Matthew R. Stober

President & Chief Executive Officer

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.

Garrett Nichols, MD, MS

Consulting Medical Officer

Garrett Nichols, MD, MS, is the Consulting Medical Officer at Istari Oncology. With more than 20 years in the life sciences industry, Dr. Nichols brings vast experience managing the global development efforts of multiple cancer therapeutics stemming from his achievements at large, multinational pharmaceutical organizations to his role at the company.

Prior to joining Istari Oncology, Dr. Nichols served as Chief Medical Officer for Chimerix, Inc., where he led the development efforts for dociparstat sodium, an investigational, intravenous treatment in development as a first-line therapy in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and brincidofovir, an oral antiviral approved for the treatment of smallpox. He also served as Head of Global Development  at ViiV Healthcare and Vice President of Clinical Development at GlaxoSmithKline. In addition, Dr. Nichols spent 4 years on the faculty of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, where he was the principal investigator on NIH-funded grants exploring the prevention and treatment of viral infections in hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) recipients.

Dr. Nichols earned an MD from Duke University and an MS in epidemiology from the University of Washington, where he also completed a fellowship in infectious diseases.

Jamie Iudica, MBA

Consulting Manufacturing Officer

Jamie Iudica is the Consulting Manufacturing Officer at Istari Oncology. With more than 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Iudica brings a wide range of leadership experience in engineering, manufacturing, and supply-chain operation to his role at the company.

Prior to joining Istari Oncology, Mr. Iudica served as Senior Vice President of Global Product Supply at Xellia Pharmaceuticals, where he oversaw all manufacturing and supply chain operations. Mr. Iudica has also held various leadership positions at large, multinational pharmaceutical organizations including Merck, GSK, Novartis, and Hospira. His experience includes work at both innovative and generic companies in small molecule, biological API/drug substance, and drug products. During his decades-long career, Mr. Iudica also led facility construction and renovation, participated in cGMP compliance remediation, launched new products, and planned for the divestiture of assets.

Mr. Iudica earned both a BS in chemical engineering and an MBA from Villanova University.

John Higgins

Corporate and Commercial Development Consultant

Mr. Higgins is the Corporate and Commercial Development Consultant for Istari Oncology. With 30 years of extensive commercial experience, Mr. Higgins lends a deep understanding of oncology and rare disease to his role, including a proven track record spanning commercial operations, strategic planning, business development, product launches, and sales achievements across the full product life cycle.

Rob Melfi

Chief of Staff and Director, Program Management

Rob Melfi is Chief of Staff and Director, Program Management at Istari Oncology, where he focuses on the development and execution of strategic initiatives across programs and functions. Mr. Melfi brings more than 7 years of experience in strategy development and execution, process analysis and improvement, quantitative and qualitative evaluation of strategic options, and program stakeholder management to his role at the company.

Prior to joining Istari Oncology, Mr. Melfi served as a professional consultant where he led international strategic business planning and operational change programs for clients in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industries. Earlier, he spent 3 years based in Brussels, London, and the Netherlands focusing on global business strategy for a top US-based pharmaceutical company.

In addition to his role at Istari Oncology, he is a Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt and is certified in production and inventory management (CPIM) by APICS.

Mr. Melfi earned his BS in global supply chain and operations management from the University of South Carolina.