About Us

Guillaume is the Chief Executive Officer of Sail, a Flagship Pioneering CEO-Partner. He has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry across R&D, manufacturing, strategy, commercial, business development, and operations.

Prior to joining Flagship as CEO for Senda Biosciences in 2020, he was SVP, Global Vaccine Leader for Shingrix, GSK’s flagship biological against shingles. In this role, he was accountable for the Shingrix launch globally. Under Guillaume’s leadership, his team delivered the best biopharma launch in North America over the past decade as independently assessed by IQVIA. Shingrix achieved multi-billion dollar revenue, 98% US market share, and received the Prix Galien for the best pharmaceutical product of 2019.

Prior to GSK, Guillaume was President and CEO of Kala Pharmaceuticals. As CEO, he transformed Kala from a pre-clinical technology platform start-up to a leading ophthalmology company with four Phase III/II clinical trials and the foundation for a successful IPO.

Prior to Kala, Guillaume held several ascending leadership positions over a nine-year career at Sanofi. In his last position, he served as General Manager of Sanofi Pasteur Mexico, one of the company’s largest worldwide affiliates. His previous positions included Vice President, Global Head of the Sanofi Pasteur’s Influenza and Pneumococcal Franchise and Global Head of Corporate Strategy. Guillaume holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the National School for Chemical Engineering (Nancy, France), a PhD in Materials Science from Centre National de la Recherché Scientifique (CNRS), France, and a MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Trevor Hallam, Ph.D., is Chief Scientific Officer of Sail, previously having served as President, Research and Chief Scientific Officer of Sutro Biopharma from 2010-2023, a clinical stage company focused on next-generation cancer therapeutics. At Sutro, Trevor was instrumental in transforming the company’s early-stage cell-free protein synthesis technology into a uniquely rapid and precise multi-modality platform for complex biologics with proven manufacturing capability. During his tenure, six conjugated biologics were advanced to the clinic comprising antibody-drug conjugates, the world’s first bispecific antigen targeting ADC, a conjugated cytokine variant and a conjugate vaccine, with several more on their way, including two new classes of antibody-targeted multi-mechanism therapeutic modalities. The combination of disruptive engineering and their innovative application in new therapies with the potential of enhanced clinical performance resulted in strategic partnering opportunities with Celgene (now BMS), EMD-Serono, Merck and Astellas. Trevor, alongside Sutro’s CEO, CMO and CFO, was part of the team that took the company public in 2018.

Prior to joining Sutro, Trevor was Executive Vice President of R&D of publicly-traded Palatin Technologies, Inc., and led their early stage research and Phase 1 and 2 clinical development of multiple synthetic programs leading to the eventual approval of Vyleesi, a melanocortin receptor agonist and a partnership with AstraZeneca to discover and develop melanocortin agonists for use in obesity. 

Trevor held several senior management positions at AstraZeneca over 9 years, including as Head of Respiratory Research & Preclinical Development in Sweden, Head of Medical Affairs, US and latterly as Head of an emerging Biologics Strategy in the UK. He previously worked in the UK with Roche, Glaxo and SmithKline & French over 11 years. Trevor is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Sutro Biopharma.

Trevor received a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Kings College, University of London where he was sponsored by CIBA-Geigy (now Novartis), before moving to the University of Cambridge, UK where he conducted post-doctoral work with Drs Tim Rink, Roger Tsien and numerous collaborators at The Physiological Laboratory. It was here that Trevor gained his passion for the application of disruptive technologies to set paths for new fields of scientific discovery and novel therapeutics.

Dr. Kerry Benenato joined Sail in February 2024 as Chief Platform Officer, bringing to the company a distinguished career in the development of mRNA products and product candidates. Prior to Sail, she served as Chief Scientific Officer of 76Bio, a startup focused on the development of a novel targeted protein degradation modality using mRNA/lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technologies. Prior to this, she spent eight years in positions of increasing responsibility at Moderna, most recently serving as Vice President, Platform Chemistry and Formulation Discovery, where she led the Platform team, with oversight for the discovery and development of mRNA delivery tools for multiple modalities (infectious disease, rare disease, immuno-oncology, auto-immune diseases) and the development of tools for LNP biophysical characterization.  

In 2022, Kerry was awarded the American Chemical Society Heroes of Chemistry award for her work contributing to Moderna’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine (Spikevax™). She began her industry career in scientific research at AstraZeneca, after completing a research fellowship at Harvard University as a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow. She holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Boston College and a B.S. in Chemistry from Providence College.

With more than 20 years of clinical and industry experience in oncology, Igor serves both as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Sail and as Oncology Senior Advisor for Pioneering Medicines, a unit within Flagship Pioneering. Before joining Senda as its first CMO in 2023, he was CMO and Global Head of R&D at Hookipa Pharma, where he led all clinical and pre-clinical development, as well as other strategic corporate initiatives. Prior to Hookipa, he served as Vice President, Global Head Oncology at Daiichi-Sankyo, where he was responsible for drug strategy and development, and before that was Global Head of the Cell/Gene Therapy Unit at Novartis and Global Clinical Program Head, Oncology Translational Medicine. 

Prior to moving into industry, Igor was an attending, professor and member of the Division of Oncology and Cancer Center at Columbia University, where he founded and directed a sarcoma center and ran a laboratory focused on the molecular basis of sarcomas.

Igor earned a BA degree from Columbia College, Columbia University and MD & PhD degrees from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He performed his internal medicine residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and then completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology, as well as a post-doctoral research fellowship in Cancer Biology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

He remains a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medical Oncology at Columbia University, where he continues to assist with patient care and educational activities. Additionally, Igor is currently Chair of Hookipa’s Scientific Advisory Board, member of the Board of Directors at Crescendo Biologics, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Columbia Venture Technology Program and has consulted for several biotechs/pharmaceutical companies and venture capital groups.

Barbara is General Counsel of Sail Biomedicines, having held the same role at Senda Biosciences, overseeing all corporate legal and intellectual property operations at the company. Barbara has deep experience leading and advising life sciences companies on various legal matters relating to corporate governance, business development, licensing, financing, securities law, intellectual property, and regulatory matters.

Prior to joining Senda, Barbara was at BridgeBio Pharma, Inc., where she was most recently Vice President, Head of Legal. While at BridgeBio Pharma, Barbara supported key activities in connection with the commer­cial­iza­tion of the company’s first two FDA-approved drugs, NULIBRY® (fosdenopterin) and TRUSELTIQ® (infigratinib). Barbara transitioned in-house from Goodwin Procter LLP, where she was a member of the firm’s Tech & Life Sciences Group. While at Goodwin, Barbara led BridgeBio Pharma’s $400.8 million initial public offering and completed a secondment to Moderna, Inc., as its interim Senior Corporate Counsel. Prior to joining Goodwin, Barbara was a corporate associate at Cooley LLP where she was a member of the public companies and emerging companies practice groups. Barbara joined Cooley as part of a 13-person Capital Markets team from Reed Smith LLP, where she commenced her career. 

Barbara received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Cornell Law School.

Ewen Cameron is VP, Head of RNA and Discovery Technologies at Sail and an Operating Partner at Flagship Pioneering, where he has served to conceive, originate and build platform companies. Prior to joining Sail, Ewen was co-founder and Head of Platform at Repertoire Immune Medicines and was on the founding team of Alltrna. He served as co-founder and President of multiple stealth companies, developing platform technologies now integrated into Ampersand Biomedicines and Metaphore Biotechnologies.

Ewen trained as a research fellow at MIT and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, focusing on synthetic biology. He earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Harvard University and graduated summa cum laude from Yale University. Ewen’s work has resulted in multiple patents and publications, including articles in Nature Biotechnology, Nature Chemical Biology, and Molecular Cell, and he was honored in 2021 in Business Insiders’ list of 12 young serial founders building the next generation of biotech startups.

Amy S. Espeseth, PhD, is the senior vice president and head of Integrative Biology at Sail BioMedicines where she leads a team that connects Sail’s platform, applications, and AI/ML teams through high quality assays and structured data along with heading up research applying Sail’s eRNA and natural nanoparticle platform to the development of novel vaccines.

Prior to Sail, Dr. Espeseth spent over 20 years at Merck, starting as a postdoctoral scientist in the Department of Antiviral Research, and serving in positions of increasing responsibility in multiple scientific disciplines including HIV antivirals, Alzheimer’s disease, RNA therapeutics, and Vaccines. Most recently, she served as Executive Director of Infectious Disease and Vaccines, a role she held for six years. In this position, she led discovery research on prevention and treatment of disease caused by respiratory and herpes viruses.

Dr. Espeseth received a PhD in microbiology and immunology from Duke University and completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia. Additionally, she conducted post-doctoral research at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Paul is SVP, Head of Human Resources for Sail, having previously joined Senda Biosciences as Head of HR in 2020. He brings more than 20 years of Human Resources leadership experience working for small to mid-sized pharmaceutical companies.

He has experience in senior HR leadership roles both globally and regionally at companies such as Organon Biosciences, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and Kyowa Kirin, where he held the position of Sr. Vice President of Human Resources North America prior to joining Senda. His roles in Human Resources have been to provide strategic guidance and business partnering on all Human Resource related matters and to assist both leadership and employees in achieving results. 

Paul holds an MBA in International Business from Centenary University, and a BS in Psychology from Rutgers University.

Rafal Kowalczyk is VP, Head of Finance for Sail, having held the same role at Senda Biosciences, and bringing more than 18 years of experience across multiple private and public biotech startups as well as the pharmaceutical industry.

Rafal is responsible for Financial Planning and Analysis, Accounting and Financial Operations, playing a key role in the financial and strategic steering of the organization. 

Rafal has served in senior financial roles at Passage Bio, Spark Therapeutics (acquired by Roche), as well as AstraZeneca. Before his career in industry, Rafal led Finance roles at United Technologies (now Raytheon Technologies). Rafal holds an M.B.A. in Finance & Entrepreneuri­alism from Northeastern University and a B.S. in Finance from Quinnipiac University.

Rajesh Ramaswamy is SVP, Head of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy at Sail Biomedicines. In this role, Rajesh leads strategy, conception, and building of Sail’s machine learning and artificial intelligence platform to design and program RNAs for desired function and properties by teaching machines the language of RNAs. This platform transforms discovery into a reproducible engineering endeavor in order to realize the limitless potential of RNA Therapeutics.

Prior to joining Sail, Rajesh led the strategy and build of a state-of-the-art AI platform for generative chemistry and nucleic acid applications as part of a stealth Flagship Pioneering AI Lab. This platform was absorbed into Sail as its AI nucleus and continues to be built upon with a focus on RNA medicines. Prior to that, Rajesh founded and established the Data Driven Innovation office at EMD Serono, the North American entity of Merck KGaA. The primary goal of this office was to tackle strategic challenges across all facets of the business by establishing company-wide data science capabilities and applying cutting-edge machine learning approaches. This office fueled multiple U.S. product launches across the Neurology, Immunology and Oncology franchises by transforming marketing and sales into a machine learning guided discipline to amplify probability of desired outcomes.

Prior to biopharma and biotech, Rajesh held positions in quantitative finance as well as in academia. As a Quantitative Researcher at a global proprietary trading firm, Rajesh engineered machine learning algorithms to profitably trade U.S. and European index and stock options. As the Alexander von Humboldt research fellow at the Max Planck institutes for the Physics of Complex Systems and Cell Biology & Genetics, he led the development of computer simulations of active living matter to mechanistically explain key events during embryogenesis. Rajesh holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from ETH Zürich, Switzerland. His dissertation is on fast, exact stochastic simulation and inference algorithms for biochemical reaction networks.

Nick is VP, Head of Strategy at Sail, having held the same role at Senda Biosciences. He is responsible for corporate and portfolio strategy, business operations and communications.

Prior to joining Senda, Nick was at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he advised Biopharma clients on a range of strategic issues (focusing in particular on long term strategy, launch planning, and lifecycle management). He has also worked at Novartis and GSK in a variety of commercial and strategic roles across the vaccines and consumer healthcare businesses. His roles included: leading the long-term strategy and lifecycle management planning for Shingrix (GSK’s blockbuster shingles vaccine); running the TUMS business in the US (the #1 product in the antacid category); and serving as Chief of Staff to the CEO of GSK Consumer Healthcare. Nick began his career as an investment banking analyst with Deutsche Bank. 

Nick holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and a BS in Economics and Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences from Northwestern University.

Mark Umbarger is VP, Head of Digital at Sail, having previously served as Head of Discovery at Senda Biosciences. Mark has over 17 years of experience building and translating enabling digital and molecular technologies in the life sciences.

Most recently, Mark served as the Vice President of Research and Development at Good Start Genetics, a genetic information company that was acquired by Invitae. At Good Start Genetics Mark built the company’s genetic testing platform from the ground up, leading to the successful testing of over 200k patients in the reproductive health space. 

Mark completed his PhD in Genetics in the laboratory of George Church at Harvard Medical School, where he helped build one of the first forms of next generation DNA sequencing and applied this technology to develop new insights into the three-dimensional structure of entire microbial genomes. Mark is the author of 20 patents and patent applications and has published in premier journals such as Molecular Cell and Genetics in Medicine. 

Mr. Wolfgang serves as SVP, Head of Technical Development & Operations for Sail. He is a senior executive with more than 25 years of experience in the biophar­ma­ceu­tical industry and deep expertise across manufacturing, process and analytical development, QA/QC, regulatory affairs, and program/​portfolio management. He joined Senda in 2023 as SVP, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls from BioNTech U.S., where he served as Vice President, U.S. Manufacturing, with responsibility for the manufacturing and supply chain of U.S.-based cell and gene therapy products (CAR T and modified T Cell products) including outsourcing and internal manufacture. He had previously served as Vice President, Technical Operations for Neon Therapeutics, with responsibility for the manufacturing, supply operations and quality control of personalized peptide vaccine and oncology T‑Cell products, prior to Neon’s acquisition by BioNTech.

Before Neon, Mr. Wolfgang served in a series of increasingly senior leadership positions at companies that include Cerulean Pharma (where he was responsible for CMC strategy and operations for two nano-pharmaceutical platforms in the oncology space), Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and Biogen, as well as serving as chairman (2016) and as a board member (2011–2016) of the Nanomedicines Alliance, a Washington D.C. cooperative advocating for the development and commer­cial­iza­tion of nanomedicine therapies. He holds an M.S. in Chemistry from Montclair State University and a B.S. in Biology from Pennsylvania State University.

Stephen Berenson is a Managing Partner at Flagship Pioneering and a member of the company's Resource Allocation Committee. Stephen is chairman of the boards of Flagship-founded companies Sail Biomedicines, Cellarity and Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB) and is on the board of directors at Inari.

Stephen joined Flagship in June of 2017 after a 33-year career as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan. During that time, he worked across all major geographies, product areas and industry groups, and helped build the bank’s M&A, equities and technology investment banking businesses. He was co-founder of J.P Morgan’s Global Strategic Advisory Council and co-founder of the firm’s Board Initiative. During Stephen’s leadership of the Board Initiative, more than 1,000 independent directors of public companies attended at least one of J.P. Morgan’s board events to discuss, debate and share best practices on the key issues they faced in the fulfillment of their duties.

Stephen previously built and ran Flagship’s Capital Formation and Business Development teams, and he served on the boards of directors of Flagship-founded companies Moderna, where he helped guide the company’s growth from pre-IPO through the COVID-19 pandemic and into the post-pandemic period, CiBO Technologies, and Repertoire Immune Medicines.

Stephen graduated from MIT in 1982 with an S.B. in mathematics. He is a member of the Visiting Committee for MIT’s Department of Mathematics. He previously served on the board of trustees of Jacob’s Pillow and the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center.

John Mendlein, Ph.D., joined Flagship as executive partner in February 2019. A longtime member of Flagship’s broader ecosystem of companies, John is an experienced biotech leader and has served in numerous executive and board roles. At Flagship, John contributes to Flagship’s strategic and operational objectives, including the origination of new Flagship Labs companies and growth companies. He also serves on the boards of Flagship’s companies and works with portfolio company CEOs and their teams to achieve the best attainable value for each organization.

Throughout his multi-decade career in biotech, John has helped start and lead numerous innovative life sciences companies with product platforms. Prior to joining Flagship, John served as president of corporate and product strategy at Moderna Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MRNA), a Flagship Pioneering company. John was also a member of Moderna’s board of directors from 2012-2018.

He has also held leadership roles at multiple additional biotech platform enterprises. John was chief knowledge officer and general counsel at Aurora Biosciences (acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals) where he also served as a board member; CEO of Adnexus Therapeutics, a Flagship company (acquired by BMS); executive chairman, founder, and interim CEO of Fate Therapeutics (a publicly-traded (FATE) immuno-oncology cell therapy platform company); and executive chairman and CEO of Affinium Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Debiopharm Group).

John is co-author or co-inventor of over 210 publications and published patents. He has served on the boards of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), as well as Flagship’s companies: Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Axcella Health and Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT). John currently serves on the boards of Flagship companies Omega Therapeutics (OMEGA), Empress, and Ampersand, and is Executive Chairman of Sail Biomedicines.

John holds a Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics from the University of California, Los Angeles, a J.D. from the University of California, San Francisco, and a B.S. in biology from the University of Miami.

Avak Kahvejian, Ph.D. is a life sciences inventor, entrepreneur, and CEO who has co-founded more than ten companies. Since 2011, he has been a partner at Flagship Pioneering, where he leads a team to invent and launch new therapeutic platforms. His work has led to the creation of multiple high-value public and private companies including Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), the first microbiome therapy platform; Ring Therapeutics (revolutionizing gene therapy with its commensal virome platform); Cellarity (designing medicines against the cell as opposed to a single molecular target); Laronde (a predecessor to Sail Biomedicines which pioneered endless RNA – eRNA™ – a new class of programmable medicines capable of expressing therapeutic proteins inside the body); Generate Biomedicines (pioneering Generative Biology™ to create breakthrough medicines); ProFound Therapeutics (pioneering the expanded human proteome); Ampersand Biomedicines (designing and programming medicines to act only where needed); Abiologics (reimagining biologics with Synteins™, a new class of supranatural medicines); Cygnal Therapeutics (now part of Sonata Tx, a company designing therapeutics that reprogram diseased cells to become the coordinators of cure); Rubius Therapeutics (red blood cell therapeutics); and Codiak BioSciences (engineered exosome therapeutics).

Avak served as founding President and CEO of Rubius from 2013 to 2017, as co-CEO of Generate from 2018 to 2021, and as founding CEO of Cellarity (2017 to 2020), Laronde (2017 to 2020), Ring (2017 to 2020), ProFound (2020 to 2023), Ampersand (2021 to 2023), and Abiologics (2021 to present). He is on the boards of Cellarity, Sail, and Ring and Chairman of Ampersand and ProFound.

Prior to Flagship, Avak was Vice President of Business Development at Helicos BioSciences. In this role, he developed and commercialized the world’s first single molecule DNA sequencer.

Avak serves as the Chairman of the Board of the International Institute of New England, an institution which creates opportunities for refugees and immigrants to succeed through resettlement, education, career advancement and pathways to citizenship. He is also on the Board of Genome Canada, the Advisory Board of the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST), and the McGill University Regional Advisory Board US.

Avak earned his Ph.D. and B.Sc. in Biochemistry from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Guillaume is the Chief Executive Officer of Sail, a Flagship Pioneering CEO-Partner. He has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry across R&D, manufacturing, strategy, commercial, business development, and operations.

Prior to joining Flagship as CEO for Senda Biosciences in 2020, he was SVP, Global Vaccine Leader for Shingrix, GSK’s flagship biological against shingles. In this role, he was accountable for the Shingrix launch globally. Under Guillaume’s leadership, his team delivered the best biopharma launch in North America over the past decade as independently assessed by IQVIA. Shingrix achieved multi-billion dollar revenue, 98% US market share, and received the Prix Galien for the best pharmaceutical product of 2019.

Prior to GSK, Guillaume was President and CEO of Kala Pharmaceuticals. As CEO, he transformed Kala from a pre-clinical technology platform start-up to a leading ophthalmology company with four Phase III/II clinical trials and the foundation for a successful IPO.

Prior to Kala, Guillaume held several ascending leadership positions over a nine-year career at Sanofi. In his last position, he served as General Manager of Sanofi Pasteur Mexico, one of the company’s largest worldwide affiliates. His previous positions included Vice President, Global Head of the Sanofi Pasteur’s Influenza and Pneumococcal Franchise and Global Head of Corporate Strategy. Guillaume holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the National School for Chemical Engineering (Nancy, France), a PhD in Materials Science from Centre National de la Recherché Scientifique (CNRS), France, and a MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Pablo J. Cagnoni, M.D., is President and Head of Research & Development at Incyte where he oversees Incyte’s research and development efforts across its portfolio of programs in Oncology, Hematology and Inflammation and Autoimmunity, including Dermatology.

Prior to Incyte, Dr. Cagnoni served as the Chief Executive Officer of Laronde, a company dedicated to the development of a new type of translatable ribonucleic acid (RNA) called endless RNA (eRNA), and held leadership roles at Rubius Therapeutics, Tizona Therapeutics, Onyx Pharmaceuticals and Novartis Oncology. Throughout his career as a pharmaceutical executive and oncologist, Dr. Cagnoni has advanced the development of breakthrough treatments, playing a key role in the development, approval and commercialization of more than 20 life-changing medicines.

Dr. Cagnoni earned his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine. He completed his fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, and a fellowship in Stem Cell Transplantation at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

As well as serving on the Board of Sail, Pablo is a member of the Board of Directors for Fusion Pharmaceuticals and Synthekine. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Bay Area Discovery Museum and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served as a board member for CRISPR Therapeutics, Harpoon Therapeutics, Tizona Therapeutics and Tango Therapeutics.

Wendy Chung, M.D., Ph.D., is Chief of the Department of Pediatrics of Boston Children’s Hospital, on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, and President of the Children’s Hospital Pediatric Associates. She is the PI of GUARDIAN (Genomic Uniform-screening Against Rare Diseases in All Newborns), a study that explores the utility of whole-genome sequencing for screening newborns for rare and treatable genetic conditions. She leads two large autism and neurodevelopmental disorder cohorts, SPARK and Simons Searchlight.

Dr. Chung joined Boston Children’s from Columbia University Irving Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, where she served as Chief of the Division of Clinical Genetics within the Department of Pediatrics, the Associate Director for Education at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Medical Director for the Columbia Genetic Counseling Graduate Program, and the Precision Medicine Resource Leader at the Irving Institute. Dr. Chung was also the Kennedy Family Professor of Pediatrics in Medicine.

With more than 20 years of experience as a clinical and molecular geneticist, Dr. Chung has directed many National Institutes of Health-funded research programs. She was the tenured Kennedy Family Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine and was the Director of Clinical Research at the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI). She was also the Director of the Pediatric Neuromuscular Network Molecular Core and the New York Obesity Center Molecular Genetics Core.

Dr. Chung received her BA in biochemistry and economics from Cornell University, her MD from Cornell University Medical College, and her PhD in genetics from Rockefeller University.

Frank D’Amelio is a senior executive with over 20 years of experience as a public company CFO. In addition to his CFO experience, Frank has also been a CAO & COO.

Frank is the former Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer at Pfizer, Inc, responsible for all corporate finance functions including audit, treasury, tax, investor relations, insurance, operations planning and analysis, corporate controllership, and business finance and analytics. From 2019 through 2021, Frank was the Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President, Global Supply responsible for Pfizer’s worldwide global supply chain. This included the manufacture, storage and distribution of the COVID vaccine. More than 3B doses of the COVID vaccine were made in the first year of production. During his time at Pfizer, Frank was also responsible for business operations which included IT, procurement, real estate and business development.

At Pfizer, Frank led the acquisition and integration of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, King Pharmaceuticals, Hospira Inc., Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Medivation, Inc., and Array, as well as the spin-off of Pfizer’s animal health business, Zoetis, the sale of its nutrition business to Nestle and its Capsugel business to KKR, the formation of the Consumer JV Haleon with GSK and the formation of Viatris with Mylan.

During Frank’s tenure as the Pfizer CFO, Pfizer’s market cap increased by $165B. Including the Zoetis spin-off, market cap increased by approximately $250B. Further, Frank has completed business development transactions totaling approximately $200B.

Before joining Pfizer as CFO in September 2007, Frank was Senior Executive Vice President of Integration and Chief Administrative Officer of Alcatel-Lucent, responsible for the integration of the Alcatel-Lucent merger as well as procurement, real estate, IT and supply chain.

Prior to the merger of Alcatel and Lucent Technologies in 2006, Frank was the Chief Operating Officer of Lucent Technologies. In 2001, he was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Lucent, where he helped lead the company through one of the most challenging periods in the telecom industry’s history and returned the company to profitability.

When Lucent was spun off from AT&T in 1996, Frank helped create the new company financially as the CFO of Lucent’s Network Systems Business and was a critical member of the team that met with investors around the world during Lucent’s initial public offering. In 1999, he was appointed the Group President of Lucent’s Switching Solutions Business Unit, where he led Lucent’s multibillion-dollar, global Switching, Access and Application Software business.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Frank earned his MBA in Finance from St. John’s University and his bachelor's degree in Accounting from St. Peter’s University. He started his career in 1979 at Bell Labs, holding a variety of financial, accounting and general management positions, and moved within AT&T, holding a series of positions with increasing responsibility.

In 2005, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 Frank was ranked among America’s top CFOs by Institutional Investor magazine.

He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Humana, Inc., and is chair of the Audit Committee; Zoetis, Inc.; Hewlett Packard Enterprises; Catalent, Inc., and is the CFO-in-Residence, Independent Advisor, Deloitte LLP.

Professor Paula T. Hammond is Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. She became Vice Provost for Faculty at MIT in January 2024.  She previously was the Head of the Chemical Engineering Department at MIT from 2015 to 2023.

Her research in nanomedicine encompasses the development of new biomaterials to enable drug delivery from surfaces with spatio-temporal control. She investigates novel responsive polymer architectures for targeted nanoparticle drug and gene delivery, and is known for her work on nanoparticles to target cancer as well as thin film coatings to release factors that regenerate bone and assist in wound healing. More recently, she has worked on nanomaterials systems to treat osteoarthritis and staged-release for the delivery of vaccines. 

Professor Paula Hammond was elected into the National Academy of Science in 2019, the National Academy of Engineering in 2017, the National Academy of Medicine in 2016, and the 2013 Class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also a member of the National Academy of Inventors,  and has received the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Margaret H. Rousseau Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement by a Woman Chemical Engineer, the Othmer Gold Medal and the Benjamin Franklin Medal of Chemistry.

Professor Hammond has published more than 330 papers and more than 20 patent applications. She is a co-founder of LayerBio, Inc., a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Moderna Therapeutics, Inc., a member of the Board of Alector and of Sail Biosciences. In 2021, Professor Hammond was selected to become a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

Prof. Hammond is from Detroit, Michigan and received her S.B. in Chemical Engineering from MIT, then worked for two years in industry, moved to Atlanta to get an M.S. in Chemical Engineering at Georgia Tech, before returning to MIT for her Ph.D. She held the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship and, upon completing her Ph.D., was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard University Chemistry Department before returning to MIT as a faculty member.

Sheri McCoy had a 30-year distinguished career with Johnson & Johnson where she ultimately served as Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and member of the Office of the Chairman.  Sheri’s extensive global experience in healthcare includes roles of increasing responsibility within the pharmaceuticals, medical device, and consumer groups at Johnson & Johnson. Following her tenure at  Johnson & Johnson, Sheri served as chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors for Avon Products Inc., a global leader in personal care. 

Ms. McCoy currently serves as a director on the boards of several industry-leading healthcare companies, including AstraZeneca plc, Stryker, and Kimberly-Clark. Sheri is an industrial advisor to EQT Partners, and in that capacity, she is board Chair of Parexel, a member of Galderma’s board, and previously served as Board Chair of Certara and Aldevron. 

Sheri holds a bachelor’s of science degree in Textile Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, and an MBA from Rutgers University.

Ms Szela is currently chief executive officer of TriSalus Life Sciences, an oncology company integrating standard-of-care treatments and our novel immunotherapy with disruptive delivery technology to transform the treatment paradigm for patients battling liver and pancreatic tumors. 

Prior to TriSalus, she held the position of CEO of Novelion Therapeutics where she successfully resolved significant legal, regulatory and compliance issues facing the company; re-formulated the Board and entire leadership team and executed a merger with QLT to strengthen the balance sheet to ensure survival of the company.

Prior to her role at Novelion, Szela served as CEO of Melinta Pharmaceuticals, where she revitalized the company following a failed IPO. Under her leadership, she transformed Melinta from a scientific organization to one prepared for commercial launch of multiple antibiotic products.  Additionally, she secured $270 million of new capital for the company, accelerated the pipeline, revitalized the discovery platform, developed an innovative go-to-market strategy, rebuilt the management team, and prepared the company to access the public markets. 

Previously, Szela spent 25 years of progressive P&L leadership roles at Abbott Laboratories, a top 10 diversified health care company. She held positions of senior leadership including president of U.S. pharmaceuticals, an $9 billion business, the primary profit driver of the company. During her Abbott tenure, she was consistently a catalyst for profound and productive change during a time of tremendous turmoil within the industry.

Ms Szela serves as a member of the boards of TriSalus Life Sciences, Kura Oncology, Omega Therapeutics, and Sail Biomedicines. 

Ms Szela has an M.B.A. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a B.S. Nursing degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.