management

Board

Philip Goelet, Ph.D. Chairman

See Philip’s biography under Founders.

Peter Suzdak Ph.D. Board Member

Peter has more than 29 years’ experience in U.S. and European based Pharmaceutical companies and has established multiple Research and Development organizations which have resulted in the filing of 17 IND’s and 3 NDA/sNDA’s. Most recently Peter was CEO of Rexahn Pharmaceuticals where he refocused and recapitalized the company raising $75M in public financings. Peter has also co-Founded Artesian Therapeutics (which was acquired by Cardiome Pharma), Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals (which was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb) and Corridor Pharmaceuticals (which was acquired by AstraZeneca). Peter has raised more than $43M in venture capital financings and $75M in public financings.
Peter’s experience also includes his position as Senior Vice President of Research and Development of Guilford Pharmaceuticals, and as Director of Neurobiology for Novo Nordisk. Peter was also a PRAT fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Peter holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Connecticut.

John Halberstadt, MBA Board Member

John is a retired DuPont executive with over 38 years of experience in the chemical and biochemical industries leading the formation and implementation of new ventures in a variety of technologies. His leadership roles included wholly owned DuPont ventures and two and three party joint ventures in the U.S. and such globally diverse locations as China, Brazil and Northern Ireland. In 2000, following his return from China, John transitioned from chemistry to biotechnology, joining DuPont’s newly formed Bio-Based Materials group where he led the negotiations and subsequently became founding president of DuPont’s Bio-PDO Venture resulting in the successful commercialization of Bio-PDO and Sorona® polymer. Since retirement he has devoted his time to consulting through his LLC venture, Lakeside Consultants, and to church and family. From 2008 – 2016 he served as President of the Council on Finance and Administration for the Peninsula-Delaware Conference of the United Methodist Church (approximately 420 churches), leading them through the “great recession”. John is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an MBA from the University of Delaware.

Martin Mullins Board Member

Martin is vice president and is the chief operating officer at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He previously served as: Vice President for Licensing, Georgetown University; Associate Vice President for Licensing, Case Western Reserve University; and, Senior Technology Licensing Manager and Interim Director, Office of Technology Licensing & Industry Sponsored Research, Harvard Medical School. Prior to arriving in the United States he held positions with IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and Eli Lilly & Co. He holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biochemistry from University College Cork, Ireland.
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research is a nonprofit, independent research and educational institution. Wholly independent in its governance, finances and research programs, Whitehead shares a close affiliation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology through its faculty, who hold joint MIT appointments.

key advisors

Prof. David R. Spring D.Phil.

David is currently a Professor at the University of Cambridge within the Chemistry Department. He worked with Sir Jack E. Baldwin (University of Oxford) and Stuart L. Schreiber (Harvard University), before he joined the faculty at the University of Cambridge in 2001. David’s research spans the disciplines of chemistry and biology through the synthesis of small molecules, which are applied to problems in the life sciences. In particular, he has focused on diversity-oriented synthesis, new synthetic methodologies and chemical biology in order to discover new, biologically-functional small molecules. He has published six book chapters and co-authored more than 180 journal articles. His group’s laboratory has been awarded a number of research prizes including the Royal Society of Chemistry’s “Norman Heatley Award” and “Corday-Morgan Award”, the Spanish Chemical Societies’ “Felix Serratosa Award”, the MedImmune Protein and Peptide Science Award, and Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). He has collaborated with many international companies in the chemical industries.

Keith Bostian Ph.D.

Keith is an accomplished scholar, scientist and entrepreneur. He has held positions in higher education at Brown University and Kean University. He has also served as a lead executive for several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Merck & Co. and most recently with Kemin Industries, a drug discovery and development firm in Europe. Bostian holds 17 patents in drug discovery and genomics and has authored more than 60 publications. Most recently, he founded and became CEO of the Institute for Life Science Entrepreneurism (ILSE) at Kean University, serving as a knowledge hub to connect scientists in academia and industry professionals to promote drug discovery.