Christoph M. Adams,  Ph.D.,  M.B.A.

Dr. Adams has served as a member of our Board of Directors since November 2022. He has more than 30 years of experience on the business side of pharmaceutical and orphan drug development, including business strategy, commercial planning, product management, licensing, mergers and acquisitions. In 2013, he co-founded Cydan, an orphan drug accelerator focused on improving the lives of patients with rare genetic diseases. Together with the Cydan team, Dr. Adams raised more than $200M and co-founded and three new companies:  Vtesse, Imara and Tiburio Therapeutics. Prior to Cydan, he served as Chief Business Officer of FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, where he contributed to the development of VYNDAQEL® (tafamidis) for TTR amyloidosis. Previously, he served in various business development and marketing roles at ViaCell, Transkaryotic Therapies and Ciba-Geigy. Dr. Adams also serves on the Board of Directors of Aviceda Therapeutics and Reveal Pharmaceuticals.   He was previously also on the boards of Cydan II, and Kinetix Pharmaceuticals.  He holds a PhD in organic chemistry and a diploma in organic chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Zurich, and an MBA from INSEAD of Fontainebleau, France.

Joshua Boger, Ph.D.

Executive Chairman

Dr. Joshua Boger founded  Vertex Pharmaceuticals in 1989.  He retired as Vertex’s Chief Executive Officer in 2009 and continued to serve on the Vertex Board and Chair Vertex’s Science & Technology Committee until 2017.  Prior to founding Vertex, Dr. Boger was Senior Director of Basic Chemistry at Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in Rahway, N.J., where he headed both the Departments of Biophysical Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry of Immunology & Inflammation.  During his ten years at Merck, Dr. Boger developed an international reputation in the application of computer modeling to the chemistry of drug design and was a pioneer in the use of structure-based rational drug design as the basis for drug discovery programs.  Dr. Boger holds a bachelor of arts degree in Chemistry and Philosophy from Wesleyan University (Connecticut) and a master's and doctorate degrees in Chemistry from Harvard University.  His postdoctoral research in molecular recognition was performed in the laboratories of the Nobel-prize winning chemist, Jean-Marie Lehn in Strasbourg, France.  He is the author of over 50 scientific publications and holds 32 issued U.S. patents in pharmaceutical discovery and development.

Michel Dahan

Michel Dahan currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Akebia Therapeutics, overseeing manufacturing, quality, alliance management, program management, strategic planning and business development. He joined Akebia in 2013. During his tenure, the company went public, grew from less than 20 employees to more than 400 and has raised more than $1.5 billion in capital.  Prior to Akebia Mr. Dahan held various positions at Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals, most recently as Vice President, Commercial Development and Strategic Planning, and led global marketing and commercial development in preparation for two global launches in rare diseases. Previously, Mr. Dahan served in various roles for Ipsen, in business development, global marketing, strategic planning, and R&D program leadership. He began his career in investment banking and holds a graduate degree in business administration from HEC Paris (France), a ‘maîtrise’ in mathematics from Sorbonne University (France) and completed the PLD executive education program from Harvard Business School.

Andrew A. F. Hack, M.D., Ph.D

Dr. Hack is a Partner of Bain Capital Life Sciences, LP, a private equity fund that invests in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics, and enabling life science technology companies globally. From July 2015 to March 2019, he was Chief Financial Officer of Editas Medicine where he had responsibility for finance, investor relations, business development, information technology, and operations. Previously, Dr. Hack served as a portfolio manager at Millennium Management where he ran a healthcare hedge fund focused on investing in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and life sciences companies from 2011 to 2015. Earlier in his investment career, he was a securities analyst at a number of healthcare-focused hedge funds and investment banks in New York. Dr. Hack currently serves on the boards of directors of Dynavax Technologies Corporation, Imperative Care, JenaValve Technology, Mersana Therapeutics, and Nuvalent.   He previously served on the boards of directors of Affinivax, Atea Pharmaceuticals, Allena Pharmaceuticals, BCLS Acquisition Corporation, and Xilio Therapeutics. Dr. Hack received an A.B. in biology with special honors, an M.D., and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics and cell biology from the University of Chicago.

Leonide Saad, Ph.D.

Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer

Leonide Saad is the President and CEO of Alkeus Pharmaceuticals. Since founding Alkeus in 2010 with Ilyas Washington, Ph.D., Leonide has pioneered the development of ALK-001 for Stargardt disease: conducting enabling preclinical studies, securing funding for clinical development including NIH and FDA grants, designing and executing multiple clinical trials, generating clinical data to support Breakthrough Therapy Designation for ALK-001 from the FDA, and raising $150 million in institutional capital to support a rapid path to NDA submission and launch for ALK-001.  Prior to founding Alkeus, Leonide worked in management consulting and venture capital, focused on the biotechnology and life science industries.  

Dr. Saad holds a Ph.D. with a focus on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine from MIT, a Financial Technology certificate from MIT Sloan School of Management, a MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, a BS and MS in Applied Mathematics from University of Paris VI, and is a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, with a concentration in organic chemistry and physics.

Ian Smith

Ian Smith is a biotechnology leader with more than 25 years of strategic leadership, corporate and business development, finance and operations experience. He currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Bain Capital Life Sciences, Executive Chair of Solid Biosciences and a member of the Board of Directors of Foghorn Therapeutics.  He also provides executive advisory services to multiple biotech companies. Previously, he was Executive Chair of Viacyte, and a member of the Board of Directors of Acorda Therapeutics, Aavanti Bio and Infinity Pharmaceuticals.   Ian was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, as well as Chief Financial Officer between 2001 and 2019, during which Vertex grew from a research-based organization to a global commercial company with multiple successfully launched medicines.  Prior to joining Vertex, Ian was a Partner in the Ernst & Young Life Science Practice.

Chen Yu, M.D., MBA

Dr. Yu is the founder and Managing Partner at TCGX. Dr. Yu has extensive operating experience with leadership roles at both private and public companies, including as Chief Operating Officer at Sagent Pharmaceuticals and Chief Business Officer of ChinaKangHui.  Dr. Yu has served on the board of over a dozen private/public companies, including Structure Therapeutics, Artios, Upstream Bio, Arbor Biotechnologies, Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, Sagent Pharmaceuticals, China Kanghui, Rempex, Nabriva, Surgical Specialties, Sentre Heart, and NKF Pharma.  While at Vivo, his previous firm, he also led investments in Zai Labs, RiverVision, CRISPR Therapeutics, Intellia, Durata, Precision Biosciences, Trauson, and Revolution Medicines.  Dr. Yu received his M.D. and M.B.A. from Stanford University and graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Biology from Harvard University.

David Setboun, Pharm D., MBA

Chief Operating Officer

David Setboun is an operations and commercial leader with foundational experience driving innovative therapies into and through clinical development at multiple biotechnology companies, and he has broad functional expertise across strategy, operations, commercialization, business development. Prior to Alkeus, David was EVP and Chief Operating Officer at Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics and Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy at Life Biosciences. Prior to these roles, David was Vice President and Managing Director for France at Biogen and Country President, Portugal at AstraZeneca and Global Brand Director at Eli Lilly. David has a reputation for inventive, mission-focused leadership and for the last 10 years David has dedicated his career to promoting and developing targeted therapies for rare diseases. He is also an angel investor and the founder of a nonprofit in longevity science. David earned an MBA from HEC Paris and a PharmD from the University of Paris Saclay. He is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School (AMP 194).

Ilyas Washington, Ph.D.

Co-Founder

Dr. Ilyas Washington is a professor, inventor, scientist, and co-founder with backgrounds in university and industry research and development. In 2010, Dr. Washington co-founded of Alkeus Pharmaceuticals with Dr. Leonide Saad. In 2018, Dr. Washington started biOOrg3.14 to invent therapies differently using radically different approaches.  Before starting biOOrg3.14, Dr. Washington was the Michael Jaharis Assistant Professor at Columbia University Medical Center in the Department of Ophthalmology. His research has focused on understanding how unavoidable environmental phenomena such as light, gravity, magnetic fields and diet influence and dictate human health on a molecular level.   Dr. Washington holds a PhD in organic chemistry from UCLA and a BA in chemistry from Bard College. He completed postdoctoral work at Columbia University and trained under the mentorship of Koji Nakanishi, Nick Turro (Columbia University), Ken Houk (UCLA) and Hilton Weiss (Bard).