Sigilon Therapeutics CEO and leadership

Rogerio Vivaldi Coelho, M.D., M.B.A., has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of our board of directors since 2018. Prior to joining Sigilon, Dr. Vivaldi served as Executive Vice President and Chief Global Therapeutics Officer at Bioverativ Inc. from 2016 until it was acquired by Sanofi in 2018, and served as Chief Commercial Officer at Spark Therapeutics between 2014 and 2016. Before that he led Genzyme’s rare disease business as President of both the rare disease business and the renal & endocrine group, as well as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Genzyme’s Latin America Group during his 20-year tenure at Genzyme. Dr. Vivaldi holds his medical degree from the Universidade do Rio de Janeiro. He completed a residency in endocrinology at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and a fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital Center in New York in the department of genetics, focusing on Gaucher disease. Dr. Vivaldi holds an M.B.A. degree from COPPEAD, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.

Matthew Kowalsky, J.D., currently serves as our Chief Legal Officer. Prior to joining Sigilon, he served as Vice President of Legal and Corporate Secretary at Proteon Therapeutics, Inc. from 2016 to 2019. Prior to that, he served as Senior Corporate Counsel at Sanofi Genzyme from 2015 to 2016, supporting business development activities and marketed products for rare diseases. Mr. Kowalsky held the position of Associate General Counsel at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2013 to 2015. He has also held similar roles at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc. (formerly Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging, Inc.). Mr. Kowalsky began his legal career in the corporate and intellectual property groups of Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP. He holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and a J.D. from the Notre Dame Law School. Before attending law school, he served as a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy.

May Orfali is the chief medical officer of Sigilon Therapeutics. She completed her Fellowship in Pediatric Oncology/Hematology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Children’s Hospital and practiced medicine and c­­onducted clinical research in medical oncology at Dana Farber Cancer research Institute.

Philip Ashton-Rickardt, Ph.D., has served as Chief Scientific Officer since 2021. Previously, Dr. Ashton-Rickardt served as Senior Vice President for Immunology at AZTherapies, Inc., where he was responsible for preclinical development of cell therapies, biologic and small molecule platform technologies to treat neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Ashton-Rickardt joined AZTherapies in 2019 in connection with its acquisition of Smith Therapeutics, a private company founded by Dr. Ashton-Rickardt to develop a cutting-edge technology platform that he invented using modified T cells to restore a healthy balance of inflammatory and regulatory cells in the brain. Prior to launching Smith Therapeutics in 2017, Dr. Ashton-Rickardt was Chair in Immunology at Imperial College London, Visiting Professor, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Chicago. His work has been recognized by his peers through the award of tenure from The University of Chicago and by his fellow citizens as a recipient of the Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Bill Clinton. He has published more than 65 peer-reviewed papers in more than 30 academic journals (including Cell, Science, Immunity, and Nature Immunology), has served as an editor for several academic journals, and has been a member of grant review boards globally. Dr. Ashton-Rickardt earned a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of London, King’s College and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh.

Michael Wyzga is the Chief Financial Officer at Sporos. With Michael’s leadership, Sporos is positioned to leverage the financial learnings from one of the world’s biggest biotech companies as it advances its diversified pipeline. Prior to joining Sporos, he served as Chief Financial Officer at Aura Biosciences as well as President, Chief Executive Officer, and member of the board of directors of Radius Health, Inc. Before that, he served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Genzyme Corporation for 12 years. Prior to joining Genzyme, Michael served in various senior-level positions in the high-tech industry, including at Lotus Development and Digital Equipment Company. He received a BS from Suffolk University and an M.B.A. from Providence College. In addition to his role at Sporos, Michael currently serves on the board of directors of Akebia Therapeutics, Inc., Oncomed Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Exact Sciences, and GenSight. He also served on the boards of Idenix Pharmaceuticals until its acquisition by Merck in 2014 and Prosensa Therapeutics until its acquisition by BioMarin Pharmaceuticals in 2014.