Ron Garren, MD
Chairman of the Board
Ronald Garren is a board certified internist, and has been practicing medicine for over 30 years. He is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed his residency at New York Hospital. In 1994 Ron completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in molecular biology at Stanford in Dr. Paul Berg's lab, studying the effects of the nef gene from the HIV virus. An additional year was spent as a visiting scholar in the Biochemistry Dept. at Stanford. Dr. Garren has continued to practice hospital-based oncology as well as consult for biotechnology companies in the San Francisco Bay area. He has a founder equity position in Rigel Pharmaceuticals (RIGL), a public biotech company in South San Francisco. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Kinexis, a private biotech company in San Diego specializing in Alzheimer’ disease. Garren is also the CEO of Amplimed, a private biotech company in Tuscon specializing in developing cancer drugs.
Scott L. Mathis
Board Director
Mr. Mathis is founder, Chairman and CEO of InvestBio, Inc. With more than 20 years in the financial industry, he has extensive experience in both investment and management. He is also founder and Chairman of Diversified Private Equity Corporation. Mr. Mathis serves as a member of the Board of Directors of AmpliMed Corporation. He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Mississippi State University. Mr. Mathis was previously a partner at Oppenheimer and Company, a Senior Vice President and a member of the Directors Council at Lehman Brothers. Mr. Mathis also worked with Alex Brown and Sons and The Boston Group. Mr. Mathis was responsible for the management of the Palm Beach, Florida office of Gruntal and Company, Inc. He began his career as a financial consultant and broker with Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith.
James N. Topper, M.D., Ph.D.
Board Director
Dr. Topper is General Partner- Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Palo Alto, responsible for investments within the biopharma sector. Dr Topper joined Frazier Healthcare in 2003 as a Venture Partner and became a General Partner in 2005. Since joining Frazier Healthcare, Dr. Topper has led several biopharma investments, including Arête Therapeutics and Cotherix (CTRX). Dr. Topper currently also serves on the boards of Amicus Therapeutics, Arête Therapeutics, Calistoga Pharmaceuticals, Intradigm Corporation, La Jolla Pharmaceuticals (LJPC), MacuSight Inc., Zelos Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Topper is also an advisory board member to the Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics. Prior to joining Frazier Healthcare, he served as head of the cardiovascular research and development franchise at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and ran Millennium San Francisco (formerly COR Therapeutics). Prior to the merger of COR and Millennium, Dr. Topper served as the Vice President of Biology at COR and was responsible for managing all of its research activities. He served on the faculties of Stanford Medical School and Harvard Medical School prior to joining COR, where he functioned as a clinician, instructor and basic investigator. Dr. Topper received his M.D. and Ph.D. (in Biophysics) from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1991 under the auspices of the Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and is board certified in both disciplines. After completing a research fellowship in the Vascular Research Division in the department of Pathology at the Brigham and Women's hospital, he joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School from 1997 to 1998, and subsequently Stanford University as an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular) in July 1998. He has authored over 50 publications and was the recipient of a Howard Hughes Scholars Award while on the faculty at Stanford University. He continues to hold an appointment as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and as a Cardiology Consultant to the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Hospital.
Gregory Thayer
Board Director and CEO of The Vaccine Company
Gregory Thayer has been President and CEO of The Vaccine Company since December 2003. Just prior to that, Mr. Thayer was the lead venture consultant for the formation of a company based on the work of Dr. Roger Kornberg of Stanford University, and simultaneously was an early employee of MerciaPharma, Inc., a vaccine development and formulations company. Prior to that, Mr. Thayer was Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel of DoubleTwist, Inc., a bioinformatics company. Mr. Thayer had previously been Intellectual Property and Licensing Counsel for Somatix Therapy Corp., an early gene therapy company. Prior to that, Mr. Thayer was an intellectual property attorney with Flehr, Hobach, Albritton and Test. Mr. Thayer also worked for two years at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, France, where he ran programs on the environmental use and monitoring of genetically modified organisms, in the 24 OECD member countries. Mr. Thayer received his law degree from UC/Hastings College of the Law. He received a M.A. in Physiology from Columbia University, where he conducted his graduate work in molecular neuroscience with Drs. Eric Kandel and Richard Axel, and in the laboratory of Dr. Walter Gilbert at Harvard University.
Randolph Steer, M.D., Ph.D.
Board Director
Dr. Steer has been an independent pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices consultant since 1989. Dr. Steer has served as Associate Director of Medical Affairs at Marion Laboratories; Medical Director at Ciba Consumer Pharmaceuticals (Ciba-Geigy Corporation); Vice President, Senior Vice President and Member of the Executive Committee at Physicians World Communications Group; Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Therapeutics Communications International, and Chief Executive Officer of Vicus.com, Inc. Dr. Steer is a member of the Board of Directors of AmpliMed Corporation, Techne Corporation, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Vital Therapies Inc. He received his M.D. degree from the Mayo Medical School and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.
Stephen Ferruolo, J.D., Ph.D.
Board Secretary and Legal Counsel of The Vaccine Company
Mr. Ferruolo is chair of Goodwin Procter’s San Diego office, partner in the Business Law Department, and member of the Tech Companies & Life Sciences and M&A/Corporate Governance Practices of the firm. Mr. Ferruolo is a member of the American, California and San Diego Bar Associations. He is the Vice President and General Counsel of BIOCOM/San Diego and is Co-Chair on the Program Committee for the BIO 2008 International Convention. Prior to joining Goodwin Procter in 2007, Mr. Ferruolo was Co-Chair of the Corporate/VLG Practice Group at Heller Ehrman LLP and a member of the Intellectual Property Transactions Practice Group. He previously served as Co-Chair of Heller Ehrman’s Life Sciences Practice Group. He received a J.D. degree from Stanford Law School, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University, a M.Phil. degree from Oxford University (Rhodes Scholar), and a B.A. degree from Wesleyan University.
Chairman of the Board
Ronald Garren is a board certified internist, and has been practicing medicine for over 30 years. He is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed his residency at New York Hospital. In 1994 Ron completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in molecular biology at Stanford in Dr. Paul Berg's lab, studying the effects of the nef gene from the HIV virus. An additional year was spent as a visiting scholar in the Biochemistry Dept. at Stanford. Dr. Garren has continued to practice hospital-based oncology as well as consult for biotechnology companies in the San Francisco Bay area. He has a founder equity position in Rigel Pharmaceuticals (RIGL), a public biotech company in South San Francisco. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Kinexis, a private biotech company in San Diego specializing in Alzheimer’ disease. Garren is also the CEO of Amplimed, a private biotech company in Tuscon specializing in developing cancer drugs.
Scott L. Mathis
Board Director
Mr. Mathis is founder, Chairman and CEO of InvestBio, Inc. With more than 20 years in the financial industry, he has extensive experience in both investment and management. He is also founder and Chairman of Diversified Private Equity Corporation. Mr. Mathis serves as a member of the Board of Directors of AmpliMed Corporation. He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Mississippi State University. Mr. Mathis was previously a partner at Oppenheimer and Company, a Senior Vice President and a member of the Directors Council at Lehman Brothers. Mr. Mathis also worked with Alex Brown and Sons and The Boston Group. Mr. Mathis was responsible for the management of the Palm Beach, Florida office of Gruntal and Company, Inc. He began his career as a financial consultant and broker with Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith.
James N. Topper, M.D., Ph.D.
Board Director
Dr. Topper is General Partner- Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Palo Alto, responsible for investments within the biopharma sector. Dr Topper joined Frazier Healthcare in 2003 as a Venture Partner and became a General Partner in 2005. Since joining Frazier Healthcare, Dr. Topper has led several biopharma investments, including Arête Therapeutics and Cotherix (CTRX). Dr. Topper currently also serves on the boards of Amicus Therapeutics, Arête Therapeutics, Calistoga Pharmaceuticals, Intradigm Corporation, La Jolla Pharmaceuticals (LJPC), MacuSight Inc., Zelos Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Topper is also an advisory board member to the Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics. Prior to joining Frazier Healthcare, he served as head of the cardiovascular research and development franchise at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and ran Millennium San Francisco (formerly COR Therapeutics). Prior to the merger of COR and Millennium, Dr. Topper served as the Vice President of Biology at COR and was responsible for managing all of its research activities. He served on the faculties of Stanford Medical School and Harvard Medical School prior to joining COR, where he functioned as a clinician, instructor and basic investigator. Dr. Topper received his M.D. and Ph.D. (in Biophysics) from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1991 under the auspices of the Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and is board certified in both disciplines. After completing a research fellowship in the Vascular Research Division in the department of Pathology at the Brigham and Women's hospital, he joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School from 1997 to 1998, and subsequently Stanford University as an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular) in July 1998. He has authored over 50 publications and was the recipient of a Howard Hughes Scholars Award while on the faculty at Stanford University. He continues to hold an appointment as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and as a Cardiology Consultant to the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Hospital.
Gregory Thayer
Board Director and CEO of The Vaccine Company
Gregory Thayer has been President and CEO of The Vaccine Company since December 2003. Just prior to that, Mr. Thayer was the lead venture consultant for the formation of a company based on the work of Dr. Roger Kornberg of Stanford University, and simultaneously was an early employee of MerciaPharma, Inc., a vaccine development and formulations company. Prior to that, Mr. Thayer was Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel of DoubleTwist, Inc., a bioinformatics company. Mr. Thayer had previously been Intellectual Property and Licensing Counsel for Somatix Therapy Corp., an early gene therapy company. Prior to that, Mr. Thayer was an intellectual property attorney with Flehr, Hobach, Albritton and Test. Mr. Thayer also worked for two years at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, France, where he ran programs on the environmental use and monitoring of genetically modified organisms, in the 24 OECD member countries. Mr. Thayer received his law degree from UC/Hastings College of the Law. He received a M.A. in Physiology from Columbia University, where he conducted his graduate work in molecular neuroscience with Drs. Eric Kandel and Richard Axel, and in the laboratory of Dr. Walter Gilbert at Harvard University.
Randolph Steer, M.D., Ph.D.
Board Director
Dr. Steer has been an independent pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices consultant since 1989. Dr. Steer has served as Associate Director of Medical Affairs at Marion Laboratories; Medical Director at Ciba Consumer Pharmaceuticals (Ciba-Geigy Corporation); Vice President, Senior Vice President and Member of the Executive Committee at Physicians World Communications Group; Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Therapeutics Communications International, and Chief Executive Officer of Vicus.com, Inc. Dr. Steer is a member of the Board of Directors of AmpliMed Corporation, Techne Corporation, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Vital Therapies Inc. He received his M.D. degree from the Mayo Medical School and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.
Stephen Ferruolo, J.D., Ph.D.
Board Secretary and Legal Counsel of The Vaccine Company
Mr. Ferruolo is chair of Goodwin Procter’s San Diego office, partner in the Business Law Department, and member of the Tech Companies & Life Sciences and M&A/Corporate Governance Practices of the firm. Mr. Ferruolo is a member of the American, California and San Diego Bar Associations. He is the Vice President and General Counsel of BIOCOM/San Diego and is Co-Chair on the Program Committee for the BIO 2008 International Convention. Prior to joining Goodwin Procter in 2007, Mr. Ferruolo was Co-Chair of the Corporate/VLG Practice Group at Heller Ehrman LLP and a member of the Intellectual Property Transactions Practice Group. He previously served as Co-Chair of Heller Ehrman’s Life Sciences Practice Group. He received a J.D. degree from Stanford Law School, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University, a M.Phil. degree from Oxford University (Rhodes Scholar), and a B.A. degree from Wesleyan University.
