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

EVP, 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

Eric Orse

Chief Financial Officer

Eric’s diverse management skills result from a wide range of industries, including high tech, real estate, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation and retail.  As a CFO, he has overseen companies ranging in size from 10 to 500 employees, managing early stage growth companies to mature multi-generational companies. 

Eric brings integrity and transparency to his role, as well as experience with early to mid stage companies and the need for hands-on engagement through all the stages of growth.  Eric is a CPA(inactive) and worked in both the Audit Group and Restructuring Group at Price Waterhouse.

Seattle University, MBA, Finance/Business Management

Seattle University, BA, Accounting

Carl Mason

VP, Clinical

Carl Mason's career path and experience is well suited for Lumen Bioscience. He joins Lumen following six years as Medical Director at Parexel, an industry leading clinical research organization. Previously, he had fourteen years of clinical research experience overseas as Chief of the Department of Enteric Diseases at the Armed Forced Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) in Bangkok, Thailand. Carl executed projects on diarrheal diseases in Asia funded by the US Department of Defense, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, MPH, Epidemiology

Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, MD, Medicine

Cornell University College of Art and Sciences, AB, Chemistry

Cristin Wagner

VP, Legal

Cristin Wagner brings over 20 years of in-house and law firm experience to Lumen. Cristin spent the first part of her career as a patent litigator with a large international law firm where she managed all phases of complex multimillion-dollar biopharmaceutical patent infringement cases. After spending 13 years as a litigator, Cristin them served as a Senior Vice President at a publicly held patent licensing company where she managed worldwide licensing and enforcement programs. Throughout her career, Cristin as helped innovative companies develop and protect their intellectual property portfolios and develop strategies to protect their commercial products. She is valued for her practical advice and knack for aligning legal strategies with a company's goals to achieve optimal results. 

Dalhousie Law School, JD

University of Saskatchewan, B.Sc., Biochemistry 

Stanford University, Graduate Certificate in Biotechnology 

Steve Landas

VP & Controller

Steve brings over twenty years of financial leadership and experience to Lumen, which includes development stage companies to a Fortune 500 company. Prior to Joining Lumen, Steve held increasing roles of responsibilities including serving as Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller at Cascadian Therapeutics, a publicly traded oncology company that was acquired by Seattle Genetics in 2018. While at Cascadian, he was instrumental in building out the finance team and financial systems to scale with the company's growth and reporting requirements. Steve also served in various positions at Seattle Genetics, Xcyte Therapies, Chiron, and PathoGenesis.

Steve received a B.A in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from the University of Washington's Foster School of Business. 

Karina Mounivong

VP, Human Resources

Karina has over 15 years of experience in Human Resources working in software and biotechnology companies of various sizes. Prior to joining Lumen, Karina was the VP, Global HR for Nintex, a software company that specializes in process management and automation workflow. While at Nintex, Karina was a part of scaling the company through organic and inorganic growth, completed five acquisitions and integrations in her time there, and was a part of building a great company culture. Karina has also worked at Varolii Corporation and started her HR career in biotech at ZymoGenetics, Inc.

Karina received her B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies, Community Psychology, and a Minor in Human Rights from University of Washington

Kole Krieger

VP, Business Development

Kole’s in-depth experience and vast network within the biotech and pharmaceutical industry is perfectly aligned to his role of Vice President of Business Development at Lumen Bioscience. Prior to joining Lumen, Kole was the Vice President of Business Development for Absci Bio (NASDAQ:ABSI), a publicly traded AI drug and target discovery company utilizing synthetic biology. While at Absci, Kole led business development and sales efforts. During his five-year tenure, he created long-term partnerships with biotech and pharma companies that resulted in multiple historic licensing deals, enabling the growth of the company from 15 to 250+ employees. In 2019, Kole was selected by the Portland Business Journal as the region’s ‘Rainmaker’, an award given to the top business sales professional.

Linfield University, BA, Finance