Wayne F. Pisano joined VaxInnate as interim Chief Executive Officer in January 2012 and as permanent CEO in April 2012. Wayne is the former President and CEO of sanofi pasteur, the largest company entirely dedicated to vaccines. Wayne joined sanofi pasteur as Vice President, U.S. Marketing in 1997 and held positions of increasing responsibility including Head of Global Commercial Operations and Corporate Strategy. Wayne is credited with sanofi pasteur’s leading worldwide role in the influenza vaccine market with approximately 50 percent of global sales. Following Wayne’s entry into the company, sanofi pasteur strengthened its position as the world leader in the vaccine industry, offering a broad range of vaccines that protect against 20 infectious diseases. Along with leading the development and implementation of sanofi pasteur’s commercial strategy, Wayne focused sanofi pasteur’s R&D strategy and pipeline on identifying and furthering vaccines to protect against diseases that impact both developed and developing nations equally. Wayne holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from St. John Fisher College, Rochester, New York, and an MBA from the University of Dayton, Ohio.

 

Katalin Abraham joined VaxInnate as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs in August 2012. Ms. Abraham is a seasoned regulatory affairs professional with over 30 years of solid multi-functional regulatory, quality and technical/analytical experience. Previously, she held the position of Director and Therapeutic Area Head, US Regulatory Affairs, GlaxoSmithKline, with responsibility for the development of adjuvanted, pandemic and cell culture-based influenza vaccines, and led the effort that resulted in February 2012 of the filing of a BLA for the first adjuvanted H5N1 pandemic influenza vaccine in the US. Before joining GSK in 2007, she worked at Merck for 18 years, holding positions of increasing responsibility, the last as Associate Director, Regulatory Compliance Management, Vaccine and Biologics Research. Before Merck, she worked in research and development at Centocor (now Janssen Biotech) for 8 years; her last position was as Manager, Cell Biology Services. Katalin's career started at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where she worked in infectious diseases and cancer research. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Ms. McGowan joined VaxInnate as Chief Financial Officer in January 2013. Kathleen brings 30 years of diversified financial experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. From 2008-2012 she served as the Vice President, Finance, at Tobira, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies for treatment of HIV infection. Prior to Tobira, she was Director, Finance & Controller (Chief Accounting Officer) for Discovery Laboratories, Inc., a publicly-held biotech company focused on advancing respiratory critical care. From 2000-2004, she served as Director of Financial Analysis at Claneil Enterprises, Inc., a private equity investment firm. Previously, Kathleen served as Financial Controller at The Liposome Company, Inc., a publicly-held biotech company acquired by Elan Corporation, plc., and was Controller at Nelson Communications. From 1983 to 1995, Kathleen held various financial management positions with Johnson & Johnson, primarily at Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical and Johnson & Johnson Corporate. Kathleen received her B.S. in Finance and Accounting from Drexel University and holds an M.B.A. in Finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

 

Christine Mayer joined VaxInnate as Vice President, Business Development in August 2012. Christine is a multi-disciplined executive, with over 25 years of broad business experience, of which 22 years were spent in the pharmaceutical industry across several disciplines and therapeutic areas. Christine formerly held the position of Senior Vice President of Business Development & Licensing at Biovail Corporation. She was responsible for managing a team of executives who supported both U.S. and global efforts in all aspects of Business Development including licensing opportunities, divestitures, marketing alliances and other partnerships until the company merged with Valeant Pharmaceuticals. Before joining Biovail, Christine worked for sanofi-aventis/Aventis for 5 years as Vice President of Global Business Development, and at Johnson & Johnson for 13 years in the pharmaceutical sector holding many positions in various disciplines including Business Development, Marketing, Sales and Finance. Christine holds a bachelor’s degree from Glassboro State College and an M.B.A. in Finance from Rutgers University.

 

Dr. Taylor Chief Medical Officer, joined VaxInnate in March 2007 from Salix Pharmaceuticals, where he served as Chief Medical Officer and VP, Medical Affairs. Prior to his role at Salix Pharmaceuticals, he served as Research Professor in the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr. Taylor also brings to VaxInnate extensive vaccine research and infectious disease expertise gained through his 22 years of distinguished service with the U.S. military. During his career with the U.S. Public Health Service and U.S. Army, he served in a number of positions in the Division of Communicable Diseases and Immunology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), including acting Division Director, Clinical Director, Department of Enteric Infections, as well as founder and first Chief of the Department of Clinical Trials. Dr. Taylor also served at the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Bangkok, Thailand, and was Director of the Cholera Vaccine Project at the Naval Medical Research Institute detachment in Lima, Peru. He currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Preventative Medicine/Biometrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Adjunct Professor in International Health at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. He is a Diplomat of the National Board of Medical Examiners and American Board of Internal Medicine, a Fellow with the American College of Physicians and Infectious Diseases Society of America, and a member of the American Society of Microbiology. Dr. Taylor has authored more than 200 publications and received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School.

 

Dr. Tussey joined VaxInnate in 2004 from Purdue Pharma where, as Program Leader of Immunotherapeutics , she led the overall development of Purdue Pharma's cancer vaccine program. Prior to Purdue, Dr. Tussey was a Senior Research Fellow in Viral Vaccines at Merck Research Labs where she oversaw the development of novel immune based assays for assessing T cell function and was responsible for the evaluation of human T cell responses to Merck's HIV-1 vaccines. Prior to Merck, Dr. Tussey served as Program Leader at GlaxoWellcome, where she designed and executed the overall strategy for immunotherapeutic approaches to the treatment of chronic HCV infection. Dr. Tussey received her B.S. from the University of North Carolina, and her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley. Her awards and honors include a GlaxoWellcome QRCC Award for Collaborative Research, a Wellcome Trust Hitchings-Elion Foundation Fellowship for study at the University of Oxford and a NRSA Individual Research Fellow Award for study at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Dr. Tussey has authored over 25 publications in the fields of Genetics and Immunology.