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.

Dr. Diane Jorkasky has served as our Senior Vice President, Head of Development and Chief Medical Officer since September of 2009. Dr. Jorkasky has 23 years of experience in pharmaceutical drug development and joins Aileron after nearly a decade at Pfizer, where she most recently served as Vice President, Development, Head of Worldwide Clinical Research Operations and leader of the Operational Excellence Board for Development. Prior to that she worked at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals as Vice President and Director, Clinical Pharmacology and served as Chief of Renal Division, Department of Medicine at the Presbyterian Medical Center, University of Pennsylvania Health System. Dr. Jorkasky earned her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine, conducted her residency in Internal Medicine at the Pennsylvania Hospital, and performed her nephrology fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She is board certified in internal medicine, nephrology and clinical pharmacology. Dr. Jorkasky was selected as a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering and has been selected to be a Woodrow Wilson visiting fellow.

Steve Kafka has served as our CFO and VP of Finance and Operations since October of 2009. Steve leads Aileron’s strategic and operational finance activities, directs corporate communications, human resources, and operations, and supports the company’s business development effort. 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.

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.