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Dr. Randy W. Schekman is a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He shared the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work on cell membrane vesicle trafficking.
The discoveries from the Schekman lab has enabled the production of one third of the world’s supply of recombinant human insulin and one hundred percent of the world’s supply of recombinant hepatitis B vaccines. Dr. Schekman studied the enzymology of DNA replication as a graduate student with Arthur Kornberg at Stanford University.
His current interest in cellular membranes developed during a postdoctoral period with S. J. Singer at the University of California, San Diego. At Berkeley, he developed a genetic and biochemical approach to the study of eukaryotic membrane traffic, and Schekman’s laboratory investigates the mechanism of membrane protein traffic in the secretory pathway in eukaryotic cells.
In addition to Nobel Prize, Dr. Schekman has received numerous honors and awards, including the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award in basic biomedical science, the Gairdner International Award, the Amgen Award of the Protein Society, the Albert Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research and the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, a Foreign Associate of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, a Foreign Associate of the Royal Society of London and an Honorary Academician of the Academia Sinica.
Dr. Lewis T. Williams is the Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Walking Fish Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing B cell therapies.
Prior to Walking Fish, Dr. Williams founded and served as a director of Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc., a public biotechnology company, from January 2002 to January 2020, and served as its President and Chief Executive Officer from April 2011 to December 2017. Previously, Dr. Williams spent seven years at Chiron Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, now known as Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Inc., most recently as its Chief Scientific Officer.
He also served on Chiron’s board of directors from 1999 to 2001. Prior to joining Chiron, Dr. Williams was a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and served as Director of the University’s Cardiovascular Research Institution and Daiichi Research Center. Dr. Williams also has served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital and co-founded COR Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on cardiovascular disease.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Williams was previously a member of the board of directors of COR Therapeutics, Inc., and Beckman Coulter, Inc., each of which was a public company during his service as a director.
He currently serves on the Boards of Protagonist Therapeutics, Neoleukin Therapeutics and Arcellx Therapeutics. Dr. Williams has also served as a venture partner of Quan Capital, LLP, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm, since October 2018. Dr. Williams received a B.S. from Rice University and an M.D. and a Ph.D. from Duke University.
Dr. Scheinberg is currently Vincent Astor Chair and Chairman, Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute; Chairman, Experimental Therapeutics Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
He is also Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and Co-chair of the Pharmacology graduate program at the Weill-Cornell University Medical College and Professor in the Gerstner-Sloan Kettering Graduate School at MSKCC. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Scheinberg specializes in the care of patients with leukemia. He investigates new therapeutic approaches to cancer, both in the hospital and in the laboratory.
The focus of his research is the discovery and development of novel, specific immunotherapeutic agents. Eight different therapeutic agents developed by Dr. Scheinberg’s laboratory have reached human clinical trials, which include the first humanized antibodies to treat acute leukemia, the first targeted alpha particle therapies and alpha generators, the first tumor specific fusion oncogene product vaccines, and antibodies to intracellular proteins.
Dr. Scheinberg has published more than 280 papers, chapters, or books in these fields. Dr. Scheinberg received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and his MD degree and PhD degree in pharmacology and experimental therapeutics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Dr. W. Michael Kavanaugh is the former Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Research and Non-Clinical Development of CytomX Therapeutics. He is a licensed physician Board-certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease and serves as Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and on the Scientific Advisory Boards of several companies.
Prior to CytomX, Dr. Kavanaugh was Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Five Prime Therapeutics. Before Five Prime, Dr. Kavanaugh served as the Vice President of Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, Inc. and Executive Director of Oncology Biologics in the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research. He joined Novartis as part of the company’s acquisition of the Chiron Corporation in 2006, where he held positions as Vice President and Head of Antibody and Protein Therapeutics Research.
Dr. Kavanaugh received his medical doctorate from Vanderbilt University and his bachelor’s degree in molecular biochemistry and biophysics from Yale University. He completed training in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease and molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, San Francisco and the Cardiovascular Research Institute.
Stephan Grupp, MD PhD, is the Director of Translational Research for the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and the Yetta Dietch Novotny Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania.
He is a member of the Division of Oncology, the Stem Cell Transplant group, and is Medical Director of the Stem Cell Laboratory. Dr. Grupp completed pediatric residency at the Boston Children’s Hospital, followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and postdoctoral work in Immunology at Harvard University.
He then joined the faculty at Harvard University until 1996, when he came to CHOP. His primary area of clinical research is the use of engineered cell therapies in high risk pediatric cancers. His primary laboratory interest is the molecular control of leukemic cell growth and the development of new cell therapy treatments for pediatric cancers.
Dr. Grupp is a reviewer for several journals and the author of over 120 peer- reviewed journal articles, as well as numerous abstracts and book chapters. He is also the national Chair for Stem Cell Transplantation for the Children’s Oncology Group. Dr. Grupp graduated from the University of Cincinnati after completing the MD/PhD program. His PhD is in Immunology.
Dr. Yuman Fong is the Sangiacomo Chair and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the City of Hope Medical Center.
He is a graduate of Brown University (BA, Medieval Literature, 1981) and Cornell University Medical College (MD, 1984). He was previously appointed to the faculty of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he served on staff for over 20 years, and held the Murray F. Brennan Chair. He is best known clinically for his extensive work in the field of liver and pancreatic surgery–especially for pioneering many laparoscopic, robotic and ablative therapies for these cancers. Dr. Fong has also been active in biologic bench investigation.
His laboratory is focused in the field of gene therapy, designing and studying the use of genetically modified viruses for the killing of cancer. His group was the first to administer recombinant viruses into the blood stream of man as a cancer treatment. His leadership in this field on the national level has included serving as the Chair of the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) of the National Institutes of Health.
He has co-authored over 800 peer reviewed articles and 12 text books. He has served on the editorial boards of 14 journals, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Therapy Oncolytics (Cell Press).
Mr. Solari has served as a member of our board of directors since March 2018.
Mr. Solari has been a solo law practitioner through his professional corporation, Law Office of William S. Solari III, since February 2018.
Prior to working as a solo practitioner, he served as a partner at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP, a law firm, from April 1990 through February 2018, where his practice focused on corporate, real estate law and U.S. and foreign income, gift, estate and GST tax.
Mr. Solari holds a B.A. in Economics and B.S.in Accounting from the University of California, Berkeley. He received a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in 1977 and a LLM in tax from New York University School of Law in 1978.
Mr. Samson has served as a member of our board of directors since August 2018. He founded and has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Samson Medical Technologies, L.L.C., a company specializing in injectable drug delivery systems and programs for hospital and alternate site pharmacists, since 1998.
Mr. Samson was also Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Qualitest Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pharmaceutical company, from 2007 until its purchase by Endo Pharmaceuticals at the end of 2010. Prior to Qualitest Pharmaceuticals, he served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of SICOR, Inc., a pharmaceutical company previously listed on the Nasdaq, from 2001 until it was acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd., a pharmaceutical company, in 2004, after which he served as the Group Vice President of Worldwide Injectables of Teva until 2007.
Prior to that, Mr. Samson was the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Marsam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: MSAM), a publicly held pharmaceutical company until its acquisition in 1995, from 1985 to 1998, and a founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Elkins-Sinn, Inc. (now West-ward, a division of Hikma Pharmaceuticals), from 1967 through 1985.
Mr. Samson currently serves on the boards of directors of public company Antares Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATRS), as well as privately held companies Flynn Pharma Ltd. and NanoPass Technologies Ltd. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of privately held company Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Samson previously served on the boards of directors of Circassia Pharmaceuticals plc, a specialty biopharmaceutical company public in the United Kingdom, as well as privately held companies JHP Pharmaceuticals, LLC (prior to its acquisition by Par Pharmaceutical Companies Inc.), Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. and Baxa Corporation (prior to its acquisition by Baxter International).
Mr. Samson is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and a Trustee of two non-profit organizations, Virtua Health System and The Franklin Institute. Mr. Samson holds five U.S. patents pertaining to pharmaceutical manufacturing. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Temple University.
Mr. Cheng is co-founder and General Partner of Acorn Pacific Ventures. Prior to co-founding Acorn Pacific Ventures in 2015, he was the co-founder of Harbinger Venture Capital.
Mr. Cheng also serves on the boards of directors of [Crown BioScience] and Primax Electronics Corp., both listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, and the following privately held companies: Gaatu Inc. H3 Platform, Inc., B Current Impact Investment and Social Enterprise Insights. He previously served on the boards of directors of the following privately held companies: Quintic Corporation, Cardiva, General Photonics, Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (prior to its initial public offering), Envivio, Inc. (prior to its initial public offering), Centrality Inc. His previous investments include Actrans (acquired by SSTI), Arques (acquired by California Micro Devices), Celestry (acquired by Cadence), Centrality (acquired by SiRF), Paxera (acquired by NeoPhotonics), Plaxo (acquired by Comcast), Synnex (listed in NYSE), and Tasman Networks (acquired by Nortel).
Prior to founding Harbinger Venture in 2000 with the anchor investment from MiTAC/Synnex Group, Mr. Cheng was Senior Vice President of Product Marketing at Synnex (NYSE:SNX). During his 8-year tenure with Synnex, he held various management responsibilities including product line management, engineering, manufacturing operations, new business development, and corporate development. In 2007, Mr. Cheng was Chairman of the Monte Jade Science and Technology Association, an association for Chinese technology and business professionals in the Bay Area. He also writes regularly for several magazines on business trends and philosophy.
Mr. Cheng received his M.S. from National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan, and B.S.in Physics from National Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan.
Ms. Northcut has served as a member of our board of directors since September 2018. Since January 2018, Ms. Northcut has served as a co-founder and the President, Treasurer and Secretary of Oleon Therapeutics, Inc., a company recently formed for the purpose of in-licensing therapeutics-based assets.
From December 2003 until October 2015, Ms. Northcut served as President and Chief Executive Officer of BioHouston, a non-profit organization founded by Houston, Texas area academic/research institutions to assist in the commercialization efforts of development stage life science and biotechnology companies.
From July 2010 through October 2015, Ms. Northcut also served as the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Texas BioAlliance, an organization created to further assist with development efforts of biotechnology and medical device companies in the state of Texas. In these capacities, she organized the Texas Life Science Forum and the Texas Life Science CEO Summit, helping connect biotechnology chief executive officers with funding, technical, regulatory and other resources.
Ms. Northcut was previously a Partner in the international accounting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co., where she worked from 1984 to 2002. From May 2016 to July 2017, Ms. Northcut served on the board of directors of Moleculin Biotech, Inc. (Nasdaq: MBRX), a publicly traded preclinical pharmaceutical company.
She also previously served on the board of Chrysalis BioTherapeutics, a privately held early-stage biopharmaceutical company, from May 2016 through February 2018. She holds a B.B.S. from Harding University.
Mr. Chau has served as a member of our board of directors since our inception in February 2006. Mr. Chau has been actively engaged in private venture capital investment, and the ownership, development and management of real estate in the United States and Greater China for over 30 years.
Mr. Chau has served as the managing member of Desert Spring Biotech Capital, LLC and Suma Ventures LLC, each an investment entity, since February 2006 and November 2011, respectively. Mr. Chau has also served on the investment committee of Acorn Campus China Fund I, LP, a venture capital fund, since August 2012, and prior to that, held various roles as an advisor or member of various funds in the Acorn group of investment funds since 2006.
As a private venture capital investor, Mr. Chau has played a significant role in the early sourcing, financing and development of Crown Bioscience, Inc. (acquired by JSR Life Sciences), Waterstone Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Osel, Inc. and Autekbio, Inc., among other companies. In the information technology sector, Mr. Chau was an early investor in Gigamon Inc. (acquired by Elliot Management), Fortinet, Inc., Accela, Inc. (acquired by Berkshire Partners), SINA Corporation, Telenav, Inc., Achievo Corporation (acquired by Beyondsoft) and Innolight, among other companies. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from California State University, East Bay.
Our board of directors believes that Mr. Chau’s expertise and experience in the venture capital industry and his educational background provide him with the qualifications and skills to serve on our board of directors.
Mr. Cannon has served as a member of our board of directors since January 2016. Since May 2005, Mr. Cannon has been a Co-Owner of Cannon Venture No. 2 LP, a venture capital company.
Mr. Cannon has over forty years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, he worked at SICOR Inc., a Swiss-Italian API manufacturing company, in a variety of positions in manufacturing, quality and regulatory affairs, before transitioning to business development. Mr. Cannon was a member of the team that orchestrated the merger of SICOR with Gensia of San Diego in 1997 and after the merger he served as Chief Scientific Officer.
He then served as a member of SICOR’s board and president of the biotech division until the company was sold to Teva in 2004. Mr. Cannon currently serves on the board of directors of two public companies, Athenex, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATNX) and Moleculin Biotech, Inc. (Nasdaq: MBRX), the privately owned BioSentinel Pharmacueticals, Inc. and three two other privately held companies. Mr. Cannon holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Fordham College.
Our board of directors believes that Mr. Cannon’s expertise and experience in the life sciences industry, experience as a director of other public companies in our industry and his educational background provide him with the qualifications and skills to serve on our board of directors.
Mr. Li has served as our Senior Vice President of Corporate Development since February 2019.
He is responsible for business and corporate development. Dr. Li has over twenty years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and in finance on Wall Street. Prior to Eureka, he served as CFO Ascentage Pharma Group, a biotech company. From 2010 to 2017, Dr. Li worked in Strategic Marketing at Bayer Pharmaceuticals, responsible for Strategy and Portfolio Management and Commercial Development. Before Bayer, Dr. Li worked for Morgan Stanley, Suntrust Robinson Humphrey and Stanford Financial Group.
Dr. Li holds a PhD degree in Pharmacology from Boston University School of Medicine and an MBA. degree in Finance from University of California at Los Angeles.
Mr. Shum has served as our Chief Business Officer since August 2018, our General Counsel since March 2016 and our Secretary since December 2016. Prior to that, he was a partner in the corporate group at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP.
Mr. Shum has over 18 years of experience advising public and private companies on corporate and finance matters, including securities offerings, mergers, acquisitions and strategic transactions, corporate governance and securities law compliance.
Before his legal career, Mr. Shum was an engineer at the Mobil Oil Corporation. Mr. Shum holds a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a JD from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Vivien Chan, Ph.D. has served as our Chief Operating Officer since August 2018 and as our Vice President of Portfolio Management from October 2014 to August 2018.
Prior to joining our company, Dr. Chan served in multiple roles at Novartis AG, most recently as Director of Bioinformatics in Oncology at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, or NIBR, from June 2010 to May 2014, where she led the team that provided data analysis, data capture and integration and bioinformatics analysis for oncology project teams, target ID and validation, Translational Medicine and Pharmacology within NIBR Oncology.
Dr. Chan also previously served as a Research Scientist in oncology target discovery at Chiron Corporation prior to its acquisition by Novartis in April 2006. Dr. Chan completed her post-doctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco. She holds a B.A. in Chemistry from the College of Wooster and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco, where she was also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellow.
Dr. Cheng Liu is the Founder, President and CEO of Eureka Therapeutics. Prior to founding Eureka, Dr. Liu was a Principal Scientist in antibody drug discovery at Chiron (now Novartis).
With over 20 years of experience in the field, he holds more than 500 patents and published patent applications of which over 100 patents have issued worldwide and has authored numerous peer-reviewed papers on cancer immunotherapy.
He is the inventor of multiple first-in-class, clinical-stage cancer drugs against various tumor targets, including drugs targeting CSF1 for the treatment of bone metastasis, BCMA for multiple myeloma, and AFP and GPC3 for liver cancer. In 2007, he was awarded Special U.S. Congressional Recognition for his contributions to improving human health.
He is the editor of the book “Biosimilars of Monoclonal Antibodies: A Practical Guide to Manufacturing, Preclinical, and Clinical Development”. Dr. Liu received his B.S. in Cell Biology and Genetics from Peking University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.