Mark P. Lappe
Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Lappe co-founded Inhibrx in 2010 and has served as Chief Executive Officer since our inception. He also serves as the Chairman of our board of directors. Mr. Lappe has extensive expertise in the biotechnology industry with over 30 years of experience in executive management, investment management, and executive recruiting, having built the executive teams of over 40 start-up biotechnology and medical device companies. Prior to founding Inhibrx, Mr. Lappe was the founder and Managing Partner of Efficacy Biotech Fund, a fund focused on strategic investment in public biotechnology companies.
Founder, EVP Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Eckelman co-founded Inhibrx in April 2010 and currently serves as our Chief Scientific Officer. Until October 2021, he also served as our Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy. He served as a member of our Board of Directors from April 2018 until October 2021. From August 2015 to November 2018, he served as our Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Biotherapeutics. From 2010 until August 2015, Dr. Eckelman served as our Vice President of Scientific Operations. Dr. Eckelman is the head of our research team, overseeing several key functional areas spanning discovery and protein engineering to therapeutic development. Prior to co-founding Inhibrx, Dr. Eckelman was a Research Investigator in the biotherapeutics group at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation. He conducted his graduate research at the Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and received a Ph.D. in Molecular Pathology from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), School of Medicine. Dr. Eckelman received his B.S. in Molecular Biology and his M.S. in Biology from UCSD.
Founder
As one of our co-founders, Dr. Deveraux leads target identification and validation, as well as therapeutic lead selection, and oversees our pipeline development strategy. Prior to founding Inhibrx, he spent 10 years at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF). Dr. Deveraux led groups of Ph.D./M.D. level investigators in the conception and generation of novel target identification and validation platforms. He was a key member of the team that transitioned the first GNF therapeutic antibody from bench-top to clinical trials. His research on cell death at the Stanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute has been highly cited. Dr. Deveraux received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Utah School of Medicine.
Chief Financial Officer
Ms. Deck leads our accounting, finance, IT and investor relations functions. She joined Inhibrx in October 2018, bringing over 15 years of experience in the life science industry. Prior to joining our team, Ms. Deck held various accounting and finance positions of increasing responsibility with Apricus Biosciences Inc., Hologic Inc., Gen-Probe Inc., and Cytori Therapeutics Inc. Ms. Deck holds a B.S. and M.S. in Accounting and is an active licensed Certified Public Accountant in the state of California.
EVP, Chief Technical Operations Officer
Dr. Amanullah is responsible for the late-stage activities required for the commercialization of our programs. He brings more than 20 years of experience in process development, technical operations, cGMP clinical manufacturing, commercialization and life cycle management of antibody therapeutics, vaccines, gene therapy, cell-based therapeutics, and recombinant proteins.
Prior to joining Inhibrx, Dr. Amanullah held executive and senior-level positions with aTyr Pharma, Gilead Sciences, Genentech, and Merck. He’s the author of 55 peer-reviewed publications, and his work has been presented at over 120 conferences. He’s on the editorial board of the Biotechnology & Bioengineering and mAb journals. Dr. Amanullah received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham (UK) and conducted postdoctoral studies with the University of Birmingham, Novo Nordisk, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, and University College London.
EVP, Chief Commercial Officer
Mr. Matly brings extensive commercial launch and leadership experience across both orphan diseases and oncology. Mr. Matly joins us from Novartis where he served as the global Vice President of the MDS/AML franchise, one of the largest potential growth areas of Novartis Oncology, leading the launch preparation of their flagship program, as well as ensuring commercial success of the entire AML/MDS portfolio. Prior to this role, Mr. Matly was the global commercial lead of the sickle cell disease therapeutic area, leading the launch of ADAKVEO, which at the time was the first approved novel therapy in almost two decades. Also at Novartis, Mr. Matly was the global commercial lead of PROMACTA/REVOLADE, the largest growth driver of Novartis Oncology. Mr. Matly began his career at Eli Lilly, holding several positions of increasing responsibility in sales and marketing, most notably leading the US launch of CYRAMZA in metastatic lung cancer.
Mr. Matly received his B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
EVP, Chief Clinical Development Officer
Mr. Jensen joined our team in March 2020 and is responsible for the success of our clinical programs through leadership, strategic oversight, and team direction. From 2016 through 2019, he served as Senior VP of Clinical Development at La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co, where he led the clinical and global safety teams, achieving FDA and EMA approval for an investigational synthetic human peptide (Giapreza®).
Mr. Jensen has over 30 years of experience in drug development at biotech and pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and Europe. Previously, he was Vice President of Clinical Operations and Clinical Lead at Pfizer, leading the development operations team for axitinib (Inlyta®), and held senior positions at several biotech and contract research companies (e.g., Metabasis, Excaliard, Syneos, PPD, Quintiles). He specializes in managing global teams and leading partnerships with research investigators and key opinion leaders. Mr. Jensen received his B.S. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University.
EVP, Translational Sciences
Dr. Carlos Bais joined Inhibrx as the Executive Vice President of Translational Sciences in May 2022. Dr. Bais brings extensive scientific, drug-development, and managerial experience leading large teams across multiple early- and late-stage oncology programs. He is particularly committed to scientific excellence in pursuit of precision medicine approaches that guide the development of new targeted treatments.
Dr. Bais began his career in industry as a research lab head at Genentech and then as a Senior Director and Principal Scientist in the oncology biomarker development department. Later he served as a Director of Translational Medicine for cancer immunotherapy at Medimmune/Astrazeneca, and most recently prior to Inhibrx, as a Senior Director and Principal Scientist in the oncology biomarker development department at Genentech/Roche. Throughout his career, Dr. Bais led impactful research and translational strategies for multiple late-stage programs that resulted in high impact publications and drug approvals in diagnostic-positive patient subpopulations. Some of the drugs Dr. Bais and his team supported included Astrazeneca’s Durvalumab (anti-PD-L1) and Tremelimumab (anti-CTLA-4), and Roche’s Atezoluzimab (anti-PD-L1), Tiragolumab (anti-Tigit), and Bevacizumab (Avastin, anti-VEGF) as well as overseeing biomarker support for early-stage drug candidate development, including T-cell engagers and therapies, along with individualized neoantigen cancer vaccines.
Dr. Bais holds a Ph.D. from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. He received his postdoctoral training at Columbia University in New York.
VP, General Counsel
Ms. Pollema serves as our General Counsel, managing our legal affairs. Prior to joining Inhibrx, she spent 10 years in private law practice with two large full-service law firms where she counseled both public and private companies in a range of transactional and corporate matters, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financings, corporate governance, and general corporate matters. Ms. Pollema received her Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
VP, Regulatory Affairs
Dr. Kao joined our team in 2021 as VP of Regulatory Affairs. He brings over 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in drug development, overseeing programs from initial IND submission to marketing registration and life-cycle management. Prior to Inhibrx, Dr. Kao served as a regulatory lead collaborating on the design of integrated development strategies to support global registration for novel therapies in the oncology, immunology, neurology and cardiovascular therapeutic areas. He comes with considerable regulatory experience in the management of complex clinical programs and in the preparation of regulatory marketing applications from global organizations including Eisai, Roche, Daiichi-Sankyo and Celgene. He most recently served as Development Program Leader at BMS, responsible for the successful delivery of all aspects of drug development for a specific immunology project. Dr. Kao is a registered Pharmacist and received his BS in Pharmacy from Rutgers University, MBA in Marketing from Rutgers Business School, and PharmD from Shenandoah University.
VP, Business Development
Dr. Tsai leads our business development, portfolio strategy, and formation of new business ventures. He is a seasoned executive that brings more than 15 years of oncology leadership and biopharma industry expertise in business development, search and evaluation, marketing, and new product planning. While at Sanofi Genzyme and Takeda, Dr. Tsai was responsible for licensing deals and acquisitions with an aggregate value of over $2 billion. His role included activities that resulted in global co-development programs, worldwide collaborative commercialization, while also enabling the transition of innovative early-stage research to late-stage development. He has an outstanding track record of bringing novel treatment modalities to patients, including immuno-oncology therapies that have changed cancer treatment.
Dr. Tsai holds an M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine and serves as a member of its faculty, where for over a decade he has been teaching medical students curricula on clinical and integrative medicine. He received his M.B.A. from MIT Sloan School of Management, and his B.S. in Molecular Genetics from the University of Rochester.
VP, Clinical Development and Medical Affairs
Dr. Andrianov joined Inhibrx in January 2021, bringing over 16 years of industry experience in hematology and oncology clinical development.
Prior to joining Inhibrx, Dr. Andrianov served as a physician scientist and medical monitor for multiple early-phase studies of various small molecules and immunooncology agents, vaccines and T-cell therapies for solid tumors, such as melanoma, head and neck, renal cell and prostate cancer and B-cell lymphomas. He also supported several registrational trials and New Drug Applications in non-small-cell lung cancer, myelodysplastic syndrome, and acute myeloid leukemia, as well as Biologics License Applications in Hemophilia and diffuse large B cell lymphoma.
Dr. Andrianov received an M.D. from the Pavlov First State Medical University of Saint Petersburg and a clinical development professional certification from King’s College London.
Chairman
Mr. Lappe co-founded Inhibrx in 2010 and has served as Chief Executive Officer since our inception. He also serves as the Chairman of our board of directors. Mr. Lappe has extensive expertise in the biotechnology industry with over 30 years of experience in executive management, investment management, and executive recruiting, having built the executive teams of over 40 start-up biotechnology and medical device companies. Prior to founding Inhibrx, Mr. Lappe was the founder and Managing Partner of Efficacy Biotech Fund, a fund focused on strategic investment in public biotechnology companies.
Director
Mr. Forsyth has served as a member of our Board since April 2018. From 1994 until February 2022, Mr. Forsyth served as a portfolio manager, a managing director and Chief Investment Officer of Income & Growth Strategies with Allianz Global Investors (“Allianz”). Mr. Forsyth was also the head of the Allianz Income and Growth Strategies team, during which time he had portfolio management, trading and research responsibilities, and oversaw all aspects of the Income and Growth platform’s business, including product development and implementation. Mr. Forsyth was the lead portfolio manager for the Allianz High Yield Bond strategy since its inception in August 1994 and assumed lead portfolio management responsibility for the firm’s Convertible strategy in 1998. In addition to management responsibility for institutional clients worldwide, Mr. Forsyth supervised multiple open-end and closed-end mutual funds. Mr. Forsyth has 30 years of investment-industry experience. Mr. Forsyth currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Ticket-Sauce, Inc., an event management solutions software company. Mr. Forsyth received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Iowa. We believe that Mr. Forsyth is qualified to serve as a member of our Board of Directors due to his extensive experience as an investment fund portfolio manager and his extensive business strategy experience.
Director
Dr. Kayyem has served as a member of our Board since April 2018. He is the founder of GenMark Diagnostics Inc. (“GenMark”) and from May 2010 until February 2018, Dr. Kayyem served in various leadership positions at GenMark including Senior Vice President of Research and Development, Chief Scientific Officer, President, and Chief Executive Officer as the company evolved from Osmetech plc. In 2018, Dr. Kayyem became a consultant to GenMark’s board of directors and executive team. In March 2021, GenMark agreed to merge with Roche, which subsequently acquired GenMark through a tender offer. In 2006, Dr. Kayyem founded and served as a member of the board of directors of privately-held Calimmune Inc. until its acquisition by CSL Behring in 2017. In 1995, he founded Clinical Micro Sensors Inc. to commercialize technical innovations he developed while serving as a Senior Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology (“Caltech”). In 2000, Clinical Micro Sensors Inc. was sold to Motorola Inc. and was subsequently purchased by Osmetech plc in 2005. From June 2000 until December 2004, Dr. Kayyem served as Vice President of Life Sciences at Motorola. In October 2004, he co-founded the biotechnology fund management company, Efficacy Capital Limited, and, until September 2009, served as a managing partner. Dr. Kayyem also currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Biodesix, Inc. Dr. Kayyem received a combined B.S. and M.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Caltech. We believe that Dr. Kayyem’s extensive experience as an executive and serving on other boards of directors in the biotechnology and biotherapeutic industry qualifies him to serve as a member of our Board of Directors.
Director
Ms. Manhard has served as a member of our board of directors since June 2020. She has been a member of the board of directors of Heron Therapeutics Inc. (Heron) since October 2019 and has served as their Executive Vice President, Drug Development since 2016. Ms. Manhard also served as a director of Heron from 2014 to 2016 until she joined the management team. She has more than 25 years of experience in drug development, regulatory affairs, and pharmaceutical operations.
From 2006 to 2016, Ms. Manhard served as the Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Development Operations at Ardea Biosciences Inc. (Ardea). In her role at Ardea, she was instrumental in the development and 2015 regulatory approval of lesinurad (Zurampic). Prior to joining Ardea in 2006, she was President of her own consultancy firm, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Exelixis Inc. and held multiple regulatory positions at Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc., a division of the Warner-Lambert Company, supporting development and commercialization of anticancer and antiviral products, including nelfinavir (Viracept).
Ms. Manhard was also previously with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in regulatory affairs, responsible for oncology compounds, including paclitaxel (Taxol) and infectious disease compounds, including didanosine (Videx) and stavudine (Zerit). She began her career in clinical research with Eli Lilly and Company and G.H. Besselaar Associates (Covance Inc.). Ms. Manhard is a member of the board of trustees for the Fleet Science Center. She received a B.S. in Zoology and a B.A. in French from the University of Florida.
Director
Since January 2010, Dr. Vuori has served as President of, and has held the Pauline and Stanley Foster Presidential Chair at, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (the “Institute”), a non-profit research organization with major research programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, and infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. Dr. Vuori also served as the Institute’s interim Chief Executive Officer from January 2013 to September 2014, and from September 2017 to June 2020. Since January 1995, Dr. Vuori has served as a Professor at the Institute’s National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center, an interdisciplinary basic and translational research effort mobilizing over 400 scientists.
Dr. Vuori has previously served or is currently serving on the Board of Directors of Bionano Genomics, Inc., Sio Gene Therapies, Forian, Inc., the American Association for Cancer Research, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the California Breast Cancer Research Council and WebMD. Dr. Vuori received her M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Oulu, Finland.
Igor Barjaktarevic, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and works at Ronald Reagan Medical Center, both in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from medical school at the University of Belgrade in Serbia, completed his residency in internal medicine at New York University School of Medicine in New York, and completed his pulmonary and critical care fellowship at Cornell University at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York. Dr. Barjaktarevic received his Ph.D. in pulmonary immunology in 2016. His research is focused on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (“COPD”), AATD, lung nodule/lung cancer, and the use of ultrasound in critical care.
Mark Brantly, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine and the Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Medicine at the University of Florida. He graduated from the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, Florida. He completed his internal medicine residency at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia, and a pulmonary and critical care fellowship at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Brantly specializes in rare lung disease translational research with a focus on AATD, gene therapy, pulmonary fibrosis, and alveolar macrophage function.
Kenneth R. Chapman, M.D., MSc, FRCPC, FACP, FERS, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada and the founder and current president of Inspiration Research Limited. He serves as the Director of the Asthma and Airway Centre of the University Health Network, President of the Canadian Network for Respiratory Care, and Director of the Canadian Registry for AATD. He received his Doctor of Medicine from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and his Master of Science at the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. Dr. Chapman’s areas of expertise are asthma, COPD and airway diseases.
Noel Gerry McElvaney, M.D., BCh, BAO, FRCPI, FRCPC is a Professor of Medicine and the Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland. He graduated from the School of Medicine at the University College in Dublin, Ireland, and completed his fellowship in respiratory medicine at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. His expertise is in the areas of cystic fibrosis, AATD, infection, immunity, and lung inflammation. Dr. McElvaney founded the Alpha-1 Foundation of Ireland in 2001 to provide a patient forum and promote awareness of AATD.
Robert A. Sandhaus, M.D., Ph.D., FCCP, is a Professor of Medicine at the National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado. He is also the Executive Vice President and Senior Medical Director of AlphaNet and the Clinical Director of the Alpha-1 Foundation, two not-for-profit organizations serving the Alpha-1 community. Dr. Sandhaus received both his medical degree and his Ph.D. from Stony Brook University School of Medicine in Stony Brook, New York. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and a pulmonary fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco in San Francisco, California. Dr. Sandhaus specializes in pulmonary medicine and is experienced in AATD, COPD, and critical care medicine.
James Stoller, M.D., M.S., is the Chair of the Education Institute at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and is an Adjunct Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, both in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine and completed his residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He completed fellowships in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine at both Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts and Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, as well as a fellowship in critical care medicine and anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He specializes in AATD and COPD.
With proven track records in biotherapeutics and a commitment to synergistic teamwork, we find that our people are as dynamic as our technology.
Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Founder, EVP Chief Scientific Officer
Founder
Chief Financial Officer
EVP, Chief Technical Operations Officer
EVP, Chief Commercial Officer
EVP, Chief Clinical Development Officer
EVP, Translational Sciences
VP, General Counsel
VP, Regulatory Affairs
VP, Business Development
VP, Clinical Development and Medical Affairs
Chairman
Director
Director
Director
Director