Board of Directors

David D. Halbert

Chairman and CEO

David D. Halbert is the former chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of AdvancePCS, the nation's leading independent health improvement company. Mr. Halbert founded AdvancePCS in 1987 and successfully guided the firm from a small, privately owned company into a Fortune 500 corporation that became the largest provider of pharmacy benefit management services in the nation. AdvancePCS grew into a leadership position in the industry with its health improvement offerings, which helped AdvancePCS clients and their members improve quality of care while lowering health care costs. AdvancePCS served more than 75 million people - one in every four Americans - and managed 600 million prescription transactions annually, representing approximately $28 billion in drug expenditures.

Under Mr. Halbert's direction, AdvancePCS recorded 39 consecutive quarters of record earnings with a compound annual earnings growth rate of 84% for the five years prior to the merger. While the company continually innovated to meet emerging client needs, Halbert supplemented its internal development with eleven strategic acquisitions. In March 2004, AdvancePCS consummated its $7.5 billion merger with CaremarkRx, generating a 36% premium to AdvancePCS shareholders.

Mr. Halbert brings to his current position more than 25 years of management experience in the energy, financial and health care industries. Before AdvancePCS, he founded Halbert & Associates Inc., an investment company that both formed and financed a number of projects and companies in the banking, real estate, energy and health care fields. Today, he personally supports the Caris Foundation.

Laurie Johansen

Vice Chairman

Laurie Johansen formerly served for nine years as a member of the executive management team of AdvancePCS, the nation's leading independent health improvement company. From 2001 through 2004, she was the senior vice president, corporate secretary of AdvancePCS where she worked with David Halbert, chairman of the board, on matters relating to the Board of Directors of AdvancePCS. In addition, she was responsible for securities regulatory compliance, including Sarbanes-Oxley initiatives, and the legal aspects of mergers and acquisitions. Prior to becoming corporate secretary, Ms. Johansen served as senior vice president, office of the CEO, as well as general counsel at AdvancePCS.

Before joining AdvancePCS, Ms. Johansen worked in the corporate and securities group of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld for five years. She focused on mergers and acquisitions, public equity and debt financing, and general corporate legal and compliance services.

Ms. Johansen earned her business administration degree as well as her law degree from The University of Texas.

Jonathan Knowles, PhD

Vice Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer

Jonathan Knowles, PhD, joined the Caris Life Sciences™ (Caris) Board of Directors on September 1, 2009 and accepted the position of vice chairman starting on January 1, 2010.  He accepted the additional position of chief scientific officer in May 2010.  In these capacities, Dr. Knowles provides scientific and strategic guidance, supports the identification and expansion of R&D opportunities, and assists with the development of Caris' international presence. Dr. Knowles' appointments to these positions continues a distinguished career that has spanned decades in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry, including most recently his role as president of group research at Roche, a position he held since 2007, and member of that organization's Corporate Executive Committee since 1998.

Dr. Knowles was a member of the Genentech Board for the last 12 years and a member of the Chugai Board for seven years.

Dr. Knowles was also the chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee of Genentech. He was for five years the chairman of the Research Directors' Group of EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations) and was the first chairman of the Board of the Innovative Medicines Initiative, a unique public-private partnership between 28 Pharmaceutical companies and the European Commission with a budget of more than 2 Billion Euros over five years. Dr. Knowles focused the company on key disease biology areas of high medical need and in-depth understanding of molecular pathology of disease. Under his leadership, the company developed and implemented a strategy of highly effective therapies based on personalized healthcare and built one of the best pharmaceutical pipelines in the sector.

Dr. Knowles attended Magdalen College School in Oxford and received a first class honours degree in molecular genetics from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. He received his PhD in genetics of mitochondria with Professor G. H. Beale FRS from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Jonathan Knowles has been recently appointed a professor of translational medicine at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, has been awarded a distinguished professorship in personalized health care at the Finnish Institute for Molecular Medicine at the University of Helsinki, and has been appointed as a visiting chair at the University of Oxford. In addition, he is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and a William Pitt Fellow of Pembroke College Cambridge.

George Poste, DVM, DSc, PhD, FRC Path, FRS

Vice Chairman

Dr. Poste is the vice chairman of Caris Life Sciences™  and chief scientific advisor. In addition, he is chief scientist, Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative (CASI) at Arizona State University. He assumed this post in February 2009. This program links expertise across the university in research on synthetic biology, ubiquitous sensing and healthcare informatics for personalized medicine.

From 2003 to 2008 he founded the Biodesign Institute at ASU (www.biodesign.asu.edu/). In creating this Institute, Dr. Poste designed and built 400,000 sq. ft. of new facilities, achieved cumulative research funding of $225 million and recruited over 60 faculty, including three members of the National Academies of Science and Engineering.

In addition to his academic post he serves as chief executive of a consulting company, Health Technology Networks, which specializes in the application of genomic technologies and computing in healthcare. He is chairman of Orchid Biosciences, the leading company in DNA forensic analysis, and serves on the board of directors of Monsanto, Exelixis and Caris. From 1992 to 1999 he was chief science and technology officer and president, R&D of SmithKline Beecham (SB). During his tenure at SB he was associated with the successful registration of 31 drug, vaccine and diagnostic products. In 2004 he was named as ‘R&D Scientist of the Year’ by R&D Magazine and in 2006 he received the Einstein award from the Global Business Leadership Council.

He has published over 350 research papers and edited 14 books on pharmaceutical technologies and oncology. He has received honorary degrees in science, law and medicine for his research contributions and was honored in 1999 by HM Queen Elizabeth II as a Commander of the British Empire for his contributions to international security. He is a fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal College of Pathologists and the UK Academy of Medicine, a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and a member of the Council for Foreign Relations. He is a member of the US Defense Science Board, Institute of Medicine Forum on Global Health, and Council for Foreign Relations. He is chair of the DOD Task Force on Bioterrorism and the newly launched DOD Task Force on Synthetic Biology.

Click here to view video clips from Dr. Poste.

Peter M. Castleman

Board Member

Peter M. Castleman is chairman and managing partner of J. H. Whitney & Co., LLC, a position that he has held since 1991, in which he oversees all the firm’s activities and chairs the private equity investing business.

J. H. Whitney & Co., LLC, started in 1946 as the country’s first venture capital business, and today manages private equity, mezzanine debt, small business investment companies and hedge funds assets. Prior to joining Whitney in 1987, Mr. Castleman was with Morgan Stanley & Co. where he was an early member of leveraged buyout investment activity. Mr. Castleman started his career at J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc., where he was an international banking officer.

Mr. Castleman received his masters in business administration from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and he is a summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Duke University. He also studied at Oxford University and taught economics at Harvard University. He currently serves on the boards of: Caris Life Sciences, Inc.; Herbalife, Ltd. (Chairman); Eastern Mountain Sports (Chairman); United Biosource Corporation (Chairman); EMC Holdings, LLC (Chairman); NAMCO LLC; Amisys Synertech Inc.; Pure Fishing, Inc.; and Iowa Winds, LLC.

Stephen L. Green

Board Member

Stephen L. Green began his career with General Electric (GE) in 1973 and held a variety of financial positions, including senior positions with GE's venture capital and leveraged buyout businesses. He joined Canaan Partners in November 1991 as a general partner, and has broad experience financing companies involved in manufacturing; retailing; information technology; healthcare; and financial services.

Mr. Green is a graduate of Amherst College. In addition to Caris, he serves on the boards of directors of cMarket, Dean Foods, The Active Network, and Verance.