Leadership Team
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Richard Brown Mr. Richard Brown serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research; Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Stowers Resource Management, Inc.; and Co-Chairman of Biomed Valley Discoveries, Inc. He became Chairman of American Century Investments’ Board of Directors in 2010 after having served as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors since 2007. Before joining the Stowers group of companies, Mr. Brown was President and Chief Executive Officer of Health Midwest, a position he held from 1993 to March 2003. He previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Health Midwest from 1991 to 1993 after having joined Health Midwest’s predecessor company in 1980. Mr. Brown has a Masters degree in Health Administration from the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and a Bachelors of Arts and Biology from Phillips University.
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David Chao, Ph.D. Dr. David Chao was appointed president of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in 2009 and added the role of Chief Executive Officer in 2010. From 2008 to 2009, Dr. Chao was an Executive Vice President of the Stowers Institute. He served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of BioMed Valley Discoveries, the organization responsible for the translation of the Institute’s basic biomedical discoveries into therapeutic applications, from 2007 to 2009. Prior to joining the Stowers Institute, Dr. Chao worked as a licensing executive at Novartis, co-founded two biotech start-ups, and served as a consultant at McKinsey & Co. Dr. Chao holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a pre-doctoral fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He also received a combined M.A. and B.A. in Biology from Harvard University.
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Abby Freeman Ms. Abby Freeman became Vice President for Administration at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in October 2003. She started her professional career with the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) as an Adolescent Girls’ Group Leader in metropolitan New York. Subsequently, she held the positions of Program Director in San Francisco and Nashville, Acting Executive Director in Nashville, and Western Region Consultant for the National Board of the YWCA in Pasadena. In 1975, Ms. Freeman joined The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (UT Southwestern) as the first Director of the new Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Ms. Freeman subsequently became the Equal Opportunity and Minority Affairs Officer at UT Southwestern before she was appointed Vice President for Human Services Administration. Ms. Freeman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from Huston-Tillotson College in Austin, Texas, and completed graduate coursework in business and marketing at the City College of New York and in counseling and guidance at the University of California at Berkeley.
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R. Scott Hawley, Ph.D. Dr. R. Scott Hawley joined the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in 2001 from the University of California at Davis. Dr. Hawley started his independent research career at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City before joining the faculty of UC Davis as a Professor of Genetics. Dr. Hawley was appointed as an American Cancer Society Research Professor in 2005 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his pioneering work in the field of Drosophila genetics, chromosome biology, and meiosis in 2011. He has won numerous awards for his teaching, including the Genetics Society of America's award for Excellence in Education in 2008. Dr. Hawley received a B.S. in Biology from the University of California at Riverside and his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Washington.
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Robert Krumlauf, Ph.D.
Dr. Robert E. Krumlauf joined the Stowers Institute in 2000 from England’s National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill, London, where he was head of the Division of Developmental Neurobiology. Before he received his Ph.D. in developmental biology, Dr. Krumlauf served as a Chief Chemical Engineer at Stokley Van Camp, New Jersey. Dr. Krumlauf did postdoctoral training at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow, Scotland, and at the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia, PA. In 1985 he moved to the National Institute for Medical Research in London where he became the Division Head of Developmental Neurobiology. Known for his groundbreaking research on the homeobox genes that set up the vertebrate body plan, his current research focuses on the molecular and cellular pathways that govern the patterning of the nervous system, the establishment of the basic body plan, and craniofacial development of vertebrate embryos and how these processes are altered or affected in human diseases. Dr. Krumlauf received his B.E. in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University and his Ph.D. in developmental biology from Ohio State University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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William Neaves, Ph.D. Dr. William Neaves served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Stowers Institute for Medical research through June 2009. He became President Emeritus after stepping down as Chief Executive Officer at the end of June 2010. Prior to joining the Stowers Institute in 2000, Dr. Neaves served more than 20 years in various leadership positions at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas including Professor of Cell Biology, holder of the Doris and Bryan Wildenthal Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science, Dean of Southwestern Graduate School of Biological Sciences, Dean of Southwestern Medical School, and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. He is the recipient of many awards and honors in recognition of his pioneering work in reproductive biology and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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Roderick Sturgeon Mr. Roderick Sturgeon joined the Stowers Institute in February 2007 from a position as Senior Vice President – Personal Expression Group Finance at Hallmark Cards, Inc. While at Hallmark, Mr. Sturgeon oversaw all North American and international finance activities, credit services and Information Technology for the Personal Expression business. He was a corporate officer, and served on the company’s personal expression group management team. Mr. Sturgeon joined Hallmark in 1974. He was vice president of finance and planning for Hallmark International prior to assuming the role as Senior Vice President and being named a corporate officer in 1993. Prior to Hallmark, he worked for the J.C. Penney Company. Mr. Sturgeon received his bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University and his M.B.A. from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. He serves on the Kansas State University Business College Advisory Board, the Community National Bank Board and the American Century Investments Board. He has previously served on the Boards of both the Midwest Trust Company and Financial Counselors, Inc.
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David Welte Mr. David Welte, who played a pivotal role in the creation of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and the Stowers Group of Companies, assumed his role as in-house General Counsel in January 2009. Mr. Welte was most recently at Bryan Cave, LLP and, previous to that was a shareholder in the law firm of Polsinelli Shughart where he was one of the founders and served as the firm’s managing partner for 15 years. Mr. Welte received his Juris Doctorate in 1968 from Loyola University-Chicago. He was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1968, the bars of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit in 1982, Tenth Circuit in 1985, and the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982. Currently, Mr. Welte serves on the Board of Trustees and Compensation Committee of the Midwest Research Institute, the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee of the Pembroke Hill School, as well as the Board of Directors of the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures. Previously, he served on the Executive Committees and Boards of Directors of the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, the Kansas City Area Development Council, and Brush Creek Community Partners. |
