Meet the Team

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 Vic Suarez is a Co-Founder and the Principal Growth Partner of Blu Zone Bio. He honorably retired as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Service and Army Acquisition Corps after 27+ years on active duty, including two combat tours as a medical company and battalion-level commander. 

Vic's leadership skills and achievements are truly inspiring. As a former Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program Joint Product Manager, he played a pivotal role in the rapid development and eventual delivery of both the Ebola and Mpox vaccines. His journey continued as a U.S. Army War College resident fellow at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, where he studied and researched successful corporate health and wellbeing programs to improve the health readiness of the force. He was then selected to become the Chief of Staff for the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, DOD’s largest biomedical research and development lab specializing in infectious diseases and neuroscience research. 

In June 2020, he was hand-selected by General Gus Perna to be a lead Vaccine Program Manager at Operation Warp Speed. He led a world-class team and managed a $4.5B budget and schedule to rapidly develop and deliver 200M doses to the USA by May 2021 with Moderna, interagency, and several industry partners. One of his last projects while on active duty was launching the USA’s most extensive third-party independent testing via a cooperative research & development agreement (CRADA) for the quality of medicines on the DOD formulary in response to the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act, Section 860 and in coordination with the Joint Staff Surgeon and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. 

Vic is a globally and nationally sought-after keynote and panel speaker at life science, supply chain, and national security conferences and is often asked to moderate high-level panel discussions from highly technical life science areas to global trade and security matters. He has been featured in media, such as Bloomberg News, National Public Radio, Yahoo! News, American Thought Leaders, Military Times, and multiple podcasts. Vic has testified as an expert witness in the U.S. Senate and has advised many C-Suite leaders, high-level policymakers, and Congressional and White House staff on critical healthcare supply chain, biosecurity, and pharmaceutical policy matters. He is also a visiting Senior Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks, a DC-based, non-partisan national security-focused think tank. Vic is a board advisor for several life science, technology commercialization, and healthcare supply chain organizations and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics Department at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland. 

More details on his bio can be found here: linkedin.com/in/vicsuarez

Kate is a Blu Zone Bio Co-Founder, Chief of Administration, and Executive Coordinator. She serves part-time (U.S. Army Reserves-USAR) as a U.S. Army Medical Service Corps Colonel and faculty instructor at the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, PA. 

Having a 29+ year career both in and out of the military, Kate began active duty service as a health services personnel officer and platoon leader in the storied 14th Field Hospital, Fort Benning, GA. She played a key role in reactivating this Role 3 deployable hospital in October 1996 after this unit saw combat in WWII and Korea. Upon departing Georgia, she served as the Chief of Personnel, S-1, at the Fort George Meade Medical Activity in Maryland, followed by a 3+ year overseas tour with the First Infantry Division, the Big Red One, in Kitzingen, Germany.

Upon coming back to the US in 2005, Kate served as the Company Commander at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). She later worked as the Deputy Director for the Plans, Programs, Analysis and Evaluation (PPAE) Directorate at the United States Army Medical Research & Materiel Command (USAMRMC).  After this assignment, Kate decided to come off of active duty and serve in several critical roles as a reservist at the Office of the Army Surgeon General (OTSG), the US Medical Research & Development Command, and the Army War College's Think Tank, the Strategic Studies Institute.

One of Kate's most notable achievements is her leadership as the 338th Medical Brigade Commander during the first mobilization within the USAR of medical staff into the Javitz Center (NYC) in less than ten days in the early response to the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020). This feat, combined with her educational background in analytical chemistry, military strategic studies, human resource/talent management, and executive-level board governance and organization, showcases her ability to handle high-pressure situations and deliver results. She has managed several key industry contracts supporting the DOD with Allied Technologies and Consulting, LLC, a professional services company focusing on program management, technical & scientific services, information technology, and Operations, Logistics, & Life Cycle Management.

In her spare time, she is a former USA Swimming and current high school swimming and diving official, a professional endurance sports and drone race announcer, and a certified alpine ski instructor with Vail Resorts and the Leesburg, VA-based Inside Ski Training Center. This dedication to her personal pursuits mirrors her commitment to her professional career, showcasing her multi-faceted skills and passion for continuous learning and growth.