Jerry McLaughlin is chief executive officer and board member of Life Biosciences, Inc. He has over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and has been involved in the discovery, clinical development, and global commercialization of more than a dozen FDA-approved drugs with multiple successful exits. Most recently, Jerry was President and CEO for Neos Therapeutics, Inc., a commercial stage pharmaceutical company. Before that, he served as president and CEO of AgeneBio, Inc., a clinical-stage private biopharma company developing therapies for neurological and psychiatric diseases. Earlier, he held the role of senior vice president & chief commercial officer at NuPathe Inc., acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2014. Jerry began his career at Merck and was extensively involved in multiple blockbuster product launches. He holds a BA in economics from Dickinson College and an MBA from the Villanova School of Business.
Dr. Rosenzweig-Lipson holds significant expertise in screening strategies, in vivo models, translation, and clinical development strategy with more than three decades of experience developing compounds for psychiatric and neurologic indications in the pharmaceutical industry and in biotech. Her career in big pharma includes American Cyanamid, American Home Products, Wyeth, and Pfizer. Most recently, as head of R&D, Dr. Rosenzweig-Lipson led the clinical development of AgeneBio’s lead asset through Phase 2B trials as well as the company’s preclinical development programs. Dr. Rosenzweig-Lipson earned her BA in the biological basis of behavior from the University of Pennsylvania and her PhD in behavioral neuroscience from Harvard University.
As chief administrative officer and general counsel, Amit oversees Life Biosciences’ business development, human resource, and real estate initiatives as well as government affairs, legal, and corporate secretarial matters. Amit is a strategically oriented global leader, with more than 20 years of international experience in technology and business services organizations. Amit served as executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Aricent, a global R&D engineering and design powerhouse, which under his leadership as part of the executive team, grew to over 10,000 employees. In 2018, Amit was instrumental in supporting KKR & Co. in the sale of Aricent to Altran Technologies (EPA: ALT) for $2 billion. Prior to Aricent, Amit served as executive vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and secretary at ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXLS), an operations management and analytics company with more than 20,000 employees globally, where he led the IPO and NASDAQ listing of the company. Amit began his career at Shearman and Sterling LLP after graduating from The University of Michigan Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Michigan Journal of International Law. Amit is also a Rhodes Scholar and was an adjunct professor at Columbia University Law School.
With more than 25 years of experience in corporate finance, strategic transactions, fundraising, and investor relations, Bill Sullivan joins Life Biosciences as chief financial officer. He was previously chief financial officer and treasurer at Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (AGTC), a publicly traded gene therapy company, where he led multiple financings and core business and finance functions. Prior to AGTC, he worked at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for 10 years and held a variety of important leadership positions including chief financial officer. At Merrimack, he led the company’s $100 million initial public offering, helped the company raise over $400 million in debt and equity capital as a public company, and played a key role in Merrimack’s asset sale to Ipsen SA for up to $1.025 billion. Prior to his role at Merrimack, Bill worked for a number of years in the high-technology sector. He holds a BA in economics from Williams College and an MBA and MS in accounting from Northeastern University and obtained his certified public accountant license while working at Arthur Andersen, LLP.
Dr. Michel Wathier is senior vice president of chemistry manufacturing and control (CMC) at Life Biosciences. With more than 20 years of experience leading the formulation development and manufacture of complex drugs, Dr. Wathier has a deep understanding and expertise in CMC program management, operation, and regulatory. His experiences encompass devices, small and large molecules, combination products, and new modalities. Dr. Wathier has experience with regulatory environments in both the United States and internationally and has led 15 compounds through successful IND filings; he co-authored 20 patents and effectively moved numerous products from R&D to human clinical studies. His development work on devices led to Adherus and OcuSeal and their successful commercialization and acquisition in the US and Europe. Dr. Wathier has a PhD in organic chemistry from Avignon University, France and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University working on biomaterials in the Department of Chemistry.
Dr. Ming Yang has more than 20 years of experience in translational biomedical research, with expertise in all aspects of drug development, including discovery, non-clinical research and development, drug delivery, formulation/process development, manufacturing and technology innovation. Prior to joining Life Biosciences, he served as senior vice president of research & development at Graybug Vision, where he led R&D efforts to advance ophthalmic pipeline programs to clinical development and oversaw the operations of the company’s research center. Previously, Dr. Yang conducted research to develop sustained-release protein therapeutics at Genentech, Inc. He has over 20 issued US patents and has invented platform technologies that led to two FDA-approved drugs. Dr. Yang received his doctoral degree in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and his bachelor of engineering in materials science and engineering from Tsinghua University.