Brian Finrow

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Brian Finrow brings the skills and experience of a lawyer to a position that, in the biotech world, is more typically occupied by a scientist. This is essential to an enterprise like Lumen, which is rethinking drug development from the ground up to emphasize speed, efficiency and ease of delivery, and whose approach is so innovative that traditional ways of thinking about IP and regulatory pathways oftentimes do not apply. 

Prior to co-founding Lumen, Brian oversaw complex negotiations with various major biopharma companies and managed IP strategy for Adaptive Biotechnologies, where he was Senior Vice President and General Counsel. As Senior Attorney at the law firm Cooley LLC, his practice focused on equity financing and M&A transactions, and negotiating complex biotech licensing and collaboration deals. With over 15 years of legal and commercial experience at these market-leading, innovative firms, he is well positioned to develop creative, win-win deal structures with other organizations. 

 Harvard Law School, JD

Harding University, BS, Public Administration

Harding University, BA, Political Science

Jim Roberts

Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer

Jim Roberts’s career trajectory aligns precisely with the pioneering breakthroughs in the field of biotechnology. Time spent in the Axel Lab during his student years at Columbia University overlapped with the discovery of gene transfer methods for mammalian cells, and helped lay the groundwork for an involvement with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center that now spans more than three decades.

Ten years as an Investigator at the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the 1990s and early 2000s, followed by six years as Director of Basic Sciences at the Hutch, combined with a career-long involvement in the field of cell cycle and cancer biology to instill a fine-grained grasp of both the importance of a sound conceptual foundation and the disadvantages of a vision that’s too narrowly defined. Of special significance to Lumen, Jim’s front-row seat on the development of the field provides a kind of institutional memory that dates back long before the company’s actual founding. 

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, MD, PhD, Medicine/Biochemistry

Amherst College, BA, Biology

Craig Behnke

SVP, Production/Development

Craig’s unusual intersection of expertise in drug development and microbiology is a precise match for Lumen’s core science and its ability to deliver novel biologic drugs to patients at unprecedented scale. He began his career in protein engineering and X-ray crystallography—both critical tools for the development of antibodies—before transitioning to the development of small-molecule drug discovery, and then finally to finding industrial applications for photosynthetic microbes.

He has played important roles at various startups, including Sapphire Energy (as head of R&D) and Syrrx (acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals), reflecting not only the scientific firepower he brings to the table but also his management expertise. Both assets are invaluable to Lumen’s mission to make antibody drugs available to mass-market applications for the first time. 

University of Washington, PhD, Biochemistry

Kansas State University, MS, Biochemistry

Kansas State University, BS, Biochemistry/Microbiology

Don Schlosser

CFO

Don’s diverse management skills were honed across a wide range of industries, including drug development, business software, clean energy and carbon trading, media and communications. As a CFO with a focus on company growth, he has overseen expansions from zero to as many as 500 employees, managing both early-stage venture financing and ramp-ups to public offerings.

Don brings a high level of integrity and transparency to his role as CFO, as well as a deep grounding in the realities of creating high-value products from the ground up. With Lumen, his commitment to efficiency and his steady, hands-on engagement through all stages of growth are critical to maintaining a focus on company goals and efficiently driving the development of low-cost, mass-market biotechnology products.
 

University of Washington, MBA, Finance/Marketing

University of Washington, BA, History