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Wendy S. Johnson
President and Chief Executive Officer
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Ms. Johnson has been a Venture Partner at ProQuest Investments since November 2005. Prior to joining ProQuest, she served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, at Salmedix Inc., where she led the effort to license their lead cancer therapeutic; the company was successfully sold to Cephalon in June 2005. Ms. Johnson has additional experience with device, diagnostic and drug discovery and development and regulatory affairs. She held senior business and corporate development positions at Women First, Prizm Pharmaceuticals, Cytel Corp., Symbiotics Corp., and Murex Corp. (Cambridge U.K.). Additionally, Ms. Johnson served as Assistant Director with the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the Food and Drug Administration. Ms. Johnson holds an M.B.A. from Loyola University, an M.S. in Clinical Microbiology from the Hahnemann Medical School and a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Maryland. |
Gary T. Elliott RPh, PharmD, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President, Product Development
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Dr. Elliott was vice president, product development at Salmedix, Inc. from July 2002 until its acquisition by Cephalon, Inc. in June 2005. Dr. Elliott served as Director and later as Senior Director, Product Development at Corixa Corporation, a biotechnology company, from November 1999 to June 2002. From November 1994 to November 1999, he held the position of Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development at RibiImmunoChem (Ribi), a biotechnology company acquired by Corixa Corporation. Earlier in his career, Dr. Elliott was an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Medical Sciences Center, University of Arkansas in Little Rock. He received his B.S. in Pharmacy from Union University/Albany College of Pharmacy in Albany, New York, and his Doctorate in Clinical Pharmacy and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from University of Florida in Gainesville. |
Lewis J. Rubin, M.D.
Acting Chief Medical Officer
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In addition to consulting as Acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Rubin continues in his position as Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. He has been involved in basic and clinical investigation of pulmonary vascular diseases for 30 years, and has served as the Principal Investigator/Steering Committee Chair for most of the pivotal therapeutic trials in PAH. He has authored nearly 200 peer-review articles, more than 70 book chapters, and edited five books on the pulmonary circulation. He serves as Senior Consulting Editor for the Journal of American College of Cardiology, on the editorial boards of Annals of Internal Medicine and the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, and on review boards of over 20 additional scientific journals. He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the College of Chest Physicians and the American Heart Association. Among his numerous honors and awards, he is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and received the Dickinson Richards Memorial Award from the American Heart Association. Dr. Rubin received his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY, and completed a residency and fellowship at Duke University Medical School. |
Mark W. Surber, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Product Development
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As Senior Director, Product Development Dr. Surber is responsible for formulation and manufacturing design, intellectual property, and execution and oversight of the company's preclinical and clinical development efforts. Prior to joining Aires, Dr. Surber was the first employee of Mpex Pharmaceuticals, where he later served as Director, Pharmaceutical Development. Prior to Mpex, Dr. Surber served at IGEN where he designed and coordinated several projects developing device-related clinical applications. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Illinois and B.S. in Medical Microbiology from California State University at Long Beach. |
Julie A. Crawford
Director, Finance and Administration
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Ms. Crawford was Director, Finance and Administration at Salmedix, Inc. from October 2001 until its acquisition by Cephalon, Inc. in June 2005, and continued her responsibilities through the transition and close of operations in San Diego in December 2005. During 2006, she served as a consultant to Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where she established and managed essential administrative systems and the finance and accounting role for this start-up company, which was acquired by Pharmion, Inc. in November of that year. From its inception in 1987 to 1995, Ms. Crawford served as an independent contractor in a similar role for Corvas International, Inc. and from 1990 to 2000 she also served as accounting consultant for several other early-stage technology companies, including Canji, Inc. She holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. |
Stephen P. Bradley, M.D.
Director, Clinical Development
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Dr. Bradley is primarily responsible for the design and implementation of clinical trials at Aires. After completing his Pulmonary and Critical Care training at the University of California San Diego, he was in clinical practice at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, where he served as ICU Director and Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine. He has served as a medical consultant to several biotech and pharmaceutical companies, with experience in clinical trial design, safety and efficacy monitoring, and regulatory affairs across several therapeutic indications including pulmonary, critical care, gastroenterology, neurology, and oncology. He trained in Internal Medicine at Barnes Hospital after receiving his M.D. at Vanderbilt University and a B.A. in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara. |
Geoffrey E. Barker, Ph.D.
Director, CMC and Analytical Development
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Dr. Barker has over 12 years of industry experience including 8 years practice in CMC regulatory and drug development. Prior to joining Aires, Dr. Barker served as Manager, and later as Director of Pharmaceutical Development at TargeGen, Inc., from March 2003 to February 2008. Prior to TargeGen, Dr. Barker held analytical scientist positions at Ontogen Corp. and SIBIA Neurosciences. Before moving to industry, Dr. Barker was an Assistant Professor of Analytical Chemistry at East Carolina University. Dr. Barker earned a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Binghamton University and a B.S. in Chemistry from Potsdam College. |
Ethel M. Koczon
Director, Clinical Operations
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Ms. Koczon has over 25 years of clinical operations experience with a proven track record in building highly effective teams, and is skilled in all aspects of clinical trial management, monitoring and quality assessments. She has worked in the contract research, biotech and pharmaceutical industries, including IBRD-ROSTRUM (currently MDS Pharma Services), Fidia Pharmaceutical Corporation and Johnson & Johnson Products. Most recently, she served as the Director of Clinical Operations at Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Biosite Inc. as an independent contractor. In 2005, Ms. Koczon was the Sr. Director of Clinical Operations at Salmedix, Inc. and from 2000 – 2005, she served as Director of Clinical Operations at Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Ms. Koczon has also been an instructor for the UCSD Clinical Trial Design and Management Extension Program. She received her B.A. in Biology from the University of California in San Diego. |
Niel C. Hoglen, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Pharmacology/Toxicology
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Dr. Hoglen is responsible for understanding the biological effects of Aires’ drug candidate and executing the non-clinical studies to support the development of this program. Prior to joining Aires, Dr. Hoglen was a Manager of Toxicology at Neurocrine Biosciences from 2005 to 2007, and Principal Scientist in the Department of Pharmacology at Idun Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer) from 1998 to 2005. Dr. Hoglen earned his BS in Chemistry from the University of Delaware, his Ph.D. from the Graduate Center for Toxicology at the University of Kentucky and was a post-doctoral fellow/faculty member at the University of Arizona’s Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology from 1994 to1998. |
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Our Team