Exhibit 99.1
Teknova Expands Leadership Team with the Appointments of Ken Gelhaus as Chief Commercial Officer and Jennifer Henry as Senior Vice President, Marketing
HOLLISTER, Calif., Nov 10, 2021 – Alpha Teknova, Inc. (“Teknova”) (Nasdaq: TKNO), a leading manufacturer of cell culture media and supplements, protein purification buffers, and molecular biology reagents, today announced the appointments of Ken Gelhaus as Chief Commercial Officer (“CCO”) and Jennifer Henry as Senior Vice President, Marketing.
“We’re truly excited that Ken and Jennifer have chosen to join our leadership team,” said Stephen Gunstream, CEO of Teknova. “Both of them bring uniquely valuable experience to their roles,” he continued. “Ken knows how to build and lead successful commercial organizations in complex life sciences businesses. That’s what we’ve challenged him to do here at Teknova. He’ll begin by developing a commercial function – including a sales team – ready to drive high growth and support greater scale.”
Gunstream also explained that, in recruiting Henry to lead the Company’s marketing efforts, “We very deliberately looked outside the traditional life sciences space. I hoped to attract a top-notch marketing and branding professional who would bring a fresh, consumer-oriented perspective to Teknova’s marketing strategy. We are fortunate to have found exactly that in Jennifer.”
Gelhaus has more than 15 years of experience in the life sciences and diagnostics industries. Most recently, he served as Vice President/General Manager at BD Biosciences, where he was responsible for the global clinical solutions business unit. He began his career at Genentech in manufacturing operations, and subsequently held roles of increasing responsibility at Danaher Corporation involving marketing, strategy development, acquisition integration, commercial operations, and sales. As CCO of Teknova, he will lead the sales, product management, commercial operations, and customer service teams.
For 25 years, Henry has been a brand and marketing leader across consumer software, financial services, and the consumer electronics industries. Most recently, she was Senior Director of Global Brand at eBay, responsible for corporate brand strategy, identity, and integrity. Earlier in her career, she was part of the original iPhone launch team at Apple and held various senior advertising and marketing roles supporting both the iPhone and iPad devices. She also led the global marketing communications team at Google, where she was responsible for the rebranding and launch of Motorola’s new flagship smartphones. After Google, she joined Facebook to lead the creation and execution of global multi-channel, integrated marketing initiatives across several core products, including Oculus (virtual reality) and Novi (blockchain). At Teknova, she will drive the company’s corporate brand strategy and product marketing efforts.
About Teknova
Teknova is expediting clinical breakthroughs in the life sciences by providing custom products and reagents for bioprocessing, bioproduction, and molecular diagnostics. With a focus on agility and customization, Teknova delivers research-grade and GMP products, including cell culture media and supplements, protein and nucleic acid purification buffers, and molecular biology reagents for a multitude of established and emerging applications, including cell and gene therapy, mRNA therapeutics, genomics, and synthetic biology. Teknova’s proprietary processes enable the manufacture and delivery of high quality, custom, made-to-order products on short turnaround times and at scale, across all stages of development, including commercialization.
