Our Story

VP – Research & Development

Ursula leads SpayVac’s R&D efforts worldwide.

Ursula initially worked as a veterinarian in private practice and at a free-ranging wildlife park for several years prior to earning her PhD in reproductive endocrinology. For the past 30 years, she has been conducting research in reproductive physiology as well as nutrition and pharmacology and spent 25 years developing new graduate science programs in academia. LinkedIn.

VP – Operations

Mark pioneered the field application of SpayVac’s single-dose contraceptive technology, helping establish it as a breakthrough solution for wildlife population management.

Mark is a wildlife biologist with more than 50 years of experience. Much of his work has been with the ecology of marine mammals, particularly bowhead, beluga, and killer whales. He has also studied the biology of terrestrial mammals, ranging from shrews to moose.
 

For nearly thirty years, Mark has been involved in trials of SpayVac in deer, grizzly bears, wolves, horses, and African elephants. Since its founding, Mark has been instrumental in preserving SpayVac’s technology for use in wildlife fertility control.

CEO

Tom leads SpayVac’s commercialization and growth strategy, bringing decades of experience building and scaling life sciences companies.

Over the past 20+ years, Tom  has co-founded two pharmaceutical companies, led a life sciences IPO, and held senior roles in business development, sales, and strategic planning. He began his career as a chemist at Pfizer and later worked at Merck in vaccine sales before joining multiple pharmaceutical startups. Most recently, as CEO of Phoenix LLC, he led the company to profitability while specializing in highly regulated technical services.

Chief Operating Officer

Tina  leads the operational infrastructure that enables SpayVac to scale from scientific breakthrough to global deployment.

With more than 20 years of global experience, Tina has directed multimillion-dollar initiatives across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, advancing complex public health and nutrition programs. At SpayVac, she leads operations, quality systems, regulatory coordination, and strategic planning to support global deployment of SpayVac. LinkedIn.

Laboratory Technician

Shannon provides hands-on technical support in the lab to run experiments and produce the vaccines.

Shannon has worked in various labs ranging from large corporations to startups.  Shannon has experience from GLP, non-GLP, and GMP labs, where she focused on early drug development studies. Specializing in pharmacokinetic drug metabolism research and medical device creation, Shannon also managed scientific records and oversaw customer cell vial inventories and locations.

Chairman

Jeff  brings decades of early-stage healthcare investing experience and a proven track record of building companies to successful exits.

After a 23-year corporate retail career, he founded Milwaukee’s first angel network in 2000 and has since invested in more than 60 startups, achieving nine successful exits. Two healthcare investments—ModernMed (acquired by DaVita) and Propeller Health (acquired by ResMed for $225M)—were acquired by Fortune 500 companies. Inducted into the Wisconsin Investors Hall of Fame in 2015, Jeff partnered with SpayVac in 2022 as Chairman and lead investor.

Vaccine Manufacturing and Methods Contractor

With more than 20 years of experience in developing novel vaccines for cancer, fertility control and infectious diseases, Marc is one of the early developers of SpayVac and later oversaw the implementation of SpayVac in the field with multiple collaborators. Over his career he held various positions of increasing responsibility including Chief Science Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer at IMV, publicly traded vaccine development company. He has experience in immunology, immune therapies and vaccine development from design to preclinical testing, applying regulatory requirements and phase 1-2 clinical trials. He currently is a technical and strategic consultant for immunotherapy and vaccine companies.

Consulting Director of Immunology

An immunologist, David brings expertise in vaccinology and antibody technology to SpayVac. Prior to joining Spayvac for Wildlife Inc., David directed a lab that generated monoclonal antibodies for research and commercial purposes. He earned his Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Saskatchewan in 2012, where he focused on mechanisms of immune activation. Following this training, he received postdoctoral training in cancer immunotherapy at the BC Cancer Agency Deeley Centre in Victoria, BC.  Dr. Kroeger is consulted on laboratory testing methods, release specifications for vaccines, developing new fertility-control vaccines, and different formulations of current vaccines.