Frederick Beddingfield III, MD, PhD is a board-certified dermatologist and dermatologic surgeon who was appointed CMO of Kythera Biopharmaceuticals in March, 2013. Prior to his appointment at Kythera, he held the role of Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head, Dermatology and Aesthetics at Allergan, Inc. Dr. Beddingfield has experience working on premiere products in the dermatology and aesthetics industry, including Allergan’s BOTOX® Cosmetic, JUVEDERM® and LATISSE®, all market-leading aesthetic treatments in their respective categories. During his tenure at Allergan, Dr. Beddingfield served in several roles, including Chief Medical Officer, Allergan Medical, and Global Team Leader of several brands, including Botox Facial Aesthetics, Botox Hyperhidrosis, Dermal Fillers and Botox Spasticity and was responsible for research programs including acne, rosacea, and hair loss. Earlier in his career, he held a full-time faculty position at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Division of Dermatology, where he continues to maintain a practice and academic appointment as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine. Dr. Beddingfield earned an MD degree with honors from the University of North Carolina and a PhD in Policy Analysis from RAND Graduate School of Policy Studies.
Albert Cha, MD, PhD, is a Managing Partner who invests in private and public biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Albert draws on his scientific, medical, and operating experience when working with his portfolio companies.
He was an investor in Ceptaris Therapeutics (acquired by Actelion), Neomend (acquired by Bard), Vicept Therapeutics (acquired by Allergan), Bioform Medical (BFRM, acquired by Merz), Biodel (BIOD), and Aspreva Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ASPV, acquired by Galenica). Albert was also involved in founding NextWave Pharmaceuticals and Prestwick Pharmaceuticals. Other investments include YM Biosciences (YMI), Dynavax Technologies (DVAX), Avanir Pharmaceuticals (AVNR), Acura Pharmaceuticals (ACUR), and AMAG Pharmaceuticals (AMAG). He currently serves on the board of several private biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Albert has also served as co-founder of several portfolio companies. Prior to joining Vivo, Albert worked at Oracle Corporation in pharmaceutical consulting and at the Palo Alto VA Hospital as a biomedical engineer.
Albert received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He subsequently completed the Medical Scientist Training Program at UCLA School of Medicine, where he received his MD and PhD in Neuroscience. During his studies, he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and won the prestigious Outstanding Graduate Student Award. His research in molecular biophysics has been published in highly respected journals such as Nature and Neuron.
John Doux, MD obtained a B.S. with distinction and an MD from Stanford University, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow performing research in the laboratory of Dr. David Woodley. After an internship at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, he returned to Stanford to complete his residency training in dermatology. He also completed an MBA at the Wharton School of Business where he was a Palmer Scholar. He is board certified in dermatology and maintains an active clinical practice. Since 2004 he has also served as an analyst at Palo Alto Investors, an investment fund specializing in healthcare with $1B in assets under management.
William Ju, MD, FAAD is a board-certified dermatologist and has over 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience in a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including dermatology. He is president and a founding trustee of Advancing Innovation in Dermatology, Inc. Dr. Ju has been president and chief executive officer of Follica, Inc. and chief operating officer at PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (PTCT). In addition, he has held executive positions at Pharmacia Corporation/Pfizer, Inc. Merck & Co., Inc., and Hoffmann La Roche, Inc. in a broad spectrum of product development functions. Dr. Ju served as project leader for SUTENT®, introduced CANCIDAS® into humans, and was part of the product development teams for CRIXIVAN® and TRANSLARNA™. Dr. Ju began his pharmaceutical career at Hoffmann-La Roche where he was a clinical leader for the development of dermatology compounds. Before entering industry, Dr. Ju was a senior staff fellow in basic research in the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology and was affiliated with the Dermatology Branch at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. He obtained his M.D. with Alpha Omega Alpha honors at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and his A.B. with Phi Beta Kappa honors at Princeton University. Dr. Ju is a co-founder of Zoomi, Inc., is currently a member of the board of directors for Zoomi, Inc. and for Brickell Biotech, Inc., is a trustee of the Morristown Medical Center Foundation, and serves on the Advisory Council for the Keller Center of entrepreneurship at Princeton University.
Seth Orlow, MD, PhD has over 25 years of experience in medicine, science, and finance. As a faculty member at New York University, Dr. Orlow rose to become Chair of its leading dermatology department. He serves as a Senior Advisor with Pharus Advisors, focused on strategic transactional/investment banking advisory services in the dermatology and personal care sectors. In 1995 he co-founded Anaderm, a dermatologic discovery company backed by Pfizer and OSI Pharmaceuticals. He participated in the sale of Anaderm to Pfizer in 2002. From 2001-2010, he rose from Advisor to Partner with Easton Capital Partners, a venture capital firm focused on healthcare and consumer products. At Easton, he was involved in the sourcing, diligence, funding, oversight and exit of investments in many healthcare companies such as Acorda, Conor Medsystems, Protez, Salmedix and Transave. Dr. Orlow has licensed technologies to companies ranging from Pfizer to SkinMedica. An author of over 200 medical/scientific publications, he is an internationally sought-after speaker and thought leader. A graduate of Harvard in Biochemical Sciences and with an MD-PhD in Molecular Pharmacology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dr. Orlow trained in Pediatrics and Dermatology at Mt. Sinai and Yale.
Dr. Neal Walker is the President & Chief Executive Officer at Aclaris. He is a board certified dermatologist and serial entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to founding Aclaris, he was co-founder, President and CEO of Vicept Therapeutics (acquired by Allergan). Dr. Walker has co-founded and led a number of life science companies: Octagon Research Solutions, a software and services provider to biopharmaceutical companies (acquired by Accenture); Trigenesis Therapeutics, a specialty dermatology company where he served as Chief Medical Officer (acquired by Dr. Reddy's Laboratories); Cutix Inc., a commercial dermatology company that markets PreSun®, a sunscreen brand acquired from Bristol-Myers Squibb. He began his pharmaceutical industry career at Johnson and Johnson. Dr. Walker currently serves as Vice Chairman of Alexar Therapeutics, Inc. (co-founder) and Director on the Board of Sebacia, Inc. He previously served on the Board of Directors for Octagon. He is also on the Advisory Board of Flexible Medical Systems. Dr. Walker received his MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Tina S. Alster is the founding director of the Washington Institute of Dermatologic Laser Surgery and is a clinical professor of dermatology at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC. She received her B.S. and M.D. degrees with highest honors from Duke University and completed her dermatology residency at Yale University. She is a world-recognized leader in dermatologic laser surgery and has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles, 50 book chapters and 8 textbooks on the subject. Her contributions have resulted in her being honored with the Women’s Dermatologic Society mentorship and legacy awards, American Society for Dermatologic Society service award and the Leon Goldman award from the American Society for Medicine and Surgery, among others. Dr. Alster maintains leadership and board positions in numerous professional and national organizations. Her commitment to teaching and mentoring others is evident in her establishment of scholarship endowments for women pursuing careers in medicine at Duke University. Dr. Alster has served as the consulting dermatologist to Lancôme and an advisor to La Mer. She developed her own skin care line “Skin Is In” in 2011. Her contributions to the field have been acknowledged by listings in America’s Best Doctors, Town & Country’s Best Cosmetic Surgeons, America’s Elite 1000, Allure’s Influencer of the Year, Elle Genius Awards and Washingtonian’s Best Doctors. She has also appeared on national and international TV and radio shows, including Oprah, Today Show, CNN, Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 20/20, and Discovery Channel. She has been listed by US News & World Report as among the nation’s top 1 percent of physicians in dermatology.
Dr. Mathew M. Avram is the director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Dermatology Laser & Cosmetic Center. Dr. Avram is an assistant professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School, where he is also faculty director for procedural training in the department of dermatology. Dr. Avram is the 2015 recipient of the Leon Goldman Award from the American Society for Laser Medicine Surgery (ASLMS) in recognition of his clinical care, teaching and research efforts over his career. Dr. Avram won the ASDS Iron Surgeon Award in 2014 in Cosmetics. Dr. Avram was the program co-chair of the 2010 ASLMS Annual Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. He has served as co-chair of the cutaneous laser surgery section of the ASLMS Annual Conference in 2009, 2011 and 2015. He now serves as Treasurer for ASLMS, where he is also a member of the Executive Committee.
Dr. Avram has also served as co-chair for an annual laser teaching session for four years for the FDA in Silver Spring, Maryland. He has also been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS). He is co-author of the first and second editions of A Color Atlas of Cosmetic Dermatology published by McGraw-Hill (that have been translated into five languages), which is also available an iPhone app. He is also a co-editor of Laser and Lights published by Elsevier and Laser and Light Source Treatments for the Skin by Jaypee. More recently, he served as co-editor of Procedural Dermatology published by McGraw-Hill. He has also published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers in each of the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, JAMA Dermatology, Lasers in Surgery and Medicine and Dermatologic Surgery as well as multiple chapters in leading dermatology textbooks. He has served as a Guest Editor for Lasers in Surgery and Medicine in 2009, 2013 and 2015. He is co-director of the MGH/Wellman Laser and Cosmetic Fellowship, where he has trained 17 fellows. He is an affiliate faculty member of the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Cosmetic and Laser Therapy. He serves on the editorial boards of JAMA Dermatology, Lasers in Surgery and Medicine, Dermatologic Surgery and Lasers in Medical Science.
Dr. Avram is a frequent guest on the Dr. Oz show, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and has appeared multiple times in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and numerous other media. Dr. Avram has chaired 19 national meetings and has given over 300 invited lectures at national and international meetings. Dr. Avram attended college at Princeton University and went on to graduate from Cornell Law School. After three years of legal practice in New York, Dr. Avram attended medical school and completed his dermatology residency training at Harvard, where he served as chief resident. Subsequently, he completed his Mohs micrographic surgery, laser and cosmetics fellowship at UCLA.
Lynn A. Drake, MD, is Lecturer at Harvard Medical School, on the Dermatology Faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and is Director of Policy and Business Development for the Wellman Center of Photomedicine at MGH in Boston. She has a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree, a Master of Arts (MA) degree in Mathematics, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Mathematics, and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Chemistry. She is board certified in Dermatology and Dermatopathology. Dr. Drake is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard Business School and devoted her sabbatical year to the study of medicine and business. Dr. Drake is Past President of the American Academy of Dermatology and the Women’s Dermatology Society. She has served on the National Advisory Board for the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Board of Directors of the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery, and as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow and Congressional Fellow in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Institute of Medicine. She received a Presidential Appointment as a US Delegate to the World Health Organization and was on the National Policy Forum Council for Health Care Reform. She has also served as a Trustee for the Dermatology Foundation and on the Board of Directors for the Council for Nail Disorders and the American Acne and Rosacea Society. Dr. Drake previously served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Dermatology at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and Deputy Chair of the Department of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School where she was also Director of the Dermatology Clinical Investigation Unit. She has been on the faculty of Emory University, was a partner in the Emory Clinic, and served as Chief of the Dermatology Service at the VA Medical Center in Atlanta. She currently Chairs the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Dermatologic and Ophthalmic Drugs Advisory Committee (DODAC) at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), is a consultant to the FDA, and has served on multiple FDA Advisory Board panels.
Dr. Drake was named as one of the 100 Best Doctors in America, Outstanding Young Women of America, and received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of Tennessee College Of Medicine and the Outstanding Alumnus Achievement Award from Adams State University in Colorado where she was invited to deliver the commencement address in 2009. Dr. Drake received the Bergfeld Award for Leadership and Vision and the Rose Hirschler Award from the Women’s Dermatologic Society. She was elected to membership in the American Dermatological Association and has received honorary membership in the German, Canadian, and Mexico Dermatological Society(s). She is recipient of several named lectureships, is the author of over 100 papers, and has been a visiting professor at over 60 universities. She has presented over 400 invited national and international lectures and has been a frequent contributor to multiple media sources.
Barbara A. Gilchrest, M.D., received her undergraduate and medical training from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) respectively. After a post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Howard Green at MIT, in 1977 Dr. Gilchrest joined the Department of Dermatology and Division on Aging at the HMS, where she established a tissue culture laboratory to study the aging process in human skin, with support from the National Institute on Aging (NIA). From 1985 until 2008, Dr. Gilchrest served as Professor and Chairman of Dermatology at the Boston University School of Medicine, where she directed a large laboratory and an NIH-sponsored post-doctoral research training program. Her laboratory studied cellular aging, regulation of melanogenesis, and telomere-based protective responses in the skin; complementary clinical research interests focused on therapeutic uses of light in dermatology. She remained as Professor on a part-time basis until 2014 while serving as Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Investigative Dermatology (2012-17) and attempting to commercialize treatment concepts arising from her laboratory-based research effort.
Dr. Gilchrest is the author of over 400 scholarly articles, reviews, abstracts, and textbook chapters; and author or editor of eight books. She has served in leadership positions for all the major dermatologic organizations; on the National Advisory Council on Aging and the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute; as associate editor or editorial board member of several major clinical and research journals; as a consultant or scientific advisory board member for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; and as a member of the MIT Corporation (1995-2005). Dr. Gilchrest is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, and a Charter member of the National Academy of Inventors.
Dr. Gottlieb is an internationally recognized expert and leader in the field of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. In March, 2006, she joined Tufts Medical Center as its Chair of Dermatology and Dermatologist-in-Chief of the hospital, and as the Harvey B. Ansell Professor of Dermatology at Tufts University School of Medicine. She is the former Professor of Medicine and Founding Director of the Psoriasis Center of Excellence at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Her research using targeted immunobiologics as pathogenic probes, provided new understanding of the pathogenesis of psoriasis and provided the foundation for biologic drug development in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Her translational research provided the first double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of the efficacy of TNF blockers as monotherapy for moderate to severe psoriasis (published in Lancet in 2001). This work led to multiple TNF blockers being FDA-approved for psoriasis. TNF blockers have revolutionized the care of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis patients. She has authored over 310 peer-reviewed articles that have appeared in journals such as The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature: Drug Discovery, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Archives of Dermatology, the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, and Journal of Investigative Dermatology. She has presented her research at more than 200 dermatology and rheumatology conferences in Europe, Asia and the United States, as well as at the FDA and the National Academy of Sciences. She is on almost every list of outstanding doctors, including Best Doctors in America and Best Doctors in Boston. She is triple boarded in dermatology, rheumatology and internal medicine, and is one of only a handful of doctors in the United States to be certified in all three of these specialties. Dr. Gottlieb has received numerous awards for mentoring and teaching including Excellence in Teaching Award from the Department of Dermatology at Tufts University Medical School/Tufts Medical Center, Honorary Membership in Alpha Omega Alpha in recognition of medical student teaching, a Research Mentorship award from the Internal Medicine house staff and a Mentorship Award from the American Chemical Society for mentoring minority high school students in bench and clinical research. Dr. Gottlieb was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Dermatology for 2011-2015. Dr. Gottlieb is a member of the American Dermatological Association and Noah Worcester Dermatology Society amongst other professional societies. She is the founder and Chairman of the Board of the International Dermatology Outcome Measures (IDEOM) group. This consortium of patients, physicians, pharmaceutical scientists and other stakeholders is dedicated to bring clinically practical outcome measures to dermatologic practice that satisfy the needs of all stakeholders.
She was one of the first scientists to demonstrate that psoriasis is a T cell mediated disease. She initially demonstrated increased numbers of activated T cells and increased expression of a number of immunologic cytokines in psoriatic plaques (reported in multiple publications, e.g., the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). She then showed that treatment with a T cell-specific immunotoxin cleared psoriasis clinically and histologically (published in Nature Medicine and noted in commentary in The Lancet). Dr. Gottlieb, through her published studies and public presentations, has convinced a number of pharmaceutical companies to use psoriasis as their proof-of-concept disease when testing new immunomodulators that may decrease T cell and dendritic cell cytokine production. Thus, her work has affected drug development in psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and transplantation. As a direct result of Dr. Gottlieb’s work, many biotechnology-engineered immunomodulators are FDA and /or EMEA-approved for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. In 2001, she received the American Skin Association’s Psoriasis Research Award in recognition of her work. In 2006, she received the Honorary Fellowship Award of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology. Currently, Dr. Gottlieb’s research centers on developing new treatments for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, developing better outcome measures for psoriasis and on understanding the mechanisms of action of these novel agents. Additionally, she is working on initiatives to prevent disability due to psoriatic arthritis and to develop outcome measures useful to all stakeholders and useful in clinical practice.
Dr. Gottlieb obtained her MD from Cornell Medical School and her PhD in Immunology from the Rockefeller University, where she studied in the laboratory of Henry Kunkel and was one of the first females admitted to Rockefeller University’s joint MD-PhD program. She has also been a leading educator in her specialties, and has been on the forefront of mentoring female and minority students and overseeing community outreach and patient advocacy programs. She is active in the autoimmune disease community as a councilor of the International Psoriasis Council and a member of the Executive and Steering Committees of GRAPPA (an international psoriatic arthritis coalition), Medical Advisory Board member and Co-Editor of the Psoriasis Forum, the physicians’ newsletter of the National Psoriasis Foundation. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Dermatology.
Dr. Gary P. Lask is currently Clinical Professor and the Director of Dermatologic Surgery and the Dermatologic Laser Center at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He has held similar positions at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Jefferson Medical College. He has co-edited four textbooks: Aesthetic Dermatology, Principles and Practices of Cutaneous Surgery, Lasers in Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery, and Comprehensive Aesthetic Rejuvenation: A Regional Approach. He is founding editor of the Journal of Cutaneous Laser Therapy. He headed one of the eight investigation sites for the original pulsed dye laser and subsequently was one of three investigational sites for the second generation longer pulsed dye laser. He co-authored one of the original publications on the early treatment of capillary hemangiomas with the pulsed dye laser and one of the first publications on the use of the CO2 laser for the treatment of photodamage and rhytides. He was selected by The Best Doctors of America and is featured in the national directory of Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals.
Dr. Mark Lebwohl graduated summa cum laude from Columbia College in 1974 and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1978. He completed residencies in internal medicine and dermatology, both at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Lebwohl has been practicing dermatology since 1983. He is professor and chairman of the Department of Dermatology of The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Lebwohl has served as president of the New York Dermatological Society, the Manhattan Dermatologic Society, and the New York State Society of Dermatology, and as chairman of the Dermatology Section of the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Lebwohl is the 2014-15 President- Elect of the American Academy of Dermatology, and will serve as the AAD President in 2015-16.
Dr. Lebwohl is Chairman Emeritus of the Medical Board of the National Psoriasis Foundation. He is the founding editor of Psoriasis Forum and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology and the Journal of Skin Cancer. He is also editor of the Dermatology Section of Scientific American Medicine. Dr. Lebwohl has chaired numerous symposia and has written, edited, or co-edited several books including the first atlas devoted entirely to cutaneous manifestations of systemic disease, and the leading book on dermatologic therapy, Treatment of Skin Disease which is now in its 4th edition. The second edition of The Skin and Systemic Disease has been published in English and in French, and English, Portuguese, Chinese and Polish versions of Treatment of Skin Disease have been published. Other books include Difficult Diagnoses in Dermatology, Psoriasis, Mild-to-Moderate Psoriasis and Moderate-to-Severe Psoriasis. Dr. Lebwohl is actively involved in clinical trials of many new dermatologic treatments. He has authored or co-authored over 500 publications including peer-reviewed articles, invited articles and book chapters.
Dr. Lebwohl has received numerous awards for teaching, research, mentorship and service from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the American Academy of Dermatology, the National Psoriasis Foundation, PXE International, the American Skin Association, the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, the Royal Society of Medicine, and the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation.
Ken Washenik, MD, PhD, is the Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director of the Bosley Medical Groups, the world’s largest hair restoration practice, and the former Chief Executive Officer of the Aderans Research Institute, a biotechnology firm involved in researching tissue engineered hair follicle neogenesis and cellular based hair restoration.
Dr. Washenik is the immediate past President and a Board member of the North American Hair Research Society and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Hair Foundation. He is also the Treasurer, a Fellow and on the Board of Governors of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery and a Board member of the Cicatricial Alopecia Research Foundation, as well as a member of the American Academy of Dermatology and the medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dermatology and a member of the Dermatological Society of Greater New York and the Los Angeles Metropolitan Dermatological Society.
The former director of the Dermatopharmacology Unit at the New York University School of Medicine, Dr. Washenik continues to serve as a faculty member in the Department of Dermatology. In 2014, he was the recipient of the Platinum Follicle Award from the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery.
Dr. Washenik, a well known national and international lecturer, has presented many seminars on hair growth and loss, dermatopharmacology and dermatology-related issues. His Ph.D. is in Cell Biology and focused on hormone metabolism.
Dr. Washenik has published numerous scientific and medical articles in peer review journals including Endocrinology, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Archives of Dermatology, The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine.
Peter Nicholson has worked in the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries for over 25 years. He is responsible for the worldwide strategy and business development functions at Galderma S.A., the dermatology-focused operating company of Nestlé Skin Health, which he joined in 2007. Previously he was Vice President, Corporate Development for Mentor Corporation where he successfully divested the company's urology business and refocused its strategy on the aesthetic business, which ultimately led to its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson. He served in a similar role at Inamed where he refined the company's strategy and successfully executed a number of business development agreements and revitalized the company's international presence prior to its acquisition by Allergan.
Nicholson worked at Amgen for six years in roles of increasing responsibility in product development and product licensing and was responsible for starting and managing the company's venture program. He worked at two small medical device companies, Telios and Advanced Tissues Sciences where he was a team-member focused on developing products addressing unmet needs for wound healing and burns. He pursued research at Triton Biosciences and Allergenetics where he was focused on identifying, isolating and characterizing new growth factors.
Mr. Nicholson received a master's degree in business administration from the University of California at Los Angeles where he won the 19th annual Knapp New Ventures Competition. He was a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Heron Biotechnology, a genomics company which he grew from two to 33 employees and a successful commercial launch. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in biochemistry with an emphasis on immunology from the University of California at Berkeley, where he did post-graduate research in the laboratory of Dr. Robert I. Mishell.
Elisabeth A. Sandoval was appointed Chief Commercial Officer at KYTHERA Biopharmaceuticals in March 2012. Prior to her appointment at KYTHERA, she held the role of Vice President of Global Marketing and Strategy at Bausch + Lomb Surgical, a medical device company where she was responsible for creating and leading the global marketing team. Prior to that, she served for more than 20 years at Allergan in several roles spanning clinical research, sales, marketing, and global marketing across multiple businesses including neurology, dermatology, bariatrics, and plastic surgery.
She served as Vice President of Global Strategic Marketing for several market leading brands which included the launch strategy and execution of JUVEDERM®, BOTOX®Cosmetic, LATISSE®, Natrelle® breast implants and LAP-B.A.ND®. She received a B.S. in Biology from the University of California, Irvine and a MBA from Pepperdine University.
Kristen B. Slaoui is the Vice President and Head of Business Development and Licensing with Stiefel, a GSK company, a specialty dermatology company and part of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). She has spent fourteen years with GSK, where she won multiple awards during her time as a Principal Investigator in Respiratory drug discovery, and her work in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) resulted in the discovery of umeclidinium bromide – the active agent in the recently approved medicines Anoro™ Ellipta™ and Incruse™ Ellipta™. Since joining GSK’s Worldwide Business Development and Corporate Development teams, she has executed over $10.8 billion worth of deals and acquisitions, including the $2.1 billion licensing of ofatumumab (Arzerra®) from Genmab A/S, characterized as the largest biotech deal ever signed at that time, as well as the $3.6 billion acquisition of Stiefel Laboratories. She holds multiple patents, has authored more than 40 original publications including peer-reviewed journal articles, abstracts, and textbook chapters, and she has an ongoing role as a peer reviewer for a dozen established medical journals.
Previous to her work in the private sector, Dr. Slaoui earned Bachelor’s degrees in both Biology and Classical Studies from Gettysburg College. Dr. Slaoui then went on to win a pre-doctoral research training fellowship grant award from the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She earned her PhD in Physiology from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she was an NIH Pre-Doctoral Fellow. Following conferral of her degree, she earned multiple post-doctoral fellowship grants, including an NIH Post-Doctoral Fellowship, at the University of Washington. After her term in Seattle, she accepted a position in Respiratory Drug Discovery at GSK, but continued her commitment to academic research by spending over a decade as an adjunct assistant professor at her alma mater, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD.
Mr. Weiler is a seasoned 15-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry. He has been with Cipher Pharmaceuticals since 2008 and has led the business development team since 2011. As Vice President of Business Development, Mr. Weiler has overall responsibility for building Cipher's dermatology product portfolio, achieving Cipher's vision for growth through mergers and acquisitions, and maximizing the value of Cipher's legacy assets through development of commercial partnerships in markets outside North America. Prior to joining Cipher, he spent a number of years in the private equity market, most recently as Senior Director of Investment Analysis with DRI Capital, a highly successful royalty monetization fund specializing in the acquisition of royalty streams from prescription medications. Mr. Weiler started his pharmaceutical career when he joined the finance team at Eli Lilly Canada before transitioning into various roles in market research, first with the oncology group and later with Eli Lilly's cornerstone diabetes franchise. Mr. Weiler holds a master of science in biology from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) and a master of business administration from the Ivey School of Business at UWO.
Lee T. Zane, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist and Anacor’s Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. He had served as Anacor's Vice President of Clinical Development from August 2008 to October 2013 and had served as Medical Director at Anacor since January 2008. From 2003 to 2007, Dr. Zane served as Assistant Professor of Clinical Dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Department of Dermatology, where he was the Director of Mt. Zion Dermatology Clinical Research Unit and the Director of the Acne Specialty Practice.
Dr. Zane received his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree (valedictorian; summa cum laude) with high honors in Neuroscience from Colgate University and his Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Stanford University. He completed his Dermatology residency training at UCSF, where he also earned a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) degree in Clinical Research and maintains a faculty position as Assistant Clinical Professor of Dermatology.