Management Team

Chuck Kummeth became President and Chief Executive Officer of Bio-Techne Corporation on April 1, 2013. Prior to joining the Company, he served as President of Mass Spectrometry and Chromatography at Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and was President of that company’s Laboratory Consumables Division from 2009 to September 2011. Prior to joining Thermo Fisher, Mr. Kummeth served in various leadership roles during his 24 year career at 3M Corporation, most recently as the Vice President of the company’s Medical Division from 2006 to 2008 and as the Managing Director of 3M for the UK and Ireland.

Mr. Kummeth received a Master of Science in Software Engineering & Design from the University of St. Thomas and a Master of Business Administration from the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota. He is a graduate of the University of North Dakota, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. Mr. Kummeth also serves on the board of Gentherm, a thermal technology company.

James T. Hippel became Chief Financial Officer on April 1, 2014. Prior to joining the Company, he served as Senior Vice President and CFO for Mirion Technologies, Inc., a $300 million global technology and manufacturing company which provides mission critical products to detect, monitor and identify radiation. Prior to Mirion, Mr. Hippel served as Vice President, Finance at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., leading finance operations for its $2 billion Mass Spectrometry & Chromatography and $1 billion Laboratory Consumables divisions. Mr. Hippel's experience also includes nine years of progressive financial leadership at Honeywell International, within its Aerospace Segment. He began his career with KPMG Peat Marwick LLP. 

Mr. Hippel holds a Master of Business Administration from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Accountancy degree from Northern Arizona University. He is also a CPA (inactive).

Kim Kelderman joined Bio-Techne on April 30, 2018 as President, Diagnostics and Genomics. Prior to Bio-Techne, Mr. Kelderman was employed at Thermo Fisher Scientific where he led three different businesses of increasing scale and complexity. For the last three years, Mr. Kelderman managed the Platforms and Content of the Genetic Sciences Division, where he was responsible for the Instrumentation, Software, Consumables and Assays businesses, and brands such as Applied Biosystems and legacy Affymetrix. Before joining Thermo Fisher, Kim served as Senior Segment Leader at Becton Dickinson, managing the global Blood Tubes "Vacutainer" business.

Mr. Kelderman holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Hogeschool Heerlen of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.

Will Geist joined Bio-Techne on January 3, 2022 as President, Protein Sciences Segment. 

Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Geist was Chief Operating Officer at Quanterix, a company with immunoassay tools for life science research and diagnostic applications.  Prior to Quanterix, Mr. Geist led two of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s largest business units, qPCR and Protein & Cell Analysis, each with revenues of ~$1 billion. Prior to Thermo Fisher Scientific, Mr. Geist led the commercialization of Quanta BioSciences, a genomics tools company, from start-up through acquisition by QIAGEN where he took on leadership for additional life science brands. 

Mr. Geist holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.

Mr. Bohnen has over 20 years of experience as a senior legal advisor, including serving as Bio-Techne's Associate General Counsel since 2019. During his tenure at Bio-Techne, Mr. Bohnen led several initiatives, including commercial support across the entire Bio-Techne enterprise, co-leading recent M&A activities, contributing to the Company's ESG initiatives, including the preparation of the most recent Corporate Sustainability Report, and protecting the enterprise's competitive interests through offensive and defensive litigation. Prior to joining Bio-Techne, Mr. Bohnen spent 10 years in private practice where he developed broad experience in life sciences litigation, practicing in more than sixty U.S. jurisdictions on behalf of life sciences manufacturers and providers, and eventually being elected to the partnership at Bowman & Brooke LLP. Mr. Bohnen also served as in-house corporate counsel at Smiths Medical where he held roles of increasing responsibility including providing conglomerate-wide, global legal support across five distinct enterprises. Additionally, he served briefly as in-house counsel at Resideo where he supported three successful acquisitions, a number of process and culture improvement initiatives and several strategic reorganizations.

Peter Breloer joined Bio-Techne on August 1, 2015 as Vice President of Asia-Pacific based in Hong Kong. Prior to Bio-Techne, Mr. Breloer was employed at Thermo Fisher Scientific APAC where he led the Laboratory Consumables business 2010-2011, resp. Chromatography & Mass Spectrometry business 2012 – July 2015. Before joining Thermo Fisher Scientific, Peter served 20 years in 3M Company with increasing scale and complexity incl. General Manager Energy & Advanced Materials APAC resp. EMEA roles & European business head Electronics Markets Materials. Prior 3M he was with TUEV-Rheinland’s Equipment Safety Division Japan & Taiwan 1987-1988. 

Mr. Breloer holds a Dipl.-Ing. Applied Physics degree from Germany, with specialty on solid state physics (1986).

Qi Cheng became Vice President of Quality & Regulatory on July 27th, 2021. Mrs. Cheng held various management positions at Bio-Techne from Technical Service, Quality Control, Senior Director of Product Support/Process Improvement and Senior Director of Quality. Mrs. Cheng has in-depth knowledge of many Bio-Techne products and understand customers’ quality & regulatory needs. She is a Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence from American Society for Quality since 2013.

Mrs. Cheng attended Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and North Dakota State University when she received Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology. She served as NIH postdoctoral Fellow at Pediatric Infectious Disease Division from University of Minnesota School of Medicine.

Steve Crouse joined Bio-Techne in March 2021 as the Vice President, Analytical Solutions Development, responsible for Bio-Techne’s ProteinSimple branded products and R&D Systems Immunoassays portfolio. Steve has >20 years of experience leading R&D, Business Development, Marketing and Sales organizations. Most recently he was the Sr. Director and General Manager for the Protein Detection and Quantification business unit at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Prior to that he held positions as the Chief Operating Officer at Vortex Biosciences and the Sr. Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Freeslate Inc., which was sold to Unchained Labs in 2016. Previously, Steve held several marketing, sales, and R&D leadership roles with Bio-Rad Laboratories and Life Technologies (now Thermo Fisher Scientific). He has an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and a M.S. in Biochemistry from Georgetown University.

Michael Deines joined Bio-Techne in May 2020 as Vice President, Reagent Solutions Division bringing over 30 years of Life Science industry leadership experience to his role. Prior to joining Bio-Techne, he served as General Manager, Environmental and Analytical Reagents. Previously, he served as Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Thermo Fisher Scientific’s $1 billion Bioscience Division and Vice President, Biotechnology Sales at Sigma-Aldrich. Mr. Deines also held Sales and Marketing Management roles at Amersham Biosciences. 

His technical background includes molecular biology research at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from University of Colorado, Boulder.  

Brenda Everson joined Bio-Techne on January 10, 2022, as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. Mrs. Everson has >25 years of experience leading human resources disciplines and functions, including talent acquisition, learning & development, talent management, global mobility and organizational effectiveness. Most recently she was the Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness for Midco Telecommunications. Prior to this she had a dynamic, two-decade, global career at Apple, Inc. where she led several talent practices in the retail division.

Mrs. Everson holds a Bachelor of Science in Retail Management/Business Administration and a Master of Science in Training and Human Resources Development, both from the University of Wisconsin Stout.

Bob Gavin was appointed Vice President – Corporate Development in August 2021. Previously Mr. Gavin was the Senior Vice President of the Analytical Solutions Division. Mr. Gavin joined Bio-Techne with the acquisition of ProteinSimple in 2014, where he was Vice President of Product Development. Mr. Gavin has more than twenty-five years of experience in the Life Science tools industry, previously serving as Director of Engineering at Molecular Devices for nine years after starting in the field at Affymax Research Institute.

Mr. Gavin holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Stanford University.

Lynne Hohlfeld was appointed Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Molecular Diagnostics Division in December 2021. Ms. Hohlfeld joined Bio-Techne as Vice President of Business Development with the acquisition of Asuragen in April 2021, where she served as Chief Financial Officer and SVP of Corporate Development for 12 years. Ms. Hohlfeld has a long history of strategy, corporate partnerships and financial management for emerging growth companies in life science, previously serving as Chief Financial Officer of Opexa Therapeutics, a public company focused in cell therapy.

Ms. Hohlfeld holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Evett Kruka became the Vice President and General Manager of the Spatial Biology Division on February 7, 2022.  Evett brings 20+ years of experience in Life Sciences and has deep expertise in Strategic Marketing, Product Management and General Management. Most recently she was the Vice President and General Manager (VP/GM) for the Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry business for Thermo Fisher Scientific for five years and prior to that she was the VP/GM for Thermo-Fisher’s Ion Chromatography (IC) Business after leading the IC Marketing Organization. Previously, Evett held various life sciences analytical instrument management and marketing leadership roles at Perkin-Elmer and built a life sciences focused market research consulting business.

Evett holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Steven M. Silverman became Vice President and General Manager of the Diagnostic Reagents Division in September 2021. Previously Mr. Silverman was Vice President and General Manager of the Exosome Diagnostics business. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Silverman served as Vice President of Global Marketing for the Life Science Group of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Steve’s experience also includes twenty-seven years of progressive general management, marketing and commercial experience within Thermo Fisher Scientific and over thirty years within the Life Science industry in total.

Mr. Silverman holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Vermont and attended the Advanced Management Program at INSEAD.

Kevin Smyth joined Bio-Techne on January 8, 2018 as the Chief Digital Officer. Prior to that, Mr. Smyth was Vice President of Commercial Digital Solutions at Ecolab, a global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services. From 2007 to 2010, Mr. Smyth was the Chief Information Officer at Cerner Corporation, a health care information technology solutions supplier.

Mr. Smyth has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from California State University, Fullerton.