Mission Advisory Board - inaugural members:
Society for Translational Oncology (STO) is committed to improving the lives of patients with cancer by advancing the development and deployment of innovative solutions in cancer research from bench to bedside and beyond. STO’s Mission Advisory Board (MAB) is comprised of world-leading experts from government, academia, and industry whose insights guide the organization’s vision and strategy for mission-critical activities.
The MAB plays a central role in shaping STO’s overall strategy to maximize its global impact through the discovery and examination of emerging trends and opportunities in policy, advocacy, research, technology, and finance in cancer care. Members of the MAB add tensile strength to the collective resolve of the organization, providing guidance on creative solutions that can facilitate optimal execution of strategic priorities.
STO is gratefully obliged to these global luminaries who hold us steadfast to our mission of advancing cancer research and improving equitable patient access to safe, effective, and affordable innovative new medicines.
Sean Khozin, MD, MPH
Co-Chairman, Mission Advisory Board
Sean Khozin, MD, MPH, is a Senior Life Sciences and Healthcare Partner at Braven. He is a physician-executive, board certified oncologist, and data scientist who is globally recognized as a leader in drug development, regulation, and applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in biomedical research and therapeutic development.
Prior to joining Braven, an early-stage investor that co-builds breakthroughs in large, regulated sectors – finance, healthcare, and industrials, Sean was the Chief Executive Officer of CancerLinQ, a precision oncology enterprise focused on transforming cancer care and research with real-world data and advanced analytics. He was formerly the Global Head of Data Strategy and Data Science Innovation at Johnson & Johnson, leading a worldwide multidisciplinary team charged with the design and implementation of pioneering data science solutions to support the development of innovative new medicines and vaccines.
He also was a founding member of the US FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence and Executive Director of Information Exchange and Data Transformation (INFORMED), the FDA’s first data science and technology incubator that he established under special federal authorities. As a uniquely entrepreneurial sandbox housed within the agency responsible for regulating nearly a third of the US economy, INFORMED played a pivotal role in shaping the US FDA’s position on real-world evidence and catalyzing the use of novel data science solutions in drug discovery and clinical development.
Before his tenure in the US federal government, Sean was the cofounder of Hello Health, a technology company focused on developing integrated telemedicine, point-of-care data visualization, and advanced analytical systems for optimizing patient care and clinical research. The company’s core technology offerings were first operationalized in a multidisciplinary network of clinics he had founded called SKMD.
Sean is a Research Affiliate at the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering, where he combines his quantitative and life sciences expertise in support of novel financing strategies for improving the lives of patients with cancer. He has over a decade of clinical and basic science research experience at the US National Cancer Institute and currently serves on the boards of Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and the Digital Medicine Society.
Mace L. Rothenberg, MD, FACP
Co-Chairman, Mission Advisory Board
Mace L. Rothenberg, MD, FACP, is a physician-executive with more than 30 years of experience in drug development, translational research, and risk-benefit assessment.
Mace served as Chief Medical Officer of Pfizer from 2019 to 2021. Prior to that role, Mace was Pfizer’s Head of Clinical Development & Medical Affairs for Oncology from 2008 to 2016, and Chief Development Officer for Oncology from 2016 to 2018. During that time, his organization developed and obtained regulatory approval for 11 new cancer medicines including first-in-class medicines Ibrance (palbociclib) for patients with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer and Xalkori (crizotinib) for patients with ALK+ non-small cell lung cancer.
Prior to joining Pfizer, Mace was Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University and Ingram Professor of Cancer Research at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center from 1998 to 2008. From 1991 to 1998, he was Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and Executive Officer of the Southwest Oncology Group.
Mace is the recipient of the first Craig Saxton Lifetime Achievement Award from Pfizer, the Lane W. Adams Quality of Life Award from the American Cancer Society and the Statesman Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Mace serves on the Board of Directors for Aulos Bioscience, Tango Therapeutics, and Surrozen. He also serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations including the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences, the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville Biosciences, and Society for Translational Oncology.
Mace received his BA magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 and his MD from the New York University School of Medicine in 1982. He received his post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute.
Agnes Binagwaho, MD, M(Ped), PhD
Professor Agnes Binagwaho, MD, M(Ped), PhD, is the Vice Chancellor and co-founder of the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) (in 2015), an initiative of Partners In Health based in Rwanda which focuses on changing how health care is delivered around the world by training global health professionals who strive to deliver more equitable, quality health services for all.
Agnes is a Rwandan pediatrician who returned to Rwanda in 1996, two years after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. Previously, she has provided clinical care in the public sector and has served the Rwandan health sector (1996-2016) in high-level government positions, first as the Executive Secretary of Rwanda’s National AIDS Control Commission, then as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, and lastly as Minister of Health for five years. She is a Professor of Pediatrics at UGHE, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.
Agnes is a member of multiple editorial, advisory. and directors’ boards, including the Rockefeller Foundation, African Europe Foundation, Cummings Foundation, and African Union Commission on COVID-19 Response. Agnes is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the World Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. She has published over 240 peer-reviewed articles and was named among the 100 Most Influential African Women for 2020 and 2021 and is a recipient of the 2022 L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science.
John Cahill
John Cahill is the Executive Chairman of IPG Health. John began his healthcare career at the Kolling Institute of Medical Research in NSW Australia investigating immunoregulatory pathways in inflammation and solid tumors. He then brought his medical science expertise to Technicon Pty Ltd, exploring laser-enabled cytology for the identification of blood borne disease, and then to Merck Sharp and Dohme Pty Ltd, working on new NSAID releases. John has been a driving force in establishing and growing what is now the IPG Health’s global healthcare offering. Early in his career, John co-founded CWFS Advertising, a leading health communications company in Australia and New Zealand, which was acquired by IPG in 1996. Following the acquisition, John led McCann Health Asia-Pacific where he grew specialist healthcare units in key markets across the region, each one demonstrating best-in-class solutions for the network’s healthcare clients. Under John ’s leadership, McCann Health APAC has been named Specialist Agency of the Year in one or more key markets every year since the awards inception. In 2009, John assumed responsibility for both McCann Health EMEA and APAC and in 2011, he was appointed Global CEO of the McCann Health network. In 2020, he was appointed Executive Chairman of the IPG Health network, working closely with IPG Health’s CEO, Dana Maiman. IPG Health is one of the world’s largest healthcare marketing communications group with over 6000 experts across all six continents working with the world’s leading life-science companies. John has 24+ years of experience in building one of the industry’s largest global healthcare operations with an unparalleled reach and footprint, based on expertise and well-defined community needs to better service global clients.
Under his leadership IPG Health’s global footprint has more than doubled in size with comprehensive offerings combining science, strategy, creative, and data services to deliver best-in-class solutions to clients and the world’s medical communities.
In 2020, John was recognized as Med Ad News’ “Industry Person of the Year.”
In addition to working with many of the top life sciences companies, John has a keen personal interest in global and public health and acts as an advisor to many organizations in this arena. His areas of endeavor include the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Pandemic response and Pandemic Preparedness and Resilience with the World Health Organization; Maternal and Early Childhood Health (EWEC) with the UN; Polio Eradication with UNICEF; and being part of a multidisciplinary team assisting health improvement with many of the world’s major governments. Driven by John’s abiding interest in public health, the agency has worked closely with the USAID, GIZ, World Bank, PEPFAR, and the Clinton Global Initiative. John firmly believes effective communications, based upon a true global empathy, is a massively untapped resource for improving lives worldwide.
John Crumpler, AB
John Crumpler, AB, co-founded Hatteras in 2000 after a successful career as a technology entrepreneur. Following a decade in politics and public policy, he was founder and CEO of E-Comm, Inc., a software development and services firm specializing in remote and mobile computing. After E-Comm’s acquisition by XcelleNet, Inc. (XNET), John ran the services division until the company was acquired by Sterling Commerce (SE). Following the acquisition, John founded Hatteras with Clay Thorp.
At Hatteras, John is responsible for the firm’s investments in healthcare and life science information technology, and overall fund operations.
With his partners at Hatteras John has helped build a seed and early-stage venture capital partnership with over $800 million under management in seven funds. In that time, he has served on the boards of Synthematix, a chemistry informatics company that was acquired by Symyx Technologies (SMMX); Clinverse, a financial lifecycle management technology provider to contract research organizations and pharmaceutical companies, acquired by Bioclinica, Inc.; Bivarus, a survey-based health analytics company acquired by Press Ganey; NurseGrid, the nation’s most widely distributed nurse scheduling platform, acquired by HealthStream; Medfusion, a leading patient engagement platform, acquired by NextGen; Clinipace Worldwide, a provider of personalized clinical research solutions, acquired by dMed; and Iris Healthcare, the leading provider of comprehensive Advance Care Planning, acquired by Aledade. John currently serves on the boards of Huma.AI, Elligo Health Research, Wildflower Health, Jumo Health, and as an observer at SafeRide. He holds an A.B. from Harvard University.
Throughout his career John has been active in government and public policy at the state and federal levels. A recipient of the Lyndhurst Prize, John served on the NC Economic Development Board, the State’s Clean Water Management Trust Fund board of directors, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, as a trustee of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and on the national advisory board of Organizing for Action. He currently serves as a longstanding board leader at SouthLight Healthcare, a non-profit provider of substance use treatment and mental health services, and on the board of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation. He is active at White Memorial Presbyterian Church and an enthusiastic member of the OnPoint House Band that plays for worship every Sunday. He has also been a member of the Americana band, Bloomsbury, for over 35 years and plays banjo in the Southern String Band.
Thomas J. Donohue, MBA, PhD (hc)
Thomas J. Donohue, MBA, PhD (hc), served as president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 1997 to 2019, the first person to hold both titles concurrently in the organization’s history. From 2019 to 2021, Tom served as chief executive officer alongside Suzanne Clark, the Chamber’s former president and current CEO. Tom stepped down from his role as CEO in March of 2021 and now serves as its advisor and as a member of its board of directors.
During his tenure, Tom built the Chamber into a lobbying and political powerhouse with expanded influence across the globe and helped secure business victories on Capitol Hill, in the regulatory agencies, in politics, in courts of law and in the court of public opinion, and before governments around the world.
Tom led efforts to expand trade and domestic energy production, rebuild America’s infrastructure, combat an avalanche of new regulations, protect intellectual property, revitalize capital markets, and advocate for legal, tax, education, and entitlement reform. In addition, he challenged attacks on free enterprise, while working to protect the business community’s right to speak and participate in the political and policy affairs of the nation.
Under Tom’s leadership, the Chamber emerged as a major political force in races for the Senate and the House of Representatives. As part of this bipartisan effort, millions of grassroots business advocates, as well as the Chamber’s federation of state and local chambers and industry associations, mobilize in support of pro-business candidates.
Tom established the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, dramatically expanded the activities of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, the Chamber’s law firm, and reinvigorated the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
He is a recipient of the Horatio Alger Award and the Boy Scouts of America National Capital Area Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He holds the highest civilian honor from Germany and South Korea, as well as the Order of the Crown (Commander Class) presented by the Crown Prince of Belgium and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun awarded by the Government of Japan.
Born in New York City, Tom earned a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University and a master’s degree in business administration from Adelphi University. He holds honorary degrees from Adelphi, St. John’s, Marymount, Bradley, and Pepperdine universities, along with the National University of Ireland at Maynooth.
James L. Gulley, MD, PhD, FACP
James Gulley, MD, PhD, FACP, is an internationally recognized expert in immunotherapy for cancer. He serves within the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as Co-Director of the Center for Immuno-Oncology, the Deputy Director of the CCR and the Acting Clinical Director, NCI. He has been instrumental in the clinical development of multiple immunotherapeutic agents and has led multiple first-in-human immunotherapy studies through phase 3 clinical trials. He was the coordinating PI of an international trial of avelumab that led to regulatory approval. He was the PI of the first-in-human international study of a first in class agent, bintrafusp alfa, which targets PDL1 and TGF-beta. He also leads a number of rationally designed, cutting edge combination immunotherapy studies.
James is a founding editor of the Clinical / Translational Section of JITC. He serves on many national and NIH boards and committees. He has been an investigator on over 200 clinical trials and has authored over 350 scientific papers or chapters which have been cited over 20,000 times. He has made hundreds of scientific presentations at universities or national / international meetings. He has had multiple awards including the 2010 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest award bestowed by the US President on investigators early in their careers. He also was awarded the 2018 Hubert H. Humphrey Award for Service to America for contributing to the health, safety, and well-being of the nation by helping to get FDA approval for avelumab for Merkel cell carcinoma and urothelial carcinoma and has received 10 NCI or NIH Director’s Awards.
James graduated from Loma Linda University in California with a PhD in microbiology in 1994 and an MD in 1995. As part of this eight-year MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program, he completed a dissertation on tumor immunology. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Emory University in 1998, followed by a medical oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Zhi Hong, PhD
Zhi Hong, PhD, is Executive Director, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Brii Biosciences which he founded in 2018.
Prior to starting Brii Biosciences, Zhi was Senior Vice President and Head of GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) Infectious Diseases Therapy Area Unit. He was widely credited as the key architect of GSK's comeback and success in HIV and Infectious Diseases medicine discovery and development. Under his leadership, ViiV Healthcare’s (a joint venture between GSK, Pfizer, and Shionogi) HIV business was revitalized with the approval of Tivicay and Triumeq. Zhi was the champion of GSK's effort in long-acting HIV treatment and prevention therapies resulting in the first approval of Cabenuva and Apretude, respectively.
Zhi is a public health advocate who has helped establish multiple public-private partnerships with the U.S./E.U. governments (DTRA, BARDA, NIH & IMI) and philanthropic organizations (Gates Foundation & Wellcome Trust). He helped to create GSK's Institute for Infectious Diseases and Public Health in Beijing, China. Zhi started Ardea Biosciences (later acquired by AstraZeneca). He also held leadership positions at Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Schering-Plough Research Institute (now Merck).
Zhi has more than 25 years of experience in drug discovery and development and has brought more than 40 compounds into development, including many that have been approved and launched. He has served as a board member of ViiV Healthcare.
Kenneth B. Lee, Jr., MBA
Kenneth B. Lee, Jr., MBA, is a general partner of Hatteras Ventures Partners, LLC, a venture capital fund focusing on life science companies. Ken is the former co-head of the International Life Sciences Practice for Ernst & Young, where he established a career over 29 years advising biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies throughout the world.
He got his start in biotech as part of the first audit team of Genentech in 1976. As co-founder and manager of the EY’s national life sciences practice from his location in the San Francisco Bay Area, he advised numerous high profile life science companies with their initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic financings. Among others, these firms included: Affymax, Affymetrix, Applied ImmuneSciences, Chiron, Circadian, Genentech, Heartport, Systemix, ALZA, and Collagen.
Ken has served on the Board of Directors 10 publicly held life sciences companies, including CV Therapeutics, Abgenix, Maxygen, OSI, Inspire Pharmaceuticals, and Biocryst, among others. He also served on the boards of several privately-held life sciences companies.
Ken served as CFO and interim CEO of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer, a not-for-profit organization founded by George H. W. Bush, Dr. Martin J. Murphy, and Robert Ingram. He also served on the Boards of the UNC Health Foundation and of NCBIO.
Ken graduated with a BA from Lenoir-Rhyne College and has an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
François Maisonrouge, MS, MBA
François Maisonrouge, MS, MBA, is a senior managing director in Evercore’s strategic advisory business. He has spent his whole career, starting in the eighties, giving strategic advice to health care companies in connection with their mergers and acquisitions, and fund raising activities. More recently, at Evercore, among other transactions, François was involved in advising Arena Pharmaceuticals on its sale to Pfizer; Novo Nordisk on its acquisition of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals; Parexel on its sale to EQT; AstraZeneca on its acquisition of Alexion; Sanofi on its acquisition of Principia; Nestlé on its sale of Nestlé Skin Health to EQT and ADIA; Bristol-Myers Squibb on its acquisition of Celgene; Takeda on its acquisition of Shire; AstraZeneca on its defense across from Pfizer; and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries on its acquisition of Ranbaxy Laboratories from Daiichi-Sankyo.
In addition, François has been involved in numerous other merger and acquisition transactions and initial public offerings and follow-on equity offerings, principally for biotech companies, as well as structured capital raising transactions.
Prior to joining Evercore, François was a managing director and chairman of life sciences at Credit Suisse, where he worked extensively in the fields of pharmaceuticals, specialty pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical technology.
He is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Harvard Business School Health Care Initiative, and the chairman of the Pasteur Foundation. In 2014, François was awarded the rank of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.
François holds an M.S. in engineering from Ecole Centrale de Lyon and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Névine Zariffa, MMath
Névine Zariffa, MMath, is the principal and founder of NMD Group, LLC, a strategic consulting firm focused on projects with the potential to significantly advance healthcare through data and analytics. Névine is a highly accomplished thought leader in the fields of biostatistics and data science with extensive experience across all phases of drug development. Névine had a 25-year career in senior roles at GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca where she also led the Enterprise Data & Analytics initiative. She has been a key contributor to development strategies for over 200 drug projects across oncology, cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory, inflammation, and renal diseases. She serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of ANOVA, Intelligencia and ZS Asscoiates and was a Board member of CDISC for 6 years. She has been a reviewer for The Lancet and has over 30 peer reviewed publications to her name.
Névine is currently a strategic consultant dedicated to advancing healthcare. Her projects include 1) significant initiatives bringing together multiple shareholders to answer complex scientific questions e.g. ctDNA, ICODA; 2) addressing regulatory and policy challenges, 3) leadership/organizational constructs. She was a consultant to the FDA, Office of the Commissioner, on the application of real-world evidence to COVID19.
Névine splits her time between Philadelphia and Montreal. In 2021, she published her first work of fiction, Sisters Pieced Together.
Helmut Zodl, MS
Helmut Zodl, MS, is Vice President & CFO for GE Healthcare, a $17 billion medical technology and digital solutions innovator that enables clinicians to make faster, more informed decisions through intelligent devices, data analytics, applications and services, supported by its Edison intelligence platform.
Previously, Helmut was Group CFO at Midea, a global technology company specializing in air treatment, consumer appliances and industrial automation, where he was responsible for the strategy and operational performance of the global finance organization.
Hailing originally from Austria, Helmut has held a variety of senior finance and operational leadership roles in technology companies such as IBM and Lenovo, as well as in the automotive and engineering industries, and with auditors PWC. In addition, he is a board member and chairman of the audit committee of KUKA AG, one of the world's leading suppliers of intelligent automation solutions.
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