We are pioneering the inclusion of the African genome in research

Ron Chiarello, PhD is a visionary leader with a successful career in academia and business. He has founded and led several startups that use technology to tackle societal and industrial issues. With experience working with Fortune 500 companies, startups, and governments, Ron is a highly sought-after business and technology consultant.

Ron currently serves as CEO of 54gene, a Lagos-based startup building Africa’s largest biobank to unlock the value of the African genome and improve global health outcomes.

Previously, he was the founder, CEO, and Chairman of Alveo Technologies, where he developed a diagnostic platform that earned the XPRIZE Grand Prize and UK government approval as a handheld Covid-19 test. He also founded Jetalon Solutions, Etalon Technologies, and Orion Metrology, and held research positions at Stanford University and Argonne National Laboratory.

Ron holds a B.S. in Physics from the University of California Santa Barbara and a PhD in Physics from Northeastern University. He has published over 100 technical articles and patents, is a NATO fellow, and has received multiple awards for his research, including the Department of Energy Award for Excellence and the University of Chicago’s Pace Setter Award.

Alma Karibo serves as the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel at 54gene. With a wealth of experience, Alma has contributed greatly to the success of the company in various capacities, including as Associate General Counsel, Compliance and Data Protection Officer.

In her previous role as Associate General Counsel, Alma was instrumental to the closing of the Series B investment round leading the due diligence efforts and fulfilling post-transaction covenant obligations. Alma is credited for developing and implementing the company’s legal and compliance framework including the data privacy program. She provides legal guidance across the company’s partnerships for scientific research. She advises on diverse legal matters such as corporate and commercial transactions, intellectual property rights and registrations, data privacy, labor law and debt recovery.

Her educational background includes two master’s degree in Business Law; and Law & Technology from the prestigious University of California, Berkeley; a Corporate Counsel Leadership training obtained at the Harvard Law School; and a Bachelor of Law Degree from the Nigerian Law School. Alma is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional on European Laws and a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

In 2021, Alma was named 40 under 40 Nigerian Rising Star in the Legal Profession by ESQ Law (the National Body for legal recognition in Nigeria).

Dishan currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer of 54gene.  He is an accomplished finance executive with over 25 years of experience in financial and operational oversight and has protected and improved the financial health of organizations from VC backed start-ups to mid-sized companies.

Dishan’s career has given him deep experience in industries such as banking, research, digital media, technology, and biotech. Prior to 54gene, Dishan was most recently at SmartBrief, Inc., a Washington, D.C. based digital media company where he served as their Senior Vice President of Finance and was instrumental in the sustained growth and successful sale of the company. Prior to that, Dishan worked as a Consultant at Trimble, Inc. (Formerly TMW Systems).

He has proven expertise in corporate accounting, strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting, EBITDA growth, FP&A, capital raising, and M&A. Dishan also has extensive expertise in process improvements and optimization by upgrading, consolidation and deployment of ERP, CRM and other business platforms.

Dishan holds a BA in Business from Bluffton University, a Master of Accountancy from Cleveland State University and is a Certified Public Accountant.  Dishan currently serves as a board member at Words, Beats & Life a youth, a community development nonprofit based in Washington DC and at Colombo Initiative, an independent public policy think tank based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Colm O’Dushlaine is a data scientist with over 18 years of experience in computational biology and statistical genetics of large-scale datasets. 

He was formerly an associate director of statistical genetics and machine learning at the Regeneron Genetics Center, focused on integrating large-scale genetic datasets with electronic medical record information to find new drug targets. 

Prior to this, he was a senior computational biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, specializing in the genetics of psychiatric disease using association scans of array, exome and genome sequence datasets.

He received a BSc in biotechnology from Maynooth University followed by a PhD from Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He gained post-doctoral experience at Trinity College Dublin and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

He currently serves as Chief Genomics Officer at 54gene, responsible for developing robust scalable QC and analytical pipelines for sequence and array-based datasets and for driving target discovery efforts.

Golibe is an outcome-driven healthcare project and operations management executive leader, with over 10 years of experience in planning, coordinating and managing the implementation of strategic initiatives as it relates to clinical research studies, healthcare delivery, clinical operating processes and program execution. 

As the Senior Vice President, Research Operations and Ecosystems at 54gene, Golibe leads the conduct of ethically and scientifically sound large-scale research studies on high burden NCDs across Africa, owning the value chain from study design to sample biobanking and data analysis. Golibe is credited for the growth and diversity of the 54gene biobank and dataset that fosters genomics insight generation and powers precision medicine on the continent.

She facilitates collaborative partnerships with research and medical professionals, building a strong inclusive network of specialists that forms 54gene’s vast research infrastructure. She develops research plans and participant recruitment strategies that secure partnerships with global biopharma and precision medicine companies. 

Prior to 54gene, Golibe led the Projects and Partnerships Division at a Healthcare Solutions Start-up – PurpleSource Healthcare – implementing the strategic initiatives for scalable low-cost primary healthcare delivery networks; and securing partnerships with the largest ophthalmology network in Lagos, and international clinical laboratory, and an innovative technology-enabled managed care platform.

She is also a previous Management Consultant with significant experience delivering business advisory services across private and public sectors in the specialized areas of strategy plan development, business process design and improvement, organizational design, market research, data analysis and project management. 

Golibe holds a BSc in Biology from Illinois Wesleyan University and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from King’s College London. 

Arinola Ogunrinde serves as Senior Vice President, Country Operations/Country Manager at 54gene and has over 20 years of experience in Quality Management, Corporate Compliance, Audit and Risk Management. Her experiences span the Information technology, telecommunication, and biotechnology industry.

Before joining 54gene, Arinola developed, reviewed, and monitored policies and procedures in top management systems such as MTN. As MTN’s Advisor, Operational Compliance, she improved client experience by managing, leading, and training leadership and functional staff on the importance of business process compliance, quality, and risk management. 

She holds a first degree in Accountancy, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration (Finance) from the University of Wales. She also possesses IRCA/BSI/ISO certifications from the esteemed British Standards Institution. 

Arinola Ogunrinde is vast in managerial skills, operations management and her creativity and flexible thinking, alongside her presentation skills, have put her at the top of her career.

Yusuf Ibrahim is the Director of Biobank Operations at 54gene, with extensive experience in biorepository operations, laboratory information management, and DNA/RNA extraction. He was the first person in Africa to receive the Qualification in Biorepository Science (QBRS) from the American Society of Clinical Pathology Board of Certifications (ASCP BOC) in September 2021.

During his time at 54gene, Yusuf has exhibited strong leadership skills by successfully managing teams, leading initiatives, and ensuring project success. He has also played a key role in training new interns, implementing standard operating procedures (SOPs), ensuring data quality, managing inventory for multiple research sites, and acting as a focal point for projects.

Apart from his leadership abilities, Yusuf is highly skilled in advanced laboratory techniques such as genotyping, PCR-based detection of COVID-19, whole genome and metagenomics sequencing, and genotyping using Illumina’s Novaseq 6000 and TECAN platforms.

Prior to his current role at 54gene,Yusuf worked at IHVN on the ACCME project, which studied biomarkers of persistent hrHPV infection and CIN2+ in African women at risk of cervical cancer. The project included the EPIC-Biomarker, Maverick, and Gene-Disc studies, which aimed to identify biomarkers of the interaction between the vaginal microenvironment and hrHPV infection, and genetic risk factors for persistent hrHPV infection, cervical cytokines, patterns and stability of vaginal microenvironment, CIN2+ and cervical cancer.

Yusuf earned his B.Tech Applied Microbiology degree from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi. He also holds certificates in Implementation Science from the University of Washington and H3ABioNet-OHSU Informatics Course from Oregon Health & Science University. Furthermore, he has an Advanced Diploma in Business Administration from Tekedia Institute, Boston.

In addition to his leadership and technical skills, Yusuf has authored/co-authored publications and won the ISBER Best Poster Award for his poster titled ‘Biobank-driven approach to precision medicine for the underrepresented African population’ during the annual general meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, in May 2022.

Jenny has worked in finance for more than 16 years, beginning as an investment banker advising corporate clients in mergers and acquisitions, and debt and equity financings at Goldman Sachs’ Hong Kong, New York, and San Francisco offices. She has always been passionate about improving the health and lives of those living in low- and middle-income countries and spent time working and living in Kenya and China. In Kenya, Jenny spent almost a year as a volunteer consultant for Technoserve, a non-profit business consultancy for small-holder farmers and small to medium businesses.

In 2012, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) was expanding its strategic investment efforts from a pilot program to a larger scale fund. As part of a small but growing team, Jenny pushed the envelope on how private foundations could achieve charitable objectives by using philanthropic capital and program-related investments to complete equity, debt, structured finance, and guarantee investments in companies and investment funds. Jenny led transactions across the foundation’s focus areas in global health, agriculture, nutrition, and education. She represented BMGF’s interests on numerous boards including Kymab (UK), Acrobatiq (US), Ustar Technologies (China), and Owl Ventures (USA). She also serves on the Investment Advisory Committee at the Reproductive Health Investors’ Alliance (US).

Jenny graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an AB in History of Science.

Yassine Oussaifi is a Partner within AfricInvest, a multi-asset Pan African Investment Platform, and Co-Head of the Venture Capital activity.

A seasoned end-to-end early stage investor, Yassine has led multiple transactions in the venture space for early to growth stage tech enabled companies operating in different sectors and different regions and providing disruptive and inclusive products and services to the African population.

Yassine is an Engineer, graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Mines in France and holds an MBA from College des Ingénieurs.

Since joining AfricInvest in 2012, Yassine was first in charge of an early stage and Small-Cap Fund fully deployed in a diversity of sectors, then he worked on several investments in the financial sector space in North Africa and Sub Saharan Africa.

Tobi is the Founding Partner at V8 Capital Partners. Before founding V8 Capital Partners, he was the head of Intel Capital Africa. Tobi has been investing and partnering with global investors and corporates for close to two decades.

Tobi worked as a Director for Standard Chartered Bank Private Equity in Lagos and as an Investment Professional with HSBC Principal Investments in London covering Africa. He also worked as a strategy consultant with Booz & Company’s London Office, advising companies in Europe on transformational technology projects. He was a founding member of the software engineering team at Motorola that delivered first-generation telematics products across the globe.

Tobi holds a Master of Engineering Degree in Information Systems Engineering from Imperial College, London and an MBA from the London Business School. He currently sits on the several company boards including AppZone Limited, 54Gene Inc, Marketforce and VerifyMe.

Patrice Milos is a biotech CEO with a PhD in molecular genetics and biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic and over 25 years of industry experience as an entrepreneur and senior executive operating at the intersection of genomics and medicine in companies focused on translational science ranging from start-ups to global pharmaceutical leaders.

As an expert on precision care and translational sciences across multiple therapeutic areas, she also serves as an NIH grant reviewer and sits on the tech advisory boards of Creyon Bio, Paradigm4, Binx Health, UltraPlaCad, and SeqLL.

A practicing medical oncologist, she is the Walter L Palmer Distinguished Service professor of medicine and director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics at the University of Chicago Medical Center. As a clinician scientist, Dr. Olopade’s research is focused on advancing novel strategies to prevent and treat cancer based on an understanding of the altered genetic pathways in individual patients.

Dr. Olopade has received numerous honors and awards, including honorary degrees from Bowdoin, Princeton, North Central, and Dominican universities. She is also a recipient of the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist and Exceptional Mentor Award, an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professorship, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a Franklin Roosevelt Freedom from Want Award, The Gregory Mendel Medal, and Officer of the Order of the Niger Award.

Dr. Olopade is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. She currently serves on the board of directors for the MacArthur Foundation, the Lyric Opera of Chicago; and is a Scientific Board Advisor for Tempus and Cancer IQ. Dr. Olopade received her bachelor’s and medical degree from the University of Ibadan in her native country Nigeria.

Temi Marcella Awogboro is an investor, pioneer and change agent driven by a mission to unlock the transformational power of capital as a catalyst for positive change globally.

Temi is the Founding Partner of Alcent Capital and co-founded early-stage investment platforms Kairos Angels and MAGIC, building a global portfolio of over 200 companies across 25 countries and 5 continents.

Temi, was the regional lead of the US$ 1 billion Evercare Health Fund, managed by TPG Capital and The Rise Fund. She was a core part of the investment leadership team responsible for scaling Evercare to a global platform, highlighted as one of the top 50 leaders that will “come to define the world of tomorrow”. She led the investment in, commissioned and jointly ran Evercare Hospital Lekki, one of the largest and most advanced private hospitals in Nigeria. Temi started her career at Goldman Sachs, where she was selected as a GS Global Leaders Scholar.

Temi was appointed by the President of Nigeria to sit on the Nigerian Health Sector Reform Committee under the Chairmanship of the Vice President of Nigeria. Temi sits on the Africa Advisory Board of the Save the Children International, and on the Board of Directors and Investment Committee at the Equality Fund.

Temi holds an MBA degree from Stanford GSB and an MA with First Class Honors from the University of Cambridge, where she was a matriculation scholar.