WaferGen Appoints Industry Veteran Janet Lankard New SVP
FREMONT, Calif. — WaferGen Biosystems, Inc. (OTC:WGBS) (BULLETIN BOARD: WGBS) , a leading developer of state-of-the-art genetic analysis systems, today announced that it has named industry veteran Janet Lankard as the company’s new senior vice president of worldwide sales and support in preparation for the commercialization of the WaferGen SmartChip Real-Time PCR System.
“To prepare for the transition to commercialization of our SmartChip system, we are focused on building sales, marketing and manufacturing capabilities,” said Alnoor Shivji, chairman and chief executive officer, WaferGen.
“Janet will be responsible for leading our worldwide sales and support activities. Her more than 20 years of sales and executive management experience in genetic analysis at both Applied Biosystems (now Life Technologies) and Affymetrix, combined with her knowledge of PCR technology specifically, enables her to drive the worldwide sales activities of the SmartChip system. In addition, her extensive relationships with biopharma companies, academic and government institutions building advanced application-based partnerships will be extremely helpful in the execution of our commercialization strategy. We are confident that Janet will add tremendous value to the sales and marketing of SmartChip products and services to help us reach our revenue goals,” concluded Shivji.
“This is an exciting time to be joining WaferGen,” said Ms. Lankard. “”The company is poised to successfully launch a unique innovative technology for use in biomarker, pathway discovery and validation, capable of overcoming the challenges customers face moving from array-based platforms used in discovery and development to Real-Time PCR for validation. The WaferGen technology directives complement my background that is deeply rooted in molecular profiling. I’m thrilled to help drive this next phase of industry adoption and commercial expansion.”
Janet Lankard brings more than 20 years of award-winning sales and executive management experience to WaferGen from several biotechnology companies where she was recognized for her outstanding achievements, including sales of PCR and other gene analysis technologies. Most recently at VisEn Medical Inc. where she served as Vice President Sales and Technical Collaborations, Janet executed global sales, business development and the promotional strategy for commercialization and launch of the company’s proprietary molecular tomography system. Prior to VisEn, at Applied Biosystems (now Life Technologies), she was recognized as National Sales Professional of the year and overachieved quota seven consecutive years with the company, including sales of Real-Time PCR instrumentation and assays. During her years at Affymetrix, a microarray manufacturer, she was recognized as Regional Sales Director of the year while building the commercial sales force for most of the U.S. and Western Canada. She also served as Vice President Sales and Technical Support at Quantum Dot Inc, where she created pricing strategy, profit margin structure and a customer marketing campaign for the company’s gene expression assay and instrument launch into the pharmaceutical compound screening market.
Ms. Lankard has a BS, Biochemistry, from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
About WaferGen
WaferGen Biosystems, Inc. is an emerging leader in the development, manufacture and sale of state-of-the-art systems for genetic analysis for the life science and pharmaceutical industries. The company recently launched its new innovative fee-based service for gene-expression profiling while continuing to actively develop its SmartChip Real-Time PCR System that is designed as the first whole genome, high-throughput gene expression Real-Time PCR platform. Based on collaborations established with leading research institutions, WaferGen believes that the SmartChip Real-Time PCR System is positioned as the platform of choice for biomarker discovery and validation. For additional information, please see https://www.wafergen.com

