IDT Leadership

Demaris Mills

President

Demaris has spent her career in the Life Sciences and Diagnostics space, including more than 12 years with Danaher.  She joined IDT as President in July 2021 from Phenomenex, where she also served as President.

Prior to Phenomenex, Demaris served in several senior leadership positions at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, including Vice President, General Manager of the Liquid Handling Automation and Genomics businesses, Vice President of European Sales and Vice President of Global Marketing. Prior to Beckman Coulter, Demaris held positions of increasing responsibility at Leica Biosystems, including leading Product Management for the Leica Biosystems Consumables Business. Earlier in her career, she held several positions in Corporate Strategy and Development at Thermo Fisher Scientific, including an expat assignment based in China.

Demaris has a MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in Economics and French from Smith College in Massachusetts.

Ross Allen

General Counsel

Ross Allen was appointed as General Counsel of Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) in May 2022. With a strong background in both science and law, Ross brings a unique perspective to the legal department. He leads a team of strategic legal professionals with a focus on growth and innovation, while maintaining high standards of regulatory compliance.

With a passion for both science and law, Ross has built a successful career in the biotechnology and medical device industries. He started as a scientist and gained hands-on experience with IDT products before transitioning to a legal career as an intellectual property and complex commercial litigator. Over the years, Ross has expanded his practice to encompass general legal advising and compliance, holding various positions as regional general counsel, including a four-year assignment with Align Technology (Invisalign) in Singapore where he helped establish the company's footprint in Asia.

Before joining IDT, Ross served as the Assistant General Counsel for Cepheid where he led global strategic transactions, commercial support, and legal operations in support of the company's rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also served as Vice Chair of Danaher’s LGBTQ+ Friends ARG, offering support to LGBTQ+ colleagues and promoting allyship across the organization. Within IDT, Ross actively supports the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE+I) efforts.

Ross holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology/Chemistry and a Master of Science in Molecular Pathology from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He earned his JD from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.

Mark Behlke, MD, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer

Mark has been a part of IDT for more than two decades and was appointed Chief Scientific Officer in 2013.

Mark joined IDT as a Research & Development (R&D) consultant in 1995 and was named Vice President and head of R&D in 1996. In 26 years at IDT, Mark directed research programs and new product development in the areas of DNA thermodynamics, gene synthesis, probe chemistry, qPCR, NGS, antisense, RNA interference, and CRISPR genome editing. In 2021 Mark stepped down as head of R&D and transitioned to a half-time role as scientific advisor for IDT and the Danaher Life Sciences group.

Mark is an internationally recognized expert in the field of nucleic acid technologies and an inventor on more than 60 issued US Patents and an author on over 140 scientific papers.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was awarded MD and PhD degrees from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, after doing his doctoral dissertation in the field of Immunogenetics. Mark completed an Internal Medicine residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and an Endocrinology Fellowship at the Longwood/Harvard program. Mark was a Howard Hughes Postdoctoral Fellow in Human Genetics at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT.

Christine Boge

Sr. Vice President, Global Operations

Christine was appointed Sr. Vice President, Global Operations in May 2021. Her areas of oversight focus on IDT global operations, including direct oversite for US and European manufacturing, as well as IDT’s supply chain, and environmental health and safety (EHS) organizations.

Prior to her current role, Christine held positions at IDT as Sr. Vice President, Supply Chain & Logistics; Sr. Vice President, Strategic Operations; and Sr. Vice President, Finance & Supply Chain. During her 26 years at IDT, Christine professionalized the supply chain and logistics functions at IDT.

In 1995, Christine entered IDT as a production scientist, and subsequently held progressively responsible procurement and supply chain positions. Christine has diverse operational, business, and financial experience, including process and discrete manufacturing, business combination experience, as well as experience in international business, trade, and taxation.

Christine earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Chemistry, and her Master of Business Administration from the University of Iowa.

Liz Chen

General Manager, IDT China

Liz joined IDT in July 2020 as General Manager, IDT China. In this position, Liz is building and leading the IDT China commercial team to develop and execute the Company’s strategy, including market development, channel management, and organization building to expand and accelerate IDT’s growth in the China market.

Liz joined Danaher in 2019 as a DBSL (Danaher Business Systems Leader), and was appointed Strategic Marketing Director, Life Sciences China Platform in June 2019. She successfully established the platform marketing infrastructure based on Biopharma and Precision Medicine strategies.

Liz holds a master’s degree in International Business from St. Andrews University. Before joining Danaher, Liz accumulated more than 15 years of experience in sales management, including the Custom Oligo business for Thermo Fisher China—as well as business development and M&A in Greater China and other regions with multinational companies and consulting firms such as KPMG and Accenture.

Linda De Jesus

Vice President and General Manager, Global Head of Commercial

Linda has spent her career in the Life Sciences and Biotechnology industries. Linda joined IDT as Vice President and General Manager, Global Commercial Operations on November 2022. She joined IDT from Azenta Life Sciences, where she served as Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.

Prior to Azenta, Linda held several senior executive positions at Thermo Fisher Scientific, including Vice President and General Manager of Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry Division and Vice President of Global Commercial Operations, with annual sales revenue of $2.6B. Prior to Thermo Fisher Scientific, Linda worked for Agilent Technologies and Waters Corporation in various senior leadership positions.

Linda has an Executive MBA from the University of Connecticut and a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Columbia University.

Hanna Dust

Vice President, Human Resources

Hanna Dust joined IDT as Vice President, Human Resources in January 2021. She is responsible for leading the HR function, including the Global HR Strategy to support the IDT business in acquiring and developing talent, engaging and retaining our associates.

Hanna has more than 23 years of experience in Human Resources. Prior to IDT, she was the Vice President, Human Resources at Envista, the family of dental brands that spun off from Danaher and became an independent company in 2019. Hanna led strategic and critical decisions with executive management, including Talent Management, Culture and Engagement, Mergers & Acquisitions, Organizational Development/Effectiveness and Succession Planning. Previously, Hanna was Vice President, People and Organization with Sony Pictures Entertainment, where she served as the global HR business partner for Worldwide Networks and the regional HR Leader for Asia Pacific across all SPE lines of business and corporate functions. Hanna also spent over seven years with Johnson & Johnson, holding various progressive roles in HR.

Hanna earned a bachelor’s degree in Natural Science & Chemistry from Christian Brothers University and an MBA from Georgetown University.

Norm Fuller

Vice President, Platform Development

Norm has been part of IDT for more than a decade and was appointed Vice President, Platform development in 2014.

Norm joined IDT in 2007 as a Process Engineer and over the years has progressively increased his responsibilities and impact on the Company. He brought the rigor associated with statistical analysis, experimental design, and problem-solving methodologies to IDT. Project and portfolio management were established at IDT under Norm’s guidance.

Norm holds a Bachelor of Science and a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University.

Steven Henck, PhD

Vice President, R&D

Steven Henck was appointed IDT Vice President, R&D in October 2021. Previously, since joining IDT in April 2019 Steven had served as Vice President of Molecular Biology Research and Development, providing oversight of R&D initiatives in the area of Genomics Analysis.

Steven has been leading the development of technologies for Next Generation Sequencing, NGS, since 1997 when he moved from Texas Instruments to CuraGen Corp. to develop micro-machined integrated circuits for DNA sequencing. There he also helped establish 454 Life Sciences which created the first commercial NGS sequencing system, and several high-throughput technology platforms for drug discovery and development. Steven was a co-founder and President of an alternative biofuel company, Arbor Fuel Inc. In 2010 he joined Roche Diagnostics to lead their nanopore-based NGS diagnostics platform development and later led the identification and acquisition of multiple technologies and NGS companies. At IDT, he has been leading the development of library prep technologies, assays, and enzymes for NGS since 2019.

Steven holds his Bachelor of Science from Eastern Nazarene College, and his master’s degree and PhD in Chemistry from Princeton University.

Sandy Ottensmann

Vice President, Global Services and Business Unit Leader

Sandy Ottensmann joined IDT as Vice President, Global Services in February 2022, after nearly a decade with Danaher’s life sciences and diagnostics businesses. Before joining IDT, Sandy served as Vice President, Global Marketing & Product Management at Phenomenex, where she was responsible for all inbound and outbound marketing functions as well as the annual strategic planning process. She joined Phenomenex in January 2020 as Senior Director, Product Management and Strategy.

Previously, Sandy was with Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, having served as the Director, Service Marketing and DBS where she was a member of the Global Services leadership team. Prior to that she held multiple roles including Director, Product Management, Growth DBSL and Product Manager in the Chemistry and Immunoassay Business Unit. Prior to Danaher, Sandy worked as a Project Leader and Polymer Chemist at Landec Corporation.

Sandy holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Master of Science in Chemistry from Stanford University, and a Bachelor of Science with honor in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology.

Nichole Riek

VP of Global QARA

Nichole has extensive experience in both heavily regulated and research markets and has demonstrated results in building effective processes and systems to enable both. Prior to IDT, Nichole spent 6 years with SCIEX, where she led as the Vice President of QA/RA, strategically directing the establishment, implementation, and maintenance of adherent QA/RA systems as well as building regulatory strategies for medical device launches in key markets.

Nichole also played a leading role in driving forward SCIEX’s D+I strategy –an initiative she is deeply passionate about– and helped the team deliver tremendous impact in 2022. Prior to joining SCIEX, Nichole managed the global regulatory affairs team at Boston Scientific’s Urology and Pelvic Health Division for 10 years.

Nichole holds a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Western New England College in Springfield, MA, U.S.A.

Jamey Robbins

Vice President, DBS

Jamey joined IDT as Vice President, DBS (Danaher Business Systems) in August 2021. He is filling a newly created position dedicated solely to DBS, leading IDT’s efforts to accelerate further adoption and sustainment of DBS culture, tools, and capabilities.

Prior to IDT, Jamey was at Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, where he has had roles of increasing responsibility, including the Director of Miami Instrument Manufacturing, Vice President of East Coast Operations, Vice President of Real Estate, Facilities and PMO, to most recently the Vice President of Integrated Supply Chain.

Jamey holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University and a master’s in Business Administration from Wake Forrest University.

Erik Swenson

Chief Financial Officer

Erik joined IDT in 2018 as Chief Financial Officer following the acquisition of IDT by Danaher. Before IDT, he held the role of Sr. Director of Global Financial Planning and Analysis at SCIEX, another Danaher operating company, for three and a half years.

Erik came to Danaher in 2007 as Financial Planning leader for Kollmorgen—Dover, part of the then Danaher Motion Platform. During Erik’s time at Danaher, he has built finance teams with an eye to financial compliance, process improvement, and professional development. Prior to Danaher, he held positions of increasing responsibilities at several science and technology companies for more than 13 years. Currently, he is responsible for the Finance and IT.

Erik earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts and a Master of Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Steve Wowk

Vice President, Business Unit and General Management

Steve joined IDT as Vice President, Business Unit and General Management in July 2021. In this newly created role, Steve is leading IDT’s four business units (Custom Oligos & qPCR, Synthetic Biology, CRISPR & Functional Genomics, and Next Generation Sequencing) as the Company’s genomic technologies develop and expand from R&D tools to clinical solutions.

Steve has 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry. For the past five years, he was the Business Unit Director—Genomics at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences (BEC LS), with global responsibility for supporting strategic direction, innovation, new product development, strategic marketing, and in-market product management. Steve held management and sales positions at several leading companies, including MilliporeSigma, Bio-Rad Laboratories, and Pfizer, Inc.

Steve received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton, Ohio, and a Master of Science degree from John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio. He also completed an Executive MBA program provided by the University of Texas, Austin.