Upstate Medical University

CNYBAC Client Rich Uhlig, Founder and CEO, Quadrant Biosciences, On Leadership: Set The Goal, Empower and Reward Your Team, Improve Lives

After graduating from Cornell University in 1988, Rich Uhlig’s career spanned a few decades on Wall Street with Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley. He built and ran an investment banking division and bond-trading business for Deutsche Bank and proprietary trading businesses for Merrill and Morgan, and also worked for the Fed, taught a bit at Cornell, and was happily settled in Central New York.

Then, one of his sons had a significant concussion injury playing hockey. The diagnosis and treatment struck Uhlig as little more than guesswork. He realized that children might die because of second-impact syndrome or develop significant cognitive impairment for the rest of their lives from multiple concussions.

So, Uhlig pivoted from Wall Street finance and put his undergraduate biology education to work. He spent about six months studying decades of clinical research and finding threads that convinced him there was a path to better diagnosis of brain injuries.

In 2015, he founded Motion Intelligence. He put in his life savings and worked his Wall Street contacts for other investors. His aim then and now is to “improve the lives of children and their families.”

Before long, the company was renamed Quadrant Biosciences, and by 2019 Quadrant had been recognized as New York Technology Business of the Year. His team of scientists was using saliva to develop breakthrough tests for early detection of brain conditions like concussions, autism, and Parkinson’s disease.