board of directors
Michael Steinmetz, Ph.D., Executive Chairman
Managing Director at Clarus Ventures/ MPM BV III
Michael Steinmetz, Ph.D. is Managing Director at Clarus Ventures, a venture capital firm with offices in Boston and San Francisco, focused on investments in biotechnology, specialty pharma and medical device companies in the USA and Europe. The firm is currently investing its first $500MM fund. Before co-founding Clarus Ventures in 2005, Dr. Steinmetz was General Partner at MPM Capital, where he helped establish the BioVentures family of funds. He continues to serve as General Partner of MPM’s BioVentures Funds I to III. Dr. Steinmetz has over 21 years of direct industry and investment experience within the healthcare sector. From 1986 to 1997, Dr. Steinmetz was an executive at Hoffmann-LaRoche where he held various positions including Vice President of Preclinical Research and Development and Global Head of Biotechnology. Dr. Steinmetz held academic positions at the University of Munich, the California Institute of Technology and the Basel Institute for Immunology. He received his scientific training in chemistry, molecular biology and immunology.
Dr. Steinmetz currently is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Allozyne, and a member of the Board of Directors of Biovitrum, CGI Pharmaceuticals, ESBATech, MacroGenics, TaiGen and VLST.
Carl Weissman, Venture Partner
OVP
Carl Weissman is President and Chief Executive Officer of Accelerator Corporation and also is a Venture Partner at OVP Venture Partners, focusing particularly on the operational aspects of OVP portfolio companies. At Accelerator, Mr. Weissman has led Accelerator-based investment in five companies, and has succeeded in securing $26M in capital commitments from Accelerator investors MPM Capital, Amgen Ventures, OVP Venture Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, Versant Ventures, and Alexandria Real Estate Equities (NYSE:ARE). Prior to joining OVP, Mr. Weissman was a Venture Partner at MPM capital. While at MPM, he served as the President and CEO of Centagenetix where he led the merger of Centagenetix with Elixir Pharmaceuticals, and remained on the Board of Directors of the combined entity until January 2005. Prior to joining MPM, Mr. Weissman spent six years at Prolinx, Inc., where he held a number of positions, culminating as the head of both Finance and Business Development.
Steven Gillis, PhD, Executive Chairman,
Venture Partner, ARCH Venture Partners
Steven Gillis, Ph.D. joined ARCH in 2005 as a Venture Partner focused on the evaluation of new life science technologies and also on the development and growth of ARCH's biotechnology portfolio companies. Dr. Gillis was a founder and director of Corixa Corporation and served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer from its inception and as its Chairman since January of 1999. GlaxoSmithKline acquired Corixa in July of 2005. Prior to starting Corixa, Dr. Gillis was a founder and director of Immunex Corporation. From 1981 until his departure in 1994, Dr. Gillis served as Immunex’s Director of Research and Development, Chief Scientific Officer, and Chief Executive Officer of Immunex’s Research and Development subsidiary. Dr. Gillis was interim Chief Executive Officer of Immunex Corp. following its majority purchase by American Cyanamid Co. and he remained a member of the Board of Directors until 1997. Amgen Inc. acquired Immunex in 2002. Dr. Gillis is an immunologist by training and is credited as being a pioneer in the field of cytokines and cytokine receptors, directing the development of multiple marketed products, including Leukine®, Prokine®, Enbrel®, and Bexxar®. Dr. Gillis received his B.A. from Williams College in 1975 and his Ph.D. from Dartmouth College in 1978.
Andrew Gengos, Vice President of Stratergy and Corporate Development
Amgen
As Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development, Andrew is responsible for facilitating the development of Amgen’s corporate strategy and managing all M&A, Licensing, Spinout and Venture Capital activities.
Andrew’s biopharmaceutical experience includes executive-level positions at Dynavax Technologies and Chiron Corporation (now Novartis). Before joining Amgen, he was Vice President, Chief Business Officer, and Chief Financial Officer for Dynavax. Prior to Dynavax, Andrew was Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development for Chiron. Before moving into the biopharmaceutical industry, Andrew was with McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles for six years, working primarily on healthcare-related projects.
Andrew received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from MIT and his master’s of business administration from the Anderson Graduate School of Business at the University of California - Los Angeles.
David A. Tirrell, Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Chair, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
California Institute of Technology
David A. Tirrell, Ph.D., received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from MIT and the University of Massachusetts, respectively. Dr. Tirrell was an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at Carnegie-Mellon University, and then returned to the University of Massachusetts, where he was Director of the Materials Research Laboratory and Barrett Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering. Dr. Tirrell currently serves as Division Chair for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech. He has served as Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland, at the Institut Charles Sadron in Strasbourg, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and at the Institut Curie in Paris. Dr. Tirrell is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Tirrell was Editor of the Journal of Polymer Science, Part A: Polymer Chemistry, and has served on the editorial boards of Macromolecules, ChemBioChem, Accounts of Chemical Research, Chemical and Engineering News, and several other journals. Dr. Tirrell chaired the 1994 Gordon Research Conference on Polymers in Biosystems and the 1995 Gordon Conference on Chemistry of Supramolecules and Assemblies.
Meenu Chhabra, President & CEO
Allozyne, Inc.
Meenu Chhabra joined Allozyne, Inc as President and Chief Executive Officer in October 2007. Prior to joining the Allozyne team, Ms. Chhabra was Vice President Business Development and Licensing for Novartis Consumer Health (Geneva, Switzerland). Immediately prior to joining Novartis, Ms Chhabra served as the Chief Business Officer at BioXell SpA (Milan, Italy). Ms. Chhabra also has held management positions at NeurAxon, Inc. and Fresenius Kabi AG, as well as sales and marketing roles at Parke Davis/Warner Lambert, Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb, Inc. Ms. Chhabra obtained her B.Sc. degree from the University of Toronto in Pharmacology and her Masters Business Administration from the Schulich School of Business at York University.
