Board of Directors
Lars Hanan: is co-founder and Managing Partner
at BroadOak. With 20 years of corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions
experience, Lars Hanan has executed over 100 transactions in a broad range
of industries. Prior to BroadOak, Lars built and managed the life sciences
advisory business at Mercator Capital. Before joining Mercator Lars headed
the M&A Group at ABN AMRO Investment Banking. In addition to heading the
U.S. M&A Group, Mr. Hanan was also a member of the firm’s Fairness Opinion
Committees and he was also responsible for the firm’s Healthcare M&A practice
with particular sector expertise in medical technology and drug discovery
tools. Lars was previously Head of Mergers & Acquisitions for SG Cowen’s
Media Group managing a wide variety of domestic and cross border transactions.
Prior to joining SG Cowen, Lars held senior mergers and acquisitions positions
at Kidder, Peabody and Lehman Brothers. Lars currently serves on the boards
of Marligen Biosciences, A&G Pharmaceuticals and Noxilizer. Lars holds
a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from the
J.L. Kellogg School of Management from Northwestern University.
Thomas E. Hancock: is a Principal at New England Partners in Boston, MA. Prior to joining New England Partners, Tom was a Senior Analyst and Managing Director at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, responsible for covering biopharmaceuticals and drug discovery tools. Previously, Tom was a biotech analyst at NationsBanc Montgomery; was one of the early management employees at COR Therapeutics, Inc.; and was in laboratory research and business development at Genentech, Inc. Tom holds a BS, Molecular Biology and an MBA, both from UC Berkeley.
Jennie P. Mather, PhD: is president and CEO of Raven Biotechnologies. Dr. Mather established Raven on pioneering research performed in her laboratory at Genentech. With more than 30 years of experience in cell culture and cell biology research, Dr. Mather is a recognized leader in the application of cell biology to technology and pharmaceutical product development. She has unusually broad experience that spans basic research in cancer biology and reproductive endocrinology as an Assistant Professor at The Rockefeller University to applied research in development and product discovery at Genentech. Prior to founding Raven, Dr. Mather was a Staff Scientist for 15 years at Genentech, engaged in all phases of drug discovery and development, from project conception through scale-up and the development of potential new products. Dr. Mather led or participated in 12 project teams that produced a number of Genentech's marketed products, including Herceptin®, a monoclonal antibody for treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer; Activase®, a biosynthetic form of the human tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) for treatment of heart attack, acute ischemic stroke, and acute massive pulmonary embolism; Pulmozyme®, an inhalation solution for management of cystic fibrosis; and Genentech's anti-IgE antibody currently in late-stage clinical trials for asthma. Dr. Mather's work led to a number of breakthroughs in cell technology and several key patents for Genentech, including serum-free media for the commercial production of t-PA and other products, genetically engineered production cell lines, several tissue progenitor cell lines, and use patents on several Genentech pipeline products. She also contributed to the design of the cell culture biomanufacturing processes used for commercial production of four of Genentech's marketed protein therapeutics. Dr. Mather is an inventor on 30 issued patents, the author of more than 150 publications, and the author or editor of five books on animal cell culture. She is on the board of directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, Healthcare Businesswomen's Association, and BayBio; and serves on the scientific advisory board of Springboard Enterprises as well as two bioscience companies. She received a PhD from the University of California, San Diego and was an NIH-INSERM exchange scientist in Lyon, France.
Gordon H. Sato, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board: is a world-renowned scientist. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in 1984 and was the scientific advisory for President Nixon. He is the recipient of several international scientific awards for his scientific contributions, most recently he was selected as a Rolex Laureate for his Manzanar Project in Eritrea, Africa. For more information, www.rolexawards.com/laureates/
His contribution to modern cell culture and cancer biology is recognized worldwide. Dr. Sato also played a critical role in establishing Hana Biological, Inc., the Research Products Division of Collaborative Research, Inc. (Waltham, Massachusetts), and Salton Sea Brine Shrimp Co. (Salton Sea, California). He has been a consultant for Fuji Film's Biotechnology Division. Dr. Sato has extensive personal connections with the top management of numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies throughout the world. He has helped A&G form alliances with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to co-develop and market products.
Dr. Sato's credentials include:
- Member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
- Director Emeritus, W. Alton Jones Cell Science Center.
- Professor Emeritus, Tsinghua University, PRC.
- Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.
- Member of the Board of Visitors, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.
- Founder of Upstate Biotechnology, Inc., Lake Placid, N.Y.
- Founder of Hana Biological, Inc., Emeryville, California.
- Member of the Scientific Board, TKT Pharmaceutical Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Seung-il Shin, Ph.D.: is a member of the Board of Directors of Celltrion. He was the initiator and prime organizer in foundation of Celltrion, and currently oversees business development for Celltrion. As VaxGen's Senior Advisor for International Development, Dr. Shin is also responsible for VaxGen's international program development to prepare VaxGen for worldwide distribution of its vaccines and other products. Prior to joining VaxGen, he served with the United Nations, where he conceived, founded and directed an international initiative that ultimately led to the establishment of the International Vaccine Institute, now located in Seoul, Korea. In 1984, Dr. Shin co-founded and served as the Chief Executive Officer of Eugene Tech International, where he led the company's effort to develop and market a hepatitis B vaccine that was eventually distributed widely in many developing countries. For two years, 1987-1989, he also served as Senior Executive Vice President and Director of the R&D Laboratories of Cheil Sugar & Co., in Seoul. Before that, Dr. Shin was a Professor of Genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and a founding member of the Basel Institute of Immunology in Basel, Switzerland. Dr. Shin was educated in Korea and the United States in chemistry and biochemistry and in The Netherlands in genetics, and further trained in immunology in England. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Brandeis University.
Ginette Serrero, Ph.D.,: As CEO at A&G Pharmaceutical, Inc., Dr. Ginette Serrero draws on 25 years of research experience to guide the company's strategic vision and breakthrough cancer research. Dr. Serrero, who co-founded the company in 2000, is an internationally recognized scientist for her work on the development of novel therapeutic targets in the fields of adipocyte differentiation and breast cancer. She has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed papers and is the inventor of 11 issued US and European patents and 16 pending patents on molecular targets of obesity and cancer, particularly GP88. Her discovery of GP88, a theranostic novel growth factor overexpressed in several cancers including breast cancer, provided the impetus to move from academia to entrepreneur. Under Dr. Serrero’s leadership, A&G has raised $3.5 million from angels and venture capitalists. The most recent raise of $2 million closed in August 2005 and will support the clinical trials and FDA submission for a diagnostic kit for breast cancer.
Prior to joining A&G, Dr. Serrero was Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Oncology at the University of Maryland and at the Greenebaum Cancer Center where she received more than $ 5 millions in grant awards from such agencies as NIH, DOD, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, American Heart Association, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. She is Associate Editor of In Vitro Cell and Developmental Biology and has served in NIH study sections. Dr. Serrero received a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Marseille and a D. Sc in Cell Biology from the University of Nice. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the Dept of Biology of the University of California San Diego.