Jeffrey L. Port,
M.D.
Chairman & Co-Founder
Dr. Port is a Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and an Attending Surgeon in the Division of Thoracic Surgery at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center within the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Dr. Port earned his medical school degree and also finished his general surgery residency at the New York University School of Medicine. He then completed his cardiothoracic surgical training at Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where he developed an interest in thoracic oncology, specifically in lung and esophageal cancer. As an Attending Thoracic Surgeon at Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Port specializes in lung and esophageal cancers, mediastinal tumors and Barrett’s Esophagus. He also specializes in the area of minimally invasive thorascopic pulmonary surgery and the treatment of emphysema patients who require lung volume reduction. Dr. Port has authored numerous journals and book chapters on immunotherapy for the treatment of lung and esophageal cancer, as well as the development of vaccines. Dr. Port has an ongoing research collaboration with Dr. Rafii in the area of tumor endothelium and lung regeneration. He is a member of the American College of Surgeons, American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research, American Association of Thoracic Surgery, and Society for Thoracic Surgeons. Dr. Port is Board Certified in Surgery and Thoracic Surgery. He is also the founder of RF Surgical Systems, Inc., a medical device company with headquarters in Bellevue, Washington and engineering R & D facilities in San Diego, California. Today, RF Surgical Systems is the market leader in retained surgical sponge detection.
Paul Finnegan,
M.D., M.B.A.
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Finnegan is Chief Executive Officer of Angiocrine Bioscience. He has more than 20 years of life science management experience in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries – including extensive operational and strategic leadership roles in venture-backed start-ups and multi-billion dollar publically listed global companies, complemented by service on boards of both private and public biotechnology companies. Most recently, Dr. Finnegan has been advising boards and senior management of emerging biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies on strategic, commercial, business development, clinical, and regulatory matters, including companies focused on cellular immunotherapy (for cancer) and cellular regenerative therapies. From 2012-2014, Dr. Finnegan served as Vice President and General Manager, Asia-Pacific for ViroPharma, Inc., which was acquired by Shire PLC for $4.2 billion. In this role, he initiated ViroPharma’s business in the Asia-Pacific region, and launched and developed Cinryze® and commercialized Plenadren®. Dr. Finnegan concurrently served as Director (Board) of Imprimis Pharmaceuticals (2012-2013) and on the Audit, Compensation, and Nomination & Governance Committees. From 2008-2011, Dr. Finnegan was retained exclusively to manage start-ups wholly funded by Avalon Ventures, where he was CEO of Avelas BioSciences and InCode Biotherapeutics, participated as board observer for various Avalon portfolio companies, and provided commercial, clinical and regulatory due diligence for new Avalon Fund investments. From 2007-2008, Dr. Finnegan served as founding CEO of Cecoura Therapeutics, a start-up wholly owned by Paramount BioSciences. From 2001-2007, Dr. Finnegan served as Vice President of Commercial Operations and Development, and then later as Vice President of Global Strategic Marketing for Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. While at Alexion, Dr. Finnegan co-founded the paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria clinical program for eculizumab, built the first commercial organization, and initiated and led the global commercialization of Soliris® – the most successful ultra-orphan product launch in 2007. From 1998-2000, Dr. Finnegan was Senior Director, Global Medical Marketing, APLAC Region for Searle, a division of Monsanto and then of Pharmacia Corp in 2000. While at Searle, Dr. Finnegan played key roles in his market region for the launch of Celebrex® – the most successful pharmaceutical product launch in 1999. Prior to Searle, Dr. Finnegan was a fellowship-trained interventional radiologist and an entrepreneur in the healthcare provider segment. Dr. Finnegan earned his M.D., C.M. from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and his M.B.A. in Finance and Strategy from the University of Chicago, Booth Graduate School of Business and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Canada (FRCPC) and a Member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).
David R. Parkinson,
M.D.
Director
Dr. Parkinson has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of ESSA Pharma Inc. since January 2016, and as a Director of the company since June 2015. Prior to joining ESSA he had been a Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates, Inc. From 2007 until 2012, Dr. Parkinson served as President and CEO of Nodality, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the biological characterization of signaling pathways in patients with malignancy. Until October 2007 he was SVP, Oncology Research and Development at Biogen Idec, where he oversaw all oncology discovery research efforts and the development of the oncology pipeline. Previously he had served as VP, Oncology Development, at Amgen and VP, Global Clinical Oncology Development, at Novartis. In those roles he oversaw the successful clinical development of a series of cancer therapeutics, including Gleevec, Zometa, Femara, and Vectibix. Dr. Parkinson worked at the National Cancer Institute from 1990 to 1997, serving as Chief of the Investigational Drug Branch and then as Acting Associate Director of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP). He is a past Chairman of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Biologics Advisory Committee, a past member of the FDA Science Board, and is a recipient of the FDA’s Cody Medal. He is a past editor of the Journal of Immunotherapy and past president of the Society of Biological Therapy. He has served on the National Cancer Policy Forum of the Institute of Medicine and is a past co-chair of the Cancer Steering Committee of the NIH Foundation Biomarkers Consortium. A past Board Director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, he currently serves as a Board Director for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. He served as Chairperson of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Finance and Audit Committee for 15 years and is a previous elected Board Director of AACR. Dr. Parkinson was a Director of Facet Biotech, Inc., until the acquisition by Abbott Pharmaceuticals, and was a Director of Ambit Biosciences until the acquisition by Daiichi Sankyo. He was also previously a Director at Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Cerulean Pharmaceuticals and Tocagen, Inc (TOCA). He currently serves as Director on the Boards of 3SBio Inc (1530.HK), CTI Biopharma, Inc (CTIC), and is a Co-Founder and Director of Refuge Biotech, Inc. He has held academic positions both at Tufts and at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications.
Martin B. Silverstein,
M.D.
Director
Martin (Marty) Silverstein, M.D., is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of MANA Therapeutics, an adoptive T-cell therapy company developing allogeneic, non-engineered, multi-tumor associated antigens targeting a range of liquid and solid tumors. He joined MANA after its original seed round, and led the successful financing of their Series A round in 2021. Prior to MANA, Dr. Silverstein was Executive Vice President, Strategy for Gilead Sciences, a leading biotechnology company, where his responsibilities included corporate strategy and planning, commercial planning, corporate development, and alliance management. He was an integral part of Gilead’s acquisition of Kite Pharma. Immediately prior to Gilead, Dr. Silverstein was Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Anthem, the second-largest U.S. health insurer. His responsibilities at Anthem included corporate strategy and innovation, corporate development, and enterprise marketing. Prior to Anthem, Dr. Silverstein was a Senior Partner and Managing Director at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he was a founding member of its health care practice and recognized for his role in establishing its pharmaceutical practice. While at BCG, he held roles of increasing responsibility including Global Leader of the health care practice. Dr. Silverstein received his medical degree from Yale University, and his MBA from the Harvard Business School. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in economics. Dr. Silverstein completed his internal medicine residency at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital, a major teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, and is board certified in internal medicine.
James Garmendia
Director
Jimmy Garmendia is the Head of Investments for Dubin & Co., a private investment firm founded by entrepreneur and philanthropist Glenn Dubin. As part of his role, Mr. Garmendia oversees the firms direct private and public portfolio and is responsible for sourcing and executing new investments. Mr. Garmendia also assists in manager selection and performance evaluation. Prior to joining Dubin & Co. in 2021, Mr. Garmendia held analyst positions at Coatue and D.E. Shaw & Co. where he was principally engaged in evaluating investment opportunities across the consumer, media, and technology landscape. Prior to attending business school, Mr. Garmendia was an Associate at Soros Fund Management after beginning his career as an analyst in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Citi. Jimmy has a M.B.A from Harvard Business School and a B.A from Harvard College.
Jill Broadfoot
Director
Jill Broadfoot has served as the Chief Financial Officer at ATyr since July 2018. Prior to joining aTyr, from January 2017 to July 2018, Ms. Broadfoot served as Chief Financial Officer of Emerald Health Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Emerald Health Bioceuticals Inc. where she was responsible for establishing operations for the U.S.-based pharmaceutical and bioceuticals entities as well as the establishment of operations, corporate governance, finance and accounting and investor relations functions, among others. Prior to Emerald Health, Ms. Broadfoot served as Vice President, U.S. Corporate Controller at GW Pharmaceuticals, from May 2016 to January 2017. While at GW Pharmaceuticals, her responsibilities included establishing U.S. commercial operations and implementing U.S. public company financial and accounting standards in connection with the transfer of corporate operations from the U.K. to the U.S. Prior to joining GW Pharmaceuticals, Ms. Broadfoot served as Chief Financial Officer of Vical Inc., from October 2004 to March 2013, where she had oversight of finance, investor relations, manufacturing, information technology, human resources, and business development. Before joining Vical, Ms. Broadfoot held various positions at DJO Global, Inc., most recently as Vice President of Finance. Ms. Broadfoot also served as an audit manager at Ernst & Young LLP. She currently serves on the board of directors for AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Angiocrine Bioscience, Inc. Ms. Broadfoot holds a B.S. in business administration and accounting from San Diego State University and is a Certified Public Accountant.