Matthew R. Stober is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Istari Oncology. With more than 30 years of leadership experience at large, multinational pharmaceutical organizations, Mr. Stober has led multiple strategic corporate transactions, including major acquisitions and divestitures.
Prior to joining Istari Oncology, Mr. Stober held various positions in global operations as a corporate officer where he was responsible for developing and commercializing dozens of breakthrough vaccines and biopharmaceuticals at companies including Merck, Novartis, Hospira, and GSK. Earlier, he served as President of Operations at Smith and Nephew and as a corporate officer and member of the executive committee at Hospira, where he managed 12,000+ global employees. While at Hospira, Mr. Stober led a turnaround that resulted in a $17B acquisition by Pfizer. He also held global leadership positions at Novartis, where he successfully launched 3 novel vaccines in 4 years with sales of $3B.
In addition to his role as President and CEO, Mr. Stober currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors at Istari Oncology and X-Vax Technology. He also serves on the Technical Advisory Board at Catalent Biologics and Adverum Biotechnologies.
Mr. Stober earned a BS in chemical engineering from Villanova University.
Sean P. Nolan served as President and Chief Executive Officer of AveXis, Inc., and as a member of the Board of Directors for the company from June 2015 to May 2018. AveXis was a clinical-stage gene therapy company dedicated to developing, manufacturing, and commercializing novel treatments for patients suffering from rare and life-threatening neurological genetic diseases. AveXis was acquired by Novartis, a multinational pharmaceutical company, in May 2018.
He previously served as the Chief Business Officer of InterMune and Chief Commercial Officer at Reata Pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Nolan currently serves on the Board of Directors of Ventas, Inc., and is Chairman for the boards of Encoded Therapeutics and Affinia Therapeutics. He is the Executive Chairman of the Board for Jaguar Gene Therapy, LLC and Istari Oncology, Inc.
Mr. Nolan earned his BA in biology from John Carroll University in 1990.
Raymond Cheong, MD, PhD, is a Principal at Baker Brothers Investments. Prior to joining Baker Brothers, Dr. Cheong completed an MD and a PhD in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University, where he was awarded the Michael A. Shanoff Award for best thesis research within the School of Medicine. Prior to Hopkins, he earned a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Mr. Bonczek has been instrumental in helping companies through IPOs, secondary equity offerings, private placements, transactional advice for M&As, strategic planning, and collaboration agreements. He is also President and Chief Financial Officer of MedBlue Incubator, Inc., and has served as President, Director, CFO, and General Counsel of b3 bio, Inc.; Chief Financial Officer, General Counsel, and Chief Administrative Officer of Trimeris, Inc.; and Chief Counsel and Global Director of Safety, Health and Environment of Dupont. He is a founding partner, Director, and President of Aspen Tree Capital. He serves on the boards and advisory boards of several other life science-related companies. Mr. Bonczek received an AB in chemistry and a JD degree from the University of North Carolina. He also holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Bolognesi is Professor Emeritus at Duke Medical Center, presently serving in a special capacity within Duke University Medical Center as Chair of the Joint Steering Committee of MedBlue Incubator, Inc. His scientific career spans 3 decades, during which he has held many positions at Duke University and been involved in all phases of drug development. He was also Founder, CEO, and Chief Scientific Officer at Trimeris, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company that successfully obtained FDA approval for Fuzeon<super>®<super>, a first-in-class HIV fusion inhibitor, and he led the execution of its development and commercial collaboration with F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG. He also served as CEO and Chairman of b3 bio, Inc.; CEO of Enci Therapeutics, Inc.; and CEO of C2 Regenerate, Inc.
Dr. Sandor has 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Dr.Sandor was Chief Medical Officer at Array BioPharma prior to its acquisition by Pfizer. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Global Clinical Development at Incyte and Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Oncology at Biogen Idec. He has also held positions of increasing responsibility in oncology product development at AstraZeneca. Dr. Sandor received his MD, CM from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and completed a fellowship in medical oncology at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.