The Bowdoin Group Partners with Vergent Bioscience to Appoint New CEO
Placements
Posted by Bowdoin on July 7, 2026
The Bowdoin Group is proud to announce the placement of Adam Gridley as President and Chief Executive Officer of Vergent Bioscience, a clinical-stage biotech company advancing molecularly targeted intraoperative imaging for cancer surgery.
Vergent is working to change what surgeons can see in the operating room. Its lead product candidate, abenacianine for injection, is designed to illuminate cancer in real time during surgery, helping surgeons make more confident decisions with the goal of improving tumor removal and surgical outcomes.
At this stage of growth, leadership matters. Vergent is advancing through a critical clinical and commercial inflection point, with momentum behind its lung cancer program and broader potential across solid tumor types. The company needed a leader who could help translate scientific progress into organizational scale, regulatory execution, commercial readiness, and long-term patient impact.
Adam brings more than 30 years of experience across biotech, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals, with a track record leading clinical-stage and commercial organizations through growth, transactions, regulatory milestones, product launches, financings, and IPOs. His experience aligns closely with Vergent’s next chapter: building the company, advancing the platform, and moving a transformative technology closer to the surgeons and patients who need it.
“The Vergent opportunity was compelling in many ways,” said Adam Gridley, President and CEO of Vergent Bioscience. “Best-in-class science and clinical data, coupled with flexible infusion and dosing regimes that provide ease-of-use and health economics advantages for our physicians and payers. For our patients, this technology may identify tumors that otherwise may have been missed, thereby avoiding second surgeries potentially across all solid tumors. And with strong strategic interest and support, Vergent may be at the convergence of innovation and AI within robotics, pharma and medtech.”
For The Bowdoin Group, this placement reflects our ability to help innovative life science companies de-risk critical leadership decisions at pivotal inflection points. By understanding Vergent’s complex business need, stage of growth, and leadership needs, our team partnered closely to identify and secure a CEO with the experience, judgment, and operating range required to lead the company into its next phase of growth.
The search was led by Dave Melville, Josh Gottlieb, Matt Wood, Skip Kelly and Bruno Kaboyi.
Congratulations to Adam and the Vergent Bioscience team. We are proud to support a company working to advance innovation in cancer surgery and improve the path from breakthrough science to patient impact. Because the right hire changes everything: for the company, the mission, and the patients waiting.