Select Laboratories

Management

Ernest Knesel - President and CEO

Mr. Knesel was a founder and officer in charge of operations for Biomedical Reference Laboratories, Inc., which started in 1969 and went public in 1979. Biomedical Reference Laboratories was at this time the most profitable of the publicly traded clinical laboratories.  Mr. Knesel served as Senior Vice President of this business and its successor company Roche Biomedical Laboratories, Inc. through 1995. From 1969 through 1995 the business grew from a start up enterprise to a company with $1 billion in revenue. During his tenure in his position as Senior Vice President, Mr. Knesel’s responsibilities included strategic planning, laboratory direction, and management of operations, laboratory acquisitions and extensive regional/national organizational development.  Mr. Knesel was responsible as the chief scientific officer for laboratory technology selection, innovation and development for all areas of the clinical laboratory.  Mr. Knesel has had extensive experience in sales, marketing and has demonstrated an acute awareness of market needs and its priorities.  He personally developed and directed a variety of highly successful differentiating niche businesses within Roche Biomedical Laboratories, which merged to create Laboratory Corporation of America in 1995. In 1989 Mr. Knesel founded Roche Image Analysis Systems (RIAS) as a subsidiary of Roche Biomedical Laboratories and successfully established this company as a leader in automated cytodiagnostics.  As the President of RIAS, Mr. Knesel developed a new automated thin‑layer cell preparation to improve the Pap smear and directed technology acquisitions and product development for microscopic cell-based image analysis.  Mr. Knesel was also founder and first president of AutoCyte, Inc. the successor to RIAS established with venture capital backing in 1996 and taken public in 1997.   Mr. Knesel was responsible for planning, direction and oversight of AutoCyte's successful PMA approval and gained significant experience working with the FDA, Office of Device Evaluation in this and related efforts. Mr. Knesel received a BS in Biology and Medical Technology and an MS in Biochemistry from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Jerry Denney ‑ Chief Scientific Officer

Jerry Denney was the founder and is President and Chief Executive Officer of Synermed International Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Synermed is a research based diagnostic biochemistry and automation company with subsidiaries in South America and Europe and licensees in the Middle East and China. Mr. Denney founded and served as CEO and Chairman of American Monitor Corporation in the late 1960s. The Company went public under Mr. Denney’s guidance and was acquired in 1987. Mr. Denney, during graduate studies, theorized the existence of a group of therapeutic drugs and a process for developing the drugs. The processes were licensed to the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company, which successfully discovered the first compound within months of implementing the process.  Mr. Denney served as an R&D consultant to Eli Lilly and Co. upon the recommendation of a retiring Nobel Laureate consultant.  He then served Lilly as an R&D consultant for four years, from 1964 ‑ 1968.  Mr. Denney has over 20 inventions relating to diagnostic reagents and automation which are covered by issued patents. Mr. Denney is an American Society of Clinical Pathologists certified Clinical Chemist.  Mr. Denney has a BA in Chemistry and has five years of graduate study towards a combined MD/PhD in Biochemistry and Medicine. He also has extensive experience and expertise in FDA and ISO manufacturing requirements.

Jeffrey Downs, CPA - Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Downs joined the Company in the spring of 2007.  Prior to joining SELECT, Mr. Downs was the Chief Financial Officer for Spectrum Laboratory Network in Greensboro, NC from 2001 to 2006.  During his time at Spectrum, Mr. Downs played a key role in the company’s turnaround and subsequent growth.  While in this position Mr. Downs also was instrumental in M&A activities which ultimately led to the company’s sale in December 2005 to APAX Partners.

From 1998 to 2001, Mr. Downs was the Controller for Accordant Health Services, Inc. a start-up disease management company specializing in case management programs for patients with complex chronic diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.  The company was eventually sold to Caremark.  Prior to that Mr. Downs worked in other healthcare and laboratory companies including PhyAmerica, Inc, as Director of Finance and Information Services and as Manager of Accounting and Internal Reporting at Roche Biomedical Laboratories, Inc. (LabCorp).   Mr. Downs started his career in public accounting working in the audit section for Deloitte, Haskins and Sells (now Deloitte and Touche) and an internal auditor for KODAK.  Mr. Downs received a BS in Accounting from Elon University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

John Merritt - Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development

Mr. Merritt has over 30 years of sales, sales management and marketing experience in the healthcare market.  Mr. Merritt has served as Vice President of Sales for Roche Biomedical Laboratories, (LabCorp); Roche Image Analysis Systems (TriPath), General Injectables and Vaccines (now Henry Schein, Inc.), BioClinical Concepts, Inc. (now Clinical Data, Inc). Mr. Merritt was one of the founders of BioClinical Concepts in 1997 and successfully led the company for three years as the Vice President of Sales.  BioClinical Concepts specialized in physician office laboratory management.  Under Mr. Merritt’s guidance, the company grew revenues to $8 million dollars in just three years.  Immediately prior to joining SELECT, Mr. Merritt worked with Quest Diagnostics, Inc. as Strategic Business Development Manager and started Healthcare Innovative Products and Solutions, LLC, a healthcare software sales and service company. Mr. Merritt joined SELECT on July 1, 2004 and is responsible for the current and future business development at SELECT. Mr. Merritt graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in Psychology.

Bradley Knesel – Senior Vice President of Operations

Brad Knesel is currently the youngest member of the of the SELECT management team with seven years of pertinent clinical laboratory experience. He received his BS degree in Biology and Professional Sciences from Appalachian State University in 2001. He was also a co-founder of Select Diagnostics laboratory business in 2001. He received a MS degree in Lab Sciences from the Medical University of South Carolina in 2005.  He continues to directly manage the North Carolina based laboratory businesses while taking on a new role as head of lab operations for all managed laboratories of SELECT.

Shirley Replogle – Vice President of Training Chemistry and Hematology Automation

Shirley Replogle has 47 years of experience as a Medical Technologist certified by the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and as a Director of a Medical Technology Training Program accredited by the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences. Ms. Replogle has been a member of and/or officer for several professional societies, including the American Society for Clinical Pathologists, the Indiana Clinical Laboratory Management Association, and the Indiana Consortium of Clinical Laboratory Educators.  In addition, she served for the National Accrediting Agency in the reaccreditation process for Medical Technology Training programs. She received her BS from Ball State University, completed her training at Ball Memorial Hospital ,Muncie, Indiana and was certified as a Medical Technologist in 1962.

Pearlie Jeffers – Vice President of Instrument Services

Mr. Jeffers has over 25 years of experience in diagnostic instrument repair and instrument refurbishment.  He has held major positions in Roche Biomedical Laboratories (now LabCorp), Roche Diagnostics and Clinical Data, managing and supervising instrument manufacturing, service and preventative maintenance programs for these companies.  He is a navy trained biomedical electronics specialist with experience with a very broad line of laboratory instrumentation and analytical applications.

Jesse Merritt – Vice President of Information Systems

Mr. Merritt, another young member of the SELECT management team is responsible for all information technology, connectivity and network applications as SELECT.  He has been personally involved in the implementation of all lab systems and with the development and construction of the current network which provides interface and test reporting services to clients of all the managed laboratories of SELECT.  Mr. Merritt is a graduate of the University of Alabama with a BS Degree in Journalism with a focus on computer science and graphic design.

Linda Jones – Vice President of Lab Accreditation, Compliance and Quality

Linda Jones has extensive experience in the management and supervision of hospital, physician office and commercial laboratories. She excels in her knowledge of Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA) regulations as well as other regulatory accreditation programs such as CAP and COLA.  Mrs. Jones has a BS degree from Bluefield College in West Virginia. She has held numerous national positions with the AMT (American Medical Technologists) and is currently an AMT Board Member.

Zhaoli Lane, MD – Director of Genitourinary Pathology

Dr. Lane is the founder of the Company’s anatomic pathology program specializing in prostate biopsies and related pathological diagnosis. Dr. Lane graduated magna cum laude from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with degrees in Nursing and Chemistry and graduated from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She completed a residency in pathology at the Cleveland Clinic and a fellowship under Dr. Jonathan Epstein at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Dr. Lane served as the head of Genitourinary Pathology at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan from June of 2008 through July of 2009, leaving in July of 2009 to join SELECT. Dr. Lane has published several prestigious journal articles and is considered an expert in pathology of the prostate and urinary tract.

Coridalia Wald-Scott, MD – Medical Director

Dr. Scott is the Medical Director of Select Labs of North Carolina and a founder.  She is the Director of Cytology for the Greensboro laboratory and a graduate of the University of Panama School of Medicine.  She completed her training in pathology at the University of Paris and the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston Salem, NC. Dr. Scott is Board Certified in both Anatomic Pathology and Cytology. She was a staff pathologist at Wesley Long Hospital in Greensboro, NC for twenty-four years where she also served as director of Cytology. Dr. Scott has maintained an impressive resume of continuing education from prestigious institutions, is a member of numerous societies and has been the recipient of several honors.

Toni Seawell – Vice President of Human Resources

Mrs. Seawell is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she received a BS degree in Medical Technology.  She has also received her Specialist in Blood Banking certification. She has 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry, in both the hospital and reference lab settings.  This experience includes 12 years as a Medical Technologist, 10 years as a Medical Billing Manager, and 3 years as a Human Resource professional.

Bill Brunson – Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Dealer Relations

Mr. Brunson has over 40 years of experience in the diagnostics industry.  His experience and expertise includes sales and marketing, as well as management at the field and upper levels.  He is well versed in chemistry, hematology, microbiology, histology, and cytology systems.  Mr. Brunson has held positions with Miles, Inc. (now Bayer), Ciba-Corning, Bio Chem Laboratory Systems, Inc., Elan Diagnostics, and Alfa Wassermann Diagnostic Technologies, Inc.  He is knowledgeable in not only the sales and marketing of diagnostic equipment, but also in the manufacturing of these products. His education is a product of the United States Air Force training as well as a BS in Medical Technology from Auburn University.  His reputation in the diagnostics industry is well known by all major dealers serving the industry.

Cindy Ezami – Vice President of Raleigh Laboratories

Cindy Ezami is responsible for the daily operations of the Raleigh Laboratories.  She has 29 years of laboratory experience, having worked in all the basic aspects of laboratory medicine, including her role as Chemistry Supervisor at Duke Raleigh Hospital prior to joining SELECT.  Her main area of concentration has been microbiology, where she has extensive training and maintains this level of expertise (including knowledge of the latest techniques and technological changes) by annually attending the Southeastern Microbiology Convention.

Copyright Select Labs, 2010, All rights reserved.