CHIMERIX - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- in 2020 As Vice President Clinical Operations
- Vice President of Clinical Operations
Ms. Barnett joined Chimerix in 2020 as Vice President Clinical Operations. She brings 25 years of clinical development experience with primary focus in Clinical Project Management and Clinical Operations. Prior to joining Chimerix, Ms. Barnett served as Vice President Clinical Operations for Advanced Accelerator Applications, a Novartis Company where she led the execution of the prostate cancer program and a highly complex Phase 3 program with radioligand therapy. She was previously with Endocyte, Inc prior to the acquisition by Novartis. Ms. Barnett also held numerous positions with Eli Lilly and Company where she simultaneously led multiple global Phase 3 oncology trials which led to product approvals. She has been responsible for global and regional clinical operations, including patient enrollment, protocol development, regulatory inspections, and project management with Novartis and Eli Lilly and Company. Ms. Barnett has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from West Virginia University and a Master of Science in Nursing from Indiana University.
Job Titles:
- in 2022 As Vice President of Regulatory Affairs
- Vice President Regulatory Affairs
Christopher Jordan joined Chimerix in 2022 as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs. He has more than 30 years of global drug development experience spanning the development process from compound discovery to Phase 3, submission and approval. Prior to joining Chimerix, Mr. Jordan served as the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Endocyte, and then as a Senior Global Program Regulatory Director following the acquisition by Novartis. In these roles he led the development and execution of the global regulatory strategy for PLUVICTO®, the first radioligand therapy approved for metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer, and LOCAMETZ®, the first PET imaging agent approved to select patients for PLUVICTO therapy. Prior to his roles at Endocyte/Novartis, Mr. Jordan worked at Eli Lilly in roles of increasing responsibility across discovery, project management, clinical research and regulatory affairs. He also served as an adjunct professor of regulatory affairs at George Washington University from 2017 to 2019. Mr. Jordan earned his Master of Science in Health Science in Regulatory Affairs from George Washington University, and Bachelor Science in Chemistry from Purdue University.
Job Titles:
- VP of Accounting and Finance
David Jakeman, CPA, joined Chimerix in 2009 and was named Vice President of Finance and Accounting in 2023. He currently serves as Chimerix's Principal Accounting Officer and oversees all finance and accounting functions including accounting operations, external SEC reporting, financial and internal control audit oversight, equity administration, treasury and risk management. Prior to joining Chimerix he started his career at Ernst & Young in Atlanta before transferring to the Raleigh office where he promoted to Senior Manager giving him over 20 years of combined experience in public accounting and corporate finance and accounting. He received both his Masters of Accounting and B.S. of Business Administration from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Allen Melemed is the Chief Medical Officer at Chimerix. Dr. Melemed joined Chimerix from Eli Lily where he has spent more than 20 years dedicated to the clinical development and approval of oncology medicines across a broad range of tumor types including VERZENIO®, CYRAMZA®, LARTRUVO®, ALIMTA® and RETEVMO® among others. Most recently, he served as a Distinguished Medical Fellow and Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs Oncology, North America. In addition to his role at Eli Lilly, Dr. Melemed was an attending physician in pediatric oncology at Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine, Riley Children's Hospital from 1996 to 2012.
Dr. Pablo Lee is the Head of Medical Affairs at Chimerix. Dr. Lee joined Chimerix in November 2023, bringing over 20 years of academic, clinical and industry experience. Prior to joining Chimerix, Dr. Lee was the VP of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at Verastem Inc. Prior to this role, Dr. Lee held different leadership positions in clinical development and medical affairs at Eli Lilly and Company, Imclone Systems Inc., Loxo Oncology and Hutchmed International with extensive medical launch experience in Targeted Therapies and Precision Medicine focused on both solid and liquid tumors. Dr. Lee obtained his medical degree, magna cum laude, from the School of Medicine at University of Buenos Aires. He is a board-certified internist by training. He also graduated from the MBA program at the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania with a Joseph Wharton Fellowship.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Team
- Audit
Mr. Middleton has served as one of our directors since March 2018. He currently serves as a Managing Director of Sanderling Ventures, where he has worked for over 30 years as an investor, management team member and as a director in over 25 new biomedical ventures built in Sanderling's venture investment portfolios since 1988. During his time at Sanderling, Mr. Middleton served as Vice Chairman and Chief Business Officer of Altor Biosciences, where he helped raise over $100M for clinical trials development and negotiated its subsequent acquisition by ImmunityBio, Inc. Mr. Middleton was an investor in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and served as a board member and as the company's CFO during its initial public offering in 1991. Earlier in his career, Mr. Middleton served as the third original member of the Genentech management team as its Chief Financial Officer from 1978-2004, completing its IPO in 1980. Mr. Middleton currently serves on the Boards of Directors for Calcimedica, Inc. (CALC) a publicly traded company and TheraVida, Inc. and Asteres, Inc, both privately held companies. Mr. Middleton holds a B.S. in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School.
Joshua Allen, PhD, joined Chimerix in 2021 as Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Allen discovered the anti-cancer activity of ONC201 and co-invented the imipridone class of compounds. Dr. Allen has continuously advanced the research and development of ONC201 from academic discovery to its registration program, along with the creation and clinical introduction of biologically distinct derivatives. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania. Several research publications, patents, grants, and awards reflect his scientific and entrepreneurial efforts in oncology, including recognition on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Prior to joining Chimerix, Dr. Allen served as Chief Scientific Officer at Oncoceutics. Dr. Allen also serves in advisory roles for disease foundations such as the National Brain Tumor Society and translational medicine programs such as SPARK at Stanford University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Team
Lisa Decker, PhD, joined the board of directors for Chimerix in December 2023. She currently serves as Chief Business Officer at IGM Biosciences, Inc., and brings more than 25 years of drug development and business development experience. Prior to her role at IGM Biosciences, Dr. Decker was Chief Business Officer at Atreca Inc., where she oversaw the business development and alliance management functions. Before that, she served in multiple roles at Nektar Therapeutics, most recently serving as Vice President, Business Development. Earlier in her career, Dr. Decker served in several roles at the Office of Technology Management at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Decker received her Ph.D. in Immunology from Tufts University School of Medicine and her B.A. in Biology from the College of the Holy Cross.
Job Titles:
- Lead Independent Director
- Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Team
- Audit
- National Association of Corporate Directors Board Governance Fellow
Ms. Demski has served on the Board of Directors since 2005 and was Chair from June 2018 thru July 2023. Ms. Demski also currently serves as a director of Alpha Teknova Inc. and Equillium Inc., both of which are public biopharmaceutical companies where she chairs the audit committee and is a member of the compensation committee of both companies. She previously served as chair of the audit committee and compensation committee member of both Adamas Pharmaceuticals Inc. from 2014 to 2021 and ADMA Biologics Inc. from 2020 to 2023. Additionally, Ms. Demski has more than 13 years of banking experience with Bank of America.
Ms. Demski is a National Association of Corporate Directors Board Governance Fellow, and she received the Director of the Year in Corporate Governance award by the Corporate Directors Forum in 2017. Ms. Demski earned her B.A. from Michigan State University and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in accounting and finance.
Job Titles:
- General Counsel
- Senior Vice President
Dr. Alrutz joined Chimerix in 2012 and was named Vice President, General Counsel in September 2014. From 2002 to 2011, Dr. Alrutz was counsel to Trimeris, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRMS), serving in a variety of in-house positions, most recently as General Counsel. While at Trimeris, Dr. Alrutz had primary responsibility and oversight of the company's legal department during the development and commercialization of FUZEON®, a first-in-class viral fusion inhibitor for the treatment of HIV. Dr. Alrutz received his JD from Duke University School of Law and his PhD in molecular biology from the Tufts University Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
x Michelle LaSpaluto Chief Financial Officer Michelle LaSpaluto joined Chimerix in 2011 and was named Chief Financial Officer in December 2023. Prior to becoming CFO, Ms. LaSpaluto was Vice President of Corporate Financial Planning and Investor Relations since 2019. Since joining Chimerix in 2011 Ms. LaSpaluto has served in roles of increasing responsibility spanning finance, accounting, project planning, investor relations and strategy. She has over 25 years of experience in a range of financial, accounting and project planning roles. Prior to joining Chimerix, Ms. LaSpaluto was the senior director of accounting at AlphaVax, Inc. and started her career at Coopers & Lybrand in Detroit before transferring to Raleigh with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Ms. LaSpaluto received her MBA from East Carolina University and her B.A. in Accounting from Michigan State University.
Mr. Andriole became President, CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of Chimerix in August 2023.
Prior to becoming President and CEO, Mr. Andriole was Chimerix's Chief Business Officer and CFO from 2019 to 2023 during which time he led key strategic acquisitions, divestitures and capital raising transactions which reprioritized Chimerix's pipeline and recapitalized the Company.
Prior to joining Chimerix, Mr. Andriole served as CFO of Endocyte, Inc., a leader in developing targeted treatments for prostate and other cancers where he was instrumental in managing the company through a series of strategic transactions culminating in a sale to Novartis for $2.1 billion, including raising nearly $300 million in capital.
Prior to Endocyte, Mr. Andriole spent 16 years at Eli Lilly and Company in a range of financial, marketing and global business development roles.
Mr. Andriole earned a BSBA from Xavier University's Williams School of Business and an MBA from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Team
Mr. Sherman was named Chairman of the Board in August 2023. Prior to this role, Mr. Sherman was the Chief Executive Officer of Chimerix since 2019. Before joining the Company, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Endocyte and led it from a $200 million market capitalization to its $2.1 billion acquisition by Novartis in 2018. Mr. Sherman repositioned the company by re-prioritizing the pipeline, acquiring an external asset, and aggressively executing a phase 3 regulatory and clinical strategy. He joined the company in 2006 and as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer and was instrumental in Endocyte's IPO and four subsequent financings. Prior to joining Endocyte, Mr. Sherman served in various executive roles, including senor staff positions for the European and US operations of Guidant Corporation, a cardiovascular device manufacturer acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation. Mr. Sherman holds a BA in economics from DePauw University and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, graduating as a Tuck Scholar. Mr. Sherman currently serves on the Board of Directors at Werewolf Therapeutics, Inc. He also served on the Boards of Directors at Biospecifics Technologies, Inc. until the company's acquisition by Endo Pharmaceuticals, Mead Johnson Nutrition until the company's acquisition by Reckitt Benckiser and was the past Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
Job Titles:
- Vice President Clinical Pharmacology and Translational Medicine
- Vice President of Clinical Pharmacology
Dr. Naderer joined Chimerix as Vice President of Clinical Pharmacology and Translational Medicine. He brings more than 15 years of clinical pharmacology and development leadership experience in the area of infectious diseases. Dr. Naderer joins Chimerix from GlaxoSmithKline, where he served most recently as Medicine Development Leader and Senior Scientific Director, Infectious Diseases. He previously served as Clinical Pharmacologist in the Antiviral Clinical Pharmacology/Discovery Medicine and Senior Clinical Research Scientist in HIV and Opportunistic Infections. Dr. Naderer has also served most recently as the EFPIA Coordinator for the IMI-funded New Drugs for Bad Bugs Clinical Trial Consortium (COMBACTE) that is being developed in Europe. Dr. Naderer earned a B.S. in Nutrition and Medical Dietetics and his PharmD at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Mr. Machado has served as one of our directors since June 2014. Mr. Machado also currently serves as board chair at Adverum Biotechnologies, and as a director at Acelyrin, Arcus Biosciences, Turnstone Biologics and Xenon Pharmaceuticals, all of which are public pharmaceutical companies, as well as Roivant Sciences Ltd. a private biopharmaceutical company. Mr. Machado is a co-founder of Medivation, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, and served on its Board of Directors from April 2014 until the company was acquired by Pfizer in September 2016. Prior to his retirement in April 2014, Mr. Machado served as Medivation's Chief Financial Officer since its inception in September 2003 and as its Chief Business Officer since December 2009. From 1998 until 2001, Mr. Machado was employed by ProDuct Health, Inc., a privately held medical device company: as Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and General Counsel from 1998 to 2000, and as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from 2000 to 2001. From 2001 until 2002, Mr. Machado served as a consultant to Cytyc Corporation, to assist with transitional matters related to Cytyc Corporation's acquisition of ProDuct Health, Inc. Mr. Machado received a JD from Harvard Law School and a BA and a BS in German and Economics, respectively, from Santa Clara University.
Job Titles:
- Nominating and Corporate Governance
Dr. Multani joined the board of directors for Chimerix in February 2020. He currently serves as Chief Medical Officer of ORIC Pharmaceuticals and brings more than 20 years of experience advancing oncology products from the clinic through regulatory approval. Dr. Multani also currently serves on the board of Erasca, a private biotechnology company. Prior to joining ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Multani served as Chief Medical Officer of Ignyta, which was acquired by Roche in 2017. Before joining Ignyta, Dr. Multani was Chief Medical Officer of Fate Therapeutics, and prior to that held multiple leadership positions at Kalypsys, Kanisa, and Salmedix. Dr. Multani started his biotech career at Biogen Idec., where he was involved with the development of both Zevalin and Rituxan for treatment of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Earlier in his career, Dr. Multani held academic and clinical positions at Harvard Medical School and at Massachusetts General Hospital. His postdoctoral training included a fellowship in hematology and oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an internship and residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Multani received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and an M.S. in clinical epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Team
- Compensation
Dr. Meyer has served as one of our directors since March 2018. He currently serves as Principal, Drug and Biological Products at Greenleaf Health, an FDA-focused strategic advising company. He is also an Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia, where he was formerly the Director of the Virginia Center for Translational and Regulatory Sciences. Dr. Meyer has served as one of our directors since March 2018. He currently serves as Principal, Drug and Biological Products at Greenleaf Health, an FDA-focused strategic advising company. He is also an Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia, where he was formerly the Director of the Virginia Center for Translational and Regulatory Sciences from 2013-2017. Dr. Meyer previously was on the board of Cardiome Pharma and was a Trustee of the US Pharmacopeia for the 2015-2020 cycle. Prior to joining the faculty at UVA, Dr. Meyer was Vice President and Head, Global Regulatory Strategy, Policy and Safety at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL), joining Merck in October 2007. Prior to Merck, Dr. Meyer worked for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 1994-2007. In his last five years at the FDA, Dr. Meyer was the Director for the Office of Drug Evaluation II (ODEII) within Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), with responsibilities for pulmonary and allergy, metabolic and endocrine, analgesics, anesthetics and rheumatologic drug products. Dr. Meyer holds a B.A. from Lehigh University and an M.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Chief Manufacturing Technology Officer
Dr. Ware joined Chimerix in 2007 promoted to Vice President, Chemistry in 2015 and in 2017 was named Chief Manufacturing and Technology Officer. Prior to joining Chimerix, he worked at PharmaCore, Inc. and Scynexis, Inc. (contractor) in the areas of chemical process development and cGMP synthesis for various classes of compounds, including anti-cancer agents. Dr. Ware also contributed to oncology (PI3-kinase inhibitors) and malaria programs during his tenure at Serenex, Inc. where he led a team of medicinal chemists. Dr. Ware worked in the area of drug addiction therapy as a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Triangle Institute International under the direction of Dr. F. Ivy Carroll. He received his PhD from Wake Forest University, MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and BA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Biostatistics
Tom Brundage joined Chimerix in 2012 and was named Vice President of Biostatistics in 2021. He has over 25 years of development experience leading the study design, data collection, analysis, reporting, and submission activities for clinical trials across Phases I to IV. Prior to joining Chimerix, Mr. Brundage served in roles of increasing responsibility at Schering-Plough, Stiefel, and GlaxoSmithKline. He has been a key contributor to the development of numerous successful products throughout his career, including Noxafil®, Olux-E®, and Tembexa®. Mr. Brundage earned his BSE in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and his MS in Statistics from Rutgers University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating and Commercial Officer
Mr. Riga joined Chimerix in November 2023 with over 25 years of leadership experience. Prior to joining Chimerix, he was the President and Chief Executive Officer at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals from January 2022 through its acquisition in July 2023. In addition, he served as Chief Commercial Officer for nine years and Chief Operating Officer for five years. Before joining Spectrum, he led multiple oncology product teams holding commercial sales and marketing leadership positions at Dendreon, Amgen and Eli Lilly and Company. He began his career at Wyeth Ayerst Laboratories in pharmaceutical manufacturing. His diverse experience has integrated leadership and strategy to create meaningful value throughout his career.
Mr. Riga has been directly responsible for the successful commercialization of multiple oncology launches, consistently producing top-tier results. His commercial launch experience includes rare diseases, therapeutic and supportive care oncology.
Additionally, Mr. Riga has significant corporate and business development experience. He has executed deals including in-licensing and out-licensing assets, academic IP, and strategic M&A. He has led over $1 billion dollars of business development transactions across the healthcare space both domestically and internationally.
He holds a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from St. Lawrence University and is an accredited public company director from UCLA's Anderson School of Business.
Ms. Vakiener joined the board of directors for Chimerix in April 2021. Over the course of her career, she has served as Epizyme's Chief Commercial Officer where she led the company's commercial efforts and oversaw the successful launch of Tazemetostat in two indications. For over 20 years, Vicki has held positions of leadership across Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceuticals and diagnostics businesses focused in oncology. In addition, Vicki was the Vice President and Oncology Global Commercial Leader for Prostate Cancer at Janssen and led a cross-functional team to develop and execute the global commercial strategy for its portfolio of late stage and early pipeline compounds. She also previously served as the Vice President of Oncology Marketing at Janssen Oncology U.S., where she directed all marketing activities for ZYTIGA®, IMBRUVICA®, DARZALEX® and YONDELIS® and drove launch planning for ERLEADA® and ZEJULA®.