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Leadership
- Joseph A. Yanchik III
- President and Chief Executive Officer
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.
- D. Allen Annis, Ph.D.
- Vice President, Biophysical and Analytical Technologies
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 S. Chang, Ph.D.
- Senior Director, Head of Biology
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.
- Deborah S. Geraghty, Ph.D.
- Director, Portfolio Advancement
Deb Geraghty has served as our Director of Portfolio Advancement since November 2010 and leads the company's efforts to identify strategic growth areas and commercial opportunities for new products in discovery and development. Deb joined Aileron from Infinity Pharmaceuticals where she was Director, New Product Marketing. As part of the Leadership Team, Deb played a key role in building the company's internal commercial group, serving as the commercial lead on four of the company's clinical programs, and providing commercial support to Business Development to clearly articulate the value of potential in-licensing opportunities. She was previously Vice President of Back Bay Strategies, a healthcare consulting firm she founded, where she led new business and client engagements for multinational biopharmaceutical companies. Deb previously worked at Kendall Strategies, Feinstein Kean Healthcare and Genzyme Corporation. She serves on the Board of Trustees for Emma Willard School and chairs the school's leadership giving program, the 1814 Association.
Dr. Geraghty earned a B.S. in Biology at Union College, an M.B.A. with Honors from the Carroll School at Boston College, and a Ph.D. with Honors in Molecular Biology at the University of Vermont. She also completed postdoctoral research in the Microbiology Department at the University of Vermont.
- Steven J. Kafka, Ph.D.
- Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer
Steve Kafka was named Chief Operating Officer in June 2011 and has also served as Aileron's Chief Financial Officer since joining the company in October 2009. Steve leads the company's R&D and business operations, including finance and investor relations, portfolio advancement, R&D program management, and human resources, and also supports the company's business development efforts. Prior to Aileron, he was VP of Finance for Infinity Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INFI), where he led finance, investor and public relations and business operations, and was a key member of the team that secured an alliance with Purdue Pharma and Mundipharma worth up to $500 million over five years. Previously, Dr. Kafka was Senior Director of Finance, at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was a key member of the VELCADE® product team in driving strategic planning and alliance management efforts with partner Johnson & Johnson for this novel cancer therapy. Earlier, Steve was a senior engagement manager with Strategic Decisions Group, providing product and portfolio strategy consulting to large pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Kafka earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University and his B.A. with Distinction and Honors from Stanford University.
- Anthony M. Manning, Ph.D.
- Senior Vice President, Research and Preclinical Development
Tony Manning has served as our Senior Vice President of Research and Preclinical Development since April of 2011. Tony brings to Aileron more than 19 years of industry experience in advancing large portfolios of drug discovery projects and multiple therapeutic candidates through preclinical and clinical development. Most recently, Tony served as vice president and head of inflammation and autoimmune diseases research at Biogen Idec, where he led the company’s immunology and inflammation research efforts, including target selection, drug discovery, biomarker identification and research support for clinical programs and marketed products. He also held other senior level R&D positions within the company, including head of PML research, a role that was critical to the advancement of Tysabri® (natalizumab). Prior to joining Biogen Idec, Dr. Manning was vice president and global head of inflammation, autoimmunity and transplantation research at Roche, and prior to that held senior-level drug discovery and research positions at Pharmacia and Signal Pharmaceuticals, now the research division of Celgene Corp.
Dr. Manning received a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Otago in New Zealand and completed postdoctoral research as an NIH Fogarty International Center Fellow at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, where he later held an assistant professorship.
- Huw M. Nash, Ph.D.
- Vice President, Corporate Development
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 K. Sawyer, Ph.D.
- Chief Scientific Officer, SVP Discovery & Innovative Technologies
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.
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