Edgewise Therapeutics Leadership

Alan Russell, Ph.D., serves as our Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer and a member of our board of directors. Previously, Dr. Russell served at GlaxoSmithKline as VP and Head of the Muscle Metabolism Discovery Performance Unit, leading a broad discovery and development effort focused on patients for whom muscle function is compromised. Prior to this, he worked at Cytokinetics Inc, and is the co-inventor of Tirasemtiv and Reldesemtiv, direct muscle sensitizers in clinical trials for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Dr. Russell received a BPharm and Ph.D. from the University of Bath in the UK and Postdoctoral training at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Michael Carruthers joined Edgewise Therapeutics in September 2020 as our Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Carruthers has over 20 years of experience serving as Chief Financial Officer for publicly-traded biopharmaceutical companies, with extensive experience across corporate finance and strategic planning including IPO’s, secondary offerings and M&A transactions. Most recently, Mr. Carruthers served as fractional Chief Financial Officer for several private and public companies. Previously Mr. Carruthers served as Interim President of Nivalis Therapeutics, a publicly traded company acquired by Alpine Immune Sciences, in 2017 and Chief Financial Officer and Secretary since 2015. From 1998 to 2015, he served as Chief Financial Officer for Array BioPharma Inc., a publicly traded company acquired by Pfizer Inc. Prior to this, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Sievers Instrument, Treasurer and Controller for the Waukesha division of Dover Corporation and Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand. Mr. Carruthers received a B.S. in accounting from the University of Colorado and a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Behrad Derakhshan joined Edgewise in September 2020 as Chief Business Officer and is responsible for our corporate strategy and business development. Behrad brings more than 10 years of experience in the rare/ultra-rare disease space. Most recently, Behrad served as Chief Business Officer at VectivBio, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapeutics across a variety of rare conditions where he was responsible for the company’s capital formation and business development strategy. Behrad previously served as the Head of Business Development at Therachon, a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of therapeutics for rare pediatric conditions, until its acquisition by Pfizer Inc. in 2019. Prior to Therachon, he was a Director at Alexion Pharmaceuticals responsible for Business Development and Strategic Evaluation after initially leading the New Products Global Commercial Insights and Analytics team. Earlier in his career, Behrad worked in management consulting, first as a Senior Consultant at Easton Associates and then as an Associate Director at Navigant Consulting. During that time, he advised a number of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies across a range of strategic projects. Behrad conducted his postdoctoral training at the Yale School of Medicine and received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from a joint program between Weill Cornell Medicine, New York and the University of Surrey, UK. He received a First-Class Honors BSc. with distinction in Biochemistry from the University of Surrey.

Joanne Donovan, M.D., Ph.D., has served as our Chief Medical Officer since July 2011. In addition, since 1989, she worked as a staff physician at the VA Boston Healthcare System, where she was formerly Chief of Gastroenterology. Dr. Donovan has held an appointment at Harvard Medical School since 1990, most recently as associate clinical professor of medicine. From 1998 to July 2011, Dr. Donovan served in positions of increasing responsibility, ultimately as vice president of clinical development, at Genzyme Corporation, a publicly traded biotechnology company, which she joined through its acquisition of GelTex. Dr. Donovan holds a Ph.D. in medical engineering and medical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and an S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She completed residency training in internal medicine and a fellowship in gastroenterology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Alan Russell, Ph.D., serves as our Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer and a member of our board of directors. Previously, Dr. Russell served at GlaxoSmithKline as VP and Head of the Muscle Metabolism Discovery Performance Unit, leading a broad discovery and development effort focused on patients for whom muscle function is compromised. Prior to this, he worked at Cytokinetics Inc, and is the co-inventor of Tirasemtiv and Reldesemtiv, direct muscle sensitizers in clinical trials for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Dr. Russell received a BPharm and Ph.D. from the University of Bath in the UK and Postdoctoral training at Stanford University School of Medicine.