand Capital Partners has been completed. Read the Press Release

Leadership

LEADERSHIP

The visionaries behind our success.

Our leadership team leads the way with an unrivaled level of experience.

Nicholas Green

President & Chief Executive Officer

Daniel Hart

Chief Financial Officer

Mark Ziebell

VP General Counsel & Corporate Secretary

Richard Richieri

Chief Operations Officer

Matthew Kwietniak

Chief Commercial Officer

Ray Marzouk

VP Quality

Michael Alston Jr.

VP Operations

Pramthesh Patel, Ph.D

VP Process Development

Joseph Scott, MBA, Ed.D

VP Supply Chain

Demetrice Tillman

VP People

Nick Ferguson

VP Information Technology

Drew Brennan

General Manager, Viral Vector Technologies

Elie Hanania, Ph.D

VP Process Development, Viral Vector Technologies

Nicholas Green

President & Chief Executive Officer

Daniel Hart

Chief Financial Officer

Mark Ziebell

VP General Counsel & Corporate Secretary

Richard Richieri

Chief Operations Officer

Matthew Kwietniak

Chief Commercial Officer

Ray Marzouk

VP Quality

Michael Alston Jr.

VP Operations

Pramthesh Patel, Ph.D

VP Process Development

Joseph Scott, MBA, Ed.D

VP Supply Chain

Demetrice Tillman

VP People

Nick Ferguson

VP Information Technology

Drew Brennan

General Manager, Viral Vector Technologies

Elie Hanania, Ph.D

VP Process Development, Viral Vector Technologies

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Nicholas Green

President & Chief Executive Officer

Nicholas Green currently serves as President and CEO and has more than 35 years of experience in the global pharmaceutical and healthcare services industry with significant expertise in the contract manufacturing of novel pharmaceutical products. His global pharmaceutical experience spans four continents, having run more than 30 facilities in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the UK. Prior to Avid, Mr. Green served in senior executive roles for several contract manufacturing organizations and life sciences companies, including President and CEO of Therapure Biopharma and Evolve Biologics, Managing Director of Nipa Laboratories Ltd, Head of the Life Sciences Division of Clariant International Ltd, President and CEO of Rhodia Pharma Solutions and President of Codexis Pharma Division. Up until recently, Mr. Green was also a Board Member at Induce Biologics Inc and Redrock Regeneration.

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Daniel Hart

Chief Financial Officer

Daniel Hart currently serves as Chief Financial Officer and has more than 25 years of finance and accounting experience. Prior to joining Avid, Mr. Hart served as Chief Financial Officer of ENO Holdings, Inc., a family of real estate companies including Realty One Group. Prior to this role, Mr. Hart served as Chief Financial Officer at SM&A, a private aerospace and defense management consulting firm that was previously a Nasdaq-listed company.

Mr. Hart also previously held positions with Biolase Technology, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed medical device manufacturer, FutureLink Corp., a Nasdaq-listed hosted application service provider, and Deloitte.

Mr. Hart holds a bachelor of science degree in accounting from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of California (inactive).

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Mark Ziebell

VP General Counsel & Corporate Secretary

Mark Ziebell currently serves as Vice President and General Counsel and has more than 25 years of experience. Prior to joining the organization, Mr. Ziebell was a partner at Snell & Wilmer LLP, a law firm based in Orange County, California, where his practice specialized in securities law, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and general corporate law representing companies in a broad range of industries including the biopharmaceutical and technology sectors. Prior to Snell & Wilmer, he was a partner at the law firm of Falk, Shaff & Ziebell, where he was part of the Corporate and Securities practice area. Prior to that, Mr. Ziebell has held positions of increasing responsibility within the accounting and legal sectors.

Mr. Ziebell holds a JD degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law and a BA in Accounting from the University of San Francisco.

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Richard Richieri

Chief Operations Officer

Richard Richieri currently serves as Chief Operations Officer and has more than 30 years of experience in designing, developing, and optimizing manufacturing processes for all classes of biologics. In 1996, Mr. Richieri joined Peregrine Pharmaceuticals and worked on process engineering for each one of the company’s clinical antibody programs. In 2002, Peregrine launched Avid Bioservices, a contract manufacturing subsidiary. During his tenure, Mr. Richieri also helped Avid diversify its production capabilities to include several large stainless steel bioreactor units, as well as the more agile single-use disposable units. He led comparative studies to evaluate the system performance of both types of bioreactors and presented these results at major conferences as case studies, making Mr. Richieri a recognized authority on disposable manufacturing and cost-effective biologics production. Since 2011, Mr. Richieri has been acting as a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, including being named as a Samsung Global Advisor for their biosimilar program and as acting head of biologics production at Syngene International.

Mr. Richieri received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and his master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). As part of his master’s program, he studied how modifications to the cell cycle can improve monoclonal antibody production; an expertise that served him well when he began his industry career working at Xoma manufacturing antibodies for clinical trials using microbial and mammalian cell-based processes.

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Matthew Kwietniak

Chief Commercial Officer

Matthew Kwietniak currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer and has more than 30 years of sales experience spanning CDMO offerings, clinical CRO development services, and scientific products. Before moving to Avid Bioservices, Mr. Kwietniak served as head of drug product sales for the Americas within the pharma services group at Thermo Fisher Scientific. In this role, Mr. Kwietniak is credited with record sales growth and consistent overachievement of quarterly and annual goals during his tenure and leadership. He also spent more than a decade as a senior sales executive in the clinical development services business at Covance, Inc. (now Fortrea). Throughout his time with Covance, Mr. Kwietniak held multiple escalating sales leadership roles, culminating in a three-year tenure as executive director of sales in the clinical development services division. During this period, he expanded and managed a U.S. commercial team of business development directors that included the signing of several large Phase III contracts. In his leadership career, he has been responsible for growing and supporting sales teams generating an excess of $1 billion annually. Mr. Kwietniak has also achieved success in key sales manager and sales representative positions for VWR International (now Avantor). Mr. Kwietniak is an accomplished senior global sales executive with a proven track record of driving revenue growth and delivering sustainable results through the building and management of successful sales teams, as well as the establishment and expansion of key client relationships.

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Ray Marzouk

VP Quality

Ray Marzouk currently serves as Vice President of Quality and has more than 25 years of experience in various CGMP quality roles for the biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical industry with a background in quality systems, microbiology, sterilization, aseptic processing, environmental monitoring, and validation. Mr. Marzouk leads the quality operations for clinical and commercial products at Avid Bioservices. He is also responsible for the management of regulatory inspections and ensuring that multiple manufacturing facilities operate in full compliance with U.S. and global regulatory requirements. He is adept at inspiring trust and collaboration with his team to deliver high-quality products to patients who depend on it.

Mr. Marzouk earned his bachelor of science degree in microbiology and molecular genetics from the University of California, Los Angeles. He obtained certification as a specialist microbiologist with the National Registry of Certified Microbiologists (NRCM).

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Michael Alston Jr.

VP Operations

Michael Alston Jr. currently serves as Vice President of Operations and has more than 18 years of CGMP operations experience in the biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, and food manufacturing industries. Mr. Alston is responsible for CGMP manufacturing operations, facilities, engineering, environmental health and safety, sustainability, and operational excellence. Additionally, he led Avid’s $150+ million capital investment portfolio for expansions at its Tustin and Costa Mesa facilities. Prior to this role, Mr. Alston held positions of increasing scope and responsibility for ConAgra Foods, Merck & Co., Inc., Unilever, and Sterogene Bioseparations in manufacturing, engineering, continuous improvement, and maintenance.

Mr. Alston Jr. received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), and a graduate certificate in project management from Lehigh University.

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Pramthesh Patel, Ph.D

VP Process Development

Dr. Pramthesh (Prem) Patel currently serves as Vice President of Process Development and Manufacturing Sciences and Technology and has more than 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry spanning drug discovery and drug development. He started his career in the drug discovery division of Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), where he worked on several discovery programs spanning many different therapeutic areas. He rose through the ranks to a position of group leader and played a key role in the implementation of High Throughput Screening and Ultra High Throughput Screening (UHTS) technologies. In 1999, he joined Smith Kline Beecham’s (later GSK) CMC division for biologics. Over the past several years, Prem has served as the Senior Director of upstream process development activities for the entire biopharmaceutical portfolio at GSK. During his tenure at GSK, he led the development of the company’s proprietary mammalian cell line expression system, the development of chemically defined proprietary cell culture media and feeds, and the implementation of intensified fed-batch processes. He also co-chaired the Platform and Technology Review Council, which serves as the governing body coordinating and setting the strategic direction for platform evolution and technology innovation in the biologics arena at GSK. Prem has authored and reviewed six marketing applications which have been approved for commercialization in all the major markets in the world.

Mr. Patel obtained his bachelor of science degree in microbiology and chemistry from the University of Bombay, India, his master of science degree in microbial physiology from Southern Illinois University, and his Ph.D from the University of Florida in cellular physiology and molecular biology. He completed his postdoctoral training at Virginia Tech.

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Joseph Scott

VP Supply Chain

Joseph Scott currently serves as Vice President of Supply Chain and has more than 23 years of leadership experience in the pharma industry. Prior to Avid, Mr. Scott spent four years leading supply chain operations at Biogen Idec’s Denmark facility, and most recently, six years directing the supply chain team at Gilead’s La Verne facility. At Biogen Idec’s Denmark facility, he led the supply chain function for the startup location including setting up the warehouse from the ground up. After completing the setup, he hired a warehouse manager and focused on developing procedures and best practices. Prior to that, he worked as Senior Supervisor for Manufacturing Operations and Manufacturing Compliance and, as such, led the warehouse optimization. At Gilead, he specialized in Transition Planning and Operational Readiness and was responsible for the manufacturing site facilities, warehouse operations, and materials management operations for both the San Dimas and La Verne locations, including the distribution of Gilead’s U.S. commercial and clinical finished goods.

Mr. Scott received his bachelor of science degree in cell and molecular biology, then obtained an MBA in supply chain management. In 2021, Joe received his doctorate of education in organizational leadership, focusing his dissertation on the characteristics of frontline workers in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

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Demetrice Tillman

VP People

Demetrice Tillman currently serves as Vice President of People and has more than 20 years of human resources experience in the technology, healthcare, education, manufacturing, and global markets. Prior to Avid, Ms. Tillman was the founder and principal consultant of EvolveBold LLC, where she partnered with hyper-growth organizations to build scalable people teams, establish legally compliant policies and practices, and create value-driven cultural impact. Prior to this role, Ms. Tillman served as the Interim Chief People Officer at Cityblock Health, a $6 billion tech-enabled healthcare provider, where she transformed the employee experience and redefined total rewards strategies. Her vision for the future of work focuses on helping organizations create bold, inclusive cultures that prioritize humanity, authenticity, and purpose. By blending strategy, empathy, and innovation, she continues to transform the way organizations think about their people — and how people think about their organizations.


Ms. Tillman obtained her bachelor of business administration degree from University of Southern Mississippi and her master’s degree of business administration from Mississippi College. She holds an array of certifications such as Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), Human Capital Strategist, Executive Coach, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Myers-Briggs, and StrengthsFinder.

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Nick Ferguson

VP Information Technology

Nick Ferguson currently serves as Vice President of Information Technology and has more than 25 years of industry experience. Mr. Ferguson joined the organization in 1999, when it was operating as Techniclone Corporation, and has since led key areas including information technology, data governance, IT compliance, laboratory informatics, and computer systems validation at Avid Bioservices. He oversees all corporate and GxP systems, ensuring they align with the company’s strategic objectives. Mr. Ferguson is a results-oriented leader, recognized for his expertise in managing IT operations, inspiring teams, and delivering innovative enterprise solutions that drive business success.

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Drew Brennan

General Manager, Viral Vector Technologies

Drew Brennan currently serves as General Manager, Viral Vector Technologies and has 30 years of business development experience spanning CDMO services, capital equipment, and consumables. Most recently, he served as General Manager for North America at Novasep, where he was responsible for managing all North American business development activities including viral vector CDMO services, chemical synthesis CDMO services, and purification equipment. In this role, Mr. Brennan is credited with record sales growth which included signing several major customer contracts that led to major expansions of Novasep production facilities at multiple sites in Europe including a viral vector manufacturing site in Belgium. He also spent more than a decade as a sales executive at Millipore Corporation (Amicon), where he was responsible for significant growth in their chromatography systems business with the signing of several major capital equipment projects.

Mr. Brennan holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a master’s degree in cell biology from Rutgers University.

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Elie Hanania, Ph.D

VP Process Development, Viral Vector Technologies

Elie Hanania, Ph.D., currently serves as Vice President of Process Development, Viral Vector Technologies and has more than 35 years of experience in the cell and gene therapy field. Early in his career, Dr. Hanania was part of a group of cell and gene therapy pioneers tackling hematological, breast, and ovarian cancers at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He then ventured to develop state-of-the art assays for minimal residual diseases related to stem cell gene therapy as the Process Development Manager at At SyStemix — A Novartis Company. As the Associate Director at Cyntellect, he managed research and clinical applications for the company’s laser platform device. Dr. Hanania’s experience focusing on cell and gene therapy CDMO services began with Progenitor Cell Therapy — a Hitachi Company — and led their process development team. As the Head of Process Development at Millipore Sigma, his team developed processes for a wide range of viral vector production/purification and product commercialization. Continuing his journey and focusing on large-scale production of viral vectors, Dr. Hanania led the upstream process development team at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies. His expertise spans academic, clinical, and industry settings, with diverse experience in molecular and cell biology, virology, cell line development, primary and stem cells, device validation, process development, technology transfer, process characterization, animal models, and assay development with implementation of empowering technologies for the advancement of cell and gene therapy.

Dr. Hanania obtained his Ph.D in cell and molecular biology from the University of Texas Medical Branch. He did his postdoctoral training at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, focusing on hematology and oncology gene therapy applications.

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