Founders / Management

Leaders in Orthopaedics, Genetics and Transactions

Axial was organized early in 2003 by Jim Ogilvie, MD, Kenneth Ward, MD, John Braun, MD and John Climaco, a unique combination of individuals with the skill set to accomplish the company’s mission.

James Ogilvie, MD
Chief Medical Officer

MD, Past President of the Scoliosis Research Society and Associate Editor of the Spine Journal since 1987, is a Founder, Director and the Chief Medical Officer of Axial Biotech, Inc. Dr. Ogilvie is currently a staff surgeon at Shriners Hospital for Children. He was a Professor and Vice Chair of the University of Minnesota Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and has served on the staff of the Twin Cities Spine Center of Abbott Northwestern Hopsital. Dr. Ogilvie has three recently issued patents pertaining to methods and instrumentation for spine surgery. He has received multiple NIH and industry grants during his years of practice and has authored dozens of peer reviewed scientific papers, book chapters and abstracts. Dr. Ogilvie mentored Dr. John Braun during Dr. Braun’s spine fellowship at the Twin Cities Scoliosis Spine Center.

Kenneth Ward, MD
Director / Chairman of the Board / Chief Scientific Officer

MD, Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women’s Health at the University of Hawaii is a Founder, Director and Chairman of the Board of Axial Biotech, Inc. Dr. Ward is among the few physicians in the country who are board certified in four sub-specialties: OB/GYN, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Medical Genetics, and Molecular Genetics. As Professor of OB/Gyn and Human Genetics, Dr. Ward founded and ran the University of Utah’s DNA Diagnostic Laboratory. He led the efforts to discover a number of human disease genes including Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return, Hereditary Multiple Exostosis and genetic associations for several pregnancy related diseases including pre-eclampsia and pregnancy induced hypertension. Dr. Ward has founded, grown, and operated a number of successful biotechnology companies. He is a Founder, genetics consultant and Director of Taueret Laboratories, LLC.

John Climaco,
President / CEO

is a founder and the President and CEO of Axial Biotech. Mr. Climaco has been involved with start-up ventures in various capacities for the last ten years. Before moving to Utah, Mr. Climaco served as director of programming and legal affairs for Quokka Sports, a venture-backed online media company that went public in 1999. While with Quokka, Mr. Climaco closed deals with Intel, Microsoft WebTV, NBC Sports, and National Geographic among others. An attorney by training, Mr. Climaco began his legal career with Gunderson Dettmer, one of Silicon Valley’s leading firms. Mr. Climaco continued his career with Fabian & Clendenin in Salt Lake City, and has handled a wide range of transactions from IPOs, venture, private equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property licensing deals and executive employment agreements. Mr. Climaco holds a BA in Philosophy (Cum Laude) from Middlebury College and a JD from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

John Braun, MD
Chief Clinician

MD, Associate Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Co-Director of the Combined Spine Fellowship for the Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery Departments, is a Founder, Director and Chief Clinician of Axial Biotech, Inc. He is also a member of the orthopaedic departments at Primary Children’s Hospital and Intermountain Shriners Hospital for Children. Dr. Braun’s research interest in disorders of the spine has already started to revolutionize the standard treatment of spinal deformities, such as scoliosis. His extensive work over the past 6 years with animal models has set the stage for human studies that will be greatly enhanced with a prognostic test. Medtronic Sofamor Danek has awarded Dr. Braun several large research grants from 1998 to the present. Through this research, he has developed three patent-pending fusion-less scoliosis devices (Titanium Bone Anchor, Biologic Bone Anchor and Concave Distraction Spacer). Dr. Braun’s extensive clinical network of spinal surgeons and patients with various spinal disorders is an invaluable resource for Axial’s research interests. He completed his fellowship in Orthopaedic Spinal Surgery at the Twin Cities Scoliosis Spine Center and the University of Minnesota.

Lesa Nelson
Vice President of Clinical Operations

Ms. Nelson has over 20 years experience in genetic research. She is a Founder of Taueret Laboratories, LLC. She was the Laboratory Director of EmerGen Laboratories managing the research effort. Ms. Nelson and Dr. Chad Nelson have developed a proprietary technology for gene discovery used to address the current rate-limiting step in disease gene discovery and molecular diagnostic testing, GeneMass® . She was previously the assistant director and technical supervisor for the University of Utah DNA Diagnostic Laboratory , Reproductive Genetics Division. She has served as a consultant to ARUP laboratories, a large clinical testing laboratory, and Affiliated Genetics, a parentage testing laboratory. Her primary role in the clinical genetics field has been research and development to provide the link from research discoveries to applied clinical genetics. As a member of the Reproductive Genetics Division she was also the research laboratory supervisor and managed various projects relating to pregnancy complications. Early in her career, she was involved as part of a research team at the University of Utah that mapped many disease genes including the genes for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis and familial adenomatous polyposis. As part of the laboratory team involved in the Human Genome Project, she worked on constructing high-resolution linkage maps of the chromosomes.

Mary Meade
Executive Manager / Director of Family Studies

Ms. Meade is the Operations Manager and Director of Family Studies at Axial Biotech. She has been actively involved in the start-up aspects of Axial Biotech. She is a Founder and member of Taueret Laboratories, LLC. and Vice President of Medical and Family Studies for the service laboratory. Ms. Meade previously served as Clinical and Family Studies Coordinator at the University of Utah Perinatal Genetics Department and at EmerGen, Inc. Under her stewardship the Family Studies Division was able to collect a large number of samples in a limited time. She was a Founder and Director for Optimal Outcomes, Inc. a charity for high-risk pregnancy. She brings to the company years of experience working with physicians, hospitals and institutional review boards. Ms. Meade received her BS from the University of Utah. She has extensive background in business management both in Minnesota and Utah.