Senior Leadership Team

Paul Josephs brings more than 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience to Lifecore, including more than 25 years of CDMO experience. From 2021 until April 2024, Mr. Josephs served as President & Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors at Woodstock Sterile Solutions, a specialized, full-service CDMO. Prior to joining Woodstock, Mr. Josephs served as Head of CDMO – Global Business Development at Viatris (formerly known as Mylan) since 2016 when it acquired DPT Laboratories. Mr. Josephs’ work with DPT Laboratories began in 1997, where he held numerous progressive roles in sales and business development, culminating with a position of Senior Vice President, Sales, Marketing & Corporate Development. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario in Canada.

Ryan Lake brings more than 20 years of senior financial and strategic life sciences leadership to Lifecore and is accomplished in leading and advising corporations through mergers; acquisitions; spin-offs; recapitalizations; integrations; real estate; sale-leaseback; equity; debt; and stock market transactions.  Mr. Lake has executive responsibility for all finance and accounting functions, SEC reporting, legal, investor relations, and information technology and security. 

Prior to joining Lifecore in September 2024, Mr. Lake served as the CFO of Societal CDMO, Inc. (formerly Recro Pharma, Inc.), a global, publicly traded pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization, from January 2018 until its sale and integration with CoreRx, Inc. in May 2024. Mr. Lake also concurrently served as the Chief Financial Officer of Baudax Bio, Inc., a publicly traded specialty pharmaceutical company, taking the company public through a spin-out from Recro Pharma, Inc. from November 2019 to March 2021. 

Previously, Mr. Lake served as Societal’s Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer from June 2017 to January 2018.  Prior to joining Societal, Mr. Lake served as CFO and Vice President of Finance of Aspire Bariatrics, Inc., a privately-held, commercial-stage, medical device company from July 2015 to June 2017. From 2012 to 2015, Mr. Lake held executive management and senior finance positions, including Director of the Natural Materials Division, Controller and Senior Director of Finance, at DSM Biomedical (successor to Kensey Nash Corporation after its acquisition in 2012), a division of Royal DSM (listed on Euronext Amsterdam), a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials. From 2002 to 2012, Mr. Lake held various senior financial positions of increasing responsibility, most notably Interim Chief Financial Officer and Senior Director of Finance, with Kensey Nash Corporation, a Nasdaq- listed global medical device company. Earlier in his career, Mr. Lake worked at Deloitte & Touche, LLP. Mr. Lake has a B.S. degree in Accounting from West Chester University of Pennsylvania and is a certified public accountant and chartered global management accountant.
 

Tom Salus brings more than 30 years of legal and management experience to Lifecore, gained from tenures with major law firms and multi-billion-dollar corporations. He possesses a proven track record across a range of legal and operational areas including corporate governance, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting and compliance, complex domestic and international business transactions, financings, and corporate compliance.  Before joining Lifecore in April 2025, Mr. Salus spent 11 years with Viatris Inc., a multi-billion-dollar, Nasdaq-listed international pharmaceutical company, most recently serving as General Counsel - Corporate, Securities & Transactions and Assistant Secretary. Prior to that, he held key leadership positions with VWR International (now part of Avantor, Inc.), a multi-billion-dollar international distributor of laboratory equipment, chemicals and supplies for the life science industry. Prior to joining industry, Mr. Salus was an attorney at several major law firms, including Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP.

At Lifecore, Mr. Salus oversees all legal activities and human resources, while playing a key role in strategy development and corporate development activities focused on strategic alliances and partnerships.

With over 30 years of industry experience in quality, manufacturing, and development, Jackie has guided our quality assurance for over a decade.

After serving as Director of Quality from July 2010 to June 2014, Jackie went on to become our Senior Director of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs from June 2014 to June 2018. In 2018, she was appointed as our Vice President and General Manager. Prior to her current position, Jackie served as General Manager & Executive Vice President. 

Thomas Guldager brings 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience to Lifecore, having managed, developed, and enhanced teams and organizations to drive performance. He most recently served as Senior Director, Manufacturing and Site Leader for Xellia Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company (a wholly owned subsidiary of Novo Holdings A/S).  

During his more than 12 years with the company, he also held the positions of director of business excellence and director of operational excellence. His career has also included a tenure as chief operating officer of Vertanical, a Germany-based biopharmaceutical company, supply chain controller for ReckittBenckiser, a British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company, and a finance officer for GlaxoSmithKline. Mr. Guldager earned an MBA from Henley Business School in the U.K. an undergraduate degree and in Economics  from Copenhagen Business School. 
 

Mark DaFonseca serves as Chief Commercial Officer at Lifecore, bringing 25+ years of industry experience and leadership in the life science services sector. Prior to Lifecore, Mark spent several decades in commercial leadership at CoreRx, AmbioPharm and CordenPharma, consistently delivering strong market expansion, revenue growth, and client engagement results.  

Mr. DaFonseca began his career as an analytical chemist at AAI Development Services (now Alcami), and progressed from the lab to various commercial support, front-line sales, and sales leadership positions across a variety of service providers. His deep experience spans the drug development continuum from API to Drug Product and across a multitude of modalities. Mark holds MBA and Bachelor of Science (Biology) degrees from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.