board of directors

Dr. Erich Platzer has over 10 years of operating experience in product development and marketing. Previously, he served as Head of Strategic Marketing Oncology at Roche, where he was responsible for various strategic corporate partnerships. Dr. Platzer has many years of direct clinical experience as a physician and researcher. He was a member of the team that purified G-CSF (Neupogen). Dr. Erich Platzer graduated from the Medical School of the University of Erlangen, where he also received his PhD.

Reinhard J. Ambros, Ph.D.
Executive Director and Head of the Novartis Venture Funds globally

Dr. Ambros was previously Managing Director of the Novartis BioVenture Fund in the USA. At Novartis he worked in Corporate Finance where he held the position of Head of Group Strategic Planning for several years. He was responsible for post-merger integrations at Novartis Corporate M & A and was global head BD & L cardiovascular and metabolic diseases at Novartis Pharma. Earlier in his career he had global leadership positions for key drug development projects at Novartis and Roche. He trained as a pharmacist, Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry and pharmacology and focused postdoctoral training in clinical pharmacology. He serves on the boards of Genedata and Symetis in Switzerland and Cylene, Tokai and Forma in the USA.

Peter Feinstein
General Partner, BioVentures Investors

Mr. Feinstein co-founded BioVentures Investors in 1999. He has advocated for, participated in and championed the biotechnology industry for over 26 years. Mr. Feinstein has advised a broad range of life science companies on public offerings, mergers, limited partnerships, private placements, and start-ups. He pioneered the approach of establishing valuation based on scientific and business achievements prior to product sales. Prior to co-founding BioVentures Investors, Mr. Feinstein founded the leading biotechnology communications firm, Feinstein Kean Healthcare. The firm was sold to the WPP group in 1999, after building a stellar reputation and a unique blend of services to support the development of biotech companies and the marketing of biopharmceutical products. Clients included Genzyme, Biogen, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Amgen, Abiomed, Novartis, Sepracor and others.

Fred Middleton
General Partner, Sanderling Ventures

Fred Middleton has over thirty years of experience in the biotechnology and biomedical industries in both corporate management and as an institutional investor. During that period, he has served as a board member for over 25 start up biomedical companies. Mr. Middleton joined Bob McNeil in late 1987 as a General Partner at Sanderling. Fred was part of Genentech’s original management team, where he served as Vice President of Finance, Administration, Corporate Development, as well as Chief Financial Officer. While at Genentech, Fred completed over $200 million in corporate partnering and institutional funding transactions, including the Company's initial public offering in 1980. In 1984, Fred founded Morgan Stanley Ventures, serving as managing general partner of an institutional fund raised to sponsor R&D funding arrangements at leading technology companies in the biomedical sciences and information technology fields. Mr. Middleton earned a BS in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971 and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School in 1973.

S. Edward Torres
Managing Director, Lilly Ventures

Ed Torres oversees Lilly Ventures operations and brings over 20 years of pharmaceutical and venture capital experience to the team. Since co-founding Lilly Ventures, he has led the investments in, and previously served on the boards of, Serenex (acquired by Pfizer), Conforma Therapeutics (acquired by Biogen Idec) and Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pharmion Corporation). Ed currently sits on the boards of Cylene, GlobeImmune, Receptos, Viamet Pharmaceuticals and various non-profit institutions. Prior to his role in Lilly Ventures, Ed had a diverse set of experiences throughout the domestic and international pharmaceutical businesses including operational finance, planning, M&A, business development and global marketing roles. Ed received a bachelors of arts from Creighton University and a master of business administration from the University of Michigan Business School, where he was a Consortium Fellow.

Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Independent Director

Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D., F.A.C.P. is a co-founder of Cylene and provides leadership in the clinical development arena for the Company. He holds an appointment as Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and he has an interest is in the development of new anticancer agents, both in the clinic and in the laboratory. He has been involved with the development of over 200 anticancer agents now in clinical use, including: mitoxantrone, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, irinotecan, nelarabine, capecitabine, lapatinib and many others. Dr. Von Hoff has published more than 569 papers, 135 book chapters and over 1000 abstracts, and he was the recipient of the 2010 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology for his outstanding contributions to cancer research leading to significant improvement in patient care. Dr. Von Hoff was appointed to President Bush’s National Cancer Advisory Board in 2004-2010. Dr. Von Hoff is the past President of the American Association for Cancer Research, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a past board member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Von Hoff is founder and the Editor Emeritus of Investigational New Drugs – The Journal of New Anticancer Agents; and, Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. He is also a co-founder of the AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop.

William G. Rice, Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Rice serves as Cylene’s President and CEO and as a Director. He brings more than 20 years of know-how from diverse leadership roles and industry experience, during which he led the drug discovery and development activities for multiple first-in-class agents, negotiated numerous licensing and partnering deals, delivered a series of corporate financings, and was a finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Dr. Rice joined Cylene from Achillion Pharmaceuticals, where he was founder, President, CEO and Director. Prior to Achillion, Dr. Rice was Senior Scientist and Head of the Drug Mechanism Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute-Frederick Research Center, where he identified numerous types of novel agents and published in Science, Nature and other prestigious journals. Dr. Rice was an academic professor of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine, he holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Emory University, he now serves on the Emory Alumni Board, and he served as a Post-doctoral Trainee in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center.

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