Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United States based President operating in the Therapeutics space. If you think a President is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Ron Alfa
Senior Vice President, Translational Discovery of Recursion Pharmaceuticals
Ron Alfa is Vice President, Discovery and Product at Recursion Pharmaceuticals where he manages scientific product development and external alliances across Recursion’s AI-enabled discovery platform. Ron Alfa’s scientific contributions prior to Recursion span Neurosciences, Metabolism, and Genetics.
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About Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Recursion Pharmaceuticals is a digital biology company, developing a drug discovery platform and pipeline with machine learning.
Ros Deegan
President and Chief Business Officer of Bicycle Therapeutics
Ros Deegan, MBA, is president and chief business officer of Bicycle Therapeutics Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Bicycle Therapeutics. Prior to joining Bicycle, Ros most recently served on the senior leadership team at Trevena, Inc. as senior vice president, business development and operations, and previously held the role of head of finance and operations. While at Trevena, she was responsible for start-up operations, negotiating a significant option and license agreement with Forest Laboratories, Inc., and leading finance and human resources through to the company’s first S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. During her tenure, the company moved three programmes into the clinic, and raised over $200 million in private and public financings. Prior to joining Trevena, Ros served as director of business development at GSK in the U.S., leading transactions for the virtual immuno-inflammation group. Prior to that, she served as the director of operations for the Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD) and as marketing manager for GSK’s U.K. launch of Bonviva for post-menopausal osteoporosis and in business development. Ros holds a first-class degree from Cambridge University and received her MBA with distinction from INSEAD.
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About Bicycle Therapeutics, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), OMass Technologies: Bicycle Therapeutics is developing a technology for the creation of new generation biotherapeutics.
Paul Chang
President, CEO/CSO and Lead Founder of ARase Therapeutics
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About ARase Therapeutics: Arase Therapeutics is a science-focused oncology company developing therapies that modulate cancer-relevant cell signaling pathways.
Earl May
Vice President of Lead Discovery of Civetta Therapeutics
Earl May is the Vice President of Lead Discovery at Civetta Therapeutics. He is a former Senior Director Biophysics at Warp Drive Bio, Inc. Mr. May graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore County with a BA in Biochemistry and received an MPhil and Ph.D.in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University.
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About Civetta Therapeutics: Civetta Therapeutics is a cancer therapeutics company to advance new medicines through small molecule targeting of beta-propeller domains.
Andrew Cook
Vice President and Head of Chemistry of Civetta Therapeutics
Andrew Cook is the Vice President and Head of Chemistry at Civetta Therapeutics. He was an Associate Director and Director of Medicinal Chemistry at H3 Biomedicine. Mr. Cook graduated from Imperial College London with a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry and earned a BS in Chemistry at the University of Nottingham.
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About Civetta Therapeutics: Civetta Therapeutics is a cancer therapeutics company to advance new medicines through small molecule targeting of beta-propeller domains.
Rachel E. Haurwitz
Co-founder, President & CEO of Caribou Biosciences
Rachel is a co-founder of Caribou Biosciences and has been President and CEO since its inception. She has a research background in CRISPR-Cas biology, and is also a co-founder of Intellia Therapeutics. Rachel is an inventor on several patents and patent applications covering multiple CRISPR-derived technologies, and she has co-authored scientific papers in high impact journals characterizing CRISPR-Cas systems. In 2014, she was named by Forbes Magazine to the “30 Under 30” list in Science and Healthcare, and in 2016, Fortune Magazine named her to the “40 Under 40” list of the most influential young people in business. Rachel earned an A.B. in Biological Sciences from Harvard College, and received a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Caribou Biosciences: Caribou Biosciences is a biotechnology company that develops CRISPR technologies and allogenic cell therapies for oncology.
Chris Fuller
Vice President of Informatics of Caribou Biosciences
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About Caribou Biosciences: Caribou Biosciences is a biotechnology company that develops CRISPR technologies and allogenic cell therapies for oncology.
Simba Gill
President & CEO of Evelo Biosciences
Simba Gill, PhD is an entrepreneur, investor and CEO who believes passionately that science and globalization will dramatically improve life in the 21st century. Dr. Gill is currently the CEO of Evelo, Sr. Partner at Flagship Ventures, and Executive Chair of Blackfynn. Dr. Gill founded or had lead roles in moksha8, Epirus, Maxygen, Verdia, Avidia, Codexis, Systemix and Valentis, four of these companies have been taken public and three were acquired through strategic trade sales. Exit valuations were between $400M – $6B. Dr. Gill has also led, built and launched several commercial businesses/products generating annual revenues of between $150M-$2B. Dr. Gill has founded and/or had lead roles in pioneering companies in the fields of antibodies, stem cells, directed molecular evolution, immunodiagnostics and the cancer microbiome. He has also been an investor, advisor, founder and CEO of several emerging market life science companies. Dr. Gill was a Partner at TPG, focused on investments in Life Sciences and Emerging Markets. Early in his career, Dr. Gill was co-head of Worldwide Marketing for Recormon. He also led corporate and market development and strategy from inception to commercialization of the Elecsys system, which became one of the world’s most widely used immunodiagnostic platforms. Dr. Gill served on the Board of Directors of the Tuberculosis Alliance, The Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the International Advisory Board of INSEAD. Dr. Gill was also the founder of Dispatches, an in-depth written and photojournalism periodical focused on key global issues. Dr. Gill has an MBA from INSEAD and carried out his PhD with focus on developing humanized antibodies to treat cancer. This work was done at King’s College, London in collaboration with the LMB at Cambridge and Celltech.
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About Epiva, Evelo Biosciences, moksha8 Pharmaceuticals, TPG Growth: Evelo Biosciences is dedicated to improving the lives of patients globally through the development of monoclonal microbials.
Jonathan Montagu
President & Chief Executive Officer of HotSpot Therapeutics
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About Atlas Venture, HotSpot Therapeutics: HotSpot Therapeutics is a developer of a therapy platform designed to discover medicines and provide proper treatment.
Jason Coloma
President, Chief Mazer; Director of Maze Therapeutics
Dr. Jason Coloma is the CEO of Maze Therapeutics. Prior to his appointment to CEO, he was Maze’s interim chief operating officer and a venture partner at Third Rock Ventures, where he was instrumental in the founding and launch of the company. As a venture partner at Third Rock, Jason focused on new company creation, and held interim chief business officer roles at portfolio companies insitro and Celsius Therapeutics. Prior to Third Rock, Jason was senior vice president and chief business officer at Corvus Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he held a number of roles at Roche, including vice president & global therapeutic area head of oncology and cancer immunotherapy partnering. Before joining Roche, Jason was a consultant in the life sciences practice at L.E.K. Consulting. He also worked in finance at Amgen and in research at the University of California, San Francisco and Cytokinetics. Jason holds a Ph.D. and M.P.H. at the University of California, Berkeley, an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a B.S. in biology from the University of San Francisco.
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About Maze Therapeutics: Maze Therapeutics is an operator of a biotechnology firm used to focus on translating genetic insights into new medicines.
Fred Aslan
President & CEO of Artiva Biotherapeutics
Born and raised in Brazil, Fred Aslan is the founder of Adavium Medical (previously known as ADVANCE Medical). He is also affiliated with Venrock, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm he joined in 2006. While a full-time investor at Venrock prior to founding Adavium, Fred Aslan was a co-founder and board member of Receptos Pharmaceuticals, a NASDAQ-listed biotech company, which was subsequently acquired by Celgene for more than $8 billion. He also led Venrock’s investment in Zeltiq, a NASDAQ-listed medical device company that was valued at more than $1 billion. Prior to Venrock, he was Director of Business Development and led Investor Relations at CuraGen, a NASDAQ-listed oncology-focused biotech company, and was a strategy consultant with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He was named the “2014 Business Professional of the Year” by the Brazilian government, recognizing the achievements of Brazilian professionals living outside of Brazil. He is also a board member of Femasys, a US-based women’s health medical device company, and BayBrazil, a Silicon Valley-based not-for-profit organization promoting ties between Silicon Valley and Brazil. Fred Aslan received a B.S. in Biology from Duke University, an M.D. from Yale and an M.B.A. from Harvard.
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About Adavium, Artiva Biotherapeutics: Artiva Biotherapeutics is a biotech company focused on developing and commercializing allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell therapies.
Amit Vohra
Co-Founder, President & CEO of Promaxo
Promaxo is led by Dr. Amit Vohra who is a serial entrepreneur, business strategist and advisor to several healthcare and technology startups. Amit is a Partner in Advanced Biopharma Consulting, a management consultancy offering strategic business development and commercialization services in the life sciences space. He also serves as an advisor to Cricking, MedDx and HealthyX and a strategy consultant to Precision Biopsy and Weinberg Medical Physics. Prior to Promaxo, Amit was the CEO/President of Convergent Life Sciences wherein he took a MRI-US fusion product, for targeted laser ablation of soft tissue cancer, through FDA clearance within 18 months of Company formation. Previously, as VP of Strategy and Operations at Eigen, he led the development and successful commercialization of two class II medical devices in the prostate biopsy space. In 2009, Amit co-founded Navya Biomedical Technologies, a biotechnology company using proprietary polyhydroxy fullerenes (PHF) for non-invasive imaging and destruction of solid tumors. Amit has a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from University of Florida, and an Executive MBA (Fuqua Scholar) from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
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About 8chili, Neuro42, Promaxo, TriOcula Technologies: Promaxo is commercializing customer-centric MRI systems and robotic guidance tools for live diagnosis and treatment in a physician’s office.
Agatha Martindale
Vice President and Global Finance of Rakuten Medical
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About BUILTBYGIRLS, Rakuten Medical, Rakuten Medical: Rakuten Medical is a biotechnology company that develops therapies to treat cancer.
Harry Gruber
CEO, Co-Founder & President of Tocagen
Harry E. Gruber, M.D., one of the pioneers in gene therapy, co-founded Tocagen and led the company as chief executive officer before assuming the role of president, research and development in November 2016 and president, science and innovation in October 2017. He has been a member of the board of directors since August 2007. Dr. Gruber served as our chief executive officer from August 2007 to November 2016 and served as chairman of our board of directors from August 2007 to October 2014. Dr. Gruber is a co-founder of Tocagen and has been the co-founder and/or co-inventor of key technology for the following publicly held companies: Viagene Inc., a gene therapy company acquired by Novartis Pharmaceuticals; Gensia Inc., a biopharmaceutical company acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, Ltd.; INTERVU Inc., a technology company acquired by Akamai Technologies, Inc.; Kintera, Inc., a technology company acquired by Blackbaud. He is the author of more than 100 original scientific articles and an inventor on more than 100 issued and pending patents. Dr. Gruber holds a medical degree and bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and trained in Internal Medicine, Biochemical Genetics and Rheumatology/Immunology at the University of California, San Diego, where he subsequently joined the medical school faculty until founding Gensia Inc.
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About Tocagen: Tocagen is a biopharmaceutical company developing gene therapy products for the treatment of cancer.
Hyam Levitsky
Executive Vice President Research, Chief Scientific Officer of Juno Therapeutics
Hyam (“Hy”) Levitsky is our Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer and joined Juno in May 2015. Prior to joining Juno, Hyam Levitsky held the position of Head of Cancer Immunology Experimental Medicine at Roche Pharma Research and Development in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to that, Levitsky served as a Professor of Oncology, Medicine and Urology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and was also an active staff member in Oncology and Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Hyam Levitsky received a B.S. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science and an M.D. from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He trained in Medical Oncology as a Senior Clinical Fellow at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, rising to full Professor in 2001, and taught in the School of Medicine until 2011. His areas of expertise include Oncology, Immunology, Hematologic Malignances / Bone Marrow Transplantation (serving as Scientific Director of the George Santos Bone Marrow Transplant Program), Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and Pathobiology. Hyam Levitsky is also a founding Executive Committee member of the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium of the Cancer Research Institute. He was a Stohlman Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America (LLS) and a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). He was a founding member of MIATA (Minimal Information About T cell Assays), advises the FDA on cancer immunotherapy issues and serves on the External Scientific Advisory Board of the Pasteur Institute’s Center for Human Immunology, has consulted on a number of industry scientific advisory boards and contributes and provides editorial support to several prestigious cancer, immunology, scientific and medical publications. Hyam Levitsky holds several patents.
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About Century Therapeutics, Juno Therapeutics: Juno Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company, develops immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.
Corey McCann
President and Chief Executive Officer of Pear Therapeutics
Corey M McCann M.D., Ph.D. is the President and CEO of Pear Therapeutics, a company developing prescription digital therapeutics and drug/software combinations for treatment of severe medical conditions. Previously, he was an investor with MPM Capital, where he evaluated new healthcare investment opportunities, managed relationships with strategic partners, and oversaw strategy and execution at portfolio companies. Prior to MPM, he was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company, where he advised pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies on the acquisition, development, and commercialization of life science technologies. He led McKinsey’s central nervous system (CNS) expertise group, advising clients across the healthcare value chain. Corey has previous investment experience with RiverVest Venture Partners, where he performed diligence on early stage investments, and at NeuroInsights, where he evaluated brain related technologies. Corey is also a co-founder, advisor, or Board Director at AgNovos Healthcare, Alcyone Lifesciences, Dragonfly Sciences, Edumedics, Resolute Bio, Selexys Pharmaceuticals, and Zillion Health. Dr. McCann trained as a physician-scientist via the Medical Scientist Training Program. For his PhD, he studied the molecular biology of synapses at Harvard University and at Washington University in St Louis. He was also a post-doctoral researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital where he developed imaging techniques for the visualization of the brain. Dr. McCann received his M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. He graduated summa cum laude from The Pennsylvania State University where he was an Evan Pugh Scholar, receiving a B.S. in Biology with minors in neuroscience, biochemistry, and molecular biology.
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About Pear Therapeutics: Pear Therapeutics is a software-based digital therapeutics platform designed to treat disease and enhance the efficacy of pharmaceuticals.
Chris Lento
Vice President of Commercialization of Pear Therapeutics
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About Pear Therapeutics: Pear Therapeutics is a software-based digital therapeutics platform designed to treat disease and enhance the efficacy of pharmaceuticals.
Nello Mainolfi
Founder, President & CEO of Kymera Therapeutics
Nello Mainolfi is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Kymera Therapeutics.
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About Kymera Therapeutics: Kymera Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that specializes in the field of targeted protein degradation.
Greg Verdine
Co-Founder, President & CEO, CSO of LifeMine Therapeutics
Greg Verdine is the Founder of Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute & he attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986.
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About FogPharma, Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, LifeMine Therapeutics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wave Life Sciences: Discovering powerful new drugs from eukaryotic microbes by combining Genomics with AI and Synthetic Biology.
Gerald McMahon
President & CEO of Harpoon Therapeutics
Dr. McMahon joined Harpoon in December 2016 bringing more than 25 years of biotechnology leadership, scientific innovation and creative deal-making experience. Dr. McMahon was previously president and CEO of Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, an oncology biologics company acquired by Celldex in 2016, and senior vice president of R&D oncology at MedImmune, the biologics arm of AstraZeneca. He also served as a venture partner at Bay City Capital and in executive leadership roles at Poniard Pharmaceuticals and SUGEN (ultimately acquired by Pfizer), where he was a key player in the development of innovative oncology drugs Sutent® and Palladia®. Dr. McMahon holds an academic appointment at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center at Yale University, and held previous appointments at Tufts University School of Medicine, department of hematology & oncology at the New England Medical Center, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his BS in biology and PhD in biochemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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About Harpoon Therapeutics: Harpoon Therapeutics is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing novel T cell engagers (TriTACs) for the treatment of cancer.
Mark McKenna
Founder, President and CEO of Prometheus Biosciences
Mark McKenna currently works as President and Chief Executive Officer at Prometheus Biosciences. He previously worked at Bausch + Lomb as Senior Vice President and General Manager.
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About Prometheus Biosciences: Prometheus Biosciences develops and commercializes pharmaceutical and diagnostic products to help physicians individualize patient care.
Alexandria Forbes
President & CEO of MeiraGTx
Dr. Alexandria Forbes has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors since March 2015. Prior to joining MeiraGTx, Dr. Forbes served as Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at Kadmon Holdings, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from September 2013 to April 2015 and currently serves as a member of its board of directors. Prior to Kadmon Holdings, Inc., Dr. Forbes spent eleven years as a healthcare investor at Sivik Global Healthcare, a healthcare hedge fund, from September 2000 to November 2008, and at Meadowvale Asset Management, a healthcare hedge fund, from January 2010 to June 2012. Before entering the hedge fund industry, Dr. Forbes was a Human Frontiers/Howard Hughes postdoctoral fellow at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center from March 1997 to September 2000. Prior to this, Dr. Forbes was a research fellow at Duke University, and also at the Carnegie Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Forbes received an M.A. in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Oxford University.
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About MeiraGTx: Meira Gene Therapy is a clinical-stage company developing novel treatments for inherited and acquired genetic disorders.
Michael T. Heffernan
President , CEO & Chairman of the Board of Collegium Pharmaceutical
Michael Heffernan has 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and related healthcare industries. He is currently Co-Founder, President, CEO of Collegium Pharmaceutical. Collegium is specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of pharmaceutical products for the treatment of chronic pain. He was also previously the founder, President and CEO of Onset Therapeutics, a dermatology focused company that develops and commercializes products for the treatment of skin related illnesses and was responsible for the spin-off of this business to create PreCision Dermatology. Michael held prior positions as Co-Founder, President and CEO of Clinical Studies Ltd., a pharmaceutical contract research organization that he successfully sold. He also served as President and CEO of PhyMatrix, a public $400 million integrated healthcare services company where he was hired to restructure the company. Michael started his career at Eli Lilly and Company and served in numerous sales and marketing roles. He has also been a member of the Board of Directors, Advisor and Angel Investor in a number of healthcare companies. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of TyRx, a venture backed medical device company, Cornerstone Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRTX), a specialty pharmaceutical company and PreCision Dermatology. Michael earned his B.S. Degree in Pharmacy from the University of Connecticut and is a Registered Pharmacist.
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About AvengeBio, Collegium Pharmaceutical: Collegium Pharmaceutical is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of products for the treatment of chronic pain.
Heow Tan
Vice President of Technical Operations of Collegium Pharmaceutical
Heow Tan has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 25 years. He joined Collegium Pharmaceutical in 2006. He is responsible for CMC Product Development and Manufacturing activities. His experience in CMC includes working with oral, semi-solid and parenteral products, and successfully taking a product from pre-clinical to FDA and European approval. Prior to Collegium, he worked at Praecis Pharmaceuticals Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts as Vice President of Industrial Operations and Development;, He has also served as the Director of Manufacturing Operations for SciClone Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, San Mateo, California. Heow started his career in the Pharmaceutical industry working for Syntex Laboratories in Palo Alto, California, serving as the Manager of Manufacturing Engineering and Manager of Materials Control. He obtained his M.S. in Engineering from the Ohio State University, Ohio, and his M.B.A. from the University of Santa Clara, California.
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About Collegium Pharmaceutical: Collegium Pharmaceutical is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of products for the treatment of chronic pain.
Joseph Ciaffoni
President and Chief Executive Officer of Collegium Pharmaceutical
Joe Ciaffoni was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Collegium Pharmaceutical in July 2018. Joe Ciaffoni joined Collegium Pharmaceutical in May 2017 as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Collegium, he served as President, U.S. Branded Pharmaceuticals of Endo International plc. Before that, Joe Ciaffoni held various positions of increasing responsibility at Biogen, including Senior Vice President, Global Specialty Medicines Group, Senior Vice President, U.S. Commercial and Vice President, U.S. Neurology Field Operations and Marketing. Prior to joining Biogen, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Shionogi Inc. and President of Shionogi Pharmaceuticals. Joe Ciaffoni also previously served as Vice President, Sales for Schering-Plough (now Merck) and held several commercial leadership roles at Sanofi-Synthelabo (now Sanofi) and Novartis. Joe Ciaffoni received a B.A. in Communications and an M.B.A. from Rutgers.
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About Collegium Pharmaceutical: Collegium Pharmaceutical is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of products for the treatment of chronic pain.
Josh Bilenker
Founder, President & CEO of Loxo Oncology
Josh Bilenker serves as a Partner of Aisling Capital. Previously, Josh Bilenker was a Medical Officer in the Office of Oncology Drug Products at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. While at the FDA, he conducted clinical reviews of IND-stage and licensed biologic oncology products. Prior to joining the FDA, Josh Bilenker trained at the University of Pennsylvania in internal medicine and medical oncology, earning board certification in these specialties. Josh Bilenker currently serves as a director of LensAR, Inc., Roka Bioscience, Inc., T2 Biosystems and ViewRay, Inc and as a board observer at Aragon Pharmaceuticals. He is also a Board Member of the NCCN Foundation and of BioEnterprise. Josh Joshua H. Bilenker, M.D., founder of Loxo Oncology, serves as President and Chief Executive Officer, and sits on the board of directors.Previously, Josh Bilenker was a Partner at Aisling Capital, a multi-strategy healthcare investment firm based in NY, where he remains a Venture Partner. From 2004-2006, Josh Bilenker was a Medical Officer at the U.S. FDA in the Office of Oncology. Josh Bilenker trained at the University of Pennsylvania in internal medicine and medical oncology, earning board certification in these specialties. Josh Bilenker received his M.D. from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He received his A.B. from Princeton, awarded summa cum laude in English.
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About Aisling Capital, Loxo Oncology, Treeline Biosciences: Loxo Oncology is a biopharmaceutical company focused on targeted cancer therapies for genetically-defined patient populations.
Liang Schweizer
Co-founder, President and CEO of HiFiBiO
Liang Schweizer is the Co-founder, President and CEO of HiFiBiO Therapeutics. Previously, she co-founded Harbour Biomed and served as its CSO, successfully transforming a technology platform company to an antibody drug discovery enterprise. Before launching her entrepreneurial career, Liang served as Head of Asian Cancer Research at Sanofi, advancing Sanofi’s Asia-Pacific oncology pipeline as well as contributing to global oncology programs from preclinical to clinical efforts. Before joining Sanofi, Liang Schweizer was a director at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, heading a group of scientists at Leads Discovery and Optimization (LDO), overseeing 60+ in vitro pharmacology projects across different therapeutic areas. Under her leadership, the team made significant contributions to 4 marketed drugs and impacted over 20 clinical candidates. She is also a co-inventor of multiple BMS Immunoncology (IO) clinical candidates. Liang Schweizer graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) majoring in Biology. She received her Master’s degree in Microbial Engineering at the University of Minnesota with minor in Chemical Engineering. Liang earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University in Zurich, Switzerland. Her postdoctoral training was with Dr. Harold Varmus, a Nobel Laureate, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York.
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About HiFiBiO: HiFiBiO provides proprietary single cell technologies for applications in drug and biomarker discovery and development.
James Hinrichs
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Alere
James (“Jim”) Hinrichs joined Alere in April 2015 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, with global responsibility for Finance, Accounting, Procurement, IT and Shared Services. Prior to his appointment as CFO of Alere, Jim Hinrichs was CFO at CareFusion Corp., a global medical technology corporation, since 2010. He held this position through the completion of Becton Dickinson’s acquisition of CareFusion in March 2015. Prior to this role, Hinrichs served as SVP of Global Customer Support and, before that, Corporate Controller of CareFusion. Previously, he was Executive Vice president and Controller of Cardinal Health, CFO of Cardinal Health’s Clinical and Medical Products segment and CFO of Cardinal Health’s Healthcare Supply Chain Services segment.. He joined Cardinal Health in February 2004, following 12 years of finance and marketing roles at Merck & Co. and two years as the CFO of SangStat Medical Corporation.
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About Alere: Alere provides diagnostics and health management solutions for infectious, heart and cancer-related diseases and drug addicts.
Mark Gladwell
Senior Vice President, Global Operations of Alere
Mark Gladwell has served as Senior Vice President, Global Operations since January 2015. From January 2014 through January 2015, he held the role of Vice President, Operations for North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa. From September 2011 through December 2013, Mr. Gladwell served as Vice President of Operations for North America and as President and General Manager of one of Alere’s key manufacturing facilities in North America. From 2007 to 2010 Mr. Gladwell was Vice President, Quality and Technical Service for Alere. From 2005 to 2007, he served as a director covering multiple functions in the start-up of Alere Technology Limited where he focused on the development and manufacture of the Alere home BNP product. Prior to 2005 Mr. Gladwell held a variety of operations, quality and project leadership positions in North America and Europe for Alere, Johnson & Johnson, Agfa Gavert and DuPont. Mr. Gladwell has more than 18 years of experience in manufacturing high-volume, high-technology in-vitro diagnostics and medical devices.
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About Alere: Alere provides diagnostics and health management solutions for infectious, heart and cancer-related diseases and drug addicts.
John Ruesch
Vice President of Biogen Idec
John Ruesch is the associate director in QC/Stability/Compliance in the Analytical Research and Development of Pfizer Global Biologics.
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About Biogen Idec: Biogen Idec is an American biotechnology company that provides therapeutics for neurological, autoimmune, and rare diseases.
Todd Helman
Vice President of Sales of Blockade Medical
Todd is the US National Sales Director at Blockade Medical and has more than 13 years of sales and sales leadership experience working within the medical and interventional neurovascular space. Prior to working at Blockade Medical, Todd held sales leadership roles at Stryker Neurovascular, Concentric Medical and Kyphon Inc. During his time in those positions he successfully recruited, developed and lead teams to multiple annual sales awards. Todd has a rounded experience selling both first to market technologies as well as selling products into more mature and highly competitive product classes. Todd holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland and is an avid endurance athlete who competes primarily in Ironman and half Ironman events.
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About Blockade Medical: Founded in 2011, Blockade Medical is a privately held company dedicated the development of catheter based therapeutic devices for the
Charles Yang
Vice President of Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs of Blockade Medical
Charles is currently the Vice President of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs at Blockade Medical. He has been in the medical device industry for over 15 years in the quality and regulatory field with extensive experience in achieving product approvals in a timely manner. Charles has been successful in achieving multiple product approvals through CE Mark, 510K and other regulatory processes all over the world. He has a diversified portfolio of working in start-up companies and large corporations which has allowed him to gain the experience to build efficient quality systems that meet the needs of the medical device industry. Prior to joining Blockade Medical, Charles worked at various medical device companies which include Acutus Medical, MindFrame Inc. (acquired by Covidien), Ablation Frontiers (acquired by Medtronic) and Edwards LifeSciences. Charles received a B.S. in Bio-engineering at the University of California, San Diego.
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About Blockade Medical: Founded in 2011, Blockade Medical is a privately held company dedicated the development of catheter based therapeutic devices for the
Ryan Solomon
Vice President of Marketing & Business Development of Blockade Medical
Ryan is the Director of Global Marketing and Business Development at Blockade Medical and has more than 10 years of medical sales and marketing expertise including extensive interventional neurovascular experience. Ryan has successfully launched many products in the neurovascular field including launching the first flow diversion device in the United States while serving as the Group Marketing Manager at Covidien Neurovascular and global launches of multiple coil lines as a Sr. Product Manager at MicroVention. His previous roles have also included Associate Marketing Manager at Karl Storz Endoscopy, Sr. Clinical Sales Specialist at Glaxo Smith Kline, and a Professional Sales Representative for Boehringer Ingelheim. Ryan received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Riverside and a M.B.A. from the University of California, Irvine.
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About Blockade Medical: Founded in 2011, Blockade Medical is a privately held company dedicated the development of catheter based therapeutic devices for the
Zachary Hornby
Chief Executive Officer & President of Boundless Bio
Zachary Hornby brings a dozen years of life sciences business experience to Ignyta. Prior to joining Ignyta, Mr. Hornby was senior director of business development at Fate Therapeutics where he was responsible for pharmaceutical partnerships and non-dilutive funding. Mr. Hornby has also served in various business and commercial roles at Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ: HALO), Neurocrine Biosciences (NASDAQ: NBIX) and TKT (now Shire Human Genetic Therapies), and was a life sciences consultant at L.E.K. Consulting. Mr. Hornby holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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About Boundless Bio, City Hill Ventures: Boundless Bio is a precision oncology company developing therapeutics directed against extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in aggressive cancers.
Amber Salzman
President & CEO & Co-Founder of AAVLife
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About AAVLife, Ohana Biosciences, Stop ALD Foundation: AAVLife is a privately held company dedicated to advancing gene therapy for rare diseases.
Andrew Allen
Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gritstone Oncology
Andrew Allen is a co-founder and the chief executive officer of Gritstone Oncology, a cancer immunotherapy company that develops personalized cancer therapeutics. Prior to that, he co-founded and served as the chief medical officer and executive vice president of clinical and pre-clinical development at Clovis Oncology. Before joining Clovis Oncology, Allen served as the chief medical officer of Pharmion Corporation, beginning in 2006. From 2004 to 2006, he was the vice president of BioPharma Development and head of the Oncology Therapeutic Unit at Chiron Corporation. Allen qualified in medicine at Oxford University and earned his PhD from Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine in London. He lives in San Francisco, California, United States.
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About Gritstone Oncology, Revitope Oncology: Gritstone Oncology is a clinical-stage biotech company that develops tumor-specific cancer immunotherapies to fight multiple cancer types.
Athena Countouriotis
President and Chief Executive Officer of Turning Point Therapeutics
Athena Countouriotis became president and chief executive officer and was named to the Turning Point Therapeutics board of directors in September 2018. She has broad oncology biotech leadership experience, guiding multiple development programs to approval. Her experience includes large and small molecule therapeutics in hematologic and solid tumor indications, with multiple regulatory approvals in the U.S. and Europe. She joined Turning Point Therapeutics in May 2018 as executive vice president and chief medical officer to advance the clinical development of repotrectinib. She previously served as senior vice president and chief medical officer for Adverum Biotechnologies, and before that as senior vice president and chief medical officer of Halozyme Therapeutics. Athena Countouriotis also served as chief medical officer of Ambit Biosciences, where she helped lead the company’s initial public offering and was responsible for the clinical development of quizartinib until the company’s acquisition by Daiichi Sankyo in November 2014. Earlier in her career, Athena Countouriotis led various clinical development organizations within Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb for oncology therapeutics including Sutent®, Mylotarg™, Bosulif® and Sprycel®. Athena Countouriotis also serves on the board of directors of Trovagene and NuMedii. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine. She received her initial medical training in pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and additional training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Program.
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About Turning Point Therapeutics: Turning Point Therapeutics is a structure-based drug design pharmaceutical company.
Steve James
President and Chief Executive Officer of Pionyr Immunotherapeutics
Steven James has 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry, including the creation and leadership of multiple companies. He is currently President and CEO of Pionyr Immunotherapeutics and was the President and CEO of Labrys Biologics from 2012 until it was acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2014. Prior to joining Labrys, Steven James was President and CEO of KAI Pharmaceuticals from 2004 until the company was acquired by Amgen in 2012. His previous positions have included Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at Exelixis, Chief Business Officer at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals and VP of Business Development at Isis Pharmaceuticals (now Ionis). He began his career in new product planning at Eli Lilly. Steven James is Chairman of Antiva Biosciences, and a director of Chrono Therapeutics. He was formerly on the board of Cascadian Therapeutics (acquired by Seattle Genetics) and a past director of Ocera Therapeutics (acquired by Mallinckrodt). Steve holds a Masters in Management from the Kellogg School of Northwestern University and an undergraduate degree from Brown University.
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About Pionyr Immunotherapeutics: Pionyr Immunotherapeutics is a developer of cancer immunotherapies designed to target the tumor microenvironment.
Konstantin Mehl
CEO, Founder & President of Kaia Health
Konstantin is a serial entrepreneur. His last company foodora, a global food delivery company was sold to delivery hero in 2015 after reaching 500 employees and 5,000 drivers. His current company Kaia has the mission to build the biggest platform for chronic disease management, powered by computer vision. His angel investments include more than 20 companies in the US and Europe. He holds a dual Masters from Columbia University and a Bachelors degree from Technical University Munich.
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About Kaia Health, Kaia Health: Kaia Health is a digital therapeutics company that creates evidence-based treatments for a range of medical disorders.
Shian-Jiun Shih
Vice President of Product Development of Tessa Therapeutics
Dr. Shih has over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, with strong expertise in biological drug development, including cell and gene therapy products and therapeutic proteins, with a focus on immunotherapy. Prior to joining Tessa, she was Director of Molecular Biomarkers and Site Lead of the Translational Medicine and Research Centre, Merck Sharp & Dohme. In that role, her group established non-human primate disease models and developed clinical biomarker assays to support early phase clinical trials, including those for Keytruda. Before that she was Director, Assay Development, Cell Genesys, Inc. She has also held various roles in Bayer, Aventis, and Applied Immune Sciences. Dr. Shih is Founding President of the Chinese Bioscience Association. She holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of Wisconsin at Madison and completed her post-doctoral training at the School of Medicine, Stanford University.
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About Tessa Therapeutics: Tessa Therapeutics is a provider of therapy designed to focus on T cell therapy for solid tumors.
Ivor Royston
CEO & President of Viracta Therapeutics
Ivor Royston is president & CEO, Viracta Therapeutics.
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About Viracta Therapeutics: Viracta Therapeutics is a precision oncology company focused on new treatment of virus-associated malignancies.
Juan Jaen
President & Co-Founder of Arcus Biosciences
Juan has been engaged in all aspects of drug discovery and development for more than 30 years. In 2015, he co-founded Arcus Biosciences together with Terry Rosen. Prior to that, he was co-founder and President/Head of R&D at Flexus Biosciences, until its acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb for $1.25 billion. Previously, he was Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery at ChemoCentryx. During his tenure there of just under 7 years, Juan led the discovery and progression into the clinic of 8 novel drug candidates in the immunology space. At ChemoCentryx, Juan led the discovery efforts for the multi-year collaboration with GSK, which generated over $100M in non-dilutive milestones and fees. From 1996 to 2006, Juan held various scientific management positions at Tularik (responsible for about 100 scientists in Medicinal and Computational Chemistry, as well as Structural Biology) and then Amgen Inc. (after its acquisition of Tularik in 2004), most recently as Vice President of Chemistry. From 1983 to 1996, Juan held various scientific leadership positions at Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert. Juan holds a Visiting Scholar appointment (ChEM-H) at Stanford University and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Cleave Biosciences. Juan obtained a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Universidad Complutense in Madrid (Spain) and a Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Michigan. He has co-authored over 100 scientific papers and is an inventor on 50 issued U.S. patents. Juan has been responsible for the advancement of over 20 novel molecules into clinical development for diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s, Crohn’s, RA, diabetes and diabetic nephropathy, psoriasis, asthma, and vasculitis, among others.
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About Arcus Biosciences: Arcus Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of cancer.
Jason Fisherman
President & CEO of C4 Therapeutics
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About AlloMek Therapeutics, C4 Therapeutics: C4 Therapeutics develops novel early stage therapies that eliminate disease-causing proteins.
Andrew Scott
Vice President of Corporate Development of Citius Pharmaceuticals
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About Citius Pharmaceuticals: Citius Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of therapeutic products.
Gary Talarico
Executive Vice President of Operations of Citius Pharmaceuticals
Gary Talarico has served as EVP, Operations since March 2016. Gary has successfully built and led all commercial activities for a number of start-up companies. Most recently he was a founder, partner and Executive Vice President of Leonard Meron Biosciences; he was instrumental in acquiring its lead product. Previously, Gary served as Senior Vice President of Triax Pharmaceuticals, from its founding to the sale of its assets. Gary was a founder and Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Reliant Pharmaceuticals, LLC; Reliant was later sold to GlaxoSmithKline plc. Before Reliant, Gary was Executive Vice President of Business Development for Ventiv Health. His earlier experience included Vice President of Sales for Medicis Pharmaceutical at its initial start-up, and Director of Sales at ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Gary is a graduate of Lewis University.
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About Citius Pharmaceuticals: Citius Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of therapeutic products.
Alan Lader
Vice President of Clinical Operations of Citius Pharmaceuticals
Alan Lader joined Citius Pharmaceuticals as Vice President of Clinical Operations in 2016
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About Citius Pharmaceuticals: Citius Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of therapeutic products.
Bill Gruber
President & CEO of Solace Therapeutics
Prior to this role as President and CEO of Solace Therapeutics, he co-founded Interlace Medical in August 2006 and served as their President and CEO until Interlace was acquired by Hologic in January 2011. Bill has extensive experience in organizational development and in product development for rapid growth businesses. Prior to Interlace, Bill spent five years at Cortek Inc., a spinal products company. As Cortek’s V.P. of Sales and Marketing, he built sales from $612K to over $10M. During his last two years, he was the V.P. of New Business Development and Marketing. In this role, he was instrumental in creating Soteira, a Cortek subsidiary, focused on devices for treating vertebral compression fractures. Prior to Cortek, Bill spent 10 years at Boston Scientific Corporation. Before leaving Boston Scientific Corporation, he held the position of Director of the $172M Global Atherosclerotic Therapy business. Prior to entering the medical device sector, Bill spent five years in sales and marketing roles at Procter and Gamble.
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About Solace Therapeutics: Solace Therapeutics develops and commercializes non-surgical office-based treatments for common bladder disorders.
Paul Grayson
President and CEO of Bird Rock Bio
Paul Grayson is the Partner at Versant Ventures.
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About AccessBioVentures, Bird Rock Bio, Tentarix Biotherapeutics: Bird Rock Bio is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative immuno-inflammatory regulators.
Mattan Griffel
Co-Founder/President & COO of Ophelia
Mattan is an award-winning faculty member at Columbia Business School and a two-time Y Combinator-backed entrepreneur. He co-founded Ophelia, a company that helps people quit opioids without having to go to rehab. Mattan is also an Innovation Fellow at the Lang Center for Entrepreneurship and was selected as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Education.
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About One Month | Learn to Code in 30 Days, Ophelia, Sandbox Network: Ophelia offers medication and support for quitting opioids.
David Schubert
President and Chief Business Officer of Acylin Therapeutics
David Schubert joined Accelerator Life Science Partners as Chief Operating Partner in 2014.
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About Accelerator Life Science Partners, Acylin Therapeutics: Acylin Therapeutics operates in the pharmaceutical and drug manufacturing industry developing inhibitors of cellular acetylation.
Suresh Jain
Co-Founder, President & COO of Acylin Therapeutics
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About Acylin Therapeutics: Acylin Therapeutics operates in the pharmaceutical and drug manufacturing industry developing inhibitors of cellular acetylation.
Chad Robins
Co-Founder, President & CEO of Adaptive Biotechnologies
Chad Robins is Adaptive’s President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder. He has held executive-level positions in real estate, investing and medical technology, including: Pulte Homes, Connaught Real Estate Finance, and HealthAxis.com. Chad Robins started his career in banking for companies such as Wasserstein Perella and Bank of America. In 2012, Chad Robins was a “40 Under 40” Seattle Leaders honoree. In 2015, he and his brother, Harlan Robins, were honored as one of Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of the Year. Chad Robins was also a finalist for the Ernst & Young 2016 Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award in the Pacific Northwest. While in college and looking for a way to combine his adventuresome spirit with a vast learning opportunity, he spent 100 days in the wilderness with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLs) where he gained his open and interactive leadership style along with his strong teamwork mentality. A Cornell University honors graduate with a major in entrepreneurship and business, Chad Robins obtained his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a major in finance and concentrations in marketing and operations. In addition to the Adaptive Biotechnologies board, Chad Robins holds board positions for the American Heart Association (Puget Sound) and Pavia Systems. He is also the co-founder and Director of Aortica Corporation, a company that is simplifying endovascular repair (EVAR) for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA).
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About Adaptive Biotechnologies: Adaptive Biotechnologies translates a scale and precision of the adaptive immune system into products to diagnose and treat disease.
Gene DeFelice
Senior Vice President, General Counsel of Adaptive Biotechnologies
Gene DeFelice is an experienced general counsel, chief compliance officer, and corporate secretary with over 30 years of legal experience and over 20 years in healthcare including the diagnostics, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and medical device industries. He has served as the General Counsel for several public healthcare and technology companies, and also previously served as the primary counsel for Roche Diagnostics. DeFelice received his Juris Doctorate degree in law from Seton Hall University School of Law and a Masters in Business Administration, with distinction, from Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition to law, DeFelice has general management experience with full P&L responsibility of a high growth clinical research organization, international sales and marketing leadership, and leadership of FDA regulatory affairs and quality assurance organizations in the life science arena. He has served on the Board of Directors of several private for-profit companies and not-for-profit organizations. DeFelice is a member of the bars of WA, NY, NJ, TX, and DC. Separately, he holds certifications as a Certified Information Privacy Professional- Europe (CIPP-E), a Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM), and has been inducted as a Fellow of International Privacy (FIP) by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).
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About Adaptive Biotechnologies: Adaptive Biotechnologies translates a scale and precision of the adaptive immune system into products to diagnose and treat disease.
Julie Rubinstein
President of Adaptive Biotechnologies
Ms. Rubinstein is the president of Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp.
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About Adaptive Biotechnologies, Adaptive Biotechnologies, Adaptive Biotechnologies: Adaptive Biotechnologies translates a scale and precision of the adaptive immune system into products to diagnose and treat disease.
J. Joseph Kim
Co-Founder/President/CEO/Director of Inovio Pharmaceuticals
J. Joseph Kim is the Co-Founder/President/CEO/Director at Inovio Pharmaceuticals.
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About Inovio Pharmaceuticals, The Aspen Institute: Inovio is a biotech company focusing on bringing to market DNA medicines for diseases associated with HPV, cancer, and infectious diseases.
Douglas E. Williams
President & CEO of Codiak Biosciences
Douglas Williams is the President and CEO at Codiak BioSciences.
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About Codiak Biosciences: Codiak is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on pioneering the development of exosome-based therapeutics.
Yalonda Howze
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary of Codiak Biosciences
Yalonda Howze is the Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary at Codiak BioSciences.
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About Codiak Biosciences: Codiak is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on pioneering the development of exosome-based therapeutics.
Sofie Qiao
President and Chief Executive Officer of Vivace Therapeutics
Dr. Qiao is the founding president and CEO of Vivace Therapeutics & Virtuoso Therapeutics.
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About Virtuoso Therapeutics, Vivace Therapeutics, WuXi Healthcare Ventures: Vivace Therapeutics is a venture-backed start-up dedicated to discovering and developing cancer therapeutics by targeting a novel pathway.
C. Geoffrey Davis
President and CSO of Angiocrine Bioscience
C. Geoffrey Davis is the President and CSO of Angiocrine Bioscience, Inc.
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About Angelica Therapeutics, Angiocrine Bioscience, Moerae Matrix: Angiocrine Bioscience develops a cellular platform to amplify stem and progenitor cells in both human and mouse models.
Jo Viney
Co-Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Pandion Therapeutics
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About Pandion Therapeutics: Pandion Therapeutics develops innovative modular proteins, antibodies, and bispecifics for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Wes Kaupinen
President and CEO of Palvella Therapeutics
Wes Kaupinen has served as president and CEO since Palvella’s inception. Mr. Kaupinen brings more than 15 years of entrepreneurial life sciences experience as an operating executive and early stage investor. Prior to Palvella, Mr. Kaupinen was a senior executive at Insmed Incorporated (NASDAQ: INSM), a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the unmet needs of patients with rare diseases, where he served as senior vice president of corporate development and commercialization. While at Insmed, he led the global corporate development and U.S. commercial functions, with key responsibilities including corporate strategy, acquisitions and in-licensing, R&D pipeline strategy, patient advocacy, marketing, and pricing and reimbursement. Previously, Mr. Kaupinen was a principal at Quaker Partners, a life sciences venture capital firm with $700mm under management, where he worked on several public and private venture capital investments in the life sciences space. At Quaker, he was responsible for the recruitment of new senior leadership to Insmed to execute on the company’s rare disease strategy, and he was involved in Quaker’s investments in Horizon Pharma (NASDAQ: HZNP) and Achillion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ACHN). In addition, he led Quaker’s Series A investments in Intact Vascular (backed by NEA, Quaker, and HIG) and TELA Bio (backed by OrbiMed, Quaker, and Signet), playing a key role in the investor syndication, leadership recruitment, and corporate strategy development for each. Mr. Kaupinen has operating experience at two Johnson & Johnson operating companies, including Cordis Cardiology where he worked on the CYPHER sirolimus-eluting stent, the first drug-eluting stent ever launched which leveraged the multi-modal therapeutic properties of sirolimus to significantly improve outcomes for patients with coronary ischemic disease. Earlier in his career, Mr. Kaupinen was an associate at Apax Partners, a global private equity firm, and an analyst in the Life Sciences Investment Banking Group at Robertson Stephens. Mr. Kaupinen has served as a board director or observer for more than ten companies, including Palvella, Intact Vascular, and TELA Bio. He is currently the chief strategy officer for The Castleman Disease Collaborative Network, a non-profit dedicated to finding a cure for Castleman Disease, a rare autoimmune disease. Mr. Kaupinen earned an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he was the recipient of the William L. Kissick MD Scholarship Award. He holds a B.A. in economics from The University of Virginia.
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About Palvella Therapeutics: Palvella Therapeutics focuses on relentlessly and selflessly serving abandoned patient populations with therapies.
Kenneth Mills
Chief Executive Officer, President and Director of REGENXBIO
Ken Mills is the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of REGENXBIO.He was previously the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Business Development at Meso Scale Diagnostics, a privately held life sciences company. There, he served as a member of the founding management team, and worked to establish the company’s operations and ongoing business strategy. In this position, Mills supervised all company activities, including direct management of corporate and business development, strategic planning, finance, and accounting activities. Prior to his tenure at Meso Scale Diagnostics, he was Director of Business Development for IGEN International, a medical diagnostics company. Mills received an S.B. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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About REGENXBIO: REGENXBIO develops adeno-associated viral vector-based therapeutics and research tools, offering NAV, a recombinant AAV-vector.
Francesca Cook
Vice President, Market Access of REGENXBIO
Francesca Cook is Vice President, Market Accessof REGENXBIO.
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About REGENXBIO: REGENXBIO develops adeno-associated viral vector-based therapeutics and research tools, offering NAV, a recombinant AAV-vector.
Hugh O’Dowd
President & CEO of Neon Therapeutics
Neon Therapeutics’ chief executive officer, Hugh O’Dowd, joined the company in 2016, bringing more than 20 years of expertise in pharmaceutical leadership and moving important oncology therapies from clinical development through commercialization. Hugh joined Neon Therapeutics from Novartis Oncology, where he spent more than 20 years in a variety of leadership roles, including chief commercial officer and head of global strategy. In this role, he was responsible for global commercialization for the oncology portfolio, including global brand leadership, health economics and pricing, early phase commercial development, strategic capabilities, business development, and licensing and global sales excellence. Hugh began his career in pharmaceuticals in 1992 at Glaxo in sales, and moved to Novartis in 1996. Following a career of increasing levels of responsibility in sales and marketing, he took a leading role in the commercialization of Gleevec, and assumed country- and region-level commercial leadership roles before overseeing the entirety of Novartis Oncology commercialization and strategy in 2011. Since 2015, Hugh was country president and general manager of Novartis in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Hugh holds a B.A. from Loyola University Chicago, and an MBA from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University Chicago.
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About Neon Therapeutics: NEON Therapeutics is focused on unlocking the full potential of the immune system to recognize and attack cancer.
Richard Gaynor
President, Research & Development of Neon Therapeutics
Gaynor joined Neon Therapeutics in 2016, having spent 15 years in related senior roles at Lilly Oncology where he led preclinical and early clinical research, directed the biomarker and research group and served on key company portfolio review committees. Richard began his career in academia, spending nine years on the faculty at UCLA School of Medicine followed by 11 years on the faculty at UT Southwestern Medical School, including time serving as the chief of hematology-oncology and director of the Simmons Cancer Center. Richard chaired the Lilly Oncology Research and Development Committee and helped oversee a variety of collaborations, including with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, AstraZeneca and GE. He is the author of nearly 150 publications and participates on numerous boards and committees, including several with the AACR, the Stand Up To Cancer scientific advisory committee, the MD Anderson Moon Shots advisory board, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation and Accelerating Cancer Cures.
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About Neon Therapeutics: NEON Therapeutics is focused on unlocking the full potential of the immune system to recognize and attack cancer.
Steven Kelly
President & Chief Executive Officer of Carisma Therapeutics
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About Carisma Therapeutics: Carisma Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing cellular immunotherapies to treat solid tumors.
Timothy Walbert
Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer of Horizon Pharma
Mr. Walbert has served as chairman of our board of directors since 2010 and our president and chief executive officer since June 2008. Mr. Walbert served as president, chief executive officer and director of IDM Pharma, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company which was acquired by Takeda America Holdings, Inc., or Takeda, in June 2009. Prior to IDM, Mr. Walbert served as executive vice president, commercial operations at NeoPharm, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Walbert served as divisional vice president and general manager, immunology, where he led the global development and launch of the multi-indication biologic HUMIRA, which is on track to exceed $10.0 billion in 2013 sales, and divisional vice president, global cardiovascular strategy at Abbott, now AbbVie. From 1998 to 2001, Mr. Walbert served as director, CELEBREX North America and arthritis team leader, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Canada at G.D. Searle & Company. From 1991 to 1998, Mr. Walbert also held sales and marketing roles with increasing responsibility at G.D. Searle, Merck & Co., Inc. and Wyeth. Mr. Walbert received his B.A. in business from Muhlenberg College, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Mr. Walbert serves on the board of directors of XOMA Ltd. (NASDAQ: XOMA), Raptor Pharmaceutical Corp. (NASDAQ: RPTP), the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization (iBIO), ChicagoNEXT, a World Business Chicago (WBC) led council of technology leaders and the Greater Chicago Arthritis Foundation. Mr. Walbert was also recently appointed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to the Illinois Innovation Council.
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About Horizon Pharma, Horizon Therapeutics, Viela Bio: Horizon Therapeutics focuses on the development of prescription drugs for mild to moderate pain relief and arthritis.
Jeffrey Sherman
Executive Vice President, Development, Manufacturing, and Regulatory Affairs, Chief Medical Officer of Horizon Pharma
Dr. Sherman has served as our executive vice president, development, manufacturing, and regulatory affairs, and chief medical officer since June 2011, as our executive vice president, development and regulatory affairs and chief medical officer since our inception in March 2010 and as the executive vice president, development and regulatory affairs and chief medical officer of Horizon Pharma USA since June 2009. From June 2009 through June 2010, Dr. Sherman served as president and board member of the Drug Information Association (DIA), a nonprofit professional association of members who work in government regulatory, academia, patient advocacy and the pharmaceutical and medical device industry. Dr. Sherman isa former president of DIA and serves as DIA liaison to the Clinical Trial Transformation Initiative (CTTI) a public-private partnership founded by the US Food and Drug Administration and Duke University to improve the quality and efficiency of clinical trials. He also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP) a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and informing the public, patients, medical/research communities, the media and policy makers about clinical research and the role each party plays in the process. He is an adjunct assistant professor of medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and is a member of a number of professional societies, as well as a diplomat of the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Internal Medicine. From August 2007 through June 2009, Dr. Sherman served as senior vice president of research and development and chief medical officer at IDM Pharma, which was acquired by Takeda in 2009. From June 2007 through August 2007, he served as vice president of clinical science at Takeda Global Research and Development. From September 2000 through June 2007, Dr. Sherman served as chief medical officer and executive vice president at NeoPharm, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company. From October 1992 through August 2000, Dr. Sherman served as director, senior director and executive director of clinical research, and was head of oncology global medical operations at Searle/Pharmacia, or Searle, a pharmaceutical company. Prior to joining Searle, Dr. Sherman worked in clinical pharmacology and clinical research at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, a biopharmaceutical company. Dr. Sherman received his medical degree from the Rosalind Franklin University/Chicago Medical School. He completed an internal medicine internship, residency and chief medical residency at Northwestern University, as well as fellowship training at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Sherman was also a research associate at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at UCSF.
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About Horizon Pharma: Horizon Therapeutics focuses on the development of prescription drugs for mild to moderate pain relief and arthritis.
Alan H. Auerbach
Chief Executive Officer & President of Puma Biotechnology
Auerbach is the Founder, President, and CEO of Puma Biotechnology, a company dedicated to in-licensing and developing drugs for the treatment of cancer. Previously, he founded Cougar Biotechnology and served as the company’s President and CEO until the company’s acquisition by Johnson & Johnson in 2009. Following the acquisition, Mr. Auerbach served as the Co-Chairman of the Integration Steering Committee at Cougar that provided leadership and oversight for the development and global commercialization of Cougar’s lead product candidate, abiraterone acetate, for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. Prior to founding Cougar, Mr. Auerbach was a Vice President, Senior Research Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, where he was responsible for research coverage of small- and middle- capitalization biotechnology companies, with a focus on oncology. He had primary responsibility for technical, scientific, and clinical due diligence as well as selection of biotechnology companies followed by the company. Prior to that, Mr. Auerbach was a Vice President, Research Analyst at the Seidler Companies, where he was responsible for research coverage of small-capitalization biotechnology companies. Previous to his work as a biotechnology analyst, Mr. Auerbach worked for Diagnostic Products Corporation, where he designed and implemented clinical trials in the field of oncology. Mr. Auerbach received a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University and an MS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
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About Innovative Acquisitions, Puma Biotechnology: Puma Biotechnology acquires and develops innovative products for the treatment of various forms of cancer.
Charles Eyler
Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration and Treasurer of Puma Biotechnology
Mr. Eyler has served as our Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration and Treasurer since the closing of the Merger on October 4, 2011 and, prior to the Merger, served in such capacity at Puma since September 2011. Prior to joining Puma, Mr. Eyler served as Vice President of Finance at Cougar Biotechnology, Inc. from August 2004 until July 2009 when Cougar was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. He also served as the Treasurer of Cougar from April 2006 to July 2009. From July 2009 until March 2010, Mr. Eyler served on the Cougar Integration Committee and oversaw the integration of Cougar’s finance and IT functions with those of Johnson & Johnson. Prior to joining Cougar, Mr. Eyler served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Hayes Medical Inc. from March 1999 to January 2004. Mr. Eyler received his B.S. from Drexel University and his M.B.A. from Saint Francis College.
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About Puma Biotechnology: Puma Biotechnology acquires and develops innovative products for the treatment of various forms of cancer.
John M. House
Co-Founder, Chairman, CEO & President of USMD
John M. House, M.D., a board-certified urologic surgeon, is the co-founder, chief executive officer and president of USMD Holdings. He is also the co-founder of Urology Associates of North Texas, one of the largest Urologic Surgery groups in North America. Dr. House received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of South Dakota and he received his Master’s Degree in chemical engineering at Texas Tech University. He then graduated from University of Oklahoma College of Medicine with a degree of Doctor of Medicine and subsequently completed his residency in urologic surgery at the University of Missouri in 1988. Dr. House is a Diplomat of the American Board of Urology and has served as a founding Board Member of the Large Urology Group Practice Association (LUPGA), a consortium of more than 50 large urology group practices.
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About USMD: USMD Holdings develops, operates and manages entities that deliver diagnostic, therapeutic and hospital-based health care to patients.
Jim Berend
Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President of USMD
Jim Berend serves as chief financial officer and executive vice president of USMD Holdings. In his position, Jim oversees all of USMD’s finance functions and activities. Jim has more than 35 years of experience in healthcare finance, having served as a CFO, consultant, auditor and partner at international accounting and consulting firms. He has extensive experience in all aspects of healthcare accounting and finance across the care continuum. Previously, Jim served as CFO and executive vice president of a company operating surgical hospitals in Texas. He was responsible for finance and accounting, centralized billing office, materials management and hospital financial operations.Jim received his Bachelor of Business Administration, with highest honors, from The University of Texas in Austin. He is a licensed CPA in Texas.
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About USMD: USMD Holdings develops, operates and manages entities that deliver diagnostic, therapeutic and hospital-based health care to patients.
Michelle Speck
Senior Vice President of Human Resources of USMD
Michelle Speck serves as senior vice president of human resources at USMD. She has more than 20 years of experience working in human resources, strategic planning and business development. In her position, Michelle oversees and manages USMD’s human resources team and provides overall direction and strategic planning for all aspects of USMD’s human resource functions, including physician and employee recruitment and retention, compensation and benefits, physician and employee relations, training, management development and organizational culture development. Prior to joining USMD, Michelle served as regional vice president of human resources at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System, a world-renowned health care provider and insurer, based in Pittsburgh, Pa., that operates more than 20 academic, community and specialty hospitals and 400 outpatients sites. During her time at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System, Michelle was responsible for the strategic and day-to-day human resource operations of two healthcare institutions and all related physician entities. Michelle earned her bachelor’s degree in organizational management at Penn State University and her Masters of Business Administration at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
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About USMD: USMD Holdings develops, operates and manages entities that deliver diagnostic, therapeutic and hospital-based health care to patients.
Richard C. Johnston
Chief Physician Officer & Executive Vice President of USMD
Richard C. Johnston, M.D, is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is also the executive vice president and chief physician officer of USMD Holdings, Inc. Dr. Johnston graduated from Texas Tech University School of Medicine in 1975 and completed his Internal Medicine residency in 1978 at Austin Breckenridge Hospital. He has been in private practice in the DFW area since 1978. Dr. Johnston served as the first chief of staff at Las Colinas Medical Center, where he now has a full-time internal medicine practice. In 2004, his group joined the Medical Clinic of North Texas, where he has served as President since 2006. Dr. Johnston is a member of the American Medical Group Association’s Leadership Council. Dr. Johnston’s other interests include travel and tropical medicine.
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About USMD: USMD Holdings develops, operates and manages entities that deliver diagnostic, therapeutic and hospital-based health care to patients.
Maral Mouradian
Founder & President of MentiNova
Mouradian is an internationally recognized physician-scientist with an established research program in neurodegenerative disorders focused on Parkinson’s disease. Her original investigations at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) pointed to fundamental alterations in the response to L-dopa with advancing disease resulting in the emergence of dyskinesias. She brings her expertise in this field to support MentiNova’s scientific and clinical development strategies. Dr. Mouradian currently holds an endowed chair at Rutgers – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, directs its Center for Neurodegenerative and Neuroimmunologic Diseases and serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Neurotherapeutics. After completing neurology residency, she received research training at the NIH in clinical neuropharmacology with Thomas N. Chase and in molecular biology with the Nobel Laureate Marshall Nirenberg.
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About MentiNova, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences: MentiNova develops an oral medication to help treat symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
Joseph Payne
Founder, President & CEO of Arcturus Therapeutics
Joseph E. Payne, is Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board for Arcturus Therapeutics, Inc. He brings with him an exceptional track record of ushering novel therapeutics to the clinic including successful experience developing sophisticated targeted RNAi nanoparticle technologies. Joseph’s background includes over 20 years of successful drug discovery experience at Merck Research Labs, DuPont Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Kalypsys, and Nitto Denko as evidenced by over 40 publications and patents, and 7 FDA-approved IND clinical candidates.
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About Arcturus Therapeutics: Arcturus Therapeutics focuses on developing novel RNA therapeutics for the treatment of various diseases aiming at Rare Diseases.
Ted W. Love
President & CEO of Global Blood Therapeutics
Ted Love is the President & CEO at Global Blood Therapeutics.
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About Global Blood Therapeutics, Global Blood Therapeutics: GBT is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing its lead product candidate, voxelotor, as a therapy for sickle cell disease.
Steve Goode
Senior Vice President of Sales & Acquisitions of Verus Healthcare
Steve is the Vice President of Sales and brings with him over 14 years of Sales and Sales Management experience. He joins Verus Healthcare from Watermark Medical where he was a Regional Sales Director and helped build the start-up into one of leading home sleep testing companies in the nation in just 3 years. Prior to joining Watermark, Steve was a Director of Sales at Athlon Sports Communications and sold integrated sports marketing programs to Fortune 500 companies, becoming the youngest Partner in the company. Prior to Athlon Sports, Steve spent 5 years with the Southwestern Company and sold books door-to-door while attending college at The Ohio State University.
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About Sleep8, SnapWorx, Verus Healthcare, Verustat: Verus Healthcare, Inc. is a health care supply company located in Franklin,
Yun-Fei Zhu
Co-Founder & Vice President, Chemistry of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals
Yun-Fei (Frank) Zhu (Vice President, Chemistry) is a Founder of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in China, and pursued his postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Professor Murray Goodman in Department of Chemistry, University of California, San Diego. He joined Neurocrine Biosciences in 1997 where he led chemistry efforts on discovery of nonpeptide GnRH antagonists. He was most recently a Director of Chemistry in the Endocrinology and Metabolism group. His research has involved discovery of small molecule inhibitors of several neuropeptide receptors including CRFR2, MCH receptor, and GnRH-R for the treatment of a range of endocrine diseases.
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About Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Radionetics Oncology: Crinetics is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapeutics.
Stephen F. Betz
Vice President, Biology of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals
Stephen F. Betz (Vice President, Biology) is a Founder of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he studied protein structure and stability. He pursued postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of William DeGrado at the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company where he focused on protein engineering and de novo design. He moved to pharmaceutical discovery in the Research NMR Group at Abbott Laboratories, working on protein structure, structure-guided drug design, assay development, and compound screening in several different therapeutic areas. Subsequently, he led laboratory efforts at GeneFormatics, a biotechnology company founded on protein function annotation and characterization. Most recently, he was Director of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Neurocrine Biosciences working on the discovery and development of GnRH receptor antagonists and nonpeptide modulators of other endocrine targets.
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About Crinetics Pharmaceuticals: Crinetics is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapeutics.
Charles Magness
Co-Founder,President & Chief Executive Officer of Kineta
Dr. Charles Magness co-founded Kineta in 2007 and serves as President and Chief Executive Officer. He is responsible for strategy and execution of all corporate initiatives, development opportunities and acquisition of capital. Under his leadership, Kineta has moved rapidly to acquire and finance its lead autoimmune program and advance its discovery stage antiviral research. Dr. Magness secured several significant investment partnerships. As a founder, he also developed and successfully implemented Kineta’s business model which is designed to reduce investor risk and provide faster returns on investment. Dr. Magness, along with Kineta co-founder, Dr. Shawn Iadonato, founded Illumigen Biosciences, Inc. in 2000. Serving initially as CIO and then President and COO from 2002-2007, Dr. Magness led that company from inception to acquisition by Cubist Pharmaceuticals. During his tenure, Illumigen raised over $23M through financing and business development activities, contract revenue, and grants. At Illumigen, he also was responsible for investor relations, intellectual property licensing and legal affairs.
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About Kineta: Kineta aims at developing edge therapeutics in autoimmune disease, viral disease, and chronic pain areas.
Craig Philips
President of Kineta
Craig Philips is the President of Kineta.
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About Kineta, KPI Therapeutics: Kineta aims at developing edge therapeutics in autoimmune disease, viral disease, and chronic pain areas.
Laurent Fischer
President and Chief Executive Officer of Adverum Biotechnologies
Laurent Fischeris the President and Chief Executive Officer of Adverum Biotechnologies. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Geneva and his medical degree from the Geneva Medical School, Switzerland.
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About Adverum Biotechnologies, Allergan: Adverum Biotechnologies is a gene therapy company that focuses on developing medicines that can offer therapeutic benefits to patients.
Reginald Hardy
Co-Founder and President of Brickell Biotech
Mr. Hardy has successfully built an array of pharmaceutical companies. Prior to Brickell, Reginald was the co-founder and President of Concordia Pharmaceuticals, Inc. an oncology drug development company acquired by Kadmon Corporation in 2011. Mr. Hardy was co-founder and President of SANO Corporation, a pharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel transdermal drug delivery systems that was acquired by Elan Corporation. Prior to SANO, Mr. Hardy served as the President of the generics group at IVAX Corporation. Reginald has also held various corporate roles with Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Key Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Hardy earned his B.S. degree in Pharmacy from the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill and M.B.A. from UNC-Greensboro. Mr. Hardy is a Member of the University of North Carolina Innovation Circle whose mission is to create a robust environment for innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the university.
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About Brickell Biotech: Brickell Biotech is focused on the acquisition, development, and commercialization of drug therapies for the treatment of skin diseases.
Andrew Sklawer
Co-Founder and Vice President, Operations of Brickell Biotech
Mr. Sklawer has been involved in a number of development-stage companies and has most recently served as the Director of Operations at Concordia Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an oncology drug development company acquired by Kadmon Corporation in 2011. Prior to joining Concordia, Mr. Sklawer was the Operations Manager at Verid, Inc., a developer of security technology prior to and subsequent to its acquisition by EMC Corporation. Mr. Sklawer holds a B.S. degree in Marketing from the University of Florida and received his M.B.A. from the University of Miami.
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About Brickell Biotech: Brickell Biotech is focused on the acquisition, development, and commercialization of drug therapies for the treatment of skin diseases.
Hunter Howard
Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of Hormone Therapeutics
Hunter Howard has founded three successful HealthTech companies, following Fortune 100 experience, focusing on using technology to improve care access and quality while reducing costs. He built a 900 member medical billing company he sold to a PE firm and now has a national telemedicine platform focusing on home testing and access to specialist physicians anywhere for personal health optimization. Hormone Therapeutics and Therawell share the combined mission to Add Twenty Healthy Years to every Life! They provide patients a Scientific Map to personal Health Optimization using precision in-home testing (blood, hormone, genetic, biome, telomere) and a national telemedicine platform to decode and translate each unique biological make-up and develop ‘Personalized Therapeutics’ programs for an individualized scientific health map to optimal wellness. As life expectancy has increased 64% over the past 100 years (.001% of human evolution) their bodies are not keeping up. Hunter has a BA from SMU and MBAs from UNC and CEIBS in Shanghai China. His teams have won three INC 500 awards, three Dallas 100 awards, DBJ 40U40 and three national health startup competitions.
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About Hormone Therapeutics: National telemedicine platform for health optimization using in-home testing and personalized therapeutics
Christina Kline
Vice President, Marketing of Xeris Pharmaceuticals
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About Xeris Pharmaceuticals: Xeris Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company that develops therapies for patients in endocrinology, neurology, and gastroenterology.
Kenneth Johnson
Senior Vice President of Xeris Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Johnson is currently serving as the Senior Vice President, Clinical Development, Regulatory, Quality Assurance & Medical Affairs at Xeris Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Johnson is responsible for leading these efforts to effectively generate high-quality scientific and clinical evidence for Xeris’ products to support product approval, advance clinical education and practice, inform policy and improve health outcomes for patients. Dr. Johnson has more than 25 years of professional experience in the pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical benefits management and academia. Dr. Johnson was most recently Executive Director, US Medical Affairs for Hospital Specialty Products at Merck. Previously, Dr. Johnson held senior management positions in Medical Affairs and Outcomes Research at Circassia Pharmaceuticals, Durata Therapeutics, Horizon Pharma, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, NeoPharm, Searle/Pharmacia, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He also served as Vice President, Analytics and Outcomes Research at Caremark, working with Fortune 200 employers and other pharmacy benefit purchasers. Dr. Johnson began his professional career on faculty at the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy with a practice and research focus in therapeutic drug monitoring and clinical pharmacokinetics. Dr. Johnson has established de-novo Medical Affairs and Outcomes Research functions for four emerging biopharmaceutical companies. In addition, he has established and led regional Medical Affairs teams for both large global and emerging biopharmaceutical companies. Throughout his career, Dr. Johnson has consistently been recognized for his leadership, strategic thinking, collaboration, and ability to innovate across a broad range of organizations.
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About Xeris Pharmaceuticals: Xeris Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company that develops therapies for patients in endocrinology, neurology, and gastroenterology.
Allison Wey
Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications of Xeris Pharmaceuticals
Ms. Wey serves as Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. She brings over 30 years of experience in investor relations, corporate communications, media relations and investment banking to Xeris. Prior to joining Xeris, Ms. Wey served as Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at Regulus Therapeutics, Durata Therapeutics and Par Pharmaceuticals. Prior to these positions, Ms. Wey was VP, Investor Relations at Boron, LePore & Associates, Senior Vice President at Edelman Financial Worldwide, Managing Director, Financial Communications at Hill & Knowlton, and Associate Director, Equity Capital Markets at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. Ms. Wey is a graduate of Drake University.
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About Durata Therapeutics, Xeris Pharmaceuticals: Xeris Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company that develops therapies for patients in endocrinology, neurology, and gastroenterology.
Anne Marie Cook
Senior Vice President & General Counsel of SAGE Therapeutics
Anne Marie Cook was appointed Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary in December 2011. Ms. Cook was most recently a partner with Boston-based law firm Choate Hall & Stewart LLP (Choate). There she represented life science companies in structuring and negotiating strategic transactions such as joint ventures, collaborations, mergers and acquisitions and intellectual property licenses. She also provided general legal support in connection with the research, development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products. Prior to joining Choate, Ms. Cook was Senior Vice President, Business & Corporate Development, General Counsel at ViaCell, Inc. Prior to that, she was Vice President, Chief Corporate Counsel, at Biogen Idec Inc.
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About SAGE Therapeutics: SAGE Therapeutics develops and delivers novel medicines for most debilitating and disabling central nervous system disorders.
Wen Bo Wang
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations of Fate Therapeutics
Dr. Wen Bo Wang is Senior Vice President, Technical Operations at Fate Therapeutics, overseeing the company’s manufacturing strategies for its pipeline of off-the-shelf cell-based cancer immunotherapy candidates and scaling the Company’s induced pluripotent stem cell iPSC platform to support late-stage clinical and commercial operations. She was formerly Senior Vice President Cell Therapy R&D at Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics Inc (FCDI), where she was responsible for developing the cell therapy R&D strategy and the iPSC based pipeline products and led the next generation production technology development efforts. Previously, she was VP Process Sciences, and directed scale up and scale out platform process development for iPSC based iCell products and MyCell products including automation and bioreactor work. Prior to joining FCDI in 2008, Dr. Wang was Group Leader, Process Sciences, at Geron Corporation, Menlo Park, CA working with embryonic stem cell derived cell therapies and dendritic cell cancer vaccine. From 2001 to 2005, Dr Wang held a number of positions at ViaCell, Boston, MA including Associate Scientific Director, ViaCord Human Umbilical Cord Blood Bank (a subdivision of ViaCell). Dr. Wang serves on the board of directors for Standards Coordinating Body and as US expert at the US Technical Advisory Group (US TAG) for ISO TC/276 Biotechnology. Dr. Wang earned a B.S. in Biology from Ocean University of Qingdao, P.R. China and received her Ph.D. in Biology from Newcastle University, United Kingdom. She conducted post-doctoral training in Cryobiology at Biosciences Research Laboratory, USDA/Agricultural Research Service, Fargo, N.D.
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About Cellular Dynamics International, Fate Therapeutics: Fate Therapeutics is a stem cell and developmental biology research company using biological mechanisms to develop stem cell therapeutics.
Yuichi Iwaki
Founder , President and Chief Executive Officer of MediciNova
Dr. Iwaki holds three professorships at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in the Departments of Urology, Surgery and Pathology and has been Director of the Transplantation Immunology and Immunogenetic Laboratory since 1992. He is also a visiting professor at the Nihon University School of Medicine, Kyushu University and Toho University, School of Medicine in Japan. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, Dr. Iwaki held professorships at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the Departments of Surgery and Pathology from 1989 through 1991. He received both his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Sapporo Medical School in Sapporo, Japan. Dr. Iwaki is the author of 200 peer-reviewed publications and more than 40 books. He has been advising pharmaceutical companies and venture capital funds regarding research and investment strategies for over 30 years and is a board member of several biotechnology companies.
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About MediciNova, MediciNova japan: MediciNova is a biopharmaceutical company that acquires and develops novel, small-molecule therapeutics.
Raul Krauss
Co-Founder & Vice President of Disarm Therapeutics
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About Disarm Therapeutics: Disarm Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing disease-modifying therapeutics for patients with axonal degeneration.
Raul Krauss
Co-Founder & Vice President of Disarm Therapeutics
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About Disarm Therapeutics: Disarm Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing disease-modifying therapeutics for patients with axonal degeneration.
Nick Macris
Vice President, Environment Sector of Precigen
Mr. Macris brings 15 years of business and technical experience in the natural product, industrial and specialty technical industries to Intrexon. Macris joins the company from Marrone Bio Innovations, an early-stage biopesticide company focused on natural product solutions for disease and pest management in plants and aquatic systems where he was Vice President of Business Development. Macris has worked in various roles at several other agricultural and environmental biotech companies, including business development at Purifics ES Inc., corporate development and mergers and acquisitions at FMC Corporation, and corporate level platform development as well as business development activities to establish a biopesticide portfolio at Rohm & Haas. Prior to pursuing his M.B.A., Macris worked in the specialty chemical division and the tape product engineering group at 3M Canada. Macris earned an M.E.Sc. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario and an M.B.A. from the Richard Ivey Business School in London, Canada.
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About Precigen, Purifics ES Inc, Rohm & Haas: Precigen is a life sciences company researching and developing bio-therapeutic control systems to minimize toxicity.
Lubomir (Lubo) Nechev
Senior Vice President CMC Development of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
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About Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization.
Ming Hsieh
President & Chief Executive Officer of Fulgent Therapeutics
Ming Hsieh is Chairman of our Board of Directors, President, and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to founding Fulgent, Mr. Hsieh served as Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the board of directors of Cogent, Inc., or Cogent, a biometric identification services and products company he co-founded in 1990, which was acquired by 3M in 2010. Prior to his tenure at Cogent, Mr. Hsieh founded and served as Vice President of AMAX Technology from 1987 to 1990. Mr. Hsieh currently serves on the board of directors of Fortinet, Inc., a network security company traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “FTNT.” Mr. Hsieh received a B.S.E.E. from USC in 1983 and an M.S.E.E. from USC in 1984, as well as honorary doctoral degrees from USC in 2010 and the University of West Virginia in 2011. Mr. Hsieh has served as a trustee at USC since 2007 and at Fudan University in China since 2011. In 2015, Mr. Hsieh was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Mr. Hsieh was selected to serve on our board of directors based on his extensive management experience, his knowledge of our business, culture and operations as our founder, his engineering expertise and his service for and leadership of our company since inception.
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About Fulgent Therapeutics, Responsive Technology Partners: Fulgent Therapeutics, LLC is a pharmaceutical company focusing on developing and commercializing innovative cancer therapeutics.
John Leonard
President , Chief Executive Officer & Member Board of Directors of Intellia Therapeutics
After a 30-year career in pharmaceutical R&D, John Leonard retired from his position as Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development at AbbVie in 2013. Inspired by the opportunity to work with a new therapeutic modality and form a new company, he returned to his life’s passion and joined the Intellia team to direct the research and development effort to make CRISPR/Cas9 technology into a therapeutic reality. John is among the leading R&D executives who have led breakthrough medicines through their discovery, development and launch into blockbuster drugs. While serving as the Global Head of Pharmaceutical R&D at Abbott Laboratories, John oversaw the development of numerous novel therapeutics. His ground-breaking work with HIV protease inhibitors Norvir® and Kaletra® led to new treatment paradigms for AIDS, his years of work with Humira® made it the all-time top-selling drug worldwide, and he led significant growth of the R&D pipeline at Abbott and Abbvie. John’s teams were twice recognized with the prestigious Prix Galien Award for excellence in pharmaceutical research. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of Intellia, John serves on the Board of Directors of QuintilesIMS (NYSE:Q) and Chimerix (Nasdaq:CMRX). He received his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine followed by a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.
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About Intellia Therapeutics: Intellia Therapeutics is a genome editing company that develops curative gene-editing treatments.
Derek Chalmers
Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, President & Director of Cara Therapeutics
Dr. Chalmers, one of our founders, has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since September 2004 and has served as a member of our board of directors since July 2004. Dr. Chalmers has over 19 years experience in the biotechnology industry with increasing levels of corporate and business responsibilities. Prior to founding our company, Dr. Chalmers co-founded Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA), a drug discovery and development company, and served as its Vice President and Executive Director from June 1997 until May 2004. Dr. Chalmers holds a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Glasgow. Dr. Chalmers’ qualifications to sit on our board of directors include his leadership, executive, managerial and business experience, historical knowledge of our company and his background and experience in the biotechnology industry, including having been a founder of a prior biotechnology company.
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About Cara Therapeutics: Cara Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on developing therapeutics to treat diseases associated with pain and inflammation.
John Sabat
Senior Vice President of Global Sales/Marketing and National Accounts of Akorn
John R. Sabat is a Sr.V.P.National Accounts -Trade Relations at Akorn, Inc.
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About Akorn: Akorn is a niche generic pharmaceutical company engaged in the development, manufacture and marketing of multi-source and branded
Mark Silverberg
Executive Vice President of Operations of Global Quality Assurance & Technical Services of Akorn
An accomplished multi-disciplinary executive with 34 years experience, Mark Silverberg joined Akorn in April 2005.Mark Silverberg directs Akorn’s manufacturing operations, global Quality Assurance and Research and Development programming. He is responsible for the company’s drug product formulation, filling and packaging facilities, warehousing and distribution, Quality / Microbiological / R&D laboratories, as well as Regulatory Compliance / Regulatory Affairs and relationship management with FDA and other domestic and international regulatory authorities. Mark Silverberg joined Akorn after a successful, thirty-year career at Abbott Laboratories, where he served at the Director level in several division and corporate level positions – including the Hospital Product Divisions (HPD), Pharmaceutical Products Division (PPD), Abbott Diagnostics Division (ADD) and Corporate Quality Assurance / Regulatory Affairs. He directed divisional and corporate support activities for large volume, small volume injectable products and oral dosage drugs, as well as medical device product lines.He holds a B.S. Biology from Marquette University.
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About Akorn: Akorn is a niche generic pharmaceutical company engaged in the development, manufacture and marketing of multi-source and branded
