GeminiBio Appoints Mike Stella to Board

Business Wire 18-Feb-2025 9:00 AM

Strengthening Board with Industry Veterans

Gemini Bioproducts, LLC ("GeminiBio"), a biopharma and advanced therapy raw materials supplier, and a portfolio company of BelHealth Investment Partners, LLC ("BelHealth"), a Fort Lauderdale-based healthcare private equity firm, announced today the appointment of Michael Stella to its Board of Directors.

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Mike Stella, CEO of Ascend Advanced Therapies, joins the Board at GeminiBio to provide strategic leadership in the fields of cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing. (Photo: Business Wire)

GeminiBio provides serum, customized media, buffers, and process liquids to biopharma and advanced therapy companies focused on the research and production of mRNA, AAV, monoclonal antibody, and cell therapy technologies. With the appointment of Mike Stella to the Board, GeminiBio will have increased insights into the critical supply chain needs of cell and gene therapy manufacturing - a key growth area for the company.

Mike Stella is the CEO of Ascend Advanced Therapies, a contract development and manufacturer (CDMO) of Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) gene therapy products headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. Mike has over 20 years of business and operations leadership experiences in the manufacturing of cell and gene therapies. Prior to joining Ascend, he spent over 15 years at Cognate Bioservices, a cell and gene therapy CDMO, where he held executive leadership roles in operations, first as the EVP of Global Operations and for the last 7 years as the company's Chief Operating Officer (COO). In his last five years at Cognate, Mike's responsibilities increased to include the role of Board Member and the Chief Business Officer (in addition to serving as the COO) – helping to guide the company to an exit for $875M.

Mike joins the Board at GeminiBio, which includes:

• Executive Chairman of the Board, Cory Stevenson: Mr. Stevenson served as the President of the BioProduction Division of Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO), a world leader in serving the biopharma sector, with annual revenue of more than $40 billion. During Cory's tenure, the BioProduction business grew from $200 million in revenues to over $2.5 billion annually. Mr. Stevenson joined the Board in 2022 and has been working closely to guide the management team as they seek to grow in service of the needs of bioproduction and cell therapy customers.
• Board Member, Mike Guerra: Mr. Guerra is the President, CEO and Board Member of California Life Sciences (CLS), California's most impactful and influential trade association advocating for California's life sciences industry. His other roles include serving on the Board at California Life Sciences Institute (CLSI) and serving as the Vice Chair of the Council of State Bioscience Associations (CSBA). Prior to joining CLS, Mike held executive leadership roles in sales and business development at VWR, part of Avantor for 14 years, including as the VP of Sales for the last 4 years of his time. Mr. Guerra joined the Board in Feb 2024 and has been instrumental in providing insights related to channels and policy insights.
• Board Member, Steven Sandoval: Mr. Sandoval is the Founder and CEO of Pharmaceutical Technical Solutions (PTSI), a facility design and engineering consulting firm that he founded in 2010. Prior to creating PTSI, Mr. Sandoval served as the Facilities and Engineering Director at Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) for 20 years. In that role, Steve was responsible for leading teams in support of Amgen's global facility expansion initiatives – including the Puerto Rico site. Steve held various facilities and engineering leadership roles that included building a site from concept to completion within 2 years, building engineering programs, and developing a reliability-centered maintenance program. He has a depth of experiences in the areas of manufacturing, engineering, process development, supply chain, commissioning, validation and quality. Mr. Sandoval joined the Board in Jan 2024 and continues to provide invaluable insights on how to partner with organizations in the early facility design phases to provide media and buffer hydration services.
• Board Member, Matt Stober: Mr. Stober is the CEO of Abzena, a biologic and bioconjugate-focused CDMO headquartered in San Diego, California. Mr. Stober is a life-long biopharmaceutical industry veteran with over 35 years of experience and who started his career in Merck, West Point (NYSE:MRK). He held various operations and manufacturing leadership roles in biopharmaceutical manufacturing at GSK (NYSE:GSK), Novartis (NYSE:NVS), J&J (NYSE:JNJ) and Hospira ((acquired in 2015 by Pfizer, NYSE:PFE). Mr. Stober joined the Board in Jan 2025 and will be instrumental in providing insights related to raw material supply needs of biologics manufacturers and CDMOs.

"As a long-time operations executive in cell therapy development and manufacturing, I recognize the critical role that GeminiBio plays in the supply chain. The company is ideally suited to address the challenges of customers (large and small) that need quick turnaround buffer and media hydration solutions. These solutions are often critical to the process but not the science of these therapies. By leveraging GeminiBio's solutions, companies can avoid costly investments in equipment, facilities and personnel while shortening the time to market with the life-saving treatments patients need today. I am looking forward to offering my industry and operational insights in support of GeminiBio's continued growth and development," said Mike Stella.

Cory Stevenson, Executive Chairman of the Board, had this to say: "I've worked closely with GeminiBio's CEO, Brian Parker, these past few years to assemble a diverse and experienced board that will provide the company with improved insights to customers and their needs as innovators and CDMOs within the biopharma and advanced therapies markets. With the addition of Mike Stella to our board, we will gain access to decades of invaluable insights in the development, manufacturing and operational processes of our cell and gene therapy customers. These deep insights will allow us to continue to align our media and buffer solutions to better meet the needs of our customers."

The addition of Mike Stella to the Board provides GeminiBio with a robust group of leaders experienced in several key market sectors including cell and gene therapy, biopharmaceutical manufacturing, contract manufacturing and development, and distribution channels. Additionally, the knowledge of this Board covers key areas including policy, regulatory, manufacturing and facility design, raw materials performance requirements that fuel manufacturing process efficiencies and customer buying behaviors – all of which will be instrumental in helping to shape the strategic direction of the company as it continues to deliver commercial excellence.

For more information on GeminiBio, please visit: www.geminibio.com

About GeminiBio

GeminiBio is a portfolio company of BelHealth Investment Partners. GeminiBio was founded in 1985 and serves the global biopharma, cell and gene therapy industries. Its focus is on helping customers (from basic research to commercial production) accelerate the development of life-enhancing biotherapeutics by streamlining and improving their cell culture and process liquid manufacturing workflows.

The company provides critical raw materials used in cell therapy, gene therapy and biotherapeutics manufacturing – including serum, customized media and buffers solutions, and process liquids.

Located in West Sacramento, California, GeminiBio has 57,000 square feet of cGMP manufacturing space, segregated between animal origin-free and animal component manufacturing. GeminiBio is an ISO 13485:2016 certified, FDA-registered Class 1 Medical Device Manufacturer, aligned with 21 CFR Part 820.

About BelHealth Investment Partners

BelHealth Investment Partners, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is a healthcare private equity firm focused on lower middle market companies. BelHealth acquires majority positions in entrepreneur-owned companies that it believes will benefit from its extensive investing, executive management and entrepreneurial experience.

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Brian Parker (CEO) Email: bparker@geminibio.com Phone: +1(832) 541-9668 www.geminibio.com or Inder Tallur (Partner) Email: itallur@belhealth.com Phone: +1(917) 975-6604 www.belhealth.com