MITCHELL KENNEDY TO LEAD THE JACKSON LABORATORY'S JAX® MICE, CLINICAL AND RESEARCH SERVICES BUSINESS

News provided by

Apr 04, 2023, 14:04 ET

BAR HARBOR, Maine, April 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Life sciences industry leader Mitchell (Mitch) Kennedy will join The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) as executive vice president, JAX and president, JAX® Mice, Clinical and Research Services (JMCRS) on April 10, 2023.

JAX develops innovative preclinical models and services that enable informed decision-making and compound evaluation to de-risk drug development and move therapeutics into the clinic faster and with greater confidence. Approximately 2,400 organizations in 68 countries rely on over 13,000 strains of genetically-specialized JAX® Mice and research services in a wide range of therapeutic areas. In addition, JAX provides a variety of services to the research community including preclinical in-vivo pharmacology services, mouse model generation (e.g., genetic engineering), custom breeding services, assisted reproductive technologies (e.g., cryopreservation and IVF services), and cancer genomic testing services.

"At The Jackson Laboratory, one of our strategic goals is to continue to accelerate global scientific discovery through innovation, geographic expansion, unparalleled research models and services, and a world-class customer experience," said JAX President and CEO Lon Cardon, Ph.D., FMedSci. "Mitch is an effective and experienced leader who will be critical in achieving these goals and advancing JAX's mission."

This important role will continue to advance and increase availability of key models and resources. In this position, Kennedy will drive product development, business development, business unit management, marketing, field representation, and customer support for JMCRS, as well as lead all JMCRS operational groups.

"The Jackson Laboratory's scientific and academic reputation precedes itself, and I have admired the organization throughout my entire career," said Kennedy. "JAX® Mice are the gold standard for animal model research. I am thrilled to join a community that values scientific rigor, acts with the highest ethical standards, and carries a strong commitment to offering innovative and cutting-edge research products and solutions to scientific researchers worldwide."

Kennedy has more than 25 years in senior leadership roles in the life sciences industry, most recently serving at Thermo Fisher Scientific for over 16 years, where he was responsible for revenue as large as $2B and 6,000+ employees. Before his departure in 2022, he served as division president for single use technologies, accounting for $1.7 billion in revenue and covering products including hardware and controllers, hardware consumables, and 3D/2D bioprocess containers used in pharmaceutical production. In this role he led continuous improvement, cost management, pricing strategy, and operations scale-up to meet growing demand. Prior to that, he held roles as division president for chromatography and mass spectrometry (CMD), served as general manager and vice president of the life sciences business unit within CMD, and general manager and vice president of the molecular biology business unit.

Before joining Thermo Fisher, Kennedy held various roles in general management for Affymetrix, playing a key role in the strategy and execution of the company's business plan. Prior to joining Affymetrix, Kennedy worked with a number of life science companies including Applied Biosystems, Perkin-Elmer, Amersham, and Bio-Rad in a range of product management, commercial, marketing, and technical support roles. He completed field lab study at the University of Oregon's Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in marine biology and zoology.

About The Jackson Laboratory
The Jackson Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution with a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and nearly 3,000 employees in locations across the United States (Maine, Connecticut, California), Japan and China. Its mission is to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and empower the global biomedical community in the shared quest to improve human health. For more information, please visit www.jax.org.

SOURCE The Jackson Laboratory