ABOUT US

Board of Directors

John Villiger, Ph.D.
Chairman – Joined the Board in 2004
Dr. Villiger is founding member of The Medicines Company, and was Managing Director of The Medicines Company (NZ) Ltd until April 2006. Previously, Dr. Villiger held various positions in product development at Roche (1986 to 1997), including International Project Director (1991 to 1995) and Head of Global Project Management (1995 to 1996). As Head of Global Project Management, he oversaw the development of Roche's pharmaceutical portfolio, with management responsibility for over 50 development programs in Switzerland, the UK, USA and Japan. He received a PhD in Neuropharmacology from the University of Otago.

Dennis Henner, Ph.D.
Director – Joined the Board in 2007
Dr. Henner has been Managing Director of Clarus Ventures since the firm's inception in 2005. He has over 24 years of industry and investment experience within the healthcare sector, including being a General Partner in a healthcare venture capital firm since 2001. From 1981 to 2001, Dr. Henner was an executive at Genentech (NYSE: DNA) where he held various positions including Senior Vice President of Research, and was a member of Genentech's executive committee.

Dr. Henner is a member of the Board of Directors for several companies including Athenagen, SARcode, Cellerant, Ceregene, Kalobios, and Tercica. Dr. Henner received is his Ph.D. from the Department of Microbiology at the University of Virginia and dis his postgraduate training at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation.

David Mack, Ph.D.
Director – Joined the Board in 2005
Dr. Mack joined Alta Partners in 2002. He has served as Director and CEO of Angiosyn (acquired by Pfizer in 2005) and co-founded and served as vice president of Genomics Research at Eos Biotechnology (acquired by Protein Design Labs in 2003). From 1995 to 1997, he served as Head of Cancer Biology at Affymetrix where he oversaw the development of DNA array technology in oncology and inflammation. Dr. Mack was a pivotal member of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) invention group at Cetus (now Chiron) in the mid 1980s.

Dr. Mack has co-authored more than 30 scientific articles and reviews and is an inventor on 21 US patents. He was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine in Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. Mack received his Ph.D. in 1992 from the University of Chicago where he was a Howard Hughes fellow in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology. Dr. Mack holds a Bachelor of Arts in Molecular Biology from University of California, Berkeley

George Morstyn, M.D., Ph.D.
Director – Joined the Board in 2005
Dr. Morstyn (MB BS PhD FRACP) previously servered as the Head of Development at Amgen where he was a member of the executive committee and responsible for global preclinical and clinical development and regulatory affairs. Dr. Morstyn graduated from Monash University, completed a Ph.D. with Professor Donald Metcalf at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and trained in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute in the US. He directed the Clinical Program at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Melbourne for eight years. Dr. Morstyn is currently a part time advisor to Amgen and a member of several boards of Australian biotechnology companies.

Brigitte Smith, MBA
Director – Joined the Board in 2004
Ms. Smith is the Founder of GBS Venture Partners. Prior to GBS she worked with high-tech start-up companies in fundraising and business development roles. She also spent several years at Bain & Company, a strategic management consulting firm. Ms. Smith is on the Board of Dynamic Hearing, Kalobios Inc, Pharmaxis Ltd, and Smart Drug Systems.

Ms. Smith earned her Bachelor in Chemical Engineering with honours from the University of Melbourne, her Master of Business Administration with honours from the Harvard Business School and her Master of International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston, USA. She is a Fellow of The Australian Institute of Company Directors and an adjunct Senior Lecturer at the Melbourne Business School, where she teaches Entrepreneurial Finance.

John Gutheil, MD
Director and CEO – Joined the Board in 2008