From the beginning, Medolac has attracted a very special group of individuals to its team. Our shared mission: to improve as many lives as possible. Our values include family, health, joy, innovation, research and education. Our passion to help people is what drives our cause. We are grateful for the opportunity and responsibility of improving access to human milk for families around the world. We passionately believe that science has merely scratched the surface with all there is to learn about human milk, and the improved health it will offer for many.
Meet some of the extraordinary people that are making it happen.
Elena Medo, CEO Elena is passionate about making donor milk easier to use and more accessible for babies in need. To meet the growing demand, she has developed improved methods to make milk banking more scalable to help meet the needs of 15 million preterm infants in both commercial markets and humanitarian situations globally. Prior to founding Medolac in 2009, Medo founded Prolacta Bioscience in 1999 leading the effort to create the first human milk fortifier made from human milk. Combined with mother’s milk or donor milk, this product made it possible to eliminate the use of bovine based fortifier and provide an exclusively human milk diet to very low birth weight babies. As a result, a large randomized clinical trial was initiated under her leadership, which demonstrated a strong association between exclusive human milk feeding and a lower incidence of morbidity and mortality in preterm infants.
Recognizing that the major nutrients in mother’s milk fluctuate widely, she developed the Calais Human Milk Analyzer, the first commercially available method to analyze major nutrients in human milk for a clinical setting, enabling neonatal staff to provide targeted fortification of donor milk or mother’s milk for preterm infants. Pending FDA approval, the Calais Analyzer is currently offered for Investigational Use only. Medo has been working in the field of human milk science for nearly 30 years. Research initiated under her leadership has resulted in several published studies and she continues to support a wide range of research to remove barriers to the use of breast milk in clinical settings. She has been awarded nearly a dozen patents for medical devices and human milk processing. She is a frequent speaker for both neonatology and social entrepreneur conferences. She attended University of California at Irvine, studying developmental and cell biology as an undergraduate and has an MBA with a focus on healthcare management from the Paul Merage School of Business at UCI.
Doug Hawkins, SVP Corporate Affairs Mr. Hawkins is responsible for Medolac's global corporate strategy, including developing its corporate affairs presence, as well as negotiating key partnership and expansion strategies. Before joining Medolac, Mr. Hawkins was Vice President Public Affairs and Policy for Pfizer Nutrition, a business valued at $11.85 Billion recently sold by Pfizer. As a member of the Pfizer Nutrition executive management team, he managed staff around the world responsible for high-visibility public and government affairs, crisis communications, corporate responsibility and the development of partnerships in key markets such as China, Thailand, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Columbia. While at Pfizer, he championed ground-breaking third party corporate compliance/performance monitoring systems to verify responsible marketing and business practices. Prior to joining Pfizer, he was Director, International Trade Relations for Wyeth Biopharma and managed the company's relationships with US and foreign governments as well as the World Health Organization and other multilateral agencies. He previously worked for a domain name technology start-up funded by EDS ventures, and has a decade of global experience at the United Nations agency, The World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva Switzerland, where he was responsible for treaty operations. He has served on several international policy boards, including chair of the pharmaceutical association, PhRMA, International Organization Issues Committee, and published on the subject of innovation, international patent systems and access. Mr. Hawkins holds a Master of Science degree, with commendation, in the area of International Policy and Comparative Development from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.
John Wallingford, PhD, Regulatory Affairs John represents Medolac Laboratories as its lead regulatory affairs adviser. He is well known for his worldwide regulatory expertise and scientific acumen in key areas relating to foods for special dietary uses including neonatal and pediatric nutrition. He worked at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the Office of Special Nutritionals, regulating the composition and claims on foods for special medical purposes, general principles for health claims, and he authored the review of the health claim for omega-3 fatty acids and coronary heart disease. After 10 years at the FDA, he joined Wyeth Nutrition in the research arena. Shortly thereafter he joined the global regulatory affairs group, becoming VP for Government and Regulatory Affairs. Following the acquisition of Wyeth by Pfizer in 2009, he was the VP for Scientific Affairs, Pfizer Nutrition until retirement in 2011.
He is actively engaged in commenting to the FDA’s 2013 Guidance on Medical Foods, the FDA’s 2013 Final Guidance on Investigational New Drug Applications as needed for clinical nutrition research, and the FDA’s Interim Final Rule on Good Manufacturing Practices and Quality Factors for Infant Formulas He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Nevin Scrimshaw International Nutrition Foundation. Dr. Wallingford graduated from University of Washington in Chemistry, and continued graduate education in experimental nutrition at University California-Davis (MS) and human nutrition and metabolism at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD).
Adrianne Weir, Executive VP Adrianne Weir serves as the Executive Vice President of Medolac and co-founder of Mothers Milk Cooperative. She has helped grow the company from a startup to a global leader in milk banking. Following the structure of traditional producer processor cooperative model, she is responsible for management of the Mothers Milk Cooperative, elected by the board to serve as CEO. Adrianne manages related external matters: building partnerships and broader business relationships, thought leadership, as well as overseeing the company’s technical and business strategy alongside Medolac founder and CEO, Elena Medo. Under her leadership, Mothers Milk Cooperative has dramatically scaled its infrastructure while maintaining a strong culture of innovation.
Prior to founding the Mothers Milk Cooperative, Adrianne's career focus was product management, development, and manufacturing for both start-ups and major corporations. Previously, she served as part of the founding team of Prolacta Bioscience. In October 2010, Adrianne particpated in Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford event, sharing her start-up experience with Oxford MBA candidates.
Aimee Edgeworth, Social Media Aimee is responsible for the ongoing management and growth of Medolac and Mothers Milk Cooperative social media presence in alignment with business strategies and direction. Ms. Edgeworth has invaluable experience in collaboration with cross-functional teams to develop marketing and communications plans that leverage the social media space. She owns the strategy and the execution of Social Media and internet based outreach. She is responsible for content creation across owned and earned social channels. This includes blog posts, tweets, status updates, pins, photos and videos. She has developed our business presence across social media channels, including, but not limited to blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.
