Board of Directors Archives - Vesigen Therapeutics

Gerald Chan, Sc.D.

Gerald Chan is the co-founder of Morningside, an investment group engaged in private equity and venture capital investments. Working with academic scientists, he has started more than two dozen biotech companies across diverse therapeutic areas of oncology, inflammation, ophthalmology, autoimmunity, diabetes, neurodegeneration, rare genetic diseases, and prophylactic vaccines.

Gerald is a board member of several privately held biotech companies. He is the chairman of two Nasdaq listed biotechnology companies: Apellis Pharmaceuticals and Stealth BioTherapeutics. From 2016 to 2020, he chaired the Innovation Advisory Committee of the Wellcome Trust. He is currently a trustee of the Scripps Research Institute and a member of the Dean’s Board of Advisors of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which was renamed in honor of his father, Mr. T.H. Chan, following a gift from the Morningside Foundation in 2014.

Gerald was educated at UCLA, Harvard University, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He has been honored with six honorary degrees conferred by universities in the UK, Hong Kong and America. In 2017, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2019, he gave the Andrew Carnegie Lecture in University of Glasgow, Scotland and held a visiting fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge University.

Paulash Mohsen

Paulash Mohsen is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive who has served in a variety of roles across multiple disciplines. Prior to his appointment at Vesigen, he served as Chief Business Officer at Yumanity Therapeutics, and helped the company grow from a seed stage, research-based startup to a public company, with a lead clinical program in Parkinson’s disease. He was responsible for securing a strategic research collaboration and license agreement with Merck & Co. for two pipeline programs in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal lobar dementia. Before Yumanity, Paulash served as Country Manager in Canada for Cubist Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Merck), where he led the company’s first international operation from conceptualization through commercialization.

In this role, he oversaw the approval and launch of two novel anti-infective therapeutics and led the company’s commercial, scientific and administrative functions. Paulash joined Cubist via acquisition of Optimer Pharmaceuticals, where he was Vice President, Strategy and Business Operations and helped establish the U.S. commercial infrastructure and led launch preparedness for DIFICID, an anti-infective. Preceding Optimer, Paulash held strategic and operational roles at Pfizer, including Vice President of Strategy and Vice President, Multi-Channel Management. Paulash holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Brown University, an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jason Dinges

Jason Dinges has been a member of the Morningside investment team since 2011. He has extensive experience facilitating financings and providing operational and management oversight to early-stage biotechnology companies. Dr. Dinges is a director of several biopharmaceutical or biotechnology companies across a broad spectrum of therapeutic areas including: Adiso Therapeutics, Alentis Therapeutics, CellCentric, ClearB Therapeutics, Geneoscopy, Inotrem, Prilenia Therapeutics, and ZielBio. From 2006 to 2011, Dr. Dinges was an associate attorney at Foley & Lardner LLP, practicing intellectual property law. Dr. Dinges received his Ph.D. in genetics from Iowa State University and a J.D., with highest distinction, from the University of Iowa College of Law.

Lucio Iannone, Ph.D.

Lucio Iannone is VP of Venture Investments Health at Leaps by Bayer. He is responsible for leading the investment team in the USA and deal execution. He is also involved in the sourcing, screening, and mentoring of companies with game-changing science.

As an investor, Lucio also serves as board member for AffiniT, Khloris Biosciences , Immunitas Therapeutics, Mozart Tx and Paratus . Before joining Leaps by Bayer, he had different roles in biotechnology companies. He has experience with molecular biology, cell and gene therapy technologies and their application in oncology, cardiovascular and other therapeutic fields.

Rakhshita Dhar

Rakhshita Dhar is Senior Director of Venture Investments Health at Leaps by Bayer. She joined the team in 2021 and is responsible for search & evaluation and healthcare focused investment for Leaps. She currently sits on the board of Deka Biosciences, Gro Bio, and Edifice Health.

Prior to joining Leaps, Rakhshita was Director of Business Development at Roche Pharmaceuticals. She also spent a few years at MassBio developing an accelerator program for life-science start-ups.

She got her Undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Mumbai University and her Masters in Molecular Biology from Georgetown University.

Dieter Weinand

Dieter Weinand is an experienced executive with over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceuticals and biotech industries. In addition to serving on Vesigen’s Board, Mr. Weinand presently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ZielBio and Replimune Group Inc. (NASDAQ: REPL). Previously, Mr. Weinand served as the Executive Vice President of Primary Care and was a member of the Executive Committee at Sanofi from November 2018 to March 2020. Before moving to Sanofi, he was CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer Pharma AG and member of the Management Board at Bayer AG. Prior to his work at Sanofi and Bayer, Mr. Weinand held various positions in commercial, operational, and strategic areas of the pharmaceutical industry. These included responsibilities spanning various therapeutic areas and geographies for companies such as Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Otsuka. Mr. Weinand is a former board member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries & Associations (EFPIA), and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (IFPMA), and served as a member of the Board of Directors of HealthPrize Technologies.

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