Industrial Advisory Board

The following individuals currently serve on the department IAB:

IAB Executive Committee
Richard Giberti – Chairperson (Retired) Artisan Industries LinkedIn	Dr. Richard (Dick) Giberti has over 50 years of experience developing, executing and managing technology projects and portfolios for small, mid-size and large companies. He began his career at Kennecott Copper’s research and development laboratory in the role of assuring that large copper refining, coal and minerals processing development projects met newly evolving environmental regulations. He then served as Kennecott’s first Corporate Director of ESH Compliance and transferred to Kennecott’s Dorr-Oliver subsidiary, a process equipment company providing fluidized bed, thickening, filtering and centrifugal equipment to the power, minerals, environmental and food industries. At Dorr-Oliver he held the positions of Technical Director and Vice President, International New Business Development / Licensing / Technology, Dick retired in 2011 as President of Artisan Industries, a small process equipment company supplying separation equipment to the petrochemical industry and thin film evaporators to the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. He holds a BS (1965) and PhD (1970) in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University and an MS (1967) in Chemical Engineering Practice from MIT. He also completed a mini-MBA Program at the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore School of Business and Economics. He is currently engaged in the evaluation of renewable energy storage technologies and modeling the storage required as renewable energy is added to the electric grid.
Joseph Govoni – Vice Chairperson Alnylam Pharmaceuticals LinkedIn	Joe Govoni (B.S.Ch.E. 1986) Has been in industry since Co-oping with Dow Chemical in 1984. Joe has worked at Dow Chemical, GE Plastics, Aspen Aerogels, Myriant, and Alnylam over his career. His career focused on Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain and Procurement. He has led initiatives with Supply Chain, Six Sigma, and Global Measurement Systems. He enjoys mentoring the next generation of Chemical Engineers.
Holly Faria – Student Liaison Charles River Laboratories LinkedIn	Holly Faria (Tift) received her bachelor’s from Northeastern in Chemical Engineering in 2006. She went on to receive her Masters in Clinical Laboratory Science from University of Rhode Island in 2008. She spent the beginning of her career at Amgen working in Process Development, Manufacturing and Learning and Development. She then spent three years of her career working in healthcare as a Patient Experience and Quality Trainer at Lifespan hospital systems. She returned to the pharmaceutical world with a brief stint at Genzyme and has spent the past five years at the Contract Research Organization Charles River Laboratories working in strategic initiatives, project management and business analysis. In her spare time, she enjoys jumping in puddles and exploring outside with her two young children.
Christopher McLaughlin – Secretary DSP Group LinkedIn	Chris McLaughlin (B.S.Ch.E 2006) is a project manager with DPS Group, offering over 15 years of experience in management and industrial automation and control systems for various companies in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Chris has held many roles serving clients and has had significant experience working both as an end user, at Sanofi Genzyme, and as a service provider with Practical Applications, DECCO, and New England Controls. With DPS Group, he has executed projects for companies such as Moderna, ElevateBio, CRISPR Therapeutics, Spark Therapeutics, and Imvax. Prior to becoming a project manager, he worked as an engineer in process systems design, automation, instrumentation & controls, and finally as a discipline manager at DPS. His breadth of project management experiences includes greenfield, brownfield, and refurbish/expansion projects.
IAB Members
Stéphane Bazzana DuPont Safety in Safety and Construction Division LinkedIn	Dr. Bazzana (Ph.D. Ch.E. 2004) is the Global Director of Technology for the Safety Business in DuPont Water and Protection, a global leader delivering innovation to protect life’s essential product and processes, people in critical situations, our planet and our environment. He is responsible for the development of entrepreneurial teams to explore new markets and provide rapid solutions to customer problems. He is also a member of the DuPont Technology Directors Network. Born in France, Dr. Bazzana graduated with a B.S. in Physical Chemistry and holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston MA. Dr. Bazzana worked with NASA under the direction of Dr. AL Sacco Jr. in conjunction with his Ph.D. research to synthesize carbon nanotubes in low temperature chemical vapor deposition environment. He began his career with DuPont in 2004 as a research engineer in the DuPont Central Research and Development Department. He has also worked for DuPont industrial Biosciences as a process development engineer, a Research Manager leading DuPont Central Research & Development Biofuels Bioprocess Group, Director of R&D for DuPont Canada, and a Global Technology Manager for the DuPont Enterprise. In 2016, he joined Nike as the sustainable material director and Nike Grind Business leader, but re-joined DuPont in 2018 in his current role.
Gary Broberg Practical Applications, Inc. LinkedIn	Gary Broberg (B.S. Ch.E 1989) is the Founder/CEO of Practical Applications Inc. Practical Applications Inc. offers high quality Process Water Engineering Consulting, Service, and Equipment. Mr. Broberg has more than twenty-five years’ experience leading an organization who services the industrial water treatment, wastewater treatment, and regulatory compliance market. He has led engineering teams to service industries, businesses, and institutions concerning high purity water treatment, wastewater treatment, FDA compliance, National Pollution Discharge Elimination System compliance, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority discharge compliance, local town discharge compliance, waste management and minimization, hazardous chemicals/waste regulatory compliance, chemical use, and exposure assessment. He has also directed designs, options, and installations to optimize water and wastewater treatment systems which meet strict production limits and decrease disposal and operating costs. He is a founding member of the New England CEO Network, a member of the American Society of Plumbing Engineers, Massachusetts Water Pollution Control Association and serves on the Northeastern University Chemical Engineering Industrial Advisory Board. Mr. Broberg has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University and is a registered Professional Engineer.
Sue Celestin Intel Corporation LinkedIn	Sue J Celestin, Ph.D., is a Process Engineer at Intel Corporation. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Loyola University New Orleans in 2012. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University. She was the recipient of the 2017 GEM Fellowship and has worked at two of the major National Labs: the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico and the National Energy Technology Lab in West Virginia. Sue’s research aimed to study the fundamental mechanisms of the growth and processing of thin films and nanostructures in order to engineer materials that can meet the evolving and necessary performance requirements for next- generation electronic devices.
Alyssa D’Antonio Lerner David Littenberg Krumholz & Mentlik LLP LinkedIn	Alyssa D’Antonio (B.S./M.S. 2014, J.D. 2017) is an Associate Attorney at Lerner David Littenberg Krumholz & Mentlik LLP, an Intellectual Property Boutique Law Firm. Ms. D’Antonio’s practice primarily focuses on patent prosecution and post grant procedures. In her prosecution practice, Ms. D’Antonio helps clients get patents in many different fields including batteries, polymers, material science, and medical devices. She also has experience in performing Due Diligence and Freedom to Operate opinions. In her practice, Ms. D’Antonio has also participated in various litigations relating to copyright, contract disputes and Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDA). Ms. D’Antonio is also actively involved in supporting The Alan T Brown Fund of the Reeve Foundation.
John Ellersick Next Rung Technology, LLC LinkedIn	John Ellersick is the President and Founder of Next Rung Technology, LLC. Next Rung Technology provides consulting and execution services to organizations developing and delivering sustainable technologies – with expertise in water, energy, renewables, biotechnology, next-generation foods and materials, and wastewater treatment. John earned a B.S in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University in 1987 and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from Tufts Gordon Institute in 2013.
Paul Galasso (Retired) ExxonMobile Chemical Company	Paul Galasso (B.S.Ch.E. 80) is a retired former executive of ExxonMobile Chemical Company.
Lauren Morton Science Exchange LinkedIn	Lauren Morton (B.S.Ch.E 2012) is a Senior Director of Revenue Operations at Science Exchange, a marketplace software for R&D outsourcing in the life sciences, pharma, and biotech industries. Science Exchange is based in Palo Alto, CA and has raised over $70M in venture funding from leading Silicon Valley investors. Lauren leads strategic and operational efforts for the sales team, including software implementations, key metrics reporting, and sales enablement. Prior to this role, she was a Director in Business Development, where she generated new business opportunities, negotiated, and executed commercial agreements with new clients, and managed several key biotech and pharma client accounts. Her prior experience includes Management Consulting for Deloitte, and several years of industry experience at EMD Millipore and Genzyme. She has an MBA from Harvard Business School (class of 2016). She brings advisory skills for students who are interested in business-focused careers (i.e., business development, sales, operations) at scientific companies, including the growing software technology industry.
Sashi Murthy Flashworks LLC LinkedIn	Shashi Murthy, Ph.D., is the Founder and CTO of Flaskworks LLC, a subsidiary of Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc. Dr. Murthy previously served on the faculty of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern from 2005-2019 as Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor. Additional leadership roles at Northeastern included Acting Department Chair (2012) and Founding Director of the Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship Education (2013-18). He is a Senior Member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and an elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). In addition to founding Flaskworks, acquired by Northwest Biotherapeutics in 2020, Dr. Murthy previously co-founded Quad Technologies, acquired by Bio-Techne in 2018. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University.
Dean Poillucci IPS – Integrated Project Services, LLC LinkedIn	Dean Poillucci (B.S.Ch.E. 1988) is a recognized leader in the planning, design and construction of large-scale research/development and manufacturing projects for the BioPharma/Life Science industry. He currently leads a team of design, construction and compliance professionals providing operational leadership and strategic business planning for the New England region. In previous roles he has served as the Vice President of Engineering, Sr. Vice President of operations and Life Science Core Market leadership and process development engineer. Mr. Poillucci has led multi-disciplined teams providing day-to-day leadership and management and delivery of BioPharma/Life Science capital projects across the USA, Puerto Rico, and Europe.
Richard Schoenfeld (Retired) BioWorks Consulting LinkedIn	Dr. Schoenfeld is internationally recognized for his expertise in the scale-up of mammalian cell culture, particularly for perfusion or continuous cell culture technologies. Now retired, his consulting practice specialized in developing and manufacturing proteins through cell culture processes as well as review of existing operations, strategic planning, plant and process design. Previously he has held senior management positions at PharmAthene responsible for transgenic and cell culture processes for biodefense; EMD Pharmaceuticals (Merck, KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany) where he led supply chain operations for global protein products; Genzyme as Senior Vice President, Engineering and Technology Development, where he led the teams developing the manufacturing processes and facilities for Genzyme’s therapeutic proteins. He also held positions at Endotronics and Monsanto where he developed mammalian cell culture technology and plasma fractionation methods. Dr. Schoenfeld holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Bioengineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University, an MBA from St. Louis University, and an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Business Ethics from Bentley College. He has over forty-five years of process development and manufacturing experience including large-scale perfusion cell culture for commercial manufacturing. He is a Northeastern Corporator emeritus (governing board at Northeastern University), a member of the Industrial Advisory Board for Chemical Engineering, a co-founder of the New England and Boston chapters of ISPE, a Tau Beta Pi Eminent Engineer and a recipient of a distinguished alumnus award from Northeastern University.
Belinda Slakman Relay Therapeutics LinkedIn	Belinda Slakman (Ph.D.Ch.E. 2017) is a Senior Data Scientist at Relay Therapeutics (formerly ZebiAI Therapeutics). In this role, she builds machine learning models, based on DNA-encoded library screening data, in order to develop novel therapeutics. Belinda has spent her career thus far applying computational models to problems in chemistry, formerly at X-Chem Pharmaceuticals, Kyulux, and Intel. Her Ph.D., at Northeastern under the direction of Prof. Richard West, involved developing detailed kinetic models for application to liquid-phase fuel systems and silicon electronics processes. She received a B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University in 2010.