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 served as the Chief Executive Officer of Editas Medicine Inc. ("Editas") from June 2014 through February 2019. Prior to Editas, Ms. Bosley was the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The Broad Institute from September 2013 to May 2014. She served as Chief Executive Officer of Avila Therapeutics from May 2009 to March 2012, when Avila was acquired by Celgene Corporation. 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. Earlier, she was part of the healthcare team at the venture firm Highland Capital Partners from 1993 to 1995. 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. She also is a member of the BIO Governing Board and Chair of the Emerging Companies Section of that Board. 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. In January 2015, Mr. Higgins joined Polaris Partners as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. 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. Prior to his work at Ironwood, 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. Mr. Higgins currently serves as a director of Pulmatrix, Inc. and Voyager Therapeutics. Mr. Higgins began his pharmaceutical career as a sales representative for Schering-Plough Corporation in 1986. Mr. Higgins earned his B.S. from Cornell University and holds an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Howard Mayer, M.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since March 2017. Most recently Dr. Mayer served as Head of Rare Disease Business Unit, R&D at Takeda, following his role as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Shire Plc. Dr. Mayer joined Shire in 2012 and was responsible for global clinical development across hematology, immunology, oncology, genetic diseases, GI/metabolic, neuroscience and ophthalmology therapeutic areas. Previously, he served as Chief Medical Officer at EMD Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, since 2009. Prior to that, he held a variety of global roles at Pfizer Inc. including head of clinical development and medical affairs for Virology/Infectious Diseases. Prior to joining Pfizer, he served as Director of Infectious Diseases Clinical Research at Bristol-Myers Squibb for five years. He currently serves on the board of Autism Speaks in New England since 2011. Dr. Mayer obtained his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, which was followed by an internship and residency at Mount Sinai Hospital and an Infectious Diseases fellowship at Harvard Medical School. In 2011 and 2017, he was honored by PharmaVoice as one of the 100 Most Inspiring People in the Life Sciences Industry.
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 $4 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 Chief Scientific Officer of ClearPath Vaccines Company, a vaccine development company focused on developing novel vaccines with high medical need to create a global vaccine portfolio for Astellas Pharma. Dr. Siber is the 2016 recipient of the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal awarded for pioneering in vaccines. 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.
