Board of Directors

Michael Goldberg has served as chairman of board or lead independent director since November 2011. From January 2005 to May 2011, Mr. Goldberg was a partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, a venture capital firm, where he led life sciences investments in the area of molecular diagnostics, personalized medicine, and wireless healthcare. From October 2000 to December 2004, Mr. Goldberg operated a management and financial consultancy business. In 1995, Mr. Goldberg founded OnCare, Inc., an oncology disease management company, and served as chairman until August 2001 and as chief executive officer until March 1999. In 1987, Mr. Goldberg founded Axion, Inc., a cancer treatment services company, and served as chief executive officer until its sale to Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1995. Prior to Axion, Mr. Goldberg was a partner at the venture capital firm, Sevin Rosen Management Company, from 1985 to 1987, where he established the firm’s life science practice, and was director of corporate development at Cetus Corporation from 1981 to 1985. Mr. Goldberg has served as a member of the board of directors of numerous companies in the biotech and health sciences industry, and currently serves as executive chairman of DNAnexus, Inc. Mr. Goldberg has served on boards and advisory boards of a number of industry, academic, and public policy institutions in biotechnology and finance, including the board of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, which is the governing board for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the board of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, the advisory boards of the Harvard Center for Genetics and Genomics, the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, and the UCSF Center for Translational and Policy Research on Personalized Medicine. Mr. Goldberg holds a BA from Brandeis University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

John W. Hanna has served as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and member of our board of directors since April 15, 2024. John brings to CareDx over two decades of executive leadership at the intersection of new technology development and revenue growth in the molecular diagnostics and life sciences tools industries. John previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Apton Biosystems, Inc., where he led the development of a high throughput next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform for liquid biopsy and other clinical applications. Apton Biosystems, Inc. was acquired by Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. in August 2023, where served as Vice President of Corporate Development.

John previously spent ten years at Veracyte, Inc., from September 2011 to March 2021, an oncology diagnostics company in the fields of thyroid, lung, breast, and prostate cancer, where he held numerous roles including Chief Commercial Officer and Vice President of Marketing. Prior to Veracyte, John held leadership roles at Humana and IBM. John received a BS in Political Science from Hampden Sydney College in 2001 and an MBA. from the University of Miami in 2008.

George W. Bickerstaff, III has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2014. Mr. Bickerstaff is currently the managing director of M.M. Dillon & Co., LLC, which he joined in 2005. Prior to that Mr. Bickerstaff held various positions with Novartis International AG, a global leader in pharmaceuticals and consumer health, including chief financial officer of Novartis Pharma AG from October 2000 to May 2005. Previously, George held senior finance and operating roles with various global companies including, IMS, Dun & Bradstreet and General Electric. Mr. Bickerstaff received a BS in engineering and a BA in business administration from Rutgers University in 1978.

Fred E. Cohen has served as a member of our board of directors since January 2003. He is a founder and senior managing director of Vida Ventures, a biotechnology venture capital group. Dr. Cohen is a senior advisor of TPG, a global private equity firm. Dr. Cohen joined TPG in 2001, and serves as head of TPG’s biotechnology group. Dr. Cohen was a Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco from 1988 to 2016. Dr. Cohen has played a role on the boards of directors or scientific advisory boards of a variety of biotechnology companies. He currently serves on the board of directors of Veracyte, Inc., BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc., as well as multiple other private and public companies. He received his MD from Stanford University, his DPhil in Molecular Biophysics from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and his BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. Dr. Cohen was elected to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academics in 2004 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008. Dr. Cohen also serves a fellow of the American College of Physicians since 1989, a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians and is the recipient of several awards and honors including the Burroughs-Wellcome New Initiatives in Maleria Award, the LVMH Science Pour L’Art Price (shared with Stanley Prusiner), and Searle Scholars Award and Young Investigator Awards from the Endocrine Society and the Western Society for Clinical Investigation.

Chris Cournoyer is presently a strategic advisor to QIAGEN and prior to that served as the Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer for N-of-One. Chris led the transformation of N-of-One’s patient concierge business to a leading molecular decision support company in oncology. Under her leadership she raised capital, created the digital strategy for interpreting molecular diagnostic tests and led the strategic sales process resulting in a successful sale to QIAGEN in 2019. Prior to joining N-of-One, Chris was the Vice President of Clinical Analytics for Optum responsible for clinical EHR solutions and the clinical decision support solutions. Prior to joining Optum through the acquisition of Picis in 2010, Chris was the President and COO for Picis, Inc., a global leader in the Healthcare IT market, offering digital EHR solutions to automate the clinical and revenue cycle workflows for the high acuity operations of hospitals. Previous to Picis, Chris was responsible for all analytical solutions serving the retail industry at Harte Hanks. From 1995- 2001, Chris held technology roles at Lotus as Chief Information Officer and at IBM where she was Vice President of Global Business Transformation responsible for the order to cash operations and for the Information Technology function for an $8B software business for IBM. Chris has provided technology expertise to three public boards including Stride Rite, GTECH, and BJ’s Wholesale group and has been a director for Emerson Hospital. Chris holds a B.S in Business Administration, University of Massachusetts, an MA Economics, Northeastern University and has attended MIT’s Executive Education Program.

William Hagstrom has served as a member of our board of directors since March 2015. He is the founder and Chairman (and previous CEO) of Octave Bioscience, a commercial stage, precision care company focused on neurodegenerative diseases. Prior to Octave, he served as CEO of Crescendo Bioscience which created novel quantitative biomarkers and tracking software in the field of rheumatology where he scaled the Company from start-up through the acquisition by Myriad Genetics. Mr. Hagstrom was also president of Alpha BioPartners, a strategic consulting firm for early stage biotechnology companies. While at Alpha, Mr. Hagstrom co-founded Biolytx Pharmaceuticals and Altheus Therapeutics. Mr. Hagstrom also served as interim CEO of Selexys Pharmaceuticals and Inoveon. Previous to this he was Chairman and CEO of UroCor, a specialty diagnostics company focused on urological cancers and complex diseases. Under Mr. Hagstrom’s leadership, the company was an Inc. 500 company from 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995, before becoming public in 1996. Previously, Mr. Hagstrom held executive positions at some of the largest multinational healthcare companies in the world, including Becton Dickinson, American Hospital Supply and Baxter International, where he served as Vice President of the company’s billion-dollar scientific products division. Mr. Hagstrom has served on a variety of Boards over the last 15 years, including Prometheus Laboratories. Mr. Hagstrom received a BS degree in business management from Bob Jones University.

Dr. Maag has served as CareDx President and CEO, Chairman and CEO or Executive Chairman since October 2012 until November 2021, and has over 20 years of executive management experience in the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industry. Prior to joining CareDx, Peter was President of Novartis Diagnostics. He headed the expansion of the unit with worldwide growth in its blood screening business and established new ventures in molecular diagnostics. Peter also led one of Novartis’ key affiliates as Country President, Germany, and lived in a dynamically-growing and emerging market as Country President, Korea. At Novartis headquarters in Switzerland, he served as the Head of Strategy for Novartis Pharmaceuticals and helped launch the Infectious Diseases franchise. Prior to joining Novartis, Peter worked at McKinsey & Company in New Jersey and Germany, focusing on pharmaceuticals and globalization strategies. Besides supporting various healthcare and tech companies in their growth efforts, he holds a supervisory board position at Phoenix Pharma SE and serves on the board of the Personalized Medicine Coalition in Washington, DC. Peter studied pharmaceutical sciences in Heidelberg and London, and received his PhD from the University of Berlin, Germany.

Bryan Riggsbee has served as a member of our board of directors since March 2024. Bryan previously served as Chief Financial Officer at Myriad Genetics from October 2014 to January 2024, where he made substantial contributions to the company's growth strategy and business transformation. In 2020, he served for six months as Myriad’s interim CEO, navigating the business and supporting teammates through the height of the pandemic. With a decade-long tenure at Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp) from February 2004 to October 2014, Bryan has demonstrated proven financial acumen. His background also includes notable finance roles at General Electric Company. He began his career in the audit division of KPMG and is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the state of North Carolina. Bryan holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Northwestern University, Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from North Carolina State University and Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Senator Art Torres began serving on the CareDx Board of Directors in September 2021. He is the vice chair of the governing board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a public agency charged by the voters through Proposition 14 in 2020 to distribute $5.5 Billion in funding for stem cell research, and University of California Regent Emeritus. 

A colon cancer survivor and passionate patient advocate, Torres is the vice chair on the board of One Legacy, an organ transplant foundation based in Southern California, where he has been a vocal supporter for organ transplant awareness in communities of color. 

Torres began his career working alongside Cesar Chavez to fight against pesticide exposure that was killing and sickening farm workers in California. He later served for 20 years in the California legislature, chairing the State Assembly’s Health Committee, and then was elected as chair of the State Democratic Party, where he served from 1996 to 2009, making him the longest serving chair in our country’s history. 

During his 20 years in the California Legislature, he chaired the Senate Insurance Committee, founded the Senate Toxics Committee and chaired the UC Admissions Committee. From 1974 to 1982, he served in the California State Assembly and in the California State Senate from 1982 to 1994. He also spent time as John F. Kennedy teaching fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He also was appointed as the University of San Francisco Diversity Scholar Visiting Professor. Senator Torres received his bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz, and a J.D. from the UC Davis School of Law. 

Hannah Valantine received her M.B.B.S. degree from London University, cardiology fellowship at Stanford, and Doctor of Medicine from London University. She was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine, rising to full Professor of Medicine in 2000, and becoming the inaugural Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Leadership, in 2004. She pursued a data-driven transformative approach to this work, receiving the NIH director’s pathfinder award. Dr. Francis Collins, NIH director, recruited her in 2014 as the inaugural NIH Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce diversity, and as a tenured investigator in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s intramural research program where she established the laboratory of transplantation genomics. Dr. Valantine is a nationally recognized pioneer in her field, with over 200 peer-reviewed publications, patents, and sustained NIH funding. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020 for both her pioneering research in organ transplantation and workforce diversity.