The principal occupations and business experience, for at least the
past five years, of our Class II Directors are as follows:
Steven Gillis, Ph.D.
Steven Gillis, Ph.D. has served as a member of our Board of
Directors since 2016. Since 2005, Dr. Gillis has been a
managing director at ARCH Venture Partners, a venture capital firm.
From 1994 to 2005, Dr. Gillis served as Chief Executive
Officer and chairman of the board of directors of Corixa
Corporation, which he co-founded in October 1994. Previously,
Dr. Gillis served as Director, Head of Research and
Development, Chief Scientific Officer and acting Chief Executive
Officer of Immunex Corporation, which he co-founded, from 1981 until his
departure in 1994. As a former director and chairman of Trubion
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Dr. Gillis led its acquisition by
Emergent BioSolutions in the fall 2010. Dr. Gillis has served
as a director of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (and as
director of Shire plc prior to its acquisition by Takeda) since
January 2019. In addition, Dr. Gillis has also served as a
director and chairman of VBI Vaccines Inc. since May 2016 and as a
director of Codiak Biosciences, Inc. since November 2015.
Dr. Gillis also currently serves as a director of several
private companies. Dr. Gillis previously served as a director
at Pulmatrix, Inc. from 2008 to 2020, at PhaseRx, Inc. from 2008 to
2018 and at bluebird bio, Inc. from 2011 to 2015. Dr. Gillis
received his B.A. in Biology and English from Williams College and
his Ph.D. in Biological Science from Dartmouth College. We believe
that Dr. Gillis’s knowledge of immunology and experience in
the venture capital industry, particularly with biotechnology and
pharmaceutical companies, qualifies him to serve as a member of our
Board of Directors.
Richard J. Gregory, Ph.D.
Richard J. Gregory, Ph.D. has served as a member of our
Board of Directors since 2015. Prior to his retirement,
Dr. Gregory served as Executive Vice President and Chief
Scientific Officer of ImmunoGen, Inc., a biotechnology company,
from 2015 until August 2019. Prior to joining ImmunoGen, Inc., he
spent 25 years at Genzyme Corporation, a biotechnology company, in
roles of increasing responsibility, including Senior Vice President
and Head of Research from 2003 until Genzyme Corporation’s
acquisition by Sanofi in 2011, and Head of Research and Development
for Genzyme from 2011 through 2014. Dr. Gregory has served as
a director of ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. since October 2016 and as
a director of CANbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc. since April 2020.
Dr. Gregory received his B.A. in Science from Virginia Tech
and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
and completed his post-doctoral work at the Worcester Foundation
for Experimental Biology. We believe that Dr. Gregory’s
experience in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries
and his knowledge of immunology qualifies him to serve as a member
of our Board of Directors.
Kush M. Parmar, M.D., Ph.D.
Kush M. Parmar, M.D., Ph.D. has served as a member of our
Board of Directors since 2015 and as Chairman of the Board since
March 2018. Dr. Parmar is a Managing Partner at 5AM Venture
Management LLC, an early stage venture capital firm focused on the
life sciences, where he has been since 2010. Before joining 5AM,
from 2002 to 2010, he was at Harvard Medical School, where he was
an NIH-sponsored M.D./Ph.D.
physician scientist fellow in the joint Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and
Technology Program. Dr. Parmar has served on the boards of
5:01 Acquisition Corp. since September 2020, Akouos, Inc., since
October 2017, Entrada Therapeutics, Inc. since October 2016,
Rallybio Corporation since April 2018, Vor Biopharma Inc. since
February 2019, and Syngene International Ltd. since July 2020. He
has also served on the boards of numerous private companies. He
previously served as a board member or observer for Arvinas, Inc.,
Achaogen, Inc., Audentes Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by Astellas
Pharma Inc.), Pulmatrix, Inc. and scPharmaceuticals Inc. He is a
member of the scientific advisory boards of Penn Medicine,
Princeton University’s Department of Molecular Biology, and the
Grace Science Foundation, and is a fellow of the Society of
Kauffman Fellows. Before joining 5AM, Dr. Parmar completed
clinical clerkships at the Massachusetts General & Brigham
and Women’s Hospitals, attended courses at Harvard Business School
and consulted for an oncology startup. He also founded a
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