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Former Genmark Senior Vice President Scott O’Brien Joins Specific Diagnostics as Chief Commercial Officer

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“His experience in growing a customer-focused organization is well-suited to Specific as we rapidly expand in the European market and now address demand for early access placements in the US,” said Dr. Paul A. Rhodes, Specific’s CEO.


SAN JOSE, Calif. (PRWEB)

Specific Diagnostics today announced the appointment of Scott O’Brien as its Chief Commercial Officer. Mr. O’Brien is an industry veteran with over 20 years in molecular and infectious disease diagnostics, the last 10 at GenMark where he held a range of commercial positions, most recently Senior Vice President Global Marketing and International Sales at GenMark Diagnostics, contributing to its rapid growth to $200M in annual sales leading to its purchase by Roche Diagnostics for $1.8B in Q2 of this year. Mr. O’Brien had previously served as GenMark’s VP & Director of Global Marketing where he launched the ePlex system in the US and built a best in class customer service and support function. Prior to joining GenMark, Mr. O’Bbrien ’s spent time in roles of increasing responsibility at Illumina, Agilent and Stratatgene.

“Scott was a critical part of a high-performing commercial organization at GenMark, with a portfolio that ranged from leading the global marketing and medical affairs to implementing a support and service organization that was heralded in the diagnostic community,” said Dr. Paul A. Rhodes, Specific’s CEO. “His experience in growing a customer-focused organization is well-suited to Specific as we rapidly expand in the European market and now address demand for early access placements in the US.”

“I can’t think of anyone that understands the critical market demand and is better suited to lead our commercial organization during this dynamic time in our company, than Scott” said Mr. Johnny Ek, Specific’s CFO. “I partnered with Scott very closely for years at GenMark and am confident in his ability to not only create successful strategies, but to also effectively and efficiently execute them on a global level. Scott’s success in leading high functioning customer focused commercial organizations ensures we can maximize this opportunity to deliver the very best solution to address this critical unmet diagnostic need.”

“I am very gratified to have the opportunity to build another important organization delivering vitally needed rapid diagnostics to microbiology laboratories,” said Mr. O’Brien. “Having participated in the development of the rapid ID market with GenMark’s syndromic PCR solution, I know from that our leading customers now need an affordable, high throughput, and easy to use rapid AST, especially for blood infections. Specific’s Reveal is the best-in-class instrument to meet this need, and I am keenly looking forward to building a customer-focused commercial organization that is dedicated every day to ensuring that Specific’s customers have a great experience with our products.”

Mr. O’Brien holds a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

About Specific

Specific Diagnostics has developed in vitro diagnostic systems based upon a unique metabolomic signature technology that enables rapid detection and identification of microorganisms as they grow in culture. Its first commercial application applies this fundamental new capability to the rapid determination of antimicrobial susceptibility directly from positive blood cultures, as well as isolate dilutions. Specific is based in Mountain View, CA.

For press inquiries, please contact: press@specificdx.com.

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