LabCentral Appoints Margaret O'Toole to CEO

CEO and Co-founder, Johannes Fruehauf, to Become Executive Chairman of
LabCentral's Board of Directors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- LabCentral, the premier Massachusetts-based network of coworking labs designed to accelerate high-potential biotech startups, today announced that its board of directors has appointed Margaret (Maggie) O'Toole, LabCentral's EVP and COO, as CEO effective May 1, 2025. She succeeds Johannes Fruehauf, Co-founder and CEO, who will become Executive Chairman of the board.

"The board and I are thrilled to elevate Maggie to this role and have a deep appreciation of her demonstrated ability to create spaces, community and programming to support early-stage life sciences companies as they grow," said Johannes Fruehauf, MD, PhD. "Over the last decade, Maggie helped build much of the LabCentral that we enjoy today, bringing her vision and expertise to shape solutions that have launched countless early-stage life sciences entrepreneurs. I have all the confidence in her ability to lead LabCentral into its next chapter of growth."  

Ms. O'Toole is a seasoned executive with more than 25 years of experience working with start-up founders and has been with LabCentral since becoming its first employee in 2013. As LabCentral's Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, Maggie is responsible for LabCentral's strategic operations. This includes space design across the six LabCentral locations, facility operations, lab operations, community programming and more to ensure that residents and their teams are fully supported in their entrepreneurial and scientific journeys.

Under her leadership, LabCentral grew from a single location to a six-site network of locations supporting early- and later-stage biotech entrepreneurs. Spanning 243,000 square feet, the network comprises LabCentral's three Main Street locations, the Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab, the Blavatnik Harvard Life Lab Longwood, and the Bayer Co.Lab, which LabCentral manages. In addition to LabCentral, Maggie is also a contributing architect and active steward of the Kendall Square community and the broader Massachusetts life sciences ecosystem.

"I'm honored to serve as the next CEO and appreciate the board's confidence as we continue the imperative work that LabCentral does in the life sciences ecosystem," said O'Toole. "Since first opening our doors, LabCentral resident companies have raised over $20 billion and created more than 7,000 jobs in the Massachusetts ecosystem, and while we celebrate this success, we also look ahead with excitement and determination as we evolve our offerings to meet the needs of each generation of entrepreneurs."

LabCentral recently published its 2024 Impact Report and announced a new AI BioHub in partnership with C10 Labs, thanks to a grant from MassTech.

Additionally, Ms. O'Toole is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the Kendall Square Association, an active volunteer and advocate for Riverside Community Care, an organization supporting behavioral healthcare and human services for families in need, and a former Council Member on Innovation Ecosystems for the World Economic Forum.

Maggie holds a bachelor's degree from Carnegie Mellon University. 

About LabCentral 

A private, non-profit institution, LabCentral is a launchpad for high-potential life-sciences and biotech start-ups with 243,000 square feet of space across Kendall Square in Cambridge, Mass., and the Harvard University campus. Founded in 2013, LabCentral offers a full complement of programming and networking to life sciences entrepreneurs in addition to fully permitted laboratory and office space for early-stage and growing life sciences companies. In its first eleven years, LabCentral residents raised more than $20 billion in funding and created more than 7,000 jobs.  More information is available at www.labcentral.org.

SOURCE LabCentral