Leadership

Joe Yanchik is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Aileron Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA) that he helped to found in June of 2005. Prior to Aileron, Mr. Yanchik was a founder and CEO of Tokai Pharmaceuticals, Venture Partner at Apple Tree Partners, Vice President of Corporate Development at Mendel Biotechnology and founder and Chief Business Officer of Poetic Genetics, Inc. Mr. Yanchik previously specialized in corporate and securities law at Cahill Gordon & Reindel (New York, NY) and Venture Law Group (Menlo Park, CA). He is presently on the Board of Directors of Tokai Pharmaceuticals.

Mr. Yanchik received a B.B.A. from Loyola College and received his J.D. with Honors from Villanova University School of Law, where he was Managing Editor of the Law Review.

Allen Annis has served as our Senior Director of Biophysical and Analytical Technologies since November of 2007. He was previously Director of Technology Development at the Schering-Plough Research Institute in Cambridge, MA, and prior to that he was Vice President of New Technologies at NeoGenesis Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Schering in 2005. While at NeoGenesis, Dr. Annis co-developed its core drug discovery platform, the affinity selection-mass spectrometry-based Automated Ligand Identification System (ALIS). Dr. Annis authored several patents and publications that describe the ALIS technology, and invented many novel techniques that use ALIS to study protein-drug interactions.

Dr. Annis received his B.S. in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology and received his Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University.

Yong Chang has served as our Head of Biology since April 2011 and leads cell and molecular biology, translational pharmacology, DMPK, and in vivo pharmacology. Yong joined Aileron from MedImmune, Inc. where he was the head of translational pharmacology. As one of the senior members of the Global Oncology Leadership Team and research review committee, Dr. Chang played an instrumental role in formulating strategy and direction for the departments of Oncology and Translational Sciences. He also led multiple translational and product development teams. Prior to MedImmune, he worked with Bayer Pharmaceuticals, where he held positions with increasing responsibilities and contributed to the launch of Nexavar^® (sorafenib). Prior to Bayer, Dr. Chang worked at Roche Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Chang received a B.S. in premedicine and biology and a Ph.D. in physiology from Pennsylvania State University, and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital.

Hubert Chen has served as our Vice President of Clinical Development since July 2012 and leads the clinical development of our endocrine and metabolic program, ALRN-5281. Dr. Chen joined Aileron from Regulus Therapeutics, where he served as Vice President of Translational Medicine and was responsible for the development of microRNA-based medicines in multiple therapeutic areas, including atherosclerosis, diabetes, fibrosis, oncology and hepatitis C infection. Prior to Regulus, Dr. Chen was Senior Director of Clinical Research and Corporate Development at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for the development and prioritization of second-generation obesity and diabetes programs. Before joining the biotech industry, Dr. Chen was Staff Research Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Chen received his residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital, an M.D. from Columbia University, and a B.A.S. in political sciences and biological sciences from Stanford University. He is board certified in internal medicine and endocrinology.

Lorrie Ferraro, GPHR, CCP, SPHR, Vice President, People and Organizational Effectiveness. Ferraro was formerly Vice President, Human Resources at Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals. Before this and for nine years, she was Vice President, Human Resources at PAREXEL International. She received her B.S. in International Business from Franklin Pierce College and holds a global and national certification in Human Resources.

Huw Nash has served as our Vice President of Corporate Development since June of 2005 and was one of the founders of the company. He was previously a founding scientist of NeoGenesis Pharmaceuticals, a drug-discovery technology company that was acquired by Schering-Plough in 2005. At NeoGenesis, Dr. Nash served as Vice President, External Collaborations, in which he managed 21 research collaborations and also served as the principal technical representative for all business development, private financing and M&A activities.

Dr. Nash received his B.A. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College and received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Harvard University.

Tomi Sawyer has served as our Chief Scientific Officer since October of 2007. He was previously Senior Director, Pfizer Research Technology Center (Cambridge, Mass.) and concurrently served on Pfizer’s Global Chemistry Leadership Team. In this capacity, Dr. Sawyer was responsible for drug discovery at the Cambridge facility, as well as global chemistry initiatives such as kinase-targeted innovative technologies. Prior to his tenure at Pfizer, he held several leadership positions in drug discovery at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, including Senior Vice-President, Drug Discovery. He began his career at The Upjohn Company as a peptide chemistry and drug design scientist before moving on to a position at Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert Company where he last served as Head, Structure-Based Design Chemistry.

Dr. Sawyer currently holds academic and research advisory appointments at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Sawyer received a B.S. with Honors in chemistry from Moorhead State University and a Ph.D. with Distinction in organic chemistry from the University of Arizona.