New CBA Director and Officer Chosen

Issued:  February 13, 2017

Elaine Hsieh of Sino Cell Technologies in Taipei, Taiwan, has been appointed to the CBA Board of Directors.  David Blackett of PerkinElmer ViaCord in Waltham, Mass., USA, has been elected treasurer.

The appointment and election were at the CBA Board of Directors meeting in January. 

Ms. Hsieh is chair and chief executive officer of Sino Cell Technologies, a hybrid public and family cord blood bank that was established in 2001. Her appointment to the CBA Board fills a vacancy created by the departure of Richard Lockie of Toronto, Canada, who recently left the cord blood community.  

Mr. Blackett is vice president of marketing and strategy for PerkinElmer ViaCord, one of the largest international family banks. He is a founding director of the Cord Blood Association. 

CBA bylaws require that the 17-member board have a “tripartite” membership.  Five seats are designated for representatives of public banks, five reserved for private or family banks, and seven are for the banking community at large. The at-large directors may be research investigators, transplant clinicians, patients, parents, obstetricians, pediatricians, nurses, midwives, vendors, health policy experts or regulatory officials.