Board of Directors
Kenneth Bate has served as a member of our board of directors since September 2014 and as our chairman since December 2018. Mr. Bate is currently a director of AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, Epizyme Inc. and Madrigal Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Bate previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Archemix Corp. and NitroMed Inc., Chief Financial Officer of Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Biogen Inc., and co-founded JSB Partners LLC, a banking and advisory services firm for biopharmaceutical and life sciences companies. He holds an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Williams College.
Chairman of the Board
Dr. Ali Behbahani has served as a member of our board of directors since February 2018. Dr. Behbahani is a General Partner on the healthcare team at NEA since 2018, having worked for the fund since 2007, specializing in investments in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors. He is also currently a member of the board of directors of CRISPR Therapeutics, Adaptimmune and Nevro Corp. He has previously worked as a consultant in business development at The Medicines Company and held positions as a Venture Associate at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners from 2000 to 2002 and as a Healthcare Investment Banking Analyst at Lehman Brothers from 1998 to 2000. Dr. Behbahani conducted basic science research in the fields of viral fusion inhibition and structural proteomics at the National Institutes of Health and at Duke University. He graduated summa cum laude and received his bachelor’s degree with distinction in Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Chemistry from Duke University, earned an M.D. from The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania.
Katrine Bosley has served as a member of our board of directors since March 2013 and, until December 2018, served as our chairperson. Ms. Bosley is currently Chairman of the Board of Arrakis Therapeutics. Ms. Bosley served as the Chief Executive Officer of Editas Medicine Inc., a genome editing company, from shortly after its inception through its IPO and entry into clinical development. Prior to Editas, Ms. Bosley was the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The Broad Institute and was Chief Executive Officer of Avila Therapeutics. Before Avila, she was Vice President, Strategic Operations at Adnexus Therapeutics, a Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, and was Vice President, Business Development at Adnexus prior to that. She joined Adnexus from Biogen Idec where she held roles in business development, commercial operations, and portfolio strategy in the United States and Europe. In addition to serving as a director of our Company, Ms. Bosley currently serves as a director of Galapagos NV and Massachusetts Eye and Ear. Ms. Bosley graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Biology.
Chip has served as Genocea’s President and Chief Executive Officer since February 2011 after serving as our Chief Business Officer from August 2010 to February 2011. Chip has also served on our board of directors since February 2011. Prior to joining Genocea, he served as Chief Business Officer at Vanda Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company he co-founded in 2004. While at Vanda, he led the company’s strategic and business development activities and played a central role in raising more than $400 million through business development deals and equity financings. Prior to Vanda, Chip was a principal at Care Capital, a venture capital firm investing in biopharmaceutical companies, after serving in a variety of commercial and strategic roles at SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline). Chip holds a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ron Cooper has served as a member of our board of directors since June 2016. Mr. Cooper is President and CEO of Albireo Pharma, a position to which he was appointed in June 2015. Ron is a life sciences leader with a track record of growing and rejuvenating businesses, brands and organizations – ranging from entrepreneurial, resource-constrained, up to $4.5 billion – in the U.S. and Europe. Prior to Albireo, he was with Bristol-Myers Squibb for more than 25 years working in five different countries and holding positions of increasing responsibility in sales, marketing, and general management, culminating in President of Europe. In Europe, he was responsible for more than 30 countries with sales exceeding $4.5 billion. While at BMS, Ron was directly associated with several product successes, including Abilify®, Avapro®, Atripla®, Eliquis®, Orencia®, Pravachol®, Plavix®, Reyataz®, Sustiva®, Sprycel®, and Yervoy®. He has successfully completed more than a dozen business development deals including the creation of the first single tablet HIV/AIDS regimen partnership. Ron is a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University in Canada.
Michael Higgins has served as a member of our board of directors since February 2015. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Kindex Pharmaceuticals. From 2015 through 2019 he served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Polaris Partners. Prior to Polaris, Mr. Higgins served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from 2003 through 2014, playing a key role in Ironwood’s evolution from a privately funded discovery organization through its initial public offering and the launch of its first commercial product. Under his leadership, the company was able to raise more than one billion dollars to help support the development of the business during that period. From 1997 through 2003, Mr. Higgins worked at Genzyme Corporation in a variety of leadership roles including Vice President, Corporate Finance and Vice President, Business Development. While at Genzyme, he was involved with multiple businesses including the Cell Therapy, Gene Therapy, and Orphan Disease business units. Previously, Mr. Higgins served as Chief Financial Officer of Procept, Inc., from 1992 to 1997, and led the company through its initial public offering. He currently serves as a director of Pulmatrix, Inc. and Is Chairman of the Board at Voyager Therapeutics. Mr. Higgins began his pharmaceutical career as a sales representative for Schering-Plough Corporation. He earned his B.S. from Cornell University and holds an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Gisela M. Schwab, M.D. has served a member of our board of directors since February 2020. Dr. Schwab is President, Product Development and Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer at Exelixis. In this role since February 2016, Dr. Schwab leads Exelixis’ product development program, helping to advance product candidates through development and regulatory approval to commercial launch. In her various roles with the company since 2006, Dr. Schwab has supported the approvals of COMETRIQ® and CABOMETYX® and continues to work to expand the cabozantinib franchise with the goal of bringing advanced treatment options to patients with cancer. Dr. Schwab joined Exelixis from Abgenix, Inc., a human antibody-based product development company, where she was Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer and held other executive-level clinical development positions during her tenure. Prior to working at Abgenix, from 1992 to 1999, Dr. Schwab held positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen Inc., most recently as Director of Clinical Research and Hematology/Oncology Therapeutic Area Team Leader. Dr. Schwab also serves as a member of the board of directors of Cellerant Therapeutics, Inc., and Nordic Nanovector AS. Dr. Schwab holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Heidelberg, trained at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the National Cancer Institute and is board certified in internal medicine and hematology and oncology.
Chief Scientific Officer, ClearPath Vaccines Company
Former Chief Scientific Officer, Wyeth Vaccines
Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School
George Siber, M.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since 2007. Dr. Siber is an internationally recognized vaccine expert with decades of experience in developing innovative vaccines. Dr. Siber’s prior professional experiences include Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Wyeth Vaccines Research, overseeing the development, approval and marketing of six innovative childhood vaccines including Prevenar 7, the first pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Meningitec, the first Meningococcal C conjugate vaccine, Rotashield, the first rotavirus vaccine and FluMist, the first live nasal influenza vaccine. Prevenar 7 has dramatically reduced the burden of pneumococcal disease in the countries that have introduced it and has become the largest selling vaccine (more than $6 Billion per year). Previous to Wyeth, Dr. Siber served as Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories. Under his leadership, the specific immune globulins to CMV (Cytogam) and to RSV (Respigam) the precursor product to Synagis were developed and licensed to MedImmune. Currently, Dr. Siber is Co-Founder and Director of Affinivax which is developing a 24V pneumococcal vaccine and a Klebsiella/Pseudomonas vaccine. Dr. Siber received his undergraduate degree at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec and his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal. In 2016, The Sabin Vaccine Institute awarded the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award to Dr. Siber for his outstanding contributions to immunology and infectious disease research through the development of life-saving vaccines for childhood diseases, including pneumococcus, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and meningococcus.
