Chenyqua Shepard

Chenyqua Baldwin Shepard is a Certified Public Accountant (licensed since 1991) with more than 30 years of accounting and finance experience spanning pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, real estate, construction, and retail/manufacturing, including 15+ years in leadership roles within the life sciences industry. She began her career at Deloitte & Touche in 1989. She earned both a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Accountancy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Her operating-executive track record in life sciences includes serving as Director of Accounting and Finance at Biovail Pharmaceuticals (which later merged with Valeant Pharmaceuticals), as Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer at Cornerstone Therapeutics (acquired by Chiesi USA), and as Chief Financial Officer of Praelia Pharmaceuticals. Across these roles she has been responsible for technical accounting, financial and SEC reporting, financial planning and analysis, internal controls, information technology, and human resources.

Prior to her current role, she was a Partner at Rankin McKenzie, LLC — a firm that places experienced, "fully engaged" fractional CFOs and Controllers with growth companies on an in-person, hybrid, or remote basis. There she served several emerging companies as their part-time or interim Chief Financial Officer or Controller. She is currently the Chief Operating Officer at GeneCentric Therapeutics, a Research Triangle–based RNA-based genomic diagnostics company.

• Works hands-on with start-ups and emerging companies, typically at the point where they need senior finance leadership but not yet a full-time CFO — a fractional/interim CFO or Controller model rather than a passive capital allocator.
• Deep concentration in life sciences, pharmaceuticals, and diagnostics, the sectors where she has spent 15+ years and multiple executive tenures.
• Value-add centers on financial operations and readiness: technical accounting, SEC/financial reporting, FP&A, internal controls, and building the finance infrastructure that supports fundraising and growth.
• No publicly stated personal investment thesis or check-size criteria were found; her engagement with early-stage companies is via operational finance leadership through Rankin McKenzie.