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Board of Directors

R. Gordon Douglas, Jr., M.D.
Chairman of the Board

Dr. Douglas has made outstanding contributions to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in his leadership roles spanning academic medical research, industry, non-profit organizations and government. He was the founding President of the Merck Vaccines business unit in 1991. During his eight years in this role, Merck launched new pediatric combination vaccines, vaccines against Hemophilus influena type B, varicella and hepatitis A and initiated research efforts toward rotavirus, shingles and human papilloma virus vaccines. Prior to joining Merck, he was Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and Physician-in-Chief of the New York Presbyterian Hospital. He also served as head of the Infectious Disease Unit at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. Dr. Douglas is currently Professor Emeritus of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, Chairman of the Board of Aeras and of Vical, Inc., and a Board member of Protein Sciences.  He is author of over 200 scientific publications and was co-editor with Mandell and Bennett of Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases for the first three editions. Dr Douglas is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the Association of American Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Society of Clinical Investigation. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and an M.D. degree from Weill Cornell Medical College.


Todd Brady, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Brady has served as a member of our board of directors since Dec 2007. Dr. Brady has more than 18 years of pharmaceutical clinical and business development experience and is currently president and CEO of Aldeyra Therapeutics.  Prior to joining Aldeyra, Dr. Brady was an entrepreneur-in-residence and principal at Domain Associates, where he led institutional financing in numerous biotechnology companies from 2004 to 2013.  Prior to joining Domain, Dr. Brady was a co-founder and CEO of Phenome Sciences, a biotechnology firm he merged with Xanthus Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Antisoma), where he was later executive vice president of Strategic Development and Planning.  Dr. Brady also worked as head of business development and medical director at Aderis Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Schwarz Pharma, now part of UCB).  While at Xanthus and Aderis, Dr. Brady was a medical consultant on numerous pre-clinical programs and clinical programs in Phases I through IV, including Neupro®, a drug now marketed for Parkinson’s Disease.  Dr. Brady holds an M.D. from Duke University Medical School, a Ph.D. from Duke University Graduate School, and an A.B. from Dartmouth College.


 

Timothy Cooke, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Cooke joined NovaDigm Therapeutics as Chief Executive Officer in February of 2009. He has broad leadership experience in both emerging and large multinational companies in the fields of vaccines and immunotherapeutics. Dr. Cooke joined Merck when it launched a dedicated vaccine business unit in 1991 and over the next nine years was a key contributor to establishing a global sales and marketing organization. He was also a founding member of sanofi pasteur-MSD, a European joint venture between sanofi-pasteur and Merck. These two organizations generated sales of $6 billion in 2008. Dr. Cooke was the Chief Executive Officer of Mojave Therapeutics, a company developing therapeutic vaccines against viral infections and cancer, which was sold to Antigenics in 2004. He was Chief Operating Officer of AVANT Immunotherapeutics prior to its acquisition by CellDex Therapeutics in 2008. Dr. Cooke has a bachelor’s degree from Saint Joseph’s University and a Ph.D. in bio-organic chemistry and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.


Tuomas Holmberg, MBA
Chief Business Officer

Tuomas is a serial entrepreneur with experience starting and growing companies in the electronics, biotechnology, and investment management industries. As a founder of NovaDigm Therapeutics, Tuomas has played key roles in developing and managing the investor and government relationships and in building the company. Tuomas received his MBA from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business. He received his Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).


Dr. Evgeny Zaytsev

Dr. Evgeny Zaytsev is a venture capitalist with more than twelve years’ investment experience in life sciences. Before joining RMI Partners (the management company for RusnanoMedInvest) he was a general partner at Helix Ventures (Palo Alto, California), which he co-founded to exclusively invest in novel therapeutic opportunities (biopharmaceuticals and medical devices). Prior to Helix Dr. Zaytsev was a partner of the venture capital pioneer Pitch Johnson at Asset Management Company, one of the oldest venture firms in Silicon Valley.

Dr. Zaytsev has been involved in more than 30 investments in biomedical companies, including such success stories of venture capital as BiPar Sciences (acquired by sanofi-aventis), Chimerix (NADSDAQ: CMRX), Enteric Medical Technologies (acquired by Boston Scientific), Fusion Medical Technologies (acquired by Baxter International), MicroVention (acquired by Terumo Corporation), TriVascular (acquired by Boston Scientific).  He has been a Board Member of a number of companies in Silicon Valley and Russia.

Evgeny Zaytsev has been Chief Scientific Officer of Institute of Medico-Ecological Problems in Barnaul, Siberia, Russia, responsible for studying the health and environmental effects of the former Soviet Union's nuclear tests. Under his leadership the Institute developed into an internationally recognized research center. Dr. Zaytsev is an active business community leader, a founder and the first president of US-Russia Technology Symposium at Stanford University (now Global Technology Symposium), and the annual Silicon Valley Open Doors investment conference. Dr. Zaytsev is an author of more than 70 scientific and business publications on entrepreneurship, venture capital and biotechnology.

Evgeny Zaytsev received his M.D. (cum laude) in 1991 and his Ph.D. in physiology in 1993, both from the Altai State Medical University.  He earned his M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2002.