Laura A. Philips

Laura Philips is the co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Spheryx, Inc., a technology company providing innovation to the analysis of high tech liquids for a broad range of applications in the pharmaceutical industry, consumer products, quality assurance and process control. She serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Boyce Thompson Institute, a biological research institute associated with Cornell University, and as Board member of POGIL Project, a non-profit organization with an innovative approach to science and technology education. Prior to co-founding Spheryx in 2014, Dr. Philips served as CEO and Director of WellGen, and from 2003-2006 as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at NexGenix Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining NexGenix, she was Vice President at AMDeC, a biomedical research and development consortium in New York. She held a variety of executive positions at Corning Incorporated, from 1997 to 2002, including director of product development and strategic planning. Dr. Philips served in the Clinton Administration both as a Fellow in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as a Presidential Appointee in the position of Senior Policy Advisor to Sec. Ronald Brown in the Dept. of Commerce. Dr. Philips was on the Faculty of the Department of Chemistry, Cornell University from 1987-1993. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Cornell University.