Oncocyte Corporation (Nasdaq: OCX), a precision diagnostics company, today announced that it has appointed leading finance executive, Andrea James, to the position of Chief Financial Officer.
“We are thrilled to welcome Andrea as we approach the inflection point of commercial launch,” Oncocyte CEO Josh Riggs said. “She has a proven track record of guiding financial strategy through multiple phases of growth, raising and stewarding capital, and building relationships with high quality institutional investors. Andrea is therefore an ideal CFO business partner to myself, the Board of Directors and the Oncocyte team.
“We expect 2024 and 2025 to be transformative years for Oncocyte. We have begun to establish our diagnostic tests as the research tool of choice for the transplant community together with our co-marketing partner Bio-Rad Laboratories. Separately, we also see the opportunity to unlock high-value clinical diagnostic opportunities in the oncology space and add to our commercialization partnerships. We eagerly anticipate Andrea’s valuable insights as we continue to drive value creation for Oncocyte’s shareholders.”
Prior to joining Oncocyte, Ms. James served as Chief Communications Officer and head of investor relations at Axon Enterprise, Inc. (Nasdaq: NASDAQ:AXON). She joined Axon’s finance team in 2017 to build the company’s investor relations function and played an integral role through the company’s growth from $1 billion in market capitalization to a company valued at more than $20 billion. She led Axon’s repositioning as a top-tier technology company with the investment community and established Axon's corporate strategy function, overseeing capital stewardship, mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships and investments. Her work was instrumental in supporting more than $550 million in equity capital offerings.
Ms. James worked in a strategic investor relations role for Tesla, Inc. in 2016 and 2017. From 2009 to 2016 she worked as a sell-side analyst for Dougherty & Company (now Colliers Securities), becoming a vice president and senior research analyst. At Dougherty, she researched emerging technologies on behalf of institutional investors. Previously, she was a reporter at publications including Bloomberg News and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer covering a range of business and financial beats.
“Oncocyte is a disruptive innovator in the field of molecular diagnostics that is on track for category leadership. The company enjoys a top-notch management team with extensive experience in this space,” Ms. James said. “I am delighted to join and look forward to helping to scale the company into a much larger, highly profitable enterprise over time, while also ensuring that the capital markets understand our exciting runway and global market opportunity.”
“I also want to commend James Liu, who has served as Oncocyte’s controller and principal accounting officer and who will continue to serve as an important leader within our finance team,” James added.
Ms. James holds a Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, in Computer Information Systems from American University. She also holds a Master of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University, graduating with Kappa Tau Alpha honors. While at Dougherty, her Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) licenses included the Series 7, 86, 87 and 63.