# Cheri Ackerman

> Cheri Ackerman Araromi is the cofounder and CEO of Cambridge-based Concerto Biosciences and a Hertz Foundation board member. A Calvin University graduate with a Berkeley chemistry PhD, she moved from research at the Broad Institute to company building in 2020. Her public interviews describe an approach grounded in experimentation, rigorous work, attentive listening, and compassion.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Concerto Biosciences
- **Organizations:** Concerto Biosciences, Hertz Foundation, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Activate
- **Education:** BS, Biochemistry and Spanish, Calvin University (then Calvin College), PhD, Chemistry; chemical biology research, University of California, Berkeley, Postdoctoral research in biological engineering with Paul Blainey, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Audited a negotiation course, MIT Sloan School of Management
- **Known for:** Goldwater Scholar, 2010., Hertz Fellow, 2012., Harold Newman and David Galas Entrepreneurial Initiative Award, 2020.

## Career timeline

- **2008** — Completed a research internship at the Van Andel Research Institute.
- **2009** — Began research with Eric Arnoys at Calvin as a Beckman Scholar.
- **2010** — Awarded a Goldwater Scholarship.
- **2011** — Graduated from Calvin and began doctoral study at Berkeley.
- **2012** — Selected as a Hertz Fellow.
- **2017** — Received a chemistry PhD from UC Berkeley.
- **2018-2019** — Explored commercial applications of kChip with colleagues through MIT and Harvard entrepreneurship programs; four-person founding team formed by May 2019.
- **2020** — Became an Activate Fellow and cofounded Concerto Biosciences; the team went full-time and closed a pre-seed round in October.
- **2022** — Led Concerto through a $23 million Series A led by Safar Partners.
- **2023** — Named an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year New England finalist.
- **2024** — Elected to the Hertz Foundation board in March.

## Achievements

- Goldwater Scholar, 2010.
- Hertz Fellow, 2012.
- Harold Newman and David Galas Entrepreneurial Initiative Award, 2020.
- Activate Fellow, Cohort 2020.
- Cofounded Concerto Biosciences and led its $23 million Series A in 2022.
- EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2023 New England finalist.
- Elected to the Hertz Foundation board of directors in 2024.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — Scheduled to speak with David Zhang and moderator Amir Nashat at the Hertz Foundation’s October 16 Dialogue Dinner in Boston; upcoming as of October 12, 2026.
- **2026-03** — Discussed company values, goal setting, and professional relationships on Founder to Leader, in an episode dated March 10 whose transcript identifies the year as 2026.
- **2026-01** — Concerto announced a development and commercialization agreement with Sacco System on January 29.
- **2025-11** — Activate reported that Concerto had surpassed 100 million microbial droplets loaded onto kChip.

## Links

- Website: https://www.concertobio.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheriackerman
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/cheri_ackerman

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/cheri-ackerman
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-12