Jordan R. Plews PhD, Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Plews is one of our co-founders and has served as our Chief Executive Officer since our inception. Dr. Plews is also serves as President and Director of the Board of the Company. Dr. Plews led the acquisition of Reactive Medical Labs Inc and the development and design of Elevai Exosomes™. After completing his undergraduate in biochemical engineering at University College London in the UK, Dr. Plews worked as part of Pfizer’s bioprocess development group before returning to academia for his doctorate in Stem Cell Research and Molecular Biology. He was recruited by Stanford’s School of Medicine and worked under Dr. Joseph Wu, now head of the American Heart Association, and Joe Gold, who was previously Senior Director at Geron Corporation. After completing a certification from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Dr. Plews worked as a product and project manager in the biotech field, developing and launching projects to help researchers and clinicians, before eventually transitioning into entrepreneurship and the founding of Elevai.

Prior to cofounding Elevai, Dr. Plews was a senior leader in product management for the oncology division of Natera Inc from 2019-2021, where he led the launch and expansion of Natera Inc.’s first oncology product, Signatera. Signatera is a personalized cancer diagnostic based on next generation sequencing cellular data. Before Natera Inc., from 2015-2019, Dr. Plews served as Chief Scientific Officer of Xytogen Biotech Inc., which produced FACTORFIVE Skincare and a number of white label cosmetic and/or aesthetic products for the physician-dispensed market. Prior to Xytogen Biotech Inc., From 2014-2016 Dr. Plews served as a Global Product Marketing Manager for Becton, Dickinson and Company, focusing on development of products for scientific and regenerative medicine researchers, as well as participating in business development and merger and acquisition activities.

Dr. Plews holds a Bachelor of Engineering and Engineering Doctorate from University College London and completed his post-doctoral research at Stanford University in Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine.

 

Graydon Bensler, CFA, Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Bensler has served as our Chief Financial Officer since our inception. Mr. Bensler is a financial professional and analyst with over seven years of experience in financial consulting and management for both private businesses and US/Canadian publicly traded companies and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). In 2017, Mr. Bensler Co-founded an Ed Tech curriculum management and scheduling company that was implanted in academic schools in Canada and the United States. From 2017 to 2019, Mr. Bensler was an account manager at a leading Canadian investor relations firm where he represented publicly traded companies across a wide range of sectors where he worked directly with investment banks, investment brokers and company executives and directors. During his tenure, Mr. Bensler created and conveyed messaging about his clients’ strategic position in the market and successfully guided several companies through multiple financings. From 2019 to 2021, Mr. Bensler was a Senior Associate at Evans & Evans, a Canadian boutique investment banking firm where he led valuations and going public transactions for Canadian and United States companies. In this capacity, Mr. Bensler gained strong knowledge of the capital markets, public company compliance requirements, and regularly interfaced with regulators, auditors, board and executive management. Mr. Bensler has also been a director of publicly traded Health Logic Interactive Inc. (TSXv:CHIP) since 2020. We believe that Mr. Bensler’s past experience as our Chief Financial Officer, his familiarity with both the banking and the financial consulting sectors and his having served as an account manager for similarly situated companies makes him a qualified director for our Company.

Mr. Bensler received his Bachelor of Management and Organizational Studies degree from the University of Western Ontario, with specialization in Finance, and is a CFA Charter holder.

 

Hatem Abou-Sayed, MD, MBA, FACS, Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Hatem Abou-Sayed (“Dr. Tim Sayed”) is one of our co-founders and has served as our Chief Medical Officer since our inception. Dr. Sayed is a double-board-certified plastic surgeon with two decades of experience and oversees our product development and marketing, and brings academic knowledge and clinical experience in aesthetics, anti-aging, skincare, and health technology. Since 2017, Dr. Sayed has owned and operated his plastic surgery offices in Southern California where he draws patients from around the world and throughout the United States. From 2012-2015, Dr. Sayed served as a medical director and investor at the electronic health records and practice management company: Modernizing Medicine. From 2015-2017, he served as Vice President at Interpreta, Inc., which provides precision medicine clinical interpretation solutions (acquired by Centene Corporation). Since 2017, Dr. Sayed has served as ZamZam Skin, LLC’s (ZamZam) managing member, a Halal skincare product line that is currently in development. Dr. Sayed oversees ZamZam’s marketing strategy and assists the company with administering the financial aspects of ZamZam’s ongoing research and development. Since 2020, Dr. Sayed has served on the advisory board of ‘Yes Doctor’, a patient financing-driven acquisition platform for plastic surgeons. Dr. Sayed’s educational and professional experience in the medical field, his background and connections in the surgical discipline, his having co-founded our business and provided strategic advice makes him a qualified director for our Company.

Dr. Sayed completed medical training at UCSF and surgical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Sayed holds a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer sciences from University of California, Berkeley, an M.D. from the School of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco, and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

 

Brenda Buechler, Chief Marketing Officer

Ms. Buechler is the Chief Marketing Officer for Elevai Labs. In this role, she leads the portfolio and brand marketing strategies to help Elevai achieve its commercial targets and support the global vision. Ms. Buechler has a strong track record in leadership in the pharmaceutical and medical aesthetics industries holding sales, marketing, and business development roles over the course of her 24-year career. Prior to her role with Elevai, Ms. Buechler led the Consumer and HCP marketing efforts for Evofem Biosciences from 2019 to 2022 and was responsible for the launch of a first-in-class technology in the women’s health space. Ms. Buechler spent 6 years in marketing and public relations roles with aesthetic industry leaders Alastin Skincare, from 2016 to 2019, and SkinMedica, from 2008 to 2010, where she helped to bring over 15 new, award-winning physician-dispensed skincare products to the market. From 2011 to 2016 Ms. Buechler held various Business Development and Client Services roles within the medical aesthetic and pharmaceutical industries touching over 50 brands throughout her career. Before her tenure in marketing and advertising, Ms. Buechler spent 10 years in pharmaceutical sales from 1997 to 2007 with Merck and Pfizer working across over a dozen disease states and therapeutic categories. 

Ms. Buechler is currently an active member of Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW) and the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) where she is currently serving as a group mentor.

Ms. Buechler holds a Bachelor of Arts from San Diego State University.

 

Christoph Kraneiss, Chief Commercial Officer

Mr. Kraneiss has been our Chief Commercial Officer since August 2022. He holds a proven track record of building successful physician-dispensed aesthetic businesses within top globally recognized brands. Mr. Kraneiss served from 2017-2019 as Senior Vice President of SkinBetter Science, LLC. Similarly, from 2011 -2017, Mr. Kraneiss served as Senior Vice President of ZO Skin Health, Inc., which was founded by renowned dermatologist Zein Obagi, MD. During his 6 years at ZO Skin Health, he led his department from $2M in retail sales to over $100M, establishing the brand in more than 130 countries, and roughly 500,000 points of purchase globally, reaching profitability within less than 3 years. Most recently Mr. Kraneiss served as Managing Director for Noon Aesthetics, Inc. from 2019 – 2021 and as Vice President of International Business Development for Higher Education Skincare, Inc., a B2C company from 2021 – 2022. Mr. Kraneiss has successfully established and managed numerous aesthetic sales teams in different countries and has trained retailers, physicians, and distributors in sales and business strategies, specifically relating to servicing the medical aesthetics industry.

Mr. Kraneiss received both an MBA as well as a bachelor’s degree in marketing and communications from University of Saxony Anhalt and speaks English, German, and Russian fluently.