Seer CFO Departs With No Replacement Named as CEO Accumulates Three Titles
Contested
Company Background
Seer, Inc. is a Redwood City, California-based life sciences company that sells the Proteograph Product Suite, a proteomics platform built around proprietary nanoparticles and automation hardware. At approximately $106 million in market capitalization, it sits firmly in small-cap territory for the sector.
Financially, the company is pre-profitability and burning cash at a material rate. Revenue fell 34% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026, to $2.8 million, and fell 23% in the second quarter, to $3.1 million. Net losses ran $16.8 million and $16.9 million in those two quarters, respectively. Cash, cash equivalents, and investments stood at approximately $209.5 million as of June 30, 2026, down from $240.6 million at year-end 2025. Management has maintained full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $16 million to $18 million throughout the year.
Seer has been in the middle of a contested ownership situation for months. Activist investor Bradley Radoff escalated to a Schedule 13D in February 2026 and has submitted a series of escalating acquisition bids alongside partner Michael Torok. CEO and Chair Omid Farokhzad submitted his own unsolicited go-private proposal in July, creating a dual-bidder dynamic that the company's Special Committee — consisting of independent directors Meeta Gulyani and Nicolas Roelofs — is tasked with evaluating. Shareholders also voted at the July 28, 2026 annual meeting against ratifying the board's Tax Benefit Preservation Plan, which Radoff had publicly criticized as an entrenchment device.
What Was Disclosed
David Horn resigned as the Company's President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer on September 14, 2026, to pursue other interests, with the departure effective October 1, 2026. The filing states the resignation is not the result of any disagreement with the Company related to its operations. As a separation arrangement, Seer offered to extend the post-termination exercise period on all of Horn's vested and exercisable stock options to one year following his last day of service, conditional on his executing and not revoking a separation and release agreement with the Company.
The board responded to the vacancy by splitting Horn's three roles in two directions. On September 17, 2026, it appointed Farokhzad — already the Company's Chair and Chief Executive Officer — to the additional office of President, effective October 1. The board simultaneously appointed Charles Endweiss, currently Vice President of Financial Planning & Analysis, to the role of Treasurer, with Endweiss also designated as the Company's principal financial officer and principal accounting officer for SEC reporting purposes. No Chief Financial Officer was named. Endweiss, age 49, has served in FP&A at Seer since January 2021 and previously held business operations and finance roles at Carbon, a 3D printing company, and various technology companies. Both Farokhzad and Endweiss are continuing under their existing compensation arrangements.
Why It Matters
The CFO seat is now formally vacant. Endweiss holds the Treasurer title and the SEC-mandated principal financial officer designation, but the company has not named anyone CFO — a meaningful structural gap for a company that is managing a contested M&A process, evaluating multiple unsolicited acquisition bids, and continuing to burn roughly $16-17 million per quarter. The Special Committee's work inherently depends on credible, independent financial analysis; the departure of the CFO while that process is live raises a practical question about financial leadership continuity that the filing does not address.
Farokhzad's acquisition of the President title is directly documented as occurring in connection with Horn's resignation. He now holds the Chair, CEO, and President roles simultaneously. This concentration follows the Special Committee's unanimous rejection on July 20, 2026 of Farokhzad's original go-private bid — $2.45 per share in cash plus two contingent value rights — on the grounds that it undervalued the company. Farokhzad submitted a revised proposal on July 29, which is still under Special Committee review alongside a competing $2.55-per-share bid from the Radoff-JEC Group received July 28. The CEO has stated in his proposal letters that he is recused from all board-level deliberations on the transaction.
The shareholder vote at the July 28 annual meeting adds further context. Stockholders declined to ratify the Tax Benefit Preservation Plan — the so-called NOL pill — that Radoff had condemned as a mechanism to entrench the board and deter proxy challenges. With that pill now effectively repudiated by investors, the governance environment heading into the resolution of competing bids is notably unsettled. A counterweight: Seer holds approximately $209.5 million in cash and investments against minimal debt, meaning the company is not in financial distress; the question is governance and strategic direction, not solvency.