Team – Pleno Inc.

Leadership Team

Pleno’s talented and dedicated leadership team has diverse experience across science and technology. With a strong track record of creating and bringing new and disruptive solutions to market, they together with our distinguished board members, are leading Pleno to break new ground in biotechnology.

Vik Vaz, MD, the CEO of Pleno, is a dynamic global leader with a combination of clinical expertise, strategic insight, and commercial experience in the life sciences and medical technology sectors. Prior to joining Pleno, Dr. Vaz served as Head of Strategy & Market Intelligence and leader of the Companion Diagnostics business at Illumina.

His responsibilities there included enterprise-wide strategic planning and portfolio investment along with key strategic transactions, partnerships, revenue generation for Illumina’s companion diagnostic assay business, and new market development strategy.

Previously, Dr. Vaz also served as a Partner at the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey and Company, where he partnered with top Pharma, Med Tech, and Life Sciences industry leaders to drive organic and inorganic growth as well as lead strategic transformations, organizational turnarounds, and transactions.

Dr. Vaz remains actively licensed as a physician, having trained as a surgeon and clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and then in radiology and interventional oncology at the University of Miami. He is a proud alumnus of Harvard College and the University of Texas, where he completed his education.

Lorenzo brings his deep experience, strong expertise and passion for scientific discovery and engineering innovation to our leadership team at Pleno. His love of taking on challenges and stewarding big ideas has endured from his early career in academics and research through his work at Element Biosciences leading a team that pushed the boundaries of surfaces, chemistries and hardware for DNA sequencing. Prior to Element, Lorenzo spent many years at Illumina working with world-leading research and product development teams, contributing many innovative technologies that deeply impacted the performance of today’s next generation sequencing (NGS) systems and consumables. Particularly, he was part of the HiSeqX chemistry development team that made the $1,000 genome a reality. He has successfully steered multiple advanced biotechnology products from concept to launch. While living in Italy, Lorenzo received a Laurea in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, both from the University of Bologna. He was also appointed as a tenured researcher for the National Research Council where he worked on advanced nano biomolecular systems. In the United States, he furthered his academic career as a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley working on new high-throughput DNA sequencing chemistries for the DOE Human Genome Project. As an adjunct faculty at both the Department of Oncology and Department of Molecular Medicine at UC Davis, he started, and successfully secured funding for, a research program to apply nanotechnologies to the development of new therapies for cancer treatment. Lorenzo has published 26 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and has been awarded 9 patents. He was recipient of a Susan G. Komen for the Cure research grant for his early work on nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery and is recipient of the UC Davis Academic Federation Innovative Development Award.

Gavin is an electronic engineer by training who, over the past 25 years, has navigated his career into life sciences via the wireless communications and semiconductor industries. He has been with Pleno since its inception and leads product development activities as well as marketing and business development. Previously, Gavin worked at Illumina leading their software product marketing team after Illumina acquired Edico Genome in 2018 for $100 Million. At Edico, he was responsible for the startup company’s marketing, business development and corporate development activities. While at Edico, Gavin helped to set two Guinness World Records and spearheaded efforts to have their ground-breaking product, DRAGEN, be named The Scientist magazine’s number one innovation for 2014. Prior to that, he managed numerous high volume cellular products and software platforms at Broadcom after they acquired Zyray Wireless in 2004 for $100 Million. Gavin held key software development and later product marketing roles as part of the Zyray Wireless team that developed a 3G cellular processor. Gavin holds 10 granted US patents.

Jason Belsky is an accomplished finance executive with over 20 years of experience driving growth, operational excellence, and strategic financial leadership in the biotech and life sciences sectors. At Pleno, Jason oversees finance, HR, IT, and Legal, implementing scalable systems and processes that have been integral to the company’s rapid growth and operational maturity. His ability to align financial strategy with business goals has supported key initiatives, including securing funding and leading cost optimization efforts.

Before joining Pleno, Jason served as Director of Clinical Finance at Illumina, where he led the financial strategy for global laboratory services, R&D operations, and clinical marketing on key applications. At Amgen, Jason held multiple senior roles, managing oncology portfolio financial planning, conducting financial evaluations for M&A opportunities, and improving supply chain productivity, achieving significant cost efficiencies.

Jason earned an MBA from USC’s Marshall School of Business and a BA in Economics from UC Berkeley. Known for his strategic vision, collaborative leadership, and expertise in fundraising, financial planning, and team development, Jason has consistently driven value in high-growth organizations. His dedication aligns with Pleno’s mission to revolutionize multi-omics and advance innovation in the life sciences.

Erik is a distinguished engineering leader with a passion for advancing biotechnology through innovative, systems-oriented approaches. His expertise in integrating engineering, science, and user-centered design has driven significant advancements in genomics. Throughout his career at leading companies, Erik has excelled in building high-performing, cross-functional teams with a people-first philosophy. His extensive experience in mechanical, fluidic, optical, and systems engineering has enabled him to guide both technical direction and operational excellence, facilitating the efficient launch of many large-scale commercial products.

As the Senior Director of Engineering at PacBio, Erik led teams of mechanical, fluidic, and systems engineers in launching three unique sequencing instruments: Revio, Onso, and Vega. He played a pivotal role on the core teams for Onso and Vega, steering development, operations planning, and architectural innovations to enhance user experience.

Before joining PacBio, Erik spent 17 years at Illumina, where he worked as a mechanical engineer and manager in the instrument platform development team. He contributed to the development and launch of seven sequencing platforms and holds numerous patents in fluidics and mechanical engineering. His recent work focused on the architecture of the NextSeq 2000 and NovaSeq X instruments, improving user experience and incorporating eco-friendly designs that earned a Red Dot Award in 2021.

Erik holds a BSME from Colorado State University and is a graduate of UCSD’s EPSE Management program. His dedication to leading technological innovation in genomics is vital to Pleno’s future and aligns perfectly with the company’s mission to revolutionize multi-omics.

Sarah is an accomplished molecular biologist with a proven track record in leading multidisciplinary technical teams to deliver innovative molecular solutions. She earned her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley and a B.S. in Genetics from Purdue University.

With over a decade of experience at Illumina in the Advanced Research group, Sarah contributed to advancements in assays for cell-free nucleic acids, RNA, methylation, and proteomics. Passionate about pushing the boundaries of molecular biology and multiomic techniques, Sarah is excited to continue to transform the landscape of molecular testing through her work at Pleno.

Jeff is an accomplished chemical biologist with over 18 years of experience in research and scientific innovation. He earned his PhD in Chemical Biology from the University of California, San Diego, and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University, where he further refined his expertise in interdisciplinary research and Biomaterials. At Pleno, Jeff leads the assay development group where he employs his innovative mindset to the conception, optimization, and characterization of assay workflows and reagent components. Jeff and his Team are core contributors to Pleno’s IP portfolio and initiating research programs that expand the capabilities of Pleno’s core technology.

Jeff has made significant contributions across both academia and industry. At Illumina, he played a key role in research programs advancing next-generation sequencing (NGS) and array platforms, becoming a subject matter expert in developing assays at the interface of biochemistry and materials science. His broad expertise spans a wide range of chemical biology topics, with particular strengths in protein functionalization and design, biomaterials, and chemical biology.

Jeff has published 18 peer-reviewed manuscripts in leading scientific journals and is an inventor on 23 patents, underscoring his ability to translate scientific breakthroughs into practical, real-world applications. His passion for scientific innovation drives his commitment to advancing the frontiers of chemical biology, where he continues to explore new approaches to solving complex biological challenges at Pleno.