Andy Zaayenga

Andy Zaayenga is the current Chair of the Laboratory Research & Innovation Group and the Managing Director of SmarterLab. Andy has over 25 years of experience in business development, competitive analysis, lead identification, market assessment, and mergers & acquisitions due diligence to life science tool providers internationally. In addition, they have also served as the Past President of the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) for 18 years. During their time with ISBER, they have been a part of many committees including the Strategic Planning Committee, the Environmental Specimens Working Group, the Program Committee, and the Finance Committee. Andy was also the Automated Repositories Working Group Chair from 2008-2009. In 2010, they were awarded the ISBER Special Service Award and in 2012, they were awarded the ISBER Best Practices Award. Zaayenga is an expert in laboratory automation in the drug discovery & screening and biobanking areas with a focus on sample management including compound storage and retrieval, biorepository automation, biospecimen and environmental repository operation, liquid handling, sample preparation, replication, distribution, and systems integration.

Andy Zaayenga has a degree from Rutgers University and is currently taking a COVID-19 contact tracing course on Coursera. Andy is also taking a course from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials on how to make contact with people who have COVID-19.