Team
The Revolution Medicines team consists of accomplished leaders in building and operating exceptional life science companies.
Management Team
Mark A. Goldsmith, M.D., Ph.D.
President, Chief Executive Officer and Board Director
Mark grew up around academic medical centers and knew early on that he would devote his professional life to medical science on behalf of patients. After studying biology and science in human affairs at Princeton University, he pursued a dual career in clinical medicine and scientific research through the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). After postgraduate training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and UCSF, Mark joined the faculty of the UCSF School of Medicine, led a dynamic research laboratory within the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology focused on the pathogenesis of and discovery of new treatments for life-threatening viral diseases, and taught and practiced medicine at the San Francisco General Hospital/UCSF. He co-authored 85 scientific publications and is co-inventor on multiple issued patents and applications. He also served as assistant director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology and was consultant and collaborator to a variety of small and large biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Mark has also been active in business since childhood, negotiating his first significant technology deal while a graduate student. After a productive career in academia, he was recruited to the private sector, where he served in senior management roles in private and public biotechnology companies, including Genencor International and Constellation Pharmaceuticals, where he drove the development of an industry-leading strategic alliance with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. Prior to Revolution Medicines, he served as chief executive officer of four companies spanning early discovery through full development. He also served as senior executive-in-residence at Prospect Venture Partners. In 2012, Mark joined Third Rock Ventures full-time to lead its West Coast operations and design, launch and build new biotech companies. As partner, he led the collaboration with David Pompliano, Marty Burke and others that gave rise to Revolution Medicines. From 2015-2018 Mark served as a part-time venture partner at Third Rock Ventures.
Mark holds an A.B. from Princeton University and an M.D. and Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from UCSF. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.
In addition to his role at Revolution Medicines, he serves as chairman of the board for Constellation Pharmaceuticals and is a board director for two drug discovery start-ups, Proneurotech in the field of neurodegeneration and Valerion in rare genetic diseases.
Steve Kelsey, M.D.
President, Research and Development
Realizing he wasn’t good enough to make a career out of playing rugby or soccer, Steve went to medical school. Training as an academic hematologic oncologist in London and working as a clinician scientist at Barts and The London before joining the pharmaceutical industry in 2000, Steve was always motivated to have science drive the discovery of novel therapies. In London, he ran a clinical practice treating patients with leukemias and lymphomas in a research-focused environment, ran a research laboratory doing both basic and translational research and taught hematology to medical students. After two years of leading the clinical development of Sutent® for Pharmacia/SUGEN, he joined Genentech where he became vice president of hematology/oncology, playing a significant role in the development of key products such as Perjeta®, Kadcyla® and Erivedge® as well as other molecules in the company’s oncology portfolio. He then led the development of imetelstat, a first-in-class telomerase inhibitor, at Geron where he served as head of research and development and chief medical officer. Following his time at Geron, Steve served as president of Onkaido Therapeutics, a Moderna Venture focusing on discovery and development of mRNA therapeutics for cancer. During his 17 years in the biotechnology industry, Steve has worked with small molecules, antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, DNA oligonucleotides and mRNA platforms and has driven multiple industry and industry-academia collaborations as part of the mission to provide better drugs for patients with cancer. He has a passion for building and leading high-functioning teams doing groundbreaking cancer research.
Steve graduated with bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery degrees (MB ChB) and a doctorate of medicine (M.D.) from the University of Birmingham, U.K. He is a fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) of London and the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath), U.K. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications spanning cell biology, drug discovery, drug development and patient care, and is a named inventor on several patents. He now watches more soccer than he plays.
Margaret (Peg) Horn, J.D.
Chief Operating Officer
Peg initially studied pharmacy, but shortly into that five-year educational program decided to advance her education by attending either medical or law school. A lawyer-professor at her pharmacy school tailored an independent legal study course for her, sealing her fate. She completed pharmacy school and then studied law at Villanova Law School. While still in law school, she worked part-time in DuPont’s legal department and subsequently joined the company counseling its pharmaceutical division. During her tenure there, she set a pharmaceutical division record for most patent applications filed in one month (12).
Led by an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to see more of the country, she moved to San Francisco. Once there, she embarked on a 25-year adventure in biotechnology, working at both large/public companies (Genencor International and Kosan Biosciences) and small, privately held companies (Cogentus and ProLynx). Through years of corporate experience, international business transactions and worldwide litigation, Peg’s role evolved from patent counsel to general counsel and secretary. At Genencor, she led the legal effort for its IPO (in 2000) and later a multiparty M&A process that resulted in the company’s privatization and acquisition by a multinational conglomerate. Throughout her career, Peg has held multiple senior vice president positions in legal, business and corporate development.
Peg holds a B.S. in pharmacy and a J.D., as well as an executive M.B.A. She is a member of the Pennsylvania and California bars and is a registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. She is a registered pharmacist in Pennsylvania.
Luan M. Wilfong
Senior Vice President, Human Resources
Luan enjoys working with people and building great teams. She knows it takes excellent leadership, ongoing collaboration and an engaging environment to build a successful organization and culture. Early in her career, with an economics degree fresh in hand, she was offered a position in a private banking training program with a financial services company. Instead, with the desire to learn about growing strong teams within an organization, she requested the operations/human resources program. From the financial services industry, she transitioned into technology, and eventually into biotechnology, joining Gilead Sciences where she oversaw talent acquisition by directly recruiting for the scientific and clinical functions, led the compensation and employee benefits programs, and managed the human resources due diligence and task integration group for an early acquisition target.
Since her work at Gilead Sciences, Luan has run her own full-service human resources consulting firm, working with numerous organizations across biotechnology, public health, non-profit and high technology fields. This work included growing their staff, coaching their leaders on the importance of leadership and communication, and implementing key human resources functions and processes for their unique business cultures. Luan has also held executive human resources roles, most recently with Audience, Inc., where she was vice president of human resources, leading the function from the pre-IPO stage through an IPO.
Luan received her professional coaching certification through New Ventures West and holds an economics degree from Santa Clara University and a master’s degree in business administration from Golden Gate University. Luan continues to read and study the art of building exceptional teams and cultures.
Xiaolin Wang, Sc.D.
Senior Vice President, Clinical Development
Growing up next to a women and children’s hospital where her mother practiced, Xiaolin always wanted to be part of the healthcare industry. Leading a clinical development organization working on novel therapeutics is a perfect fit for her aspiration to help patients. With over 20 years of experience in all phases of clinical development across a wide range of therapeutic areas, including solid tumors, lymphoid and myeloid malignancies and others, she will be responsible for clinical science, clinical operations, biometrics, and pharmacovigilance.
Previously, Xiaolin was VP of Biometrics at Acerta Pharma, where she managed biostatistics, statistical programming, and data management, and was a member of the Senior Management Committee. She was a key contributor to the overall development strategy and approval of Calquence® (BTKi) for relapsed/refractory mantel cell lymphoma. Prior to Acerta, she was VP of Biometrics and Development Operations at Geron, where she managed biometrics, clinical operations, medical writing, and DMPK. Before Geron, she spent 11 years at Genentech, where she made significant contributions to Avastin®, Tarceva®, Herceptin®, and Xolair®. At Genentech, she held a number of leadership positions, including development team lead for Xolair and filing team lead for multiple BLA/sBLA’s.
Xiaolin started her industry career at Millennium Pharmaceuticals after receiving her Doctor of Science degree in Biostatistics from Harvard University. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Probability and Statistics from Peking University in China and a Master of Science degree in Statistics from University of Washington, Seattle.
Jack Anders
Vice President, Finance and Principal Accounting Officer
Jack has always had a keen interest in numbers and analytics, but also wanted to be part of teams that focus on improving patients’ lives. Those interests led him into to focusing on the business aspects of biotech organizations.
Jack brings approximately 20 years of finance and accounting experience to Revolution Medicines. Before joining Revolution, Jack was Vice President of Finance at Depomed, Inc., where he spent the last 12 years in various roles with increasing responsibilities including financial planning and analysis, commercial finance, accounting operations and external reporting. At Depomed, Jack helped build and lead the finance and accounting organizations as the company transformed from a drug development company to a commercial pharmaceutical company which raised over $1 billion in financing, completed four asset acquisitions and grew to revenues of over $400 million. Prior to Depomed, Jack had various managerial roles in finance and accounting at Elan Pharmaceuticals, Yahoo! and Novellus Systems. He started his career in the life sciences practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers and is a former CPA.
Jack received his bachelor’s degree from UCLA in Economics with an emphasis in Accounting.
Adrian Gill, Ph.D.
Vice President, Chemistry & CMC
Adrian aspires to not only be a great medicinal chemistry leader, but a leader of great medicinal chemists. Adrian has over 20 years of experience in roles of increasing scientific responsibility and across a diverse range of disease areas in both large pharma and biotech environments, having worked previously for Roche, Astex Therapeutics and more recently, AstraZeneca, where he has been the head of medicinal chemistry for the CVMD iMed.
During his career to date, Adrian has been heavily involved in the identification of over 15 clinical candidates across a variety of disease areas including AT7519 and AT9283, which are in Phase 2 development for a range of human cancers, and AZD4017 for the treatment of diabetes and obesity. Adrian was also a core member of the cell cycle kinase alliance between Astex and Novartis that ultimately led to the discovery of LEE001 (ribociclib), the CDK4/6 inhibitor recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer. In addition, Adrian has authored 20 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is a named inventor on 27 small molecule patent applications. Adrian received his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Sussex, U.K., where he focused on synthetic methodology towards the total synthesis of rapamycin, and has a bachelor’s degree in applied chemistry from the University of Salford, U.K.
Walter (Wally) Reiher, Ph.D.
Vice President, Information Sciences
Wally has spent the last 30 years leveraging technology to deliver insights, foster collaboration, enhance business processes and improve efficiency. He played a key role in the early development of a number of molecular modeling software companies and did research in computational chemistry as an independent contractor at Sterling Winthrop, Eastman Kodak, and Sanofi.
Seeking a broader impact on research, Wally moved into research informatics, leading the implementation of decision support systems for drug discovery at Chiron, Affymax and Exelixis. Most recently, he held the position of vice president of information technology (IT) at Exelixis, where he delivered a number of major infrastructure projects, including the successful reimplementation of the company’s SAP ERP system.
Wally earned his Ph.D. in computational chemistry from Harvard University in the laboratory of Martin Karplus, 2013 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego.
Jan Smith, Ph.D.
Vice President, Biology
Jan is an experienced molecular pharmacologist with a focus in small molecule drug discovery across diverse target classes and therapeutic areas including CNS, gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases. She has 20 years of research and development experience from Theravance, and prior to that, Roche, leading the advancement of several novel drug candidates through discovery into early clinical Phase 1/2 development. Jan conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Irvine and at the Sandoz Institute for Medical Research, London, U.K.
Jan has authored over 30 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, U.K. and her bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of Bath, U.K.
Hirdesh Uppal, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Vice President, Development Sciences
For a drug developer there’s always an element of risk and luck; in his work, Hirdesh has had to place bets and find ways to shape the odds. But there’s nothing more rewarding to him than knowing that the end point of this work is going to save lives. Hirdesh has focused his career on nurturing new ideas, technologies, and scientific strategies into programs that place patients at the center by identifying patient biomarkers and clinical development strategies that promote successful translation of promising molecule-discoveries from Research into Development.
Before joining Revolution Medicines, Hirdesh was Head of Medivation Inc.'s Translational Medicine efforts including clinical development strategies, preclinical research, biomarker discovery (pharmacodynamic and predictive) and companion diagnostic (CDx) development for all portfolio molecules. His role at Medivation included leadership in the translational strategy and clinical development for enzalutamide (XTANDI®) in breast cancer. He was inventor of biomarker and patient predictive strategies and led bench-to-bedside development of enzalutamide for hormonal positive and triple negative breast cancer. In addition, at Medivation Hirdesh supported the translational medicine pipeline consisting of a potentially best-in-class PARP inhibitor (talazoparib), an immune-oncology agent, novel metabolic disease and neuroscience targets, as well as other assets in areas of significant unmet medical need. Prior to Medivation, Hirdesh worked at Genentech Inc. and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd where he provided leadership and strategic alignment of a safety biomarker, stem cell and biochemical-molecular toxicology investigative laboratory group. In this role, he contributed to several patent applications and top tier peer reviewed publications and received industry awards.
Hirdesh received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as well as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree and Master’s in Immunology from Punjab Agricultural University, India. In addition to his scientific training, Hirdesh also participated in executive management and leadership programs at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School and The Wharton School. He has also served in leadership roles in miscellaneous industry consortia and has been an invited speaker at multiple scientific meetings.
Academic Founders
Martin Burke, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Scientific Advisory Board Chairman
Marty grew up dreaming of becoming a doctor or a major league baseball player. The Orioles never called, but Johns Hopkins University did, and so he jumped at the chance. At Hopkins he also discovered a passion for chemistry and its interface with human health. So he next moved to Boston/Cambridge to pursue science and medicine in parallel at Harvard Medical School, Harvard University and MIT. He is now Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Marty’s lab is pioneering the development of molecular prosthetics, small molecules that serve as functional surrogates for missing proteins. To enable this research, he has developed a powerful Lego-like approach for making small molecules involving the iterative assembly of MIDA boronate building blocks, an approach that underlies Revolution Medicines’ product engine. Leveraging this platform, his group has synthesized, understood and/or improved a variety of complex natural products that perform protein-like functions. This includes discovering the mechanism of action of amphotericin B and an atomistic roadmap to improving its therapeutic index.
Marty is the recipient of a number of honors and awards, including the Thieme IUPAC Prize in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, the IOCF Lectureship Award, the Hirata Memorial Gold Medal from Japan, the Early Career Scientist Award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the American Chemical Society Kavli Foundation Emerging Leader in Chemistry Lecturer, the American Chemical Society Elias J. Corey Award for Outstanding Original Contribution in Organic Synthesis by a Young Investigator, the American Chemical Society Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, the UIUC Innovation Discovery Award, the Novartis Chemistry Lectureship, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award, a Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, an NSF CAREER Award, the Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Research Grant in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, the Eli Lilly Grantee Award, the Amgen Young Investigator Award and the AstraZeneca Excellence in Chemistry Award, and he has been named "one of the world's 35 top innovators under age 35" by MIT Technology Review.
He holds a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, Ph.D. from Harvard University, and M.D. from Harvard Medical School and MIT.
Michael Fischbach, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Scientific Advisory Board Member
Michael Fischbach is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University and a Stanford ChEM-H Institute Scholar. Fischbach is a recipient of the NIH Director's Pioneer and New Innovator Awards, an HHMI-Simons Faculty Scholars Award, a Fellowship for Science and Engineering from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, a Medical Research Award from the W.M. Keck Foundation, and a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award. His laboratory uses a combination of genomics, microbiology, synthetic biology, and chemistry to study microbiome-host interactions and construct synthetic microbiomes with defined functions. Fischbach received his Ph.D. as a John and Fannie Hertz Foundation Fellow in chemistry from Harvard in 2007. Fischbach is a member of the board of directors of Achaogen, the scientific advisory board of NGM Biopharmaceuticals, and a co-founder of Revolution Medicines.
Kevan Shokat, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Scientific Advisory Board Member
Kevan is professor and chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco and professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
Kevan is a pioneer in the development of chemical methods for investigating cellular signal transduction pathways—with a particular focus on protein kinases and lipid kinases. His laboratory uses a combination of chemical synthesis and protein engineering to create uniquely traceable and regulatable kinases, allowing the function of more than 100 different kinases to be uncovered across all disease areas including oncology, metabolism and infectious disease.
Kevan has received numerous awards for his work, including being named a Fellow of the Pew Foundation, Searle Foundation, Sloan Foundation, Glaxo-Wellcome Foundation and the Cotrell Foundation. He has also received the Eli Lilly Award, given to the most promising biological chemist in the country under the age of 37.
He is a founder of Intellikine (acquired by Takeda) and Cellular Genomics (acquired by Gilead), co-founder of Araxes Pharmaceuticals, eFFECTOR Therapeutics and Mitokinin, LLC and a scientific advisor at Kura Oncology.
Kevan received his B.S. in chemistry from Reed College and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Board of Directors
Alexis Borisy
Partner, Third Rock Ventures
Alexis grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, deeply embedded in the lab from a young age, at least if that includes sticking your finger in the vortex machines. Wanting to invent matter-antimatter propulsion, Alexis first started on the path of physics, but then fell in love with biology, chemistry and entrepreneurship. A successful serial company builder with more than 20 years of experience launching and operating innovative science-based organizations, Alexis is now a partner and integral member of Third Rock Ventures, and focuses on the formation, development and strategy of new companies. He has played key roles in launching and building several of Third Rock's portfolio companies, including board member and former interim CEO of Blueprint Medicines, board member at Editas Medicine, chairman of the board and former interim CEO at Warp Drive Bio, and co-founder, former interim CEO and chairman of the board at Foundation Medicine. Prior to joining Third Rock Ventures, Alexis founded CombinatoRx in 2000, serving as its chief executive officer and bringing the company public on NASDAQ. He has raised more than $1 billion in financing and business development deals, and has authored numerous scientific papers and patents. He was honored as the MIT Technology Review Innovator of the Year, the New England Entrepreneur of the Year in Life Sciences and as a Presidential Scholar. He serves on the board of the National Venture Capital Association, has served on the board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization and is a trustee at the Boston Museum of Science.
Alexis holds a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Chicago, and completed his graduate training in chemistry and chemical biology as a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Stuart Schreiber at Harvard University.
Larry Lasky, Ph.D.
Partner, The Column Group
Larry Lasky, Ph.D., a partner at The Column Group since 2014, has been an influential scientist in biotechnology for over 35 years. He was a founding scientist of Genetics Institute (later acquired by Wyeth), one of the earliest biotechnology companies. Subsequently he was a leading scientist at Genentech for 20 years where he contributed in various disciplines including vaccinology, immunology, stem cell biology, cellular signaling mechanisms and monoclonal antibody therapy of tumors. He was appointed a Genentech fellow, the company’s highest scientific position.
Prior to joining The Column Group, Larry was with US Venture Partners and was the founding investor of Cleave Biosciences and led the firm’s participation in Intellikine (acquired by Takeda/MLNM) and Calithera Biosciences. As a general partner and co-founder of Latterell Venture Partners from 2002 to 2007, Larry was the founding investor of Proteolix (acquired by Onyx Pharmaceuticals) and OncoMed Pharmaceuticals and was instrumental in the founding of Cellective Therapeutics (acquired by Medimmune), Tetralogic and BioVerdant.
Larry has been a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and currently sits on the board of directors of Carmot Therapeutics, eFFECTOR Pharmaceuticals, Ribon Therapeutics, ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Peloton Therapeutics and OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMED). He is also on the board of trustees of SFJAZZ.
An avid jazz and classical musician, Larry earned a B.A. in music and Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California, Los Angeles and completed his postdoctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology.
Vincent A. Miller, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer, Foundation Medicine
Vince Miller, M.D., an expert in lung cancer and leader in precision oncology enabled by genomic testing, currently serves as chief medical officer of Foundation Medicine. He joined Foundation Medicine in 2011 as senior vice president of clinical development after dedicating over 20 years to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as an attending physician.
Vince’s research focus in drug development and treatment for non–small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) has been pivotal in efforts to further understand and combat the disease. His work in developing therapies targeted at the human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER) family of receptors has been critical in gaining an understanding of the clinical and molecular predictors of sensitivity and resistance to erlotinib and gefitinib in NSCLC.
Vince has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards over the course of his medical career, including the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation’s "A Breath Away from the Cure" award, the prestigious American Cancer Society Clinical Oncology Career Development Award, and the Louise and Allston Boyer Award.
Vince recieved his B.A. from the University of Pennslyvania and M.D. from New Jersey Medical School. He completed his residency at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and his fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Mark A. Goldsmith, M.D., Ph.D.
President, Chief Executive Officer and Board Director
Mark grew up around academic medical centers and knew early on that he would devote his professional life to medical science on behalf of patients. After studying biology and science in human affairs at Princeton University, he pursued a dual career in clinical medicine and scientific research through the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). After postgraduate training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and UCSF, Mark joined the faculty of the UCSF School of Medicine, led a dynamic research laboratory within the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology focused on the pathogenesis of and discovery of new treatments for life-threatening viral diseases, and taught and practiced medicine at the San Francisco General Hospital/UCSF. He co-authored 85 scientific publications and is co-inventor on multiple issued patents and applications. He also served as assistant director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology and was consultant and collaborator to a variety of small and large biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Mark has also been active in business since childhood, negotiating his first significant technology deal while a graduate student. After a productive career in academia, he was recruited to the private sector, where he served in senior management roles in private and public biotechnology companies, including Genencor International and Constellation Pharmaceuticals, where he drove the development of an industry-leading strategic alliance with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. Prior to Revolution Medicines, he served as chief executive officer of four companies spanning early discovery through full development. He also served as senior executive-in-residence at Prospect Venture Partners. In 2012, Mark joined Third Rock Ventures full-time to lead its West Coast operations and design, launch and build new biotech companies. As partner, he led the collaboration with David Pompliano, Marty Burke and others that gave rise to Revolution Medicines. From 2015-2018 Mark served as a part-time venture partner at Third Rock Ventures.
Mark holds an A.B. from Princeton University and an M.D. and Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from UCSF. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.
In addition to his role at Revolution Medicines, he serves as chairman of the board for Constellation Pharmaceuticals and is a board director for two drug discovery start-ups, Proneurotech in the field of neurodegeneration and Valerion in rare genetic diseases.
Liz McKee Anderson
Former Worldwide Vice President, Infectious Diseases and Vaccines at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc
With degrees in engineering and finance and an early career in the chemicals industry, Liz soon discovered her passion for bringing innovative medicines to market to prevent or treat life-threatening disease. Applying a strong analytic framework, strategic discipline and commercial experience in leading high-growth businesses, she brings a deep commitment to partnerships with R&D and operating colleagues to benefit patients.
Liz previously served as the worldwide vice president and commercial leader in the infectious diseases and vaccines global commercial strategy organization at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a Johnson & Johnson company. In this role, she led strategy, global commercialization and market access for the respiratory infections, HIV, sexually transmitted infections and bacterial pathogens portfolios. Liz also helped develop and execute Janssen’s first global vaccines strategy and played a key role in the acquisition of vaccines company Crucell N.V. She held several leadership positions within Johnson & Johnson, including worldwide vice president, immunology & respiratory, global strategic marketing, and worldwide vice president, global strategic marketing for the biotechnology, immunology and oncology business unit. Liz played key roles in the launch or life cycle management of important Janssen brands, including STELARA, SIMPONI, VELCADE and REMICADE, in the development of numerous early- and medium-stage compounds and in the advancement of therapeutic area and company strategies. During her tenure, she served on the Centocor, Inc. and Crucell management boards, the Centyrex and Betalogics internal venture boards, the BIO R&D management board and the Pharmaceuticals Group development committee.
Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Liz was the vice president and general manager of Wyeth Vaccines from 1997 to 2002, where she played a key role in the launch of PREVNAR, a first-in-class vaccine that achieved $1 billion in sales within 18 months of introduction, the most successful launch in the 75-year history of Wyeth and for which she received the President’s Award. Earlier in her career, Liz served as the vice president and general manager for the U.S. biopharmaceuticals business of Rhone Poulenc Rorer and as the vice president of plasma operations for the American National Red Cross.
Liz holds a B.S. in engineering from Rutgers College of Engineering and an M.B.A. in finance from the Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola University in Maryland. She is the Principal of PureSight Advisory LLC, serves on the board of directors of Huntsworth Plc, Bavarian Nordic A/S and Aro Biotherapeutics Company, the Bryn Mawr Hospital Foundation and The Wistar Institute, a leading biomedical research organization, and the advisory board of Naxion, Inc.
Thilo Schroeder, Ph.D.
Partner, Nextech Invest
Thilo Schroeder, Ph.D. is Partner at Nextech Invest Ltd., a global venture fund focused on investing in leading oncology companies. Prior to joining Nextech Invest in 2012, Dr. Schroeder worked in research specializing on the development of Designed Ankyrin Repeat Proteins (DARPins) as specific protein inhibitors (licensed to Molecular Partners / SWX:MOLN). He acquired expertise in molecular biology as an Intern at Micromet Ltd. (now Amgen) and during his studies at the University of Sydney. Dr. Schroeder currently serves as board member of Revolution Medicines, IDEAYA Bioscience, ImaginAb and board observer of Peloton Therapeutics. He is a prior board member of Blueprint Medicines (NASDAQ:BPMC), SiROP Global, and board observer of Tracon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TCON). He holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Zurich in Switzerland, a M.Sc. in biotechnology from the Ecole de Supérieure de Biotechnologie de Strasbourg in France, and a B.Sc. in biology from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.
Barbara Weber, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer, Tango Therapeutics
Barbara has been focused on making a difference for patients as long as she can remember – starting with childhood books about people whose lives were changed by medical advances and the exceptional people behind them. In medical school surgery was her specialty of choice, until a rotation at a renowned trauma center made it clear that her aversion to getting up early would be career-limiting. With the recent discovery of oncogenes, oncology merged her passion for genetics and patients.
Barbara served as Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan and Associate and then Professor of Medicine and Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania. She contributed to the identification of the breast cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 and is internationally recognized for her contributions to understanding their function, genetic epidemiology and clinical management.
In 2005, Barbara joined GlaxoSmithKline as Vice President Oncology Discovery and Translational Medicine with the goal of making a difference to cancer patients as genetically-targeted therapies were being developed. She subsequently served as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Oncology Translational Medicine at Novartis, with a single-minded focus on shortening drug development timelines, increasing success rates and implementing patient selection in phase I clinical studies. The highlight of this work was the FDA approval of the ALK inhibitor ceritinib based on the phase I study, three years after the first patient was dosed.
Barbara subsequently joined Third Rock Ventures. As an EIR and then Venture Partner, she played key leadership roles in the design and launch of Neon Therapeutics, Relay Therapeutics, and Tango Therapeutics. After serving as interim CEO for Tango, Barbara decided she couldn’t bear to hand the leadership role over to someone else and accepted appointment as the company’s long-term CEO; as a part-time Venture Partner, Barb continues to advise TRV on selected companies.
Barbara is an elected member of the honorary societies American Association of Physicians and the American Society for Clinical Investigation, of which she served previously as President. She also has served on numerous scientific advisory boards and on the Boards of Directors for both the ASCO and the AACR. Barbara earned a B.S. in chemistry and M.D. from the University of Washington, and completed residency in Internal Medicine at Yale University and fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Advisors
Julian Adams, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor and Scientific Advisory Board Member
Dr. Adams has more than 30 years of experience in drug discovery and development with a strong focus on cancer research. Dr. Adams, recently joined Gamida Cell as CEO and Chairman, and also serves Clal Biotechnology Industries as its Scientific Advisor. He was previously president of research and development at Infinity Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Infinity in 2003, Dr. Adams was the senior vice president of drug discovery and development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he headed multiple global drug discovery and development programs, including the successful Velcade® (bortezomib) program. Dr. Adams also held senior positions in research and development at LeukoSite (acquired by Millennium) and at ProScript, as well as in medicinal chemistry at Boehringer Ingelheim, where he is credited with discovering Viramune® (nevirapine) for HIV.
Julian has received many awards, including the 2012 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize for his role in the discovery and development of bortezomib, the 2012 C. Chester Stock Award Lectureship from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the 2001 Ribbon of Hope Award for Velcade® from the International Myeloma Foundation. He is an inventor on more than 40 patents and has authored over 100 papers and book chapters in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Adams received his B.S. from McGill University and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also received a Doctor of Science, honoris causa, from McGill University in 2012.
Trever Bivona, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Advisor and Scientific Advisory Board Member
Trever is an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco and a medical oncologist with a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology. He maintains an active academic clinical practice and leads a basic and translational research laboratory focused on cancer genetics, precision medicine, and the molecular basis of targeted therapy response and resistance. Trever’s research has led to the discovery of several mechanisms of resistance to EGFR-targeted therapy, BRAF- and MEK-targeted therapy and ALK-targeted therapy in lung and other cancers.
Trever is the recipient of numerous awards including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Pew-Stewert Scholar Award and the Searle Scholars Award, the Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
Trever attended the New York University School of Medicine where he received his M.D. and Ph.D.
Eric Gordon, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor and Scientific Advisory Board Member
Eric's mother was very afraid of the chemistry set he received as a gift. "This must be powerful stuff," Eric concluded. Thus, Eric began a lifelong love affair with chemistry, drug discovery and chasing innovation.
Eric became a well-known medicinal chemist, senior drug discovery executive, biotech entrepreneur, venture capital investor, science-stage biotech consultant and consulting Stanford professor. He now has 40 years of overall experience in the biotech/pharmaceutical industries, which includes 10 in biotech startups and 11 in venture investing. He has had close involvement in the discovery/development of five approved drugs (plus three in Phase 3 development) and has participated in the founding/co-founding of five companies, two of which were sold to big pharma.
Eric is an accepted authority on medicinal chemistry, antibiotic/natural product chemistry and creating drugs through enzyme inhibition. He has authored more than 200 scientific manuscripts and U.S. patents, and portions of three books, including editing a comprehensive book on combinatorial chemistry. He is the senior author of two manuscripts, which during 1994-1996 were the most frequently cited chemistry papers in the world. For the 32-year period 1975-2007, these two papers were the number two and three most cited papers to appear in Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
In 1997 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and conducted postdoctoral work at Yale University. Eric is also a practicing artist who had his first exhibit in 2016. He is a lifelong Yankee fan, but is old enough to have attended Woodstock, the Beatles concert at Shea Stadium in 1965 and the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.
John Kuriyan, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor and Scientific Advisory Board Member
John is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Howard Hughes Investigator, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, London (2015). John’s research focuses on the structure and mechanism of the enzymes and molecular switches that carry out cellular signal transduction.
John is the recipient of many awards, including the 2005 Richard Lounsbery Award, US National Academy of Science and the 2009 Merck Award, American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for his contributions to structural biology. He is an academic founder of Nurix Pharmaceuticals and a member of the advisory board of Carmot Therapeutics and Amgen, Inc.
John received his B.S. from Juniata College and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.