MICHEAL A. PFENNING

Mike Pfenning has an extensive, 37 year-long, management experience in science and medicine. In his tenure at Mayo Clinic he served in a series of senior administrative/management roles in the Department of Research Administrative Services, most recently as Deputy Director for Administration, Center for Regenerative Medicine, a Mayo Clinic strategic priority which he organized and helped launch in 2011. Other assignments included: Associate Director for Administration, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, one of the largest and first national NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers; senior research administrator for the Mayo Clinic Health System, a network of 13 community-based practices operating in more than 70 locations across a three state region; Director for Administration, Center for Translational Science Activities, a federally funded center to promote/advance clinical and translational research; Group Administrator, North Central Cancer Treatment Group, a national cancer clinical trials cooperative group based at Mayo Clinic; Associate Administrator for Research, Department of Internal Medicine, a department comprised of more than 600 physicians and scientists; and Section Head, Federal and Private Sector Funding. He served on numerous enterprise committees, task forces and search committees, as an ad hoc National Institutes of Health grant reviewer and member of external advisory boards.

Mike currently serves as the Chief Administrative Officer for Rion, LLC, a Rochester, MN based biotechnology start-up. In this capacity, he reports directly to the chief executive officer (CEO) and is responsible to the Rion board of directors and works cooperatively with the chief operations officer (COO), chief financial officer (CFO) and other members of the Rion senior management team. As one of two Rion senior managers Mike provides executive management functions to advance company goals and objectives.

Born in Boulder, Colorado, Mike earned a B.S. degree in biology from the University of Minnesota and master’s degree in business from the University of St. Thomas.