SUTRO BIOPHARMA - Key Persons
Dr. Krishnan is the Director of the Judy and Bernard Briskin Center for Multiple Myeloma Research at City of Hope in Duarte, CA. She is also Associate Director, Medical Education & Training Program, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic at City of Hope. She is board certified in Hematology and Medical Oncology and serves as Attending Physician at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Krishnan received her B.S (Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Union College in Schenectady, NY and her medical degree from Albany Medical College as part of an accelerated six year medical program where she was inducted into the AOA medical honor society. She completed her residency in Medicine at University of Rochester and fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at New England Deaconess Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School. Her primary research interests include multiple myeloma and has participated in over 50 clinical studies as an individual or principal investigator. Dr. Krishnan's research has been published in numerous medical journals including Blood, Lancet Oncology and New England Journal of Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
- Head of the Gynecological Tumor Unit
Dr. Oaknin is the Head of the Gynecological Tumor Unit and full-time Senior Attending Physician at Medical Oncology Department at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, as well as the Principal Clinical Investigator of the Gynecological Malignancies Group at the Vall d'Hebrón Institute of Oncology. She also leads the Gynecological Cancer program at the Baselga Institute of Oncology. Dr. Oaknin received her Degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid and her Ph.D. from the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona. She is the Principal Investigator on several clinical trials in ovarian, cervical, and endometrial cancer and has authored over 100 publications and presentations. Dr. Oaknin is an executive board member and Co-Chair of the GEICO Group (Spanish Ovarian Cancer Research Group) and an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), and the Spanish Association of Medical Oncology (SEOM).
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Investor Relations
Annie Chang has over 15 years of experience in strategic and advisory roles within the biotechnology, technology, and finance industries. She was previous at Solebury Trout as a Vice President of Investor Relations and led the investor relations and communications programs for small- and mid-cap companies in the biotechnology space. She has worked in the technology industry within corporate development and M&A functions, in asset management at a hedge fund, and in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan. Ms. Chang has a B.S. in Finance from New York University and an MBA from INSEAD.
Arturo Molina, M.D., M.S., FACP, has served as our Chief Medical Officer since February 2016. From February 2013 to February 2016, Dr. Molina served as Vice President of Oncology Scientific Innovation at Johnson & Johnson's California Innovation Center, an organization focused on building early stage collaborations with emerging companies. Previously, Dr. Molina served as Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Clinical Development for Johnson and Johnson's Ortho Biotech Oncology Research and Development, a unit of Cougar Biotechnology, Inc., Chief Medical Officer of Cougar Biotechnology, Inc., Senior Director and Interim Head of Oncology/Hematology in the Department of Medical Research and Clinical Development at Biogen Idec, Inc., and Senior Director of Medical Affairs at IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Since 2006, Dr. Molina has served as a National Advisory Committee Member for the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. From 1991 to 2002, Dr. Molina was a faculty staff physician in the Department of Hematology/Bone Marrow Transplantation and Department of Medical Oncology/Therapeutics Research at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center and Adjunct Professor from 2004 to 2007. Dr. Molina was also on the Board of Directors of the City of Hope Medical Group. Dr. Molina currently serves on the Board of Directors of Forma Therapeutics and is a member of their Research and Development Committee.
Dr. Molina received a B.S. in Zoology and B.A. in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.S. in Physiology and M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine. He is board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology, has an active California medical license and is a staff physician (volunteer) in the Oncology Clinic at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. Since January 2019, Dr. Molina has been an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor (volunteer) in the Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President, Business Development
Ms. Shtylla worked as an independent consultant since 2012, which included consulting for Genentech since 2013. Prior to this, she held numerous positions at Lifescan, a Johnson & Johnson company, including Associate Director of Partnerships and Product Director, U.S. Brand Marketing. Previously, Ms. Shtylla held rol es in Business Development, Technology Transfer, Sales & Operations Planning, Investment Banking and Finance. She received her B.S. from Wayne State University, a M.S. in Mathematics from Youngstown State University and an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
- Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board
Carlos Paya, M.D., Ph.D. is currently the Senior Advisor at Abingworth Ventures, Chair, Board of Directors at Fluidigm and Highlight Therapeutics since 2020 and Board member at BIO, Fluidigm and Mallinckrodt. Dr. Paya received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University Complutense, Madrid, Spain. Followed by his post-doctoral training in viral immunology from Institute Pasteur, Paris, France. U.S. Board certified in Internal Medicine & Infectious Diseases from the Mayo Graduate School, Rochester, MN. During his time at Mayo Medical School, Dr. Paya was the Professor of Medicine, Immunology, and Pathology. He made numerous scientific contributions to the fields of cell biology and viral immunology and to the clinical field of immune-comprised patients; supported by multiple NIH and industry grants. Elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and Editorial Boards of prestigious scientific journals, NIH study sections and Collaborative Groups. Author of over 200 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Paya's track record as senior executive in large-cap pharma, mid-cap and start-up biotech companies. During his 8 years at Immune Design, he was CEO and President, and member of the Board. Immune Design was acquired by Merck (May 2019).
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Committee
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Team
- Science and Technology
Connie Matsui has served as a member, and Chair, of our Board of Directors since June 2019 and brings several decades of general management experience in the biotechnology industry. From June 2018 to May 2019, Ms. Matsui served as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of The San Diego Foundation. From 2004 to 2009, Ms. Matsui served in various leadership positions at Biogen Idec, Inc., including as Executive Vice President, Knowledge and Innovation Networks and Executive Committee member. Prior to that, Ms. Matsui served in various leadership positions at IDEC Pharmaceuticals, a predecessor of Biogen Idec, including Senior Vice President; Collaboration Chair for the late stage development and commercialization of rituximab (tradenames: Rituxan® and MabThera®) in partnership with Roche and Genentech; and Project Leader for Zevalin®, the first radioimmunotherapy approved by the U.S. FDA. Prior to entering the biotechnology industry, Ms. Matsui worked for Wells Fargo Bank in general management, marketing and human resources. Ms. Matsui currently serves on the boards of directors of Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. and Artelo Biosciences, Inc., as well as on the boards of directors of several not-for-profit corporations. Ms. Matsui received a B.A. and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. We believe that Ms. Matsui is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of her strong biotechnology managerial and commercial experience, including her expertise with biopharmaceutical product development, sales and marketing and strategy and operations.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Compensation Committee
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Committee
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Team
- Compensation
- Founder & Member, Four Oaks Partners Consulting, LLC
- Founder & Member, Four Oaks Partners Consultting, LLC
- Member of Our Board of Directors
Daniel H. Petree, has served as a member of our Board of Directors since August 2009. In April 2012, Mr. Petree co-founded Four Oaks Partners Consulting, LLC, which provides transaction advisory services to small and medium-sized life science companies and in 2000, Mr. Petree co-founded P2 Partners, LLC, Four Oaks' predecessor in the same business. Before co-founding P2 Partners, Mr. Petree served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Axys Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Arris Pharmaceuticals, Incorporated and Vice President of Business Development at TSI Corporation and was a corporate and securities lawyer. Mr. Petree previously served on the boards of directors of Lpath, Inc., Biocept, Inc. and Cypress Bioscience, Inc. along with a number of privately held biotechnology companies. Mr. Petree received an A.B. in History and Political Science from Stanford University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. We believe that Mr. Petree is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his experience in the biotechnology industry, including structuring and negotiating pharmaceutical partnering arrangements and strategic transactions.
Mr. Pauling joined Sutro in 2011 and has since held positions of increasing responsibility, including Intellectual Property Counsel, Associate General and Senior Intellectual Property Counsel, and most recently Executive Director of Legal Affairs. Prior to joining Sutro, Mr. Pauling practiced law at Jones Day and at Pennie & Edmonds, LLP. Mr. Pauling received his J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law (magna cum laude), and an M.A. in Molecular Biology and a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
- Co - Chair, Clinical Advisory Board
- Medical Oncologist
Lawrence Fong, MD, is the Efim Guzik Distinguished Professor in Cancer Biology and leads the Cancer Immunotherapy Program at UCSF. He also co-directs the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at UCSF and co-leads the Cancer Immunology Program in the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr Fong will serve as Co-Chair of Sutro's Clinical Advisory Board and will also participate as a member of Sutro's Scientific Advisory Board in his capacity as Co-Chair of the CAB.
Dr. Lawrence Fong is a medical oncologist who specializes in immunotherapy to care for cancer patients with an emphasis on genitourinary cancers (those involving the genital or urinary organs).
A physician-scientist, Dr. Fong studies new immunotherapies for cancer. He is internationally known for his work on multiple FDA-approved cancer immunotherapies including sipuleucel-T and immune checkpoint inhibitors. He has helped conduct numerous clinical trials and is the principal investigator on multiple research projects including those supported by the National Institutes of Health and private foundations. As the leader of UCSF's Cancer Immunotherapy Program, he helps to develop new treatments through early-phase clinical trials of novel immunotherapies. His laboratory focuses on understanding why current treatments work in some patients but not others. Throughout his career, Dr. Fong has received several awards for his scientific contributions, including the National Cancer Institute's Outstanding Investigator Award.
Dr. Fong earned his medical degree at Stanford University. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Washington. He completed an oncology fellowship at Stanford Medicine.
Dr. Fong joined the UCSF faculty in 2001 and is the Efim Guzik Distinguished Professor in Cancer Biology. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles, numerous book chapters, and multiple patents. Dr. Fong has lectured nationally and internationally on cancer immunotherapy.
Job Titles:
- Chief Portfolio Strategy & Alliance Officer
Dr. Vasquez has more than 25 years of biopharmaceutical discovery research and development experience and has lead our alliance and portfolio management since 2015. Prior to joining Sutro, she was Vice President of Program & Portfolio Management at StemCells, Inc., where she was responsible for establishing project management of research and clinical stage programs exploring HuCNS-SC stem cell therapy for Alzheimer's Disease, spinal cord injury and dry AMD. Prior to that she was at Elan, where she held positions of increasing responsibility from Alzheimer's Disease and autoimmune discovery research, to Vice President Research Operations & Program Management, and Vice President Development Program & Portfolio Management. Dr. Vasquez obtained her doctoral degree in immunology from the University of California, San Diego, and received her post-doctoral training at Genentech.
Dr. Nicki Vasquez was recently honored as one of Fierce Pharma 2021 Fiercest Women in Life Sciences. Click the link to read the article, https://www.fiercepharma.com/special-report/women-life-sciences-2021?oly_enc_id=8908A7445778A3R
Edward Albini has served as our Chief Financial Officer since January 2013. During 2012, Mr. Albini served as a consulting Chief Financial Officer for Carbylan Biosurgery, a company focused on the development and commercialization of advanced biomaterial-based joint therapies. From 2011 to 2016, Mr. Albini also served as Chief Financial Officer and Secretary for Itero Holdings, LLC, a successor entity to Itero Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., a company focused on the development and commercialization of protein therapeutics, at which Mr. Albini served as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President from 2009 to 2011. Previously, Mr. Albini served as Chief Financial Officer of Novacea, Inc. and Lynx Therapeutics, Inc., both biopharmaceutical companies. Mr. Albini received a B.S.C. in Accounting from Santa Clara University and an M.B.A. from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Albini is also a certified public accountant (inactive status) in California.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Team
- Audit / Science and Technology
- Member of Science and Technology Committee
- President, Cardinal Health
Heidi Hunter has over 25 years of experience in biotech across the pharmaceutical value chain, from clinical and commercial development through to launch execution. She is currently President at Cardinal Health, where she leads the Specialty Solutions Business. Prior to Cardinal Health, Ms. Hunter was Senior Vice President of the Global Immunology Business Unit at UCB in Brussels. She has also held leadership positions at Boehringer Ingelheim as Senior Vice President and General Manager in its Global Biosimilars Business, and at IQVIA as Vice President of Global Business Partnerships Commercial Solutions. Ms. Hunter also held senior leadership positions in commercial and strategic marketing for biologics and oncology at Centocor, a J&J company. She also led oncology business at Wyeth (today part of Pfizer) in the U.S. and Novo Nordisk in Denmark. Early in Ms. Hunter's career, she led sales and marketing at Ciba-Geigy in Switzerland (today part of Novartis). She is currently on the board of Vicore Pharma. Ms. Hunter earned B.A. from The University of Michigan and her M.B.A. from The University of Chicago.
Job Titles:
- Independent Consultant
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Committee
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Team
- Senior Advisor
- Member of Our Board of Directors
- Member of Science and Technology Committee
- Nominating and Governance / Science and Technology
James Panek has served as a member of our Board of Directors since January 2020. Since 2011, Mr. Panek has served as an Independent Consultant for various biopharmaceutical companies. From 2010 to 2011, Mr. Panek served as interim President, Chief Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer at DiaDexus, Inc. From 2007 to 2010, Mr. Panek served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer for VaxGen, Inc., now a subsidiary of DiaDexus, Inc. From 2002 to 2006, Mr. Panek served as Senior and Executive Vice President of VaxGen, Inc., and Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board for Celltrion Inc., then a VaxGen manufacturing joint venture in Inchon, Korea. In his role with Celltrion, Mr. Panek was responsible for the development and FDA licensure of the first large scale biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Asia. From 1982 to 2001, Mr. Panek served in various capacities with Genentech, Inc., including Senior Vice President, Product Operations, and Vice President, Manufacturing, Engineering and Facilities, where he led the development of the world's largest biotechnology manufacturing facility and was responsible for all operations involved in supplying products for preclinical, clinical, and commercial use. Prior to joining Genentech, Mr. Panek spent six years with Eli Lilly in a variety of engineering and development positions. Mr. Panek previously served on the boards of directors of DiaDexus, Inc., VaxGen, Inc. and Celltrion Inc. Mr. Panek received a B.S. and an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan. We believe that Mr. Panek is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his extensive experience in operations, engineering, manufacturing and product development.
Jane Chung - Chief Commercial Officer
Jane Chung, RPh has over 20 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience building and leading commercial teams. Ms. Chung joins Sutro from AstraZeneca where she most recently served as President and General Manager of AstraZeneca Canada since 2019; and Vice President and Head of U.S. Immuno-Oncology franchise from 2017 to 2019; and Senior Commercial Business Director from 2015 to 2017. Previously, Ms. Chung served as Oncology Region Sales Director and Hematology Director at Onyx Pharmaceuticals from 2013 to 2015 and held diverse roles in Commercial Operations, Marketing and Sales at Genentech from 2003 to 2013. Ms. Chung received her B.A. from Columbia University, New York, and B.S. in Pharmacy from St. John's University, New York.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Team
- Audit
- Managing Director, Skyline Ventures
John G. Freund, M.D., has served as a member of our Board of Directors since February 2014. Dr. Freund founded Skyline Ventures, a venture capital firm, in September 1997, where he served as a Managing Director. Prior to founding Skyline, Dr. Freund served as Managing Director at Chancellor Capital Management, co-founded Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ - ISRG), served in various positions at Acuson Corporation, most recently Executive Vice President, was a general partner at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners and co-founded the Healthcare Group in the Corporate Finance Department of Morgan Stanley. In addition, in 2016 Dr. Freund co-founded and was CEO of Arixa Pharmaceuticals, Inc. an antibiotic company, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2020. Dr. Freund currently serves on the boards of directors of Collegium Pharmaceutical, Inc., SI Bone, Inc. and six U.S. registered investment funds managed by affiliates of Capital Group, Inc. Dr. Freund is a founding member of the Advisory Board for the Harvard Business School Healthcare Initiative. Dr. Freund previously served on the boards of directors of several publicly traded companies, including Proteon Therapeutics, Inc., XenoPort, Inc., where he was Chairman, Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc., MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and MAKO Surgical Corp. Dr. Freund received an A.B. in History from Harvard College, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar. We believe that Dr. Freund is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his training as a physician and his extensive investment, business and board experience with public healthcare and biopharmaceutical companies.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
Dr. Leonard is the Richard T. Silver Distinguished Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Associate Dean for Clinical Research at Weill Cornell Medicine and Vice Chairman of the Weill Department of Medicine. He has board certifications in Hematology and Medical Oncology and serves as Attending Physician at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Leonard received his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University and his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Medicine at New York Hospital - Cornell Medical Center/Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and fellowship in Hematology-Oncology at New York Presbyterian Hospital - Cornell Medical Center. His primary research interests include novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of lymphoma and related hematologic malignancies, and has participated in over 50 clinical studies as an individual or principal investigator. Dr. Leonard's research has been published in numerous medical journals, and he has served as a member of the editorial boards of Blood and Journal of Clinical Oncology. He is the Lymphoma Committee Chair of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a National Cancer Institute-supported cooperative group in the National Clinical Trials Network.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Compensation Committee
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Team
- Physician
- Scientist
- Chairman SAB and Senior Advisor, Cullinan Oncology
- Compensation
- Member of Science and Technology Committee
Dr. Wigginton is a physician and scientist with expertise in cancer immunotherapy drug development. He has over 25 years of experience in clinical oncology, with leadership experience in both academia and industry. Dr. Wigginton currently serves as Senior Advisor and Chairman of the SAB at Cullinan Oncology, Inc. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Checkmate Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Wigginton previously served as Chief Medical Officer of Cullinan Oncology, Inc., and an advisor for MPM Capital. Prior, he was Chief Medical Officer at MacroGenics, where he led the company's clinical development programs. Dr. Wigginton also held leadership positions at Bristol Myers Squibb as Therapeutic Area Head in Immuno-Oncology for Early Clinical Research and as Executive Medical Director and Group Medical Director of Discovery Medicine-Clinical Oncology, and prior to that, Director of Clinical Oncology at Merck & Co. Dr. Wigginton has also served in several positions for the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), including President, Chair of Executive Council, Board of Directors, and leadership roles on various operating committees. Early in his career, Dr. Wigginton worked at the National Cancer Institute for over 14 years and served as Head of the Investigational Biologics Section in the Center for Cancer Research (intramural program). Dr. Wigginton earned his M.D. from the University of Michigan.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Compensation Committee
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Team
- Audit
- CEO / COO, Crestovo LLC
- Member of Our Board of Directors
- President and CEO of Artax
Joseph M. Lobacki has served as a member of our Board of Directors since February 2017. Mr. Lobacki is currently President and CEO of Artax a private biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases focused on modulating the T-Cell Receptor response to antigen stimulation. Previously, Mr. Lobacki served as Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for Verastem, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of therapies for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. From November 2016 to December 2017, Mr. Lobacki served as Chief Operating Officer for Crestovo, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on microbiome therapies. From 2014 to 2016, Mr. Lobacki served as Chief Commercial Officer at Medivation, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on development of novel therapies for the treatment of serious diseases. From 2012 to 2014, Mr. Lobacki also served as General Manager of Oncology and an independent biotechnology consultant at Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on therapies for cancer and rare diseases. Previously, Mr. Lobacki served as Senior Vice-President and Chief Commercial Officer at Micromet, Inc., Senior Vice-President and General Manager of US Transplant and Oncology at Genzyme Corporation and in various other positions at SangStat Medical Corporation, Cell Pathways, Inc., Rhone-Poulenc Rorer and Lederle Laboratories. Mr. Lobacki previously served on the board of directors of Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc. Mr. Lobacki received a B.S. in Biology from Boston College and a B.S. in Pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. We believe that Mr. Lobacki is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his strong biopharmaceutical managerial and commercial experience, including his expertise with biopharmaceutical research and development, sales and marketing and strategy and operations.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President, Discovery
- Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery
Dr. Bedard joined Sutro in February, of 2020, as Vice President of Immunobiology. In March 2021 Dr. Bedard's role was expanded to Vice President, Discovery, integrating Protein Engineering and Lead Discovery, underpinning all new ADC and cytokine discovery. In August 2022, she was promoted to Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery. Prior to joining Sutro, Dr. Bedard held leadership positions at Kineta, most recently as Chief Scientific Officer, Immuno-oncology and Senior Vice President, Discovery and formerly as Vice President of R&D and Head of Virology. Prior to Kineta, she was a senior fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center researching cervical and skin cancer. She is the co-inventor of fifteen filed U.S. patent applications for novel classes of antivirals, adjuv ants, immune agonists and their corresponding methods of identification. Dr. Bedard volunteers her time to the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) as a founding board member of the Seattle Chapter and a mentor for their professional mentoring program. She received the HBA Everest Award in 2019 for her dedication and leadership. She has also served as a National Institutes of Health reviewer and chairperson for Small Business Innovation Research awards. Dr. Bedard received her B.S. from Pennsylvania State University and earned her Ph.D. from University of California, Irvine.
Job Titles:
- Medical Oncologist
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
Dr. Martin is a medical oncologist specializing in the treatment of gynecologic cancers. She spent 15 years at the Fox Chase Cancer Center where she led the Gynecologic Research Program and served as the interim Physician Director of the Office of Clinical Research as well as co-chair of the Scientific Review Committee. She was recruited to the University of Pennsylvania to serve as the Leader of the Gynecologic Medical Oncology Program. She is an Associate Professor in the department of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania and serves as the Associate Director of the Gynecologic Oncology Clinical Research Unit. She has served as the Principal or Site Principal Investigator on over 75 trials and has extensive experience in the design and management of Phase I, II and III clinical trials.
Job Titles:
- Chief People and Communications Officer
Linda Fitzpatrick has served as our Chief People and Communications Officer since August 2018. From January 2008 to August 2018, Ms. Fitzpatrick served as our VP of Human Resources and Communications in the capacity of Senior Advisor. In addition to her strategic consulting practice, she co-founded Parallax Venture Partners, an early stage health care venture fund in April 2002. From October 1992 to March 2002, Ms. Fitzpatrick served as Vice President of Human Resources, Corporate Communications and Operations for Gilead Sciences, Inc. and from February 1985 to September 1992 she served as Director of Investor Relations and Director of Compensation, Benefits and Systems for Genentech, Inc., in addition to heading the human resources and corporate communications strategy for a variety of publicly held biotechnology companies. Ms. Fitzpatrick also serves on a variety of non-profit boards, including board chair roles, in the science, education and community development arenas. Ms. Fitzpatrick received a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from San Francisco State University.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Team
- Member of Science and Technology Committee
- Partner at Samsara BioCapital
Michael Dybbs, Ph.D., has served as a member of our Board of Directors since July 2018. Dr. Dybbs is currently a partner at Samsara BioCapital, where he has worked since March 2017. Prior to joining Samsara, Dr. Dybbs was a partner at New Leaf Venture Partners, where he worked from May 2009 until September 2016. Before joining New Leaf Venture Partners, L.L.C., Dr. Dybbs was a principal at the Boston Consulting Group. Dr. Dybbs currently serves on the boards of directors of Nkarta and several private companies. Dr. Dybbs previously served on the boards of directors of Versartis, Inc. and Dimension Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Dybbs received an A.B. in biochemical sciences from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from University of California, Berkeley, where he was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship. We believe that Dr. Dybbs is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors due to his experience in the life sciences industry and the venture capital industry, and his leadership and management experience.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Clinical Advisory Board
- Professor & Director of Gynecologic Oncology Research
Dr. Naumann is currently Professor & Director of Gynecologic Oncology Research and Associate Medical Director of Clinical Trials at the Levine Cancer Institute, Atrium Health. He did his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology and fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham. He has served as a board member on the Executive Council of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) and the Chair of Education Committee and was a co-director of the SGO Winter meeting. Dr. Nauman has an interest in chemotherapy development including targeted therapies and immune therapies and runs the phase I trials in gynecologic oncology at the Levine Cancer Institute. He has served as a member of the GOG/NRG corpus committee and the Developmental Therapeutics committee.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
Robert Abraham, Ph.D., is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at Vividion Therapeutics. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBPMDI) and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California-San Diego. Dr. Abraham received his B.S. from Bucknell University and his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. Followed by post-doctoral training in both Pharmacology and Immunology at the Mayo Clinic. Early in his career, Dr. Abraham had academic positions at the Mayo Clinic as a Professor in the Department of Immunology and the Department of Pharmacology, and also as Director of Basic Sciences in the Mayo Comprehensive Cancer Center. Followed by Duke University Medical Center, as a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology and also as Associate Director of Translational Research in the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. Next, Dr. Abraham was a Professor at SBPMDI, where he founded the Signal Transduction Research Program and served as the Director of the NCI-designated SBPMDI Cancer Research Center. Dr. Abraham then transitioned from academia to industry, as Vice President of Oncology Research at Wyeth Discovery Research and later as Senior Vice President and Group Head of the Oncology R&D Group in Pfizer Worldwide Research, Development and Medical. He also was the founding Director of the Pfizer Postdoctoral Research Program. Throughout his career, Dr. Abraham has received several awards for his scientific contributions, including the Legacy Laureate Award as an outstanding alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of over 225 scientific publications and has served on and chaired grant review panels at the National Institutes of Health.
Job Titles:
- Chief Technical Operations Officer
Shabbir T. Anik, Ph.D., has served as our Chief Technical Operations Officer since March 2016. From August 2011 to December 2015, Dr. Anik served as Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company focused on developing medicines for the treatment of cancer. Previously, Dr. Anik served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Althea Technologies Inc., President of Global Pharmaceutical Development Services and Chief Scientific Officer for Patheon Inc. and in various leadership positions at Neurex Corporation and Syntex Inc. Dr. Anik received a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Bombay, a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Team
- Audit
- Member of Our Board of Directors
- Strategic Advisor
Shalini Sharp, has served as a member of our Board of Directors since November 2018. In addition, Ms. Sharp currently serves on the Board of Directors of Organon & Co., Neurocrine Biosciences, Precision Biosciences and the TB Alliance. Ms. Sharp previously served as a Strategic Advisor to Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on rare genetic diseases, where she held the positions of Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President from May 2012 to October 2020. Prior to Ultragenyx, Ms. Sharp served as Chief Financial Officer of Agenus Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company focused on cancer immunotherapies, from 2006 to 2012, and from 2003 to 2006 held increasing roles of responsibility at Agenus spanning strategy, finance and business development. Prior to Agenus, Ms. Sharp held similar roles at Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Ms. Sharp also previously served as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company as well as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, specializing in pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Ms. Sharp previously served on the boards of directors of Array Biopharma Inc,. Agenus, and Panacea Acquisition Corp. Ms. Sharp received a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. We believe that Ms. Sharp is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of her financial expertise and extensive experience in the biotechnology industry and extensive service as a director or officer of other life sciences companies.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
- Chief Medical Officer at Cytovia Therapeutics
- Member of the Scienftic Advisory Board
Stanley R. Frankel MD is currently Chief Medical Officer at Cytovia Therapeutics and an Independent Director at Precision Biosciences. Dr. Frankel received his M.D. from Northwestern University. His postgraduate training included residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in NY followed by a fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY where he was Chief Fellow, Hematology. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology. Dr. Frankel had academic positions at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore prior to moving to full time industry positions. He is currently adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, NY. Dr. Frankel was previously Senior Vice-President, Global Drug Development, Cell Therapy at Bristol Myers Squibb and Corporate Vice President, Immuno-Oncology at Celgene. He has had prior corporate experience in drug development at Genta, Merck, Roche, Micromet, and Amgen.
Job Titles:
- President of Research and Chief Scientific Officer
Trevor J. Hallam, Ph.D., has served as our Chief Scientific Officer since December 2010. He was promoted to President, Research and CSO in 2021. Prior to joining us, Dr. Hallam was Executive Vice President of Research & Development at Palatin Technologies, Inc., and held several senior management positions in various pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca PLC, SmithKline & French Laboratories, Ltd., Glaxo Group Research Ltd., Roche Research and Rhone-Poulenc Rorer. Dr. Hallam received a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Kings College, University of London. He then conducted post-doctoral training at the Physiological Laboratory, University of Cambridge.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President, Process & Analtyical Development
- Senior Vice President, Process and Analytical Development
Venkatesh Srinivasan has more than 25+ of experience in Bioprocess Development, Biologics Manufacturing and Tech Transfer in the biopharma industry. From 2011 - 2022, Venkatesh worked at Bayer, where he was most recently, Vice President Global MSAT with responsibilities for the end-to-end support of Bayer's global internal and external commercial manufacturing network for biopharmaceutical Drug Substances and Drug Products. His team also worked closely with internal and partner pipeline products to ensure manufacturability and as well as evaluation of new technology for the company. Venkatesh started his career at Phyton Biotech, where he successfully developed, scaled-up and commercialized a novel plant cell culture technology platform. At Phyton, Venkatesh held leadership roles in Bioprocess Development, Business Development and in managing Phyton's intellectual property portfolio. Venkatesh also cofounded GlycoRx, a company focused on developing novel, half-life extended pharmaceutical proteins and peptides based on a unique glycoengineering platform. Venkatesh received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the State University of New York. He also held post-doctoral appointments at the School of Engineering, Cornell University, and at the Antibody Engineering Laboratory, UC Davis.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Nominating and Governance Team
- Chief Executive Officer and a Member
William J. Newell has served as our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board of Directors since January 2009. Previously, he served as the President of Aerovance, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on respiratory diseases, from 2006 to 2007. Mr. Newell has also served as the Chief Business Officer and Senior Vice President at QLT Inc., in several senior management positions at Axys Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and has experience as a corporate lawyer. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Biotechnology Innovation Organization's (BIO) Health Section and Emerging Company Section and is a member of BIO's executive committee. He also serves on the board of directors of California Life Sciences (CLS) and is member of CLS's executive committee. Mr. Newell received an A.B. in Government from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. We believe that Mr. Newell is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his experience with various biotechnology companies, including working with and serving in various executive positions in life sciences companies.