Shawn Marcell has more than 25 years of executive experience building and leading interdisciplinary teams in technology and the life sciences. His background includes venture creation, growth acceleration, IP management and raising more than $400M in capital for private and public companies. In 2020, Mr. Marcell returned for a second tour to the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University to co-found and spin-out Torus Biosystems with leading academic researchers including Illumina scientific founder David Walt. He currently serves as President & CEO of Torus. Until recently he served as Independent Director for DropWorks until it’s acquisition in October 2021 by Bio-Rad. He is Founding Director and Advisory Board Chairman for Coagulo Medical Technologies; Chairman and Lead Independent Director for Kinnos; and Lead Independent Director of AIxMed.
Previously, along with George Church, he co-founded and spun-out ReadCoor, serving as Chairman & CEO, while doing his first tour as Executive in Residence at the Wyss Institute. ReadCoor was acquired in 2020 by 10X Genomics for $350M. At the Wyss, he assembled and oversaw a talented team of professionals in the development of the ReadCoor business plan and corporate strategy. The team was featured in the journal Nature Biotechnology as among the top 10 startups of the year (2016). Shawn has founded and chaired several early-stage venture-backed life sciences companies including RedPoint Bio which went public in 2005, Sensigen which was acquired by Sequenom, Lifecodes division of Hologic acquired by Immucor/TPG, and Metamark Genetics acquired by LabCorp.
In addition to launching multiple startups with multiple successful exits, Shawn’s leadership experience includes large corporations, academic institutions, and venture capital funds. He served as adjunct faculty at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School where he taught entrepreneurship and venture creation and was President of the Port of Technology in Philadelphia, one of the largest life sciences and technology incubators in the US. He launched and led the University City Science Center’s inaugural venture fund in Philadelphia and served as a venture partner at Excel Venture Management, a Boston life sciences technology venture fund. Shawn is currently a member of the Monell Center’s International Advisory Council, a Visiting Scholar at Harvard’s Wyss Institute, an Advisory Fellow at Harvard Innovation Labs, and a Sr. Fellow of the University of Pennsylvania’s Weiss Tech House.
For more than two decades, Shawn has been actively engaged in philanthropic causes. He was a Founder and Board Member of Gilda’s Club in New York City, a provider of support services for cancer patients and their families. He served as Chairman of Calcutta House in Philadelphia, an organization providing residential care for people living with AIDS. Most recently he established a martial arts program at Nashoba Learning Group in Bedford, MA for children and adults with autism spectrum disorder. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University, a 4th Dan Black Belt in Taekwondo and 1st Dan Black Belt in Karate.