Board of Directors

Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz

Co-Chair, Secretary of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance

Matthew Gorzkowicz is the Secretary of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance. He has more than 25 years’ experience in state finance and budgeting in the Commonwealth. He has served as the Associate Vice President for Administration and Finance at the University of Massachusetts President’s Office for more than a decade, where he has had a direct role in setting the University’s long-range administrative and financial goals and managed the development of an annual operating budget of $3.8 billion. Prior to UMass, Secretary Gorzkowicz worked in the Massachusetts Senate, the Department of Mental Health, the School Building Authority, and the Executive Office for Administration and Finance under Governor Deval Patrick, where he served as Assistant Secretary for Budget and then Undersecretary. He is a graduate of Northeastern University and lives in Winthrop, MA with his wife and two children.

Secretary Yvonne Hao

Co-Chair, Secretary of the Executive Office of Economic Development

Yvonne Hao is the Secretary of the Executive Office of Economic Development. She has had more than 25 years of executive business experience as a senior executive, including as Co-founder, Advisor, and Managing Director at investment firm Cove Hill Partners and as an Operating Partner at Pillar Ventures. Previously, she was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of PillPack, an online pharmacy that was acquired by Amazon in 2018. She is also a former Operating Partner at Bain Capital. In addition, Hao has been a Board Director of companies such as CarGurus, Flywire, Gentherm, ZipRecruiter, and Bose. She also has been involved in the community, is the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Beth Israel Lahey Health, and a Trustee Emeriti of her alma mater, Williams College. She lives in Williamstown and Cambridge, and is a graduate of Williams College and the University of Cambridge.

Stuart Abelson

CEO & Managing Partner, Ora Asset Development Group, Ora, Inc.

Stuart Abelson is President and CEO at Ora. In the 10 years that he has been CEO, Stuart’s acumen in science and business has helped grow Ora from a small family business to a multinational CRO. Stuart’s knowledge of and passion for the ophthalmic product space has translated into great opportunities for Ora’s clients. His energy ensures Ora is always at the leading edge of ophthalmic innovation. Stuart has 20 years of broad experience in business and marketing strategy, international operations, M&A, licensing, product innovation and R&D management, and business model innovation. He also serves on multiple nonprofit and corporate boards.

Stuart holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BS in Neuroscience from Bates College.

Gary Paul Kearney, M.D.

President, Longwood Urological Associates

Gary Kearney is a native of Piedmont, California. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree with honors from Northwestern University in 1961 and his Doctor of Medicine Degree in 1965 at the University of California, San Francisco. On completion of active duty in the United States Navy during the Vietnam conflict, he trained as a Urological Surgeon at the Harvard Program of Urology, Longwood area. Since 1973 he has been on the staff of the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical, and New England Baptist Hospital where he was President of the Medical Staff, Chief of Urology, and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Surgery. Dr. Kearney currently serves as President of Longwood Urological Associates in Boston.

In 1999 Dr. Kearney retired as a Captain of the United States Naval Reserve, having served since 1961.
He served as Treasurer of the Theodore Roosevelt Association and currently serves on the Executive Committee. Gary Kearney is also a Trustee of Rogerson Communities, Past Chairman of the Development Committee, a nonprofit organization devoted to affordable housing and services for elders. He is also Vice Chairman and Trustee of the USS Constitution Museum.

Dr. Kearney is an avid aviation enthusiast with an airline pilot rating who enjoys swimming, photography and traveling. His wife, Susan can be found lovingly restoring our “final resting place “to its original historic appearance when she is not out in the garden pulling weeds. They currently reside on weekends in Duxbury and have four adult children, Michael, Alison, Shanon and Christian and six grandchildren, Anders, Niall, Owen, Laurel, Thea and Sam.

Marty Meehan

President, University of Massachusetts

Marty Meehan, the 27th president of the University of Massachusetts, is the first undergraduate alumnus to lead the system. He was named to the presidency after eight successful years as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he propelled that institution forward by every important measure of higher education. During his tenure, UMass Lowell achieved record growth in enrollment, student retention and funding for research and scholarships. The campus underwent a stunning physical transformation with new academic buildings and residence halls, upgraded academic and research facilities, and enhanced student activity spaces.

While chancellor, he was honored by the Lura Smith Fund with the Living the Dream Award in 2015 for embracing the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through his faith and commitment to social justice. In 2014, he received the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) President of the Year Award at the organization’s 100th anniversary celebration and the Robert H. (Tex) McClain, Jr. Distinguished Public Administrator Award from the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Society of Public Administration. He received the Chief Executive Leadership Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) at the annual District I program in 2012.

A former congressman, President Meehan represented the 5th Congressional District of Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2007, where he served on the House Armed Services and Judiciary committees. Widely respected as a reformer, he established a national reputation for his legislative leadership in transforming campaign finance laws and protecting the public from the health risks of tobacco use. Previously, he served as Massachusetts’ deputy secretary of state for securities and corporations and he was the first assistant district attorney of Middlesex County.

President Meehan graduated cum laude from UMass Lowell in 1978 with a degree in education and political science. He earned a master’s degree in public administration from Suffolk University in 1981 and a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School in 1986. He holds honorary degrees from Suffolk University, Green Mountain College in Vermont and Shenkar College of Engineering & Design in Israel.

Pam Randhawa

CEO and Founder, Empiriko

Pam Randhawa is Founder and CEO of Empiriko, an integrated precision medicine company focused on early disease detection, prognosis, prediction, and ongoing therapeutic monitoring.

Pam has 20 years of experience in the healthcare and life sciences industries with expertise ranging from policy, corporate strategy, product development, analytics and marketing for Fortune 500 companies, startups and government. Prior to founding Empiriko, Pam co-founded AgroGreen Biofuels, an alternative biofuels technology company from plant waste. The company’s patented synthetic liver technology (Biomimiks™) provides a platform for analyzing the liver’s metabolic reactions to drugs, food, and other chemical compounds – serving as a foundation for the company’s diagnostic device, Personalized Metabolic Fingerprint™ (PMF).

Previously, Pam served as VP of Strategic Development at Sermo, the largest Physician Online Community in the US, where she was responsible for identifying and developing new markets in the areas of clinical development, analytics and international expansion. Before joining Sermo, she served as VP of Global Marketing at Phase Forward (acquired by Oracle), a leader in Electronic Data Capture (EDC), management and drug safety for clinical trials, where she was responsible for the planning and execution of the company’s global marketing and product strategy. Previously, Pam was Director of Analytical Development at McKesson Corporation, where she effectively developed healthcare products that leveraged healthcare longitudinal data to assess the effectiveness of various therapies, disease severity, healthcare costs, and quality of care provided to healthcare plan members. She also served as an independent consultant to the State of Ohio, Department of Health, where she led a statewide task force focusing on the Health Status of Ohioans for the State Health Plan and developed a 5-point plan to improve public health in Ohio.

Ms. Randhawa holds a Bachelors Degree in economics from the University of Rajasthan, India, and received a Masters Degree from the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Uciane Scarlett, Ph.D.

Principal, MPM

Dr. Uciane Scarlett is responsible for investment identification, due diligence, business development and new company creation activities at MPM and BioImpact Capital, an affiliate manager of MPM. Uciane currently serves on the board of a newly formed, stealth portfolio company.

Prior to joining MPM and BioImpact Capital, Uciane was a Principal at Oxford Sciences Enterprise (OSI, UK), where she initially co-led the life science sector. While at OSE, Uciane led financings and drove company creation efforts for several companies including T-Cypher Bio, where she served as interim Executive Chair, Alethiomics, PepGen and Endlyz. She represented OSE on the boards of T-Cypher, PepGen, Miro Bio, Scenic Bio, and DJS. Prior to OSE, Uciane was on the investment team at Atlas Venture where she drove company creation, operations, and financings activities for Dyne Therapeutics (DYN) and Quench Bio and served in operational roles for AVROBIO (AVRO) and KorroBio. Uciane was the Director of BD & Strategy at Compass Therapeutics prior to Atlas and prior to Compass was a Manager at the life sciences consultancy, Clarion.

Uciane holds a Ph.D. in cancer immunology from Dartmouth College. She received her BSc, first-class honors, in biotechnology (major) and zoology (minor) from the University of the West Indies.

Julie Chen, Ph.D.

Chancellor, UMass Lowell (Board designee for President Marty Meehan)

Dr. Julie Chen is the Chancellor for Research & Economic Development and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (www.uml.edu). As the Chief Research Officer, Dr. Chen also oversees industry partnerships, technology transfer, startups & innovation, core research facilities, centers & institutes, and economic development programs. She has fostered and supported many collaboration models including unique co-location partnerships with Raytheon and the Natick Soldier RDE Center (HEROES), and 3 NSF Industry-University centers in wind energy, biomanufacturing, and 3D Printing. With support from the Commonwealth (M2I2), UMass Lowell established the first center in the nation to integrate three Manufacturing USA institutes (AFFOA – smart textiles, NextFlex – flexible electronics, and ARM – robotics) under the Fabric Discovery Center (FDC) umbrella. The FDC, in cooperation with the University’s Medical Device incubator (M2D2) and Innovation Hub, will work with industry to create new technologies in areas such as wearable electronics, medical textiles, performance clothing, robotics & automation, physical therapy and rehabilitation.

Dr. Chen is also one of the co-PIs on a $3.5M NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant to help advance women faculty in STEM at UMass Lowell and was a leader of the University’s successful effort to be one of the first three institutions in the US to receive the AAAS SEA Change (STEM Equity Achievement) Award.
Dr. Chen served as the Program Director of the Materials Processing and Manufacturing and the Nanomanufacturing Programs in the Division of Design, Manufacture, and Industrial Innovation at the National Science Foundation from 2002-2004. Dr. Chen has also served as the 2010 Technical Program Chair for the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition and has served on editorial boards, advisory committees, and review panels for several journals and federal agencies, including NSF, NIH, the National Academies, DOE, ARL, and AFOSR.

Dr. Chen received her PhD, MS, and BS from MIT in Mechanical Engineering and recently was awarded an honorary degree from Queens University Belfast.