Board of Directors
- Thomas J. Dietz, Ph.D. (Chairman) Chairman and CEO of Waypoint Holdings, LLC
Thomas Dietz is Chairman and CEO of Waypoint Holdings, LLC, a diversified financial holdings and services company. He currently serves as Chairman of Galleon Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Dietz was co-CEO then CEO and a Director of Pacific Growth Equities, LLC, a San Francisco-based investment bank and institutional brokerage firm from 2004 to 2009, when the firm was acquired by Wedbush Securities. Dr. Dietz served as head of the investment banking division at Wedbush until November 2010. Prior to taking the CEO role at Pacific Growth, Dr. Dietz served as the company's Director of Equities Research and was an award-winning biotechnology and biopharmaceutical analyst. Dr. Dietz joined Pacific Growth in 1993. Previously, he was a member of the research faculty in the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and the VA Medical Center. Dr. Dietz is a member of several national societies and currently serves on the boards of trustees of several non-profit organizations, including the West Bay Region board of the Sutter Health System that includes California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco.
Dr. Dietz holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology and biochemistry from Washington University, St. Louis, and was a National Science Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow.
- Robert Booth, Ph.D. (observer) Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board Chief Executive Officer, ViroBay, Inc.
Robert Booth has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He was the driving force behind the creation of Virobay in 2006 while he was with TPG Biotech. Prior to joining TPG Biotech in 2006, Dr. Booth was the Chief Scientific Officer at Celera Genomics where he was responsible for leading all discovery and development activities. He joined Celera Genomics as Chief Scientific Officer in August 2002 where he oversaw an R&D staff of approximately 300 people, including scientists supporting the company's proteomics, informatics and bioinformatics projects and small molecule therapeutics programs. Previously, Dr. Booth spent 13 years at Hoffmann-La Roche where was Senior Vice President responsible for the Inflammatory and Viral Diseases Business Unit as well as Central R&D at Roche Bioscience. In this role, he was responsible for creating strategies and directing research activities to generate new therapeutics. Before joining Roche, Dr. Booth spent three years managing research activities at Wellcome Research Laboratories and four years at Searle Research & Development. He earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School at the University of London. He earned a B.Sc. in biochemistry from London University's University College.
- R. Chris Christopherson, Ph.D. Managing Partner, Morgenthaler Ventures
Chris Christoffersen joined Morgenthaler Ventures in 2001 where he focuses on new biotechnology investments. Previously, he was the President and CEO of Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Morgenthaler-portfolio biotechnology company. He currently serves on five corporate boards and achieved successful exits with Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Avidia Biosciences, and Morphotek, Inc. He was also Senior Vice President of Research at SmithKline Beecham, Vice President of Discovery Research at The Upjohn Company and President of Colorado State University. Dr. Christoffersen received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from Cornell College in 1983, the "Outstanding Research of Year" Award from the International Society of Quantum Biology in 1981, the "W. E. Upjohn Award" for contributions in biotechnology in 1988, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 from the Colorado Biosciences Association.
- Geoff Duyk, M.D., Ph.D. General Partner, TPG Biotech
Before he joined TPG Biotech in 2004, Geoff Duyk served on the Board of Directors and was President of Research & Development at Exelixis. Prior to Exelixis, he was one of the founding scientific staff at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Dr. Duyk was an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS) in the Department of Genetics and Assistant Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). While at HMS, Dr. Duyk was a Co-Principal Investigator in the National Institutes of Health-funded Cooperative Human Linkage Center. He has been and continues to be a member of numerous NIH panels and oversight committees focused on the planning and execution of the human genome project. Dr. Duyk holds a Ph.D. and M.D. from Case Western Reserve University and completed his medical and fellowship training at University of California, San Francisco. While at UCSF, Dr. Duyk was a fellow of the Lucille P. Markey Foundation and was also awarded a post-doctoral fellowship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
- James C. Mannion, Ph.D. Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Galleon Pharmaceuticals
Jim Mannion has a 25-year track record of technical innovation and commercial success in the pharmaceutical industry that includes clinical development (Burroughs Wellcome, Beecham), drug safety (Beecham), regulatory affairs (SmithKline Beecham), business unit development and management (Quintiles), corporate venture capital (Quintiles) and biotechnology senior management (EpiGenesis, Aptus, and Galleon). He contributed directly to the market success of Augmentin®, Paxil® and Bactroban®. Previously, he was President and COO of EpiGenesis, a respiratory therapeutics biotech company. Jim's scientific and business training includes pharmacy (B.S., Ohio Northern), pharmacy administration (M.S., Purdue), clinical pharmacy (Ph.D., Purdue), clinical drug research/drug development (Post-doctoral fellowship, University of North Carolina) and management (University of Tennessee). Purdue University named Jim a Distinguished Alumnus in 2002.
- Christopher K. Mirabelli, Ph.D. Managing Director, HealthCare Ventures, LLC
Since 2000, Christopher Mirabelli has been a Managing Director at HealthCare Ventures, LLC, a leading venture-capital group focused on investing in and building significant companies in the biopharmaceutical industry. In addition to Galleon, Dr. Mirabelli serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sequoia Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and as a member of the Board of Directors of CellGate, Inc., Critical Therapeutics, Inc., DecImmune Therapeutics, Inc. and Synovex Corporation. Prior to joining HealthCare Ventures, Dr. Mirabelli served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of LeukoSite, Inc. which merged with Millennium Pharmaceuticals in December 1999. Dr. Mirabelli presided over the integration of LeukoSite into Millennium as President of Pharmaceutical R&D and a member of the company's Board of Directors until mid-2000. Dr. Mirabelli was a founder of Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he served in a number of senior research and development positions from 1989 to 1993. He was a member of SmithKline and French Laboratories R&D Division from 1981 to 1988 where he held a number of positions including Director of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology. Dr. Mirabelli received his Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas in 1981.