Lisa Johnson is CEO of BioForward Wisconsin and admits that managing a nonprofit has an entire new set of challenges vs. private industry. A finance major out of UW-Madison who was fortunate to work with brilliant scientists in starting the life science reagents company Novagen back in 1989 and travel the world working for Merck KGaA/EMD. She has a passion for building Wisconsin’s biohealth ecosystem and will support those that are action-oriented, and exhibit positive energy in driving our state’s economy. Her expertise lies in general management, operations, business development and leading results-oriented teams. She likes to dance to her own beat, demonstrate results and applaud those that put the community before themselves.
Brian is the Director of Member Services & Operations at BioForward and manages the Select Savings purchasing consortium, membership, and Madison operations. A graduate of UW-Madison with a degree in Business Management, he previously worked for UW-Madison’s Office of Risk Management, eDocs America, and the Wisconsin Department of Commerce’s Global Ventures. With an affinity for business development he enjoys making connections for entrepreneurs that can advance their businesses in his home state of Wisconsin.
Harrison is a physician/scientist with over 10 years of experience is the field of biomedical science. Most recently, he worked as a researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He has also served as the manager of Postdoc Industry Consultants (PICO), a biotechnology consulting organization comprised of young scientists from Southeastern Wisconsin universities. He is also a founder of Angio360 Diagnostics, a Wisconsin start-up producing diagnostics for the veterinary and human cancer fields. Currently, he manages BioForward's operations in the Greater Milwaukee Area.
Rissa Guffey joined BioForward Wisconsin in June 2019 as Digital Marketing Manager. Rissa is a seasoned marketer with over 10 years experience as a social media manager and solutions-oriented marketing and communications champion for not-for-profits. Most recently, she worked as Director of Marketing and Communications at the International School of Indiana. She has also served as events manager at Butler University. She works as an independant contractor and volunteer for other not-for-profit organizations and enjoys doing design work and social media and digital marketing in her spare time. She lives in Madison with her family and dog.