Orr has more than 15 years of experience with infectious disease research in Good Laboratory Practice and Select Agent regulated laboratories. He joined Southern Research in 2015 and has served the organization in increasingly impactful roles, including manager of biosafety compliance, select agent responsible official, FDA Good Laboratory Practice and International Organization for Standardization 9001:2015 Auditor. Previously employed at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, he has extensive bioanalytical and GLP study coordination experience in high containment animal/biosafety levels (A/BSL)-3&4 environments, conducting non-clinical safety and animal rule efficacy studies. Prior to working in infectious diseases and environmental health and safety, Orr was a high school teacher and university professor. He has a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and bachelor’s degrees in both chemistry and secondary education from Lock Haven University. He is a member of the American Biological Safety Association, the American Society of Safety Professionals and Society of Quality Assurance, which twice named him a Distinguished Speaker.

Tayo Sanders II, Ph.D., has spent the last seven years working with investors and startups in the biotech and industrial technology space. Most recently, he led due diligence on more than 15 companies, totaling more than $130 million in deployed capital as a senior member of the investment team at the Boston-based VC firm, Anzu Partners. Prior to that, Tayo led technical diligence on Anzu’s first investment, Axsun Technologies, which was acquired for an 8x return in 2019. Tayo received a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and a Bachelor of Science in Materials Science from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.