PLIANT THERAPEUTICS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Program Team Lead and Portfolio Management
Mr. You joined Pliant in February 2023 as Vice President, Program Team Lead and Portfolio Management.
Mr. You brings to Pliant over 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience, with focuses on program leadership, portfolio management, corporate performance, and drug development. Mr. You joins Pliant from Celularity where he served as Vice President, Global Program and Portfolio Management, establishing enterprise program management, governance, and portfolio strategy capabilities. Prior to Celularity, Mr. You served as head of portfolio management and analytics and as lead for CEO and portfolio governances at Kite Pharma. Before Kite Pharma, Mr. You held roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen, Exelixis, Abgenix, and Berlex Biosciences spanning strategic planning, global operations, pre-clinical development, and discovery research.
Mr. You received his B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Leadership Team
- President
Pliant CEO Bernard Coulie, M.D., Ph.D., brings to the company more than 15 years of senior leadership experience and drug development expertise. He joined Pliant from ActoGeniX (acquired by Intrexon Corporation in February 2015), where he was CEO, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder. In these positions, Dr. Coulie played an integral role in advancing the company's unique technology platform for oral delivery of biologics from early discovery stage through Phase 2 studies. Prior to ActoGeniX, Dr. Coulie held various positions with increasing responsibilities in drug discovery and clinical development at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development Europe. At Johnson & Johnson, he served as Therapeutic Area Leader Internal Medicine, managing a portfolio of products in GI, metabolic diseases and inflammation/immunology, ranging from early drug discovery through Phase 2 studies. Earlier in his career, Dr. Coulie was a Staff Physician in the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN), Assistant Professor in Medicine at Mayo Medical School and a Mayo Foundation scholar. Dr. Coulie serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of SQZ Biotechnologies, a publicly-traded cell therapy biotechnology company, as Independent Chairman of Dualyx, a privately-held biotechnology company based in Belgium and as an Independent Director at Calypso Biotech, a privately-held biotechnology company based in the Netherlands.
Dr. Coulie holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Leuven, Belgium. He is a board-certified internist and holds an MBA from the Vlerick Management School, Leuven, Belgium.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Professor, UCSF School of Pharmacy
Bill DeGrado, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UCSF, where he is also a member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute. Dr. DeGrado's work focuses on the design of small molecule drugs, peptides, proteins and peptide mimetics. Before joining UCSF in 2011, he was a member of DuPont Central Research and DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company and the George W. Raiziss Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. DeGrado is a member of the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Inventors, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also a past President of the Protein Society and was the scientific founder of PolyMedix, which discovered brilacidin. Brilacidin, currently licensed to Cellceutix, is now in Phase 3 clinical trials for drug-resistant Staphylococcal aureus infections. Some of Dr. DeGrado's research interests include de novo design of proteins and peptides; peptide mimetics; structure/function of membrane proteins, including integrins and viral ion channels; small molecule drug design; and bioinorganic chemistry.
Dr. DeGrado graduated from Kalamazoo College and holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago. He joined the DuPont Central Research without an intervening postdoctoral position.
Job Titles:
- Principal, MedChem Discovery Consulting
Job Titles:
- Investor
- Media Contact
- Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
Christopher Keenan joined Pliant Therapeutics as Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications in November 2020 with responsibility for implementing strategic investor relations initiatives for Pliant and our shareholders. Mr. Keenan brings over 20 years of investor relations/ corporate communications experience having served in the role in small to large market capitalized public companies within the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and specialty pharmaceutical industries.
Prior to Pliant, Mr. Keenan held the role of Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at CytomX Therapeutics. Prior to this, he held the lead investor relations role at Depomed, Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Cytokinetics and Aradigm. He began his investor relations career at Isis Pharmaceuticals (now Ionis Pharmaceuticals) and his professional career at The Weinberg Group, a scientific and regulatory consultancy to the biopharmaceutical industry.
Mr. Keenan received his B.A. in English from Kenyon College.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Audit Committee
- Industry Executive
Mr. Cline is a seasoned pharmaceutical industry executive with over 30 years of strategic and operational experience in building commercial organizations. Mr. Cline currently serves as Chief Executive Officer and President of Epygenix Therapeutics, a clinical-stage company developing therapies for rare epilepsies.
Prior to Epygenix, Mr. Cline served as the U.S. Chief Commercial Officer of GW Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals), where he was responsible for commercial and medical affairs activities associated with Epidiolex®. Prior to joining GW Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Cline held the role of Executive Vice President, Commercial at Seagen where he managed operations with the commercial launch of Adcetris®. Prior to joining Seagen, Mr. Cline held key commercial leadership roles at Intermune, Alexion and Amgen.
Mr. Cline currently serves on the board of directors of Pyxis Oncology. Mr. Cline received his B.S. in Business Marketing from San Diego State University and an MBA from Pepperdine University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
- Co - Founder of Global Blood Therapeutics, Portola Pharmaceuticals and Cor Therapeutics
Job Titles:
- Professor, UCSF School of Medicine
Dean Sheppard, M.D., holds a variety of positions at UCSF, including Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep Medicine, Professor of Medicine and a member of the cell biology, biomedical sciences, immunology and pharmaceutical sciences, and pharmacogenomics graduate programs. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying pulmonary (and other organ) fibrosis, asthma and acute lung injury. One aim of his research is to identify new therapeutic targets to ultimately improve the treatment of each of these common diseases. The work begins with basic investigation of how cells use members of the integrin family to detect, modify and respond to spatially restricted extracellular clues and how these responses contribute to the development of common lung diseases. Utilizing mice with global or conditional knockouts of four integrins, the epithelial-restricted integrin, avß6, and the widely expressed integrins a9ß1, avß1, avß5 and avß8, Dr. Sheppard's lab has identified important roles for these integrins in models of each common lung disease and key steps upstream and downstream of the integrins that provide potential therapeutic targets.
Dr. Sheppard holds an A.B. in social studies from Harvard College and an M.D. from SUNY at Stony Brook. He trained in internal medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle and in pulmonary medicine at UCSF. He has been on the faculty of UCSF since 1980, and was appointed the Founding Director of the Lung Biology Research Center in 1986.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Audit Committee / Compensation Committee
Dr. David Pyott is accomplished international pharmaceutical executive with more than 30 years of leadership and management experience with particular expertise in organizational scaling.
Most recently, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Allergan, Inc. where, over 17 years in this role, he transformed the company from a small eye care business with $1 billion in annual sales into a global specialty pharmaceutical and medical device company with 2014 annual sales of over $7 billion and more than 10,000 employees. Before that, he served as Head of the Novartis Nutrition Division and served as a member of the Executive Committee of Novartis AG.
In addition to Pliant, David currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and BioMarin Pharmaceutical, as Chairman of Bioniz Therapeutics, Inc., a private biotechnology company, and is a member of the Supervisory Board of Royal Philips in the Netherlands, a public diversified health technology company.
David also serves as Deputy Chairman of the Governing Board of the London Business School, President of the Ophthalmology Foundation, President of the Advisory Board of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and is a Trustee of the California Institute of Technology.
David holds a Diploma in International and European Law from the Europa Institute at the University of Amsterdam, an Honorary Degree in Medicine and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Edinburgh, and a Master of Business Administration degree from the London Business School.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Member of the Board of Directors
Dr. Katharine Knobil is an accomplished pharmaceutical executive who brings over 20 years of clinical development and medical affairs expertise from strategic leadership roles across the globe.
Job Titles:
- Professor
- Professor, UCSF Schools of Dentistry and Medicine
Dr. Rik Derynck is currently professor in the schools of dentistry and medicine. He also serves as co-director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Biology at UCSF. Dr. Derynck is a pioneer and authority in the biology and signaling mechanisms of TGF-β and the mechanisms through which TGF-β induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition and contributes to disease.
Dr. Derynck received his Dr. Sc. degree at the University of Ghent, Belgium, for the cDNA cloning and expression of fibroblast interferon (interferon-β), which provided the basis for the clinical development of this interferon by Biogen, and its clinical evaluation and use. In 1981, without an intervening postdoctoral position, he moved to Genentech, where he initiated a program aimed at the molecular characterization of the newly discovered "transforming growth factor" activity. This led to the cDNA cloning of TGF-α and TGF-β1, the prototype of the TGF-β family of growth and differentiation factors. In 1991, he moved as professor to the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), where he continued to study the roles of TGF-β in epithelial and mesenchymal differentiation, and discovered that TGF-β induces epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferentiation. Dr. Derynck's lab has been focusing on the characterization of TGF-β signaling mechanisms through activation of its receptors, Smads and non-Smad pathways, and the roles of the TGF-β-activated pathways in epithelial plasticity and epithelial-mesenchymal transition for the past 20 years. His research has greatly impacted our understanding of TGF-β family signaling mechanisms, with many mechanistic and conceptual advances (and reagents) originating from his lab, and has helped to provide the basis for therapeutic approaches based on inhibition of TGF-β signaling. Among other awards, Dr. Derynck has been elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Non - Clinical Development
Eve-Irene Lepist, Ph.D., brings to Pliant over fifteen years of pharmaceutical industry experience in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics in support of discovery research, translational research, and product development. Previously, Dr. Lepist held positions of increasing responsibility at the Department of Drug Metabolism, Gilead Sciences, where she led a team supporting discovery and development programs in areas of drug absorption and transporter interactions. Dr. Lepist started her career as a DMPK scientist at CV Therapeutics, where she established and worked with in vitro and in vivo models of brain penetration. Dr. Lepist has published over twenty peer-reviewed articles in areas of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, pro-drugs, and drug-transporter interactions related to absorption, distribution, and elimination with a focus on renal drug-drug interactions.
Job Titles:
- Specialist
- Vice President, Drug Discovery
Dr. Rock is a biochemistry specialist with more than 10 years of experience in pharmaceutical drug development who is responsible for building out Pliant's comprehensive fibrosis drug discovery engine. Prior to joining Pliant as Director of Biology and Head of Molecular Screening and Biochemistry, Dr. Rock held roles of increasing responsibility within the biochemistry group at Anacor Pharmaceuticals, most recently serving as Director of Biochemistry. At Anacor, Dr. Rock led key biochemistry research efforts in support of Kerydin®, the company's first FDA-approved drug for the treatment of human onychomycosis and Eucrisa®, an approved treatment for eczema. Dr. Rock managed the biochemistry group in support of multiple partnered R&D programs including those with GSK, Pfizer and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to this, Dr. Rock held the role of Project Manager at PPD Discovery, Lab Head and Senior Scientist II at Systemix and began his professional career conducting his post-doctoral fellowship at the DNAX Research Institute. Dr. Rock has co-authored more than 20 publications and holds numerous patents in the areas of inflammation and anti-infectives.
Dr. Rock received his B.S. from York University in Toronto, Canada with honors in biology and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Toronto.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Audit Committee
- Board Director and Operating Executive
Gayle Crowell is a highly experienced Board Director and operating executive with extensive experience in industry leading venture and private equity backed companies. Most recently she has spent the last decade providing highly valued strategic and operational guidance across the portfolio of Warburg Pincus, one of the world's leading private equity firms, facilitating a world class collection of best practices across many sectors.
Prior to her role with Warburg Pincus, she had an outstanding executive career in the technology sector. As an prominent high tech leader in the Silicon Valley, Gayle honed her successful management and operational skills with C suite roles at leading software companies where she led multiple companies from early stage development all the way through successful exits.
Leveraging her successful track record in management, operations and high performance team building, today Gayle works closely with leading public and private companies to help drive business strategy, accelerate revenue growth, evaluate market opportunities, scale their businesses and build world-class management teams. As a former CEO, Gayle thoroughly understands the challenges senior leaders face in building sustainable, long-term world-class businesses in today's competitive market environment. Her hands-on knowledge, coupled with a keen perspective into the capital markets brings a unique and valued viewpoint to companies and their executive teams.
In addition to Pliant, she currently serves as a Board member of GTreasury, Envestnet (ENV), and Hercules Capital (HTGC).
Gayle began her career as an educator for the State of Nevada, and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Nevada at Reno.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Clinical Development
Dr. Cosgrove joined Pliant Therapeutics as Vice President of Clinical Development in December 2020, leading the strategic execution of the company's Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) clinical development program. Dr. Cosgrove brings to Pliant over 20 years of pulmonary and critical care expertise in academic clinical research. Prior to joining Pliant, Dr. Cosgrove most recently served as the Chief Medical Officer of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting patients and identifying effective treatments and a cure for those living with pulmonary fibrosis. Concurrently, Dr. Cosgrove also held the roles of Associate Professor within the pulmonology divisions of the University of Colorado-Denver and National Jewish Health Departments of Medicine. Dr. Cosgrove has served as principal or sub investigator in more than 15 clinical trials evaluating IPF drug candidates, authored or contributed to over 70 publications and books in pulmonology research, and served as a reviewer for numerous scientific peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Cosgrove received his B.S., magna cum laude, from James Madison University with highest honors in chemistry and his M.D. from the Hahnemann University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. Dr. Cosgrove completed his residency in internal medicine and post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Denver and the National Jewish Medical and Research Center Denver, respectively.
Job Titles:
- Professor, UCSF School of Medicine
Hal Chapman, M.D., joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in 1986 and became Pulmonary and Critical Care Division Chief at UCSF in 2000. Dr. Chapman is also a member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI), UCSF Immunology Graduate Program, and the graduate programs in Biological Sciences (PIBS) and Biomedical Sciences (BMS).
Dr. Chapman holds an M.D. from the University of Alabama and subsequently did his research training in the laboratory of Dr. John Hibbs at the University of Utah.
Job Titles:
- Chief Business Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
Hans Hull, J.D., is an accomplished biotechnology executive who brings to Pliant more than 15 years of experience in corporate development, legal and operational roles. Mr. Hull was previously interim CEO of Avalanche Biotechnologies, a public gene therapy company, after serving as senior vice president of business operations for the company. During his tenure at Avalanche, he closed multiple transactions including an eight-product, $640 million collaboration with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and helped raise more than $300 million in private and public equity financing. Prior to Avalanche, Mr. Hull was CEO of Orthobond, a medical device startup, following an earlier career as an intellectual property attorney at Heller Ehrman LLP and life science consultant at ZS Associates.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Compensation Committee
John Curnutte, M.D., currently serves as Portola Pharmaceutical's Executive Vice President, Research and Development. He is also an adjunct clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine and a member of the medical staff, where he continues to consult on patients with primary immunodeficiencies. Prior to joining Portola, Dr. Curnutte served as Chief Executive Officer of 3-V Biosciences, a private start-up company founded in 2007 with the goal of developing host-directed antiviral small molecules. Before that, he served as President at Schering-Plough Biopharma (formerly DNAX Research Institute and now Merck Research Laboratories), where he led the drug discovery and early development efforts for biologic therapeutics. During his time with Schering-Plough, eight therapeutic entities progressed into development. Earlier in his career, he held several senior management positions at Genentech during which he oversaw that company's immunology discovery program. Prior to Genentech, Dr. Curnutte was a tenured faculty member at The Scripps Research Institute, pursuing basic and clinical research in inflammation biochemistry and the molecular genetics of congenital immune deficiencies. Dr. Curnutte is additionally a member of the board of directors of diaDexus, Inc., a company focused on cardiovascular diagnostics.
Dr. Curnutte received his B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University and an M.D. and a Ph.D. in biological chemistry from Harvard Medical School.
Job Titles:
- Chief Medical Officer at Agilent Technologies
- Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee / Research and Development Committee
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
Pliant's CFO, Keith Cummings M.D., MBA, brings to Pliant nearly 15 years of experience in healthcare and financial services. Dr. Cummings joined Pliant in December 2018 from Citigroup Global Markets where he served as a Director in the Investment Banking Healthcare Group focusing on West Coast small- and mid-cap life sciences companies. While at Citigroup Dr. Cummings specialized in public and private capital raising as well as M&A, and executed a broad range of transactions for many of the leading life sciences companies on the West Coast. Prior to Citigroup, he worked in the Investment Banking Division at Lehman Brothers and Barclays in New York.
Dr. Cummings holds an M.D. from the Duke University School of Medicine, where he performed research in healthcare economics. He also holds an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Chief Human Resources Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
Ms. Cheung joined Pliant in January of 2023 as Chief Human Resources Officer. Ms. Cheung is an accomplished human resources professional bringing over 25 years of experience across the technology and biopharmaceutical industries, including more than 15 years of commercial-stage experience. Ms. Cheung joins Pliant from Synthekine, a privately held biotechnology company. Prior to this, Ms. Cheung served as Vice President of Human Resources at Rigel Pharmaceuticals, where she supported an integrated research, development and commercial-stage organization. Prior, she held positions of increasing responsibilities at Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a Johnson & Johnson Company) and held human resources roles at Covad Communications, National Semiconductor and United Behavioral Health.
Ms. Cheung received her B.S. in Management from San Francisco State University.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President, Development Operations
Marzena Jurek, M.S., joined Pliant in March 2019 and oversees the tactical implementation of Pliant's clinical programs. She brings to Pliant 20 years of broad experience in clinical development and pre-clinical research in mid and small/start-up companies. Ms. Jurek previously oversaw and managed early and late-stage global programs in several rare disease indications, including hepatic encephalopathy, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and sickle cell disease. She has held positions of increasing responsibility at Portola Pharmaceuticals, Hyperion Therapeutics, and most recently Global Blood Therapeutics, among others, managing cross-functional teams and overseeing the deployment of clinical programs.
Mike Ouimette - Chief Legal Officer, Secretary
Job Titles:
- Corporate Secretary
- General Counsel
Mr. Ouimette brings more than 20 years of legal experience to the company, most recently serving as vice president and assistant secretary of Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. prior to the acquisition of Portola by Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Ouimette also served as senior corporate counsel and assistant secretary of Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc., prior to the acquisition of Onyx by Amgen Inc. Prior to Onyx, Mr. Ouimette was a partner in the San Francisco office of the international law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, where his practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, capital formation, and other public company and regulatory matters. Mr. Ouimette received his J.D. from UCLA School of Law, and A.B. from University of California, Davis.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
Dr. Sandberg has held the role of Vice President of Regulatory Affairs since February 2021 bringing 15 years of global strategic regulatory experience to Pliant with core drug development expertise in the areas of rare diseases, inflammation, and oncology. Dr. Sandberg joined Pliant in October of 2019 and during her tenure has overseen the development and execution of the regulatory strategies and interactions involving Pliant's portfolio. Prior to joining Pliant, Dr. Sandberg held roles of increasing responsibility over a 5-year period at Ultragenyx Pharmaceuticals, most recently serving as Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs, where she led the global regulatory strategies supportive of the commercialization of Crysvita®, the first drug approved in XLH; a rare, inherited form of a softening and weakening of bones. Dr. Sandberg began her professional career at Amgen Inc. where she led the U.S. regulatory activities across multiple stages of development and therapeutics areas including oncology and inflammation. Dr. Sandberg received her M.Sc. in Biomedical Chemistry from the University of Kalmar, Sweden, as well as a M.S. in Regulatory Science and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Southern California.
Job Titles:
- Corporate Controller
- Vice President, Finance
Mr. Scott Peters joined Pliant Therapeutics as Vice President, Finance and Corporate Controller in February 2021 bringing close to 20 years of finance and accounting experience to the role. Prior to Pliant, Mr. Peters held roles of increasing responsibility at Portola Pharmaceuticals, now Alexion, where, over an 8-year period, he helped manage its evolution from a clinical late-stage organization to a multi-national, commercial-stage company, having most recently served as Executive Director and Corporate Controller. Prior to this, Mr. Peters held worldwide roles at KPMG LLP, one of the four largest professional accounting services networks in the world, where he managed an extensive array of accounting and auditing services for a wide range of differing size, stage of development and industry companies, including large cap pharmaceutical companies. Mr. Peters received his B.S. in Business Economics with an emphasis in Accounting from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Job Titles:
- Professor, Internal Medicine and Chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at Yale School of Medicine
Job Titles:
- Chairman, Department of Medicine and Director of the Women 's Guild Lung Institute at Cedars - Sinai
Job Titles:
- Leader
- Senior Vice President, Research
Scott Turner, Ph.D. is a leader in the field of stable isotope research and development of novel tools for drug discovery and development. Prior to joining Pliant as senior director of technology, Dr. Turner was the vice president of research and development at KineMed Inc. where he led the technology development and biomarker discovery efforts in fibrosis, atherosclerosis and metabolic disease. He has co-authored more than 50 publications and holds several patents in the areas of metabolic fluxes and stable isotopes methods. Dr. Turner has been awarded three NIH grants to fund his research into novel in vivo biomarker discovery and serves on the editorial board of Biomarker Insights.
Dr. Turner received his Ph.D. in 2002 in Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology from the University of California at Berkeley. His graduate research focused on the development and application of stable isotope methodology to the study of adipose tissue dynamics in the ob/ob mouse.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Chemistry, Manufacturing & Controls ( CMC )
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Audit Committee
Ms. Shah has a 17-year track record of leadership and management in the biopharmaceutical industry, as well as in investment banking, with particular experience in financial strategy, capital markets and business development. She previously held the role of chief business and financial officer at rare disease company ProQR, joining as chief financial officer in 2014. Previously, Ms. Shah managed the multi-billion-dollar debt, cash and investment portfolios of Gilead Sciences. Prior to Gilead, she was an investment banker at Leerink Partners and JP Morgan where she helped raise over $1 billion in equity capital and over $7 billion in debt capital for emerging and established biotech companies and advised on M&A. Previously, Ms. Shah held various R&D roles at Johnson & Johnson. She earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Clinical Operations
Susan Owen joined Pliant in June 2022 and brings over 20 years of clinical operations expertise across the areas of respiratory, oncology, cardiology and infectious diseases. Prior to Pliant, she most recently held the role of Executive Director and Head of Clinical Operations at Apexigen where she oversaw the company's immuno-oncology portfolio. Prior to this, she held clinical operations roles at Cytokinetics, Genentech and InterMune where she managed the conduct of trials including Phase 2/ 3 clinical development respiratory program.
Ms. Owen received a B.A. in biological sciences from Smith College and a M.S. in epidemiology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's School of Public Health and Health Sciences.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Compensation Committee / Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
- President and CEO of Tiaki Therapeutics
Suzanne Bruhn, Ph.D. is the president and CEO of Tiaki Therapeutics, a privately held biotech company with a systems biology platform focused on identifying drug targets that resolve neuroinflammation to result in disease-modifying therapeutics for patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Before that, she served as president and CEO of Proclara Biosciences, a privately held, clinical-stage company pioneering a novel approach to treat disorders of protein misfolding including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease, as well as orphan amyloidoses. Prior to that she served as president and CEO of Promedior, Inc., a privately held, clinical-stage immunotherapy company pioneering the development of targeted therapeutics to treat diseases involving fibrosis. There, she successfully negotiated an exclusive agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb for the right to acquire Promedior for a total deal potential of $1.25 billion. Prior to Promedior, she spent 13 years at Shire Human Genetic Therapies (HGT), a division of Shire PLC, specializing in the development and commercialization of treatments for orphan diseases, where she held a series of positions of increasing responsibility before serving as senior vice president of strategic planning and program management. During her tenure at Shire HGT, Dr. Bruhn was responsible for establishing the program management function, driving strategic planning and portfolio management, and for global regulatory affairs. She played a key role in the development, registration and global expansion of Shire HGT's products, and in portfolio expansion through licensing and acquisitions. Prior to her time at HGT, Dr. Bruhn held various positions at Cytotherapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company.
Dr. Bruhn currently sits on the board of directors of Travere Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TVTX).
Dr. Bruhn holds a Bachelor's degree in chemistry from Iowa State University, a Ph.D. in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Human Genetics at Harvard Medical School.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Compensation Committee
Thomas McCourt is an accomplished biopharmaceutical executive with over 30 years of experience building commercial strategies and capabilities across multiple companies. Mr. McCourt currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, a role he has held since June 2021. Since joining Ironwood in 2009, Mr. McCourt has served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Chief Commercial Officer, and President, leading the commercial launch of LINZESS®, now a blockbuster product.
Prior to joining Ironwood, Mr. McCourt led the U.S. brand team for Prolia® at Amgen and held several senior commercial roles within Novartis AG, including leading the launch and growth of ZELNORM™. In addition, Mr. McCourt was a founding team member at Astra Merck Inc., where he led the development of the medical affairs and science liaison group, and then served as brand manager for PRILOSEC® and NEXIUM®. Mr. McCourt also served as an independent director and chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee at Acceleron Pharma before their acquisition. In 2022, he received the ASGE President's Award in recognition of his pivotal contribution to the field of gastrointestinal endoscopy and treatment.
Mr. McCourt received his B.S. degree in Pharmacy and Pharmacology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Chemistry
Dr. Machajewski brings over 20 years of experience in medicinal chemistry and small molecule drug discovery across multiple therapeutic areas including metabolic, anti-infective and oncology. Dr. Machajewski joined Pliant in 2018 and during his tenure of roles of increasing responsibility he effectively led cross-functional project teams from target validation to Phase 1 including work on Pliant's NASH and αVβ8/1 oncology programs. In his current role, Dr. Machajewski leads our medicinal, analytical, chemical informatics and computational chemistry teams in support of Pliant's strategic initiatives. Prior to joining Pliant, Dr. Machajewski held leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Novartis and Chiron and Achaogen where he led and managed teams advancing the companies' early-stage portfolios into the clinic.
Dr. Machajewski received his BS in chemistry (highest honors) from the University of Texas at Austin, his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Stanford University and completed postdoctoral studies at The Scripps Research Institute.
Job Titles:
- Chief Medical Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
As Pliant's chief medical officer, Éric Lefebvre, M.D. is responsible for leading the company's clinical development strategy and clinical operations for its portfolio of product candidates. Prior to joining Pliant, Dr. Lefebvre was head of clinical research and development for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) at Allergan, where he advanced cenicriviroc for the treatment of patients with NASH into Phase 3 trials. Previously, he was chief medical officer at Tobira Therapeutics, whose focus was the development and commercialization of therapies to treat liver disease, inflammation, fibrosis and HIV, prior to the company being acquired by Allergan in 2016. Dr. Lefebvre also led global clinical development, global medical affairs and commercialization of novel treatments for HIV and hepatitis C at Janssen Pharmaceuticals for 10 years prior to starting his pharmaceutical career at GSK Canada. This was preceded by 15 years of providing primary care and conducting clinical research in HIV and hepatitis at Clinique Medicale L'Actuel in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Lefebvre is a member of the Board of Directors of CymaBay Therapeutics, a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company focused on developing treatments for liver disease.
Dr. Lefebvre received a B.S. from Edouard-Montpetit College and an M.D. from the University of Montreal.