Management Team
Chief Executive Officer
Verndari, Inc.
Amy Van Prooyen, Esq. was named Chief Executive Officer at Verndari, Inc. in August 2022. She joined Verndari in 2020 and has served as the company’s Chief Legal Officer, working to protect Verndari’s proprietary vaccine science and technology.
She was previously the founder and managing partner of Van Prooyen Greenfield LLP, a law firm with offices in New York and San Francisco. She provided strategic counsel to mitigate and manage a range of issues for leading law firms and global companies. In addition, she worked to develop, protect and evolve business objectives for organizations. Prior to founding Van Prooyen Greenfield LLP, Ms. Van Prooyen was a vice president in the Crisis and Reputation Risk practice for Edelman in New York City.
Ms. Van Prooyen was previously named the Sorenson Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Utah, where she served as adjunct faculty. She was the recipient of The Distinguished Alumna Award by the University of Utah, where she is also a member of the College of Humanities Partnership Board. She was previously a member of the Board of Counselors at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
Ms. Van Prooyen received a B.A. and an M.A, summa cum laude, in Communications from the University of Utah and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law.
President and Member, Board of Directors
Verndari, Inc.
John H. Brown, a co-founder of Verndari, has served as president and a member of the company’s Board of Directors since 2015. He brings three decades of leadership in biopharmaceutical operations and executive management to Verndari.
Mr. Brown previously served as president, Europe, Middle East and Africa region, for Bausch & Lomb, a company at the forefront of visionary innovations in eye health care. He oversaw the company’s surgical, pharma and vision care sectors, representing more than $2.5 billion in annual sales.
From 2002 to 2007, Mr. Brown was chief executive officer of Integrated Biosystems, Inc., a manufacturer of production equipment for biopharmaceutical customers including Genentech and Amgen. The company, based in Napa, California, was sold to Stedim, SA in 2004.
Mr. Brown served as CEO of Covance Biotechnology Services, Inc. (CBSI), a company based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and leading in the development and manufacturing of innovative biopharmaceutical substances. CBSI, a subsidiary of Covance, Inc., was later sold to Azko Nobel.
He was co-head of Hamblet & Hayes Co., from 1971 to 1980, which was purchased by CIBA-Geigy. At CIBA-Geigy (later merged with Sandoz to become Novartis AG), Mr. Brown held various senior management roles, including senior vice president of Pharma, head of worldwide sales and marketing for Specialty Chemicals, and member of the Divisional World Managing Committee.
Mr. Brown received a B.S.E. with high honors from Princeton University and received a M.B.A. in Finance from Harvard Business School.
Chief Financial Officer
Verndari, Inc.
avid W. Dillon is Chief Financial Officer of Verndari, Inc., where he oversees the company’s financial, business development and business services functions.
He joined Verndari from Wesley Capital Holdings, LLC in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was the president and founder. Wesley Capital Holdings provides advisory services, valuations and analysis of investment opportunities. In addition, it provides private companies with assistance on merger and acquisition transactions, joint venture organization and structure, and capital structure issues.
From 1993 to 2008, Mr. Dillon was the co-founder, executive vice president and chief financial officer of MED3000 Group, Inc., a management and information technology company serving more than 10,500 multi-specialty physicians through 12 operating centers nationwide. During his tenure at MED3000, he also was a member of the executive committee and board of directors. MED3000 grew to more than 1,400 employees with revenues exceeding $150 million and EBITDA in excess of $16 million. MED3000 Group won numerous awards, including being listed in the Pittsburgh Business Times Top 100 fastest growing companies in the Pittsburgh Region for seven years, and being named one of the largest healthcare technology companies by Healthcare Informatics. MED3000 was later sold to McKesson.
Prior to MED3000, Mr. Dillon was an investment banker with Mid-Atlantic Capital Group, Inc., in Pittsburgh. He served as the lead advisor on numerous debt placements, mergers and acquisitions and valuations for middle market clients.
Mr. Dillon received a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. He received an M.B.A. with concentrations in strategy and finance from Harvard University.
Vice President, Research and Development
Verndari, Inc.
Elaine W. Snowhill, Ph.D. is vice president of research and development for Verndari, Inc., where she leads the discovery, preclinical and regulatory functions.
Prior to joining Verndari, Dr. Snowhill was vice president at Life Technologies Corporation (previously Invitrogen Corp. / Molecular Probes, Inc.) in Eugene, Oregon. Dr. Snowhill established project and portfolio management processes and led creation of new products and improvements to existing platforms. She served as chief of staff for the Cellular Analysis Business Unit and led integration of several corporate acquisitions, developing cultural integration principles and practices in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
At Diosynth RTP, Inc. (previously Covance Biotechnology Services) based in Cary, North Carolina, Dr. Snowhill created and led the Program Management team and facilitated collaboration across biomanufacturing project teams, executive leadership, and customers to deliver quality active pharmaceutical ingredients at development and commercial scale.
Dr. Snowhill held various roles at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (previously CIBA-Geigy Corp.), in Summit/East Hanover, New Jersey. She served as vice president in the areas Project and Portfolio Management, U.S. Strategic Planning, and Global Portfolio Management. Dr. Snowhill directed change initiatives across global drug development processes, reducing the average cycle time to bring a new drug to the market by as much as 50 percent. Dr. Snowhill also led Central Nervous System (CNS) Clinical Research, conducting Phase II clinical trials for new drug candidates in epilepsy, and CNS Regulatory Affairs, with responsibility for submissions to and collaboration with the FDA to obtain new drug approvals.
Dr. Snowhill received a B.A. in Psychology from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Utah. She attended the Stanford Executive Program and received a M.S. in Conflict and Dispute Resolution from the Knight School of Law, University of Oregon.
Independent Chairman of the Board
Verndari, Inc.
Paul Sartori, Ph.D. joined Verndari, Inc. in 2020, and was appointed Independent Chairman of the Board of Verndari, Inc. in 2022. He has more than 35 years of experience leading organizational change, marketing, communications, and public and government affairs in the pharmaceutical and healthcare field.
Mr. Sartori has served as a senior executive and corporate officer in a variety of challenging global roles for large corporations. Starting his career at Corning, he served as the chief human resources officer for CIBA Corning Diagnostics, a global joint venture between Corning and CIBA-Geigy of Switzerland, then senior vice president and later executive vice president of CIBA prior to the merger of CIBA and Sandoz forming Novartis. At Novartis, he was named executive vice president, Human Resources and Public Affairs, and served in Basel, Switzerland on the global integration teams. Mr. Sartori also served as an officer and global head of Human Resources at Covance and Bausch & Lomb.
Mr. Sartori has deep experience with startup companies and was recently the vice president of Organization and Strategy for Cavion LLC, a clinical stage pharmaceutical company based in Charlottesville, Virginia developing therapies for the treatment of chronic and rare neurological diseases. Cavion was acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc in 2019. He was formerly a vice president at Integrated Biosystems, Focus Technologies and BioTrove. He has served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for CvilleBioHub in Charlottesville, Virginia, and currently is an advisor to the CEOs and Boards of HemoShear Therapeutics, and ZielBio, as well as serving on the Boards of two pre-clinical companies – KeViRx and Liquet Medical.
He has served on the boards of numerous non-profit organizations, including the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in New Jersey; and the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Rochester, New York. He led the establishment of the Pediatric Cataract Initiative, an innovative global combined effort between Bausch & Lomb and Lion’s Club International Foundation, with an emphasis on improving healthcare for children in the developing world. He was among the founders of the Partnership for Leaders in Education, a joint effort between the Curry School of Education and the Darden School of Business at University of Virginia. Currently, he is on the Board of the Council of Foreign Relations in Charlottesville and the Advisory Board for the Children’s Hospital at the University of Virginia.
Mr. Sartori received a B.A. with honors from Northeastern University. He received a M.A. in Teaching History, a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Virginia, as well as a M.B.A. from the Darden Graduate School of Business. In 2002, Mr. Sartori was elected into the Raven Society, the University of Virginia’s oldest honorary society.
Member, Board of Directors, Former Chairman of the Board
Verndari, Inc.
Jan A. Van Prooyen is a co-founder and member of the Board of Directors of Verndari, Inc. He served as chairman of Verndari’s Board of Directors from 2015 to 2022.
Dr. Van Prooyen retired as a U.S. Army Major General. His expertise includes project management, chemical and biological defense, and nuclear technology. His military career included field duty in Viet Nam and Germany and leadership assignments focused on the acquisition of Army weapons systems, major missile defense programs, and chemical and biological research programs. He led two major research and development centers and two national test ranges. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1996 for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service to the Government of the United States.
After his 30-year career in the U.S. Army, Dr. Van Prooyen joined the Bechtel Corporation and became senior vice president and partner. From 2003 to 2006 he led Bechtel’s 5,000-person Defense and Space business as president. From 2006 to 2009 he served as deputy laboratory director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory where he was responsible for oversight and integration of the daily operations of the laboratory with focus on safety, security, business services, environmental management, and infrastructure.
Dr. Van Prooyen has served as a board member of multiple companies including Bechtel National, Inc., Bechtel Bettis, Inc., and the Armed Services YMCA. He served as board chairman of the Universities Space Research Association and Kwajalein Range Services, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Bechtel.
Dr. Van Prooyen graduated with a B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1966 and received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Virginia. He later completed a one-year fellowship at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.