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Charles Harwood

Charles Harwood is an operating executive at Avista Capital Partners. Mr. Harwood was retained by Avista Capital Partners in 2007 and has been an operator in the clinical diagnostics and pharmaceutical services industries. He has nearly 30 years of experience in the overall healthcare industry.

Mr. Harwood is the former President and CEO of BioReliance, which was sold to Sigma-Aldrich in 2012. He worked with the Avista healthcare team that purchased BioReliance in 2007. He was initially Executive Chairman of BioReliance, later became CEO, and led the company for over a year under Sigma-Aldrich ownership to provide a smooth transition of leadership. From 2002 to 2006 Mr. Harwood was the President and CEO of Focus Diagnostics, a company in which the Avista team invested while at DLJMB. Focus Diagnostics was sold in two nearly simultaneous transactions to Quest Diagnostics and Eurofins in 2006. From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Harwood held several positions, including CFO and Senior Vice President of Venture Development at Covance, where he spearheaded numerous acquisitions and divestitures as well as the spin-off of Covance from Corning. Prior to Covance, he worked for seven years in commercial real estate development and six years in the medical products group of the Hewlett-Packard Company.

Mr. Harwood received a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He serves as a Director on the board of United BioSource Corporation and previously served as President, CEO and Executive Chairman of BioReliance, President and CEO of Focus Diagnostics, Director of INC Research and Chairman of the Board of Inform Diagnostics and MPI Research, Inc.