Molecular Templates competitors

John prides himself as a builder of growing international businesses and organizations, successfully deploying both organic and M&A strategies in doing so. As President & CEO since June 2012, John has lead the turnaround and growth of Codexis Inc, the Nasdaq-listed protein engineering company based in Silicon Valley, California. Prior to Codexis, John worked in various business leadership roles for more than 22 years at Albemarle Corporation, a maker of highly engineered specialty chemicals. Spanning three successive multi-year chapters there, John lead the growth of the company’s largest, billion dollar plus global catalyst business, turned around a struggling half billion dollar fine chemicals business, and expanded and globalized Albemarle’s flame retardants business. A native of New York city, John and his family have lived widely across the USA, and also enjoyed an exciting three year assignment in Tokyo, Japan in the late 1990’s. John received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (now NYU) and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Outside of work, John proudly boasts about his 30 year marriage, two fabulous children, and four delightful grandchildren. John also has passionately applied himself to help solve the plight of the millions of patients suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome, and is the Board Chair for the leading patient lead organization for the cause in the US, the Solve ME/CFS Initiative (www.solvecfs.org).

Prior to joining Genocea,Chip co-founded and served as Chief Business Officer of Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: VNDA). Before that, Chip was a Principal at Care Capital, LLC, a venture capital firm investing in biopharmaceutical companies, after serving in a variety of commercial roles at SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline). Chip holds a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

J. David Hansen is a President & Chief Executive Officer at MABVAX THERAPEUTICS HOLDINGS, INC. and Board Member at MABVAX THERAPEUTICS HOLDINGS, INC..

Michael S. Weiss has served as the Company’s Executive Chairman, President and CEO since December 2011. Mr. Weiss is also currently a director of the Company. Mr. Weiss is a co-founder of, and has been a Managing Partner and Principal of Opus Point Partners since 2008. Mr. Weiss has also been the Executive Chairman, Strategic Development of Fortress Biotechnology since January 2014 and has served as Co-Vice Chairman of the Fortress Biotech Board of Directors since December 2013. Mr. Weiss earned his J.D. from Columbia Law School and his B.S. in Finance from The University at Albany. He began his professional career as a lawyer with Cravath, Swaine & Moore. In 1999, Mr. Weiss founded Access Oncology which was later acquired by Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: KERX) in 2004. Following the merger, Mr. Weiss remained as CEO of Keryx and grew the company to close to a $1BB market capitalization company at its peak. While at Keryx, he raised over $150MM in equity capital through public and private offerings, executed a $100MM+ strategic alliance, negotiated multiple Special Protocol Assessments (“SPA”) agreements with the FDA and managed multiple large clinical trials.

Laurence J.N. Cooper transitioned from CEO to Scientific Advisor in February of 2021. Laurence joined Ziopharm Oncology as chief executive officer in 2015 after the Company licensed technology for a non-viral approach for genetically modifying T cells from MD Anderson Cancer and the University of Minnesota. This technology is designed to reduce the cost and complexity of genetically modified T cells. Prior to joining Ziopharm, Laurence was a tenured Professor at MD Anderson with joint appointments in the Division of Pediatrics and Department of Immunology. There, he served as Section Chief of Cell Therapy at the Children’s Cancer Hospital and helped lead scientific efforts to develop new treatment approaches which pair genetic engineering with immunotherapies. He remains a visiting scientist at MD Anderson. Laurence has coauthored dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles, abstracts, and book chapters. He has initiated multiple trials under INDs infusing T cells and NK cells. He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and he completed his training in Pediatric Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Experienced Board Member and leader with a demonstrated history of working in the biotechnology industry. Skilled in Business Planning, Biotechnology, Team Leadership, Management, and Risk Financing. Strong business development professional with a MBA focused in Accounting from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. James Breitmeyer is the president & CEO Oncternal Therapeutics, Inc., a San Diego cancer biotechnology company. He was instrumental in identifying and acquiring rights to ROR1 technology from UCSD and for developing ETS-family inhibitors based on discoveries from Georgetown University, while assembling Oncternal’s pipeline of oncology therapeutics. Dr. Breitmeyer was a lead author on the research grant submitted to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) which resulted in the award of $18.3 million to UCSD to support development of lead program cirmtuzumab currently in Phase 1/2 clinical studies. Dr. Breitmeyer believes biomedical research and collaborations with academia are essential for targeting cancers where there are patients with critical unmet needs that aren’t being fully addressed by currently available therapies. At Oncternal, Dr. Breitmeyer is combining drug development expertise with exciting science for a synergistic combination to spur the development of novel product candidates that can potentially be applied across a large number of cancers. Dr. Breitmeyer is board certified in internal medicine and oncology. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of California and earned M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Washington University School of Medicine with fellowships at Washington University and Harvard Medical School. He held clinical and teaching faculty positions at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Breitmeyer has more than 30 years of experience across all aspects of the biotechnology industry in both large and small companies, and across multiple therapeutic areas. He is currently a member of the Boards of Directors of Oncternal Therapeutics Inc, Zogenix Inc, and Otonomy Inc.