Thomas W. Dubensky Jr., Ph.D. has served as the President & CEO of Tempest Therapeutics since joining the company in 2017. He brings significant expertise in the discovery, development and translation of novel immune therapies for the treatment of cancer. Prior to Tempest, Tom served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Aduro Biotech, where he led the development of first-in-class STING (stimulator of interferon genes) agonists. His leadership was instrumental in securing Aduro’s $750M collaboration with Novartis for the STING program. Before his role at Aduro, Tom served as Chief Scientific Officer of Immune Design, where he was responsible for leading the development of immune therapies based on proprietary molecularly defined adjuvants and dendritic cell targeting vaccine platforms. Prior to this, in 2007 he co-founded and served as Chief Scientific Officer of Anza Therapeutics, a biotechnology company that was spun out from Cerus Corporation. Tom has also served scientific leadership and strategic roles at Viagene, Chiron Corporation and Onyx Pharmaceuticals. Tom has co-authored more than 75 scientific papers and is an inventor on 44 issued U.S. patents with multiple pending applications. He received his B.A. in Bacteriology and Immunology from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He conducted his post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Pathology.

Dr. Ginna Laport is Chief Medical Officer and brings significant expertise in Hematology/Oncology and clinical drug development. Prior to Tempest, Dr. Laport was Vice President, Clinical Development at Corvus Pharmaceuticals, leading the clinical development of small molecules and antibodies targeting the adenosine pathway for the treatment of advanced solid tumors. Dr. Laport launched multinational early stage clinical trials after securing clearance from FDA and global Health Authorities. Additionally, Dr. Laport was a member of the Executive Committee and oversaw clinical development and operations. Prior to Corvus, Dr. Laport was faculty in the Stanford University School of Medicine, most recently as Professor of Medicine in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT). Her research focused on adoptive immunotherapies for malignant diseases and she served as Director of Clinical Research in the BMT Division and as an Associate Director of the Stanford Cancer Institute. Prior to Stanford, Dr. Laport was an Assistant Professor in Hematology/ Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Laport served on the FDA Oncology Drug Advisory Committee (ODAC), was national Chair of the NIH-sponsored BMT Clinical Trials Network directing multicenter clinical trials, and has co-authored over 80 publications.

Dr. Laport received her M.D. from the University of Texas-Houston and a B.A. from Baylor University. She completed her Internal Medicine residency and fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at The University of Chicago.

Chan C. Whiting, Ph.D. is the Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Tempest. Prior to Tempest, Chan was Director and Head of Immune Monitoring and Biomarker Development at Aduro Biotech where she established key partnerships, brought in cutting edge technologies and built up a department of highly effective immunologists that was responsible for all clinical immune monitoring and biomarker development efforts for clinical trials at Aduro. Chan also led the development of Aduro’s personalized medicine program targeting patient-specific neoantigens using Aduro’s attenuated Listeria monocytogenes-based LADD platform. Prior to Aduro, Dr. Whiting has led target identification and validation programs for systems biology companies including Entelos, Inc. and Ingenuity Systems (currently Qiagen) in the development and application of mathematical mechanistic models and other in silico computational tools for autoimmunity, infectious diseases and oncology.

Chan received a B.S. degree in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Immunology from University of California, Los Angeles and completed postdoctoral studies at Tularik and Stanford University.

Dr. Sakai has held various regulatory positions for over twenty years at several Bay Area biotechnology companies including Avigen, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, and Peninsula Pharmaceuticals. She has extensive experience ranging from numerous IND submissions through NDA and BLA preparation and approval. She joined Transcept Pharmaceuticals in 2005, building the Regulatory department and ultimately rising to Vice President of Regulatory and Quality, leading the company to an NDA approval in 2011. From 2013 to 2015, Dr. Sakai served as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Adamas Pharmaceuticals. She has consulted for several Bay Area biotech and pharmaceutical companies across multiple therapeutic areas including Neurology, Gastroenterology, Oncology, and Rare Diseases. Client companies have included Aduro, SillaJen, and BioMarin. Dr. Sakai’s early career included Cell Biology research at the NIH as a Senior Staff Fellow and managing virus production facilities at early stage gene therapy companies. Dr. Sakai received a BS in Microbiology from Cornell University and a PhD in Cell Biology from the University of California at Berkeley.

Elia Borbas brings over 25 years of experience in Clinical Operations in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. She has broad experience in all phases of clinical development from early clinical through successful NDA and BLA filings and has also led successful regulatory agency inspections.

Her expertise reaches across multiple therapeutic areas including Hematology/Oncology, Cardiac, Pulmonary, Endocrine, Renal, Pain Management and CNS.

Prior to Tempest, Elia served as Executive Director of Clinical Operations at Jazz Pharmaceuticals where she was responsible for the strategy and management of several global clinical programs. Elia has held management positions at SurroMed, Inc., and consulted at Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech and Chiron. She attended University of Michigan and earned a B.S. in Nursing at Catholic University of America. She was the CEO of her own consulting company working with Bay Area biotech startups, midsize and pharmaceutical companies.

Derek Metzger is the Senior Director of Program Leadership and Program Management at Tempest. Derek has worked in oncology drug development for over 10 years, most recently in roles at Aduro Biotech and Onyx Pharmaceuticals. He has held roles spanning many different functions, including business development, strategic planning, life cycle management, and market planning. At Tempest, Derek will work with the clinical and research teams to formulate the development strategies for the portfolio and will also serve as project manager. Derek graduated from Brown University with a degree in Economics.

Peppi Prasit, Ph.D., is CEO of Inception Sciences, acting CSO and Director at Tempest Therapeutics. Previously, he was founder and CSO of Amira Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb in a significant transaction. Peppi has more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and management serving in various positions with Merck Frosst Canada and then Merck San Diego. During this time, he played a pivotal role in the discovery of multiple marketed drugs and is widely recognized for his accomplishments as a drug hunter.

Peppi received his B.Sc. from UCL, London University, and his Ph.D. from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University.

Brad Bolzon, Ph.D., is a Managing Director and chairman of the investment team at Versant. Brad combines 13 years of global pharmaceutical industry experience and a similar tenure as a venture capitalist. His track record consists of successive outlier returns including Amira (sale), Okairos (sale), Speedel (sale), Quanticel (sale), Novira (sale), Flexion (2014 IPO), Crispr (2016 IPO), BioTie (sale), Jecure (sale) and Inception (multiple sales), and he continues to manage several other promising investments. Brad is the architect of Versant’s investment strategy.

Prior to joining Versant, Brad served as Executive Vice President, Global Head of Business Development, Licensing & Alliances at Roche. Under his leadership, Roche established alliances with over 75 venture-backed biotech companies worldwide and transformed its R&D pipeline into an industry leader. Prior to that, Brad held executive roles at Eli Lilly in drug discovery, clinical research, regulatory affairs and business development. He earned Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Pharmacology from the University of Toronto.

Tom Woiwode, Ph.D., has been working with Versant since 2002, and has served in both operational and investment roles during that time. Tom was the start-up CBO for Amira (sale), Synosia (sale) and Flexion (2014 IPO), and was the COO of Okairos where he led the process that culminated in the acquisition by GSK. Since being promoted to Managing Director in 2014, Tom has assumed the lead role in multiple investments including Crispr (2016 IPO), Audentes (2016 IPO), Annapurna (merged to form Adverum), Gritstone (2018 IPO), Crinetics (2018 IPO), Jecure (sale) Anokion, Therachon, Vividion, Tempest, Aligos, CODA and Passage.

Prior to joining Versant, Tom was a medicinal chemist at XenoPort, a start-up biotech company that completed an IPO in 2005. Tom earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University.

Robert Weisskoff, Partner, joined F-Prime Capital in 2004.  Robert has worked extensively in both academia and the bioscience industry for thirty years. Prior to F-Prime, he held various senior roles in R&D and Business Development at both pharmaceutical and medical device companies. In his academic career, Dr. Weisskoff was Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School, on the faculty of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences Technology (HST) Program, and performed research at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was Associate Director of the MGH-NMR Center. There he worked at the intersection of basic research, medical technology development, and clinical research in a variety of areas. Robert is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and an inventor on 6 US patents.

Robert holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. He received his A.B. degree in Physics from Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Robert serves on the Board of Directors of Caribou Biosciences, Plasmagen Biosciences, Tempest Therapeutics, Trivitron Healthcare, and Zenflow, Inc. He has previously served on the boards of Accuri Cytometers (acquired by Becton Dickinson), Laurus Labs (NSE:LAURUSLABS), Surface Oncology, Tetraphase (NASDAQ:TTPH), Transave (NASDAQ:INSM), Topaz (acquired by Sanofi Pasteur), and ViewRay (NASDAQ:VRAY).

See more at: http://fprimecapital.com

Dr. Stella Xu is a Managing Director of Quan Capital, a life sciences venture fund with  deep expertise in cross-board value creation and global investments, and a Board Director of ARMO Biosciences and Centrexion Therapeutics.  Prior to Quan, Stella was a core member of the global management team for Roche’s Immunology, Inflammation & Infectious Diseases Areas, and VP/Site Head of Roche Innovation Center Shanghai.  From 2012-2017, she led the integrated research & early development site of ~200 scientists, successfully delivered a world-class innovative pipeline from Discovery to global Clinical Development in 3 years, and pioneered novel development strategies in China.  In addition, Stella had extensive global business development and licensing leadership experiences across deal types and disease areas in the US and Asia with Roche Partnering.  Stella joined Roche from McKinsey US where she led management consulting engagements in diverse healthcare sectors from R&D to commercialization.  Earlier in her career, Stella worked in biotech R&D in oncology & inflammation. 

Stella received her Ph.D. in Immunology from Northwestern University, and B.S. in Biophysics from Peking University.

Mike has served as Ardelyx’s president and chief executive officer since March 2009. Before Ardelyx, Mike was a partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the world’s largest and most successful venture capital firms, where he specialized in healthcare investments focusing on the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors.

Prior to joining NEA in 2002, Mike spent 15 years in commercial and operating leadership roles in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. He was senior vice president, therapeutics and general manager of the renal division at Genzyme Corporation, a Sanofi company. In this position, Mike launched and oversaw the sales growth of sevelamer, the leading phosphate binder for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia, with over $1.0 billion in worldwide sales in 2013. Mike was also instrumental in the worldwide launch of Genzyme’s therapies for Gaucher disease, Ceredase and Cerezyme. Mike also spent two years with Genzyme’s diagnostic products and services division. Previous to Genzyme, Mike held business development and sales and marketing positions at Repligen and Bristol-Myers.

Mike received his B.A. from DePauw University.

Judith J. Li, is a Partner at Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV), based in Hong Kong / Shanghai and focused on early and growth stage investments across biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, and diagnostics both domestically and cross-border. Judith holds board appointments at a variety of LAV’s portfolio companies, including Nextcure, Just Biotherapeutics, Gritstone Oncology, and Tmunity. Her prior experience includes McKinsey’s New York office, hospital administration at Partners Healthcare, and co-founding an interventional nephrology medical device venture. Judith holds a B.A. in Neurobiology from Harvard and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and currently resides in Hong Kong, splitting her time between Hong Kong, Shanghai, and the Bay Area.

Brett Zbar is a managing director of Foresite Capital with more than 15 years of healthcare private equity and consulting experience. 

Prior to joining Foresite Capital, Brett was a partner at Aisling Capital, a life sciences-dedicated venture capital and private equity firm that also manages the investments of the Perseus-Soros Bio Pharmaceutical Fund. Over the course of more than a decade at Aisling Capital, Brett served as a member of the board of directors of Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Seragon Pharmaceuticals and Planet Biopharmaceuticals, and as a board observer at Catalent Pharma Solutions, among other companies.

Previously, Brett was an associate principal at McKinsey & Company and a senior member of the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products practice. While at McKinsey, he worked closely with management of large pharmaceutical companies based in the U.S., Europe and Japan. His work focused on pharmaceutical/biotech alliances, product launch planning, product growth strategy and market assessments across multiple therapeutic areas.

Brett is a member of the Oversight Committee for the Technology Development Fund at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.  He also serves as a member of the Strategic Portfolio Optimization Committee at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Will Liu is a Partner of Eight Roads Ventures China, specializing in China healthcare therapeutics. He was previously Head of Neuroscience and Head of Asia, Worldwide Business Development at GSK.

Will holds a PhD degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Michigan.

Thomas W. Dubensky Jr., Ph.D. has served as the President & CEO of Tempest Therapeutics since joining the company in 2017. He brings significant expertise in the discovery, development and translation of novel immune therapies for the treatment of cancer. Prior to Tempest, Tom served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Aduro Biotech, where he led the development of first-in-class STING (stimulator of interferon genes) agonists. His leadership was instrumental in securing Aduro’s $750M collaboration with Novartis for the STING program. Before his role at Aduro, Tom served as Chief Scientific Officer of Immune Design, where he was responsible for leading the development of immune therapies based on proprietary molecularly defined adjuvants and dendritic cell targeting vaccine platforms. Prior to this, in 2007 he co-founded and served as Chief Scientific Officer of Anza Therapeutics, a biotechnology company that was spun out from Cerus Corporation. Tom has also served scientific leadership and strategic roles at Viagene, Chiron Corporation and Onyx Pharmaceuticals. Tom has co-authored more than 75 scientific papers and is an inventor on 44 issued U.S. patents with multiple pending applications. He received his B.A. in Bacteriology and Immunology from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He conducted his post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Pathology.

Peppi Prasit, Ph.D., is CEO of Inception Sciences, acting CSO and Director at Tempest Therapeutics. Previously, he was founder and CSO of Amira Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb in a significant transaction. Peppi has more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and management serving in various positions with Merck Frosst Canada and then Merck San Diego. During this time, he played a pivotal role in the discovery of multiple marketed drugs and is widely recognized for his accomplishments as a drug hunter.

Peppi received his B.Sc. from UCL, London University, and his Ph.D. from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University.

Dr. Cravatt is a Professor and the Norton B. Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. His research group is interested in developing chemical proteomic technologies that enable protein and drug discovery on a global scale and applying these methods to characterize proteins that play important roles in human physiology and disease, especially as pertains to the nervous system and cancer. Dr. Cravatt obtained his undergraduate education at Stanford University, receiving a B.S. in the Biological Sciences and a B.A. in History. He then received a Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in 1996. Professor Cravatt joined the faculty at TSRI in 1997. Dr. Cravatt is an Associate Editor for JACS and is a co-founder of Activx Biosciences, Abide Therapeutics, and Vividion Therapeutics. His honors include a Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Cope Scholar Award, the Protein Society Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award, the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, the ASBMB Merck Award, and memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and National Academy of Sciences.

Jason J. Luke, M.D., F.A.C.P. is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago where he specializes in the management of patients with melanoma and early phase drug development (particularly novel immunotherapeutics and biomarkers of immunotherapy activity). Dr. Luke has been a lead national investigator on clinical trials of immunotherapy agents including but not limited to anti-PD1/L1, CTLA4, LAG3, TIM3, GITR, OX40, CD137, CD40, inhibitors of indolamine-dioxygenase (IDO), adenosine A2a receptor and arginase as well as agonists of STING and oncolytic virus. Dr. Luke’s major research translational research is focused on using large scale informatics to advance the field of cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Luke received his M.D. from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago. He then pursued internship and residency at the Boston University Medical Center followed by medicine and medical oncology fellowships at Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Following fellowship, Dr. Luke was a tenure-track, Type 1 Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School as well as Staff Physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Luke is actively involved in several professional societies including the Society for Melanoma Research, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Dr. Luke has served as the chair of the education committee and as a member of the scientific committee for the melanoma track of the ASCO annual meeting. Dr. Luke has received several awards including a Department of Defense Career Development Award, the Paul Calabresi Career Development in Clinical Oncology Award (K12), an ASCO Merit Award as well as Young Investigator Awards from the Melanoma Research Alliance, the Cancer Research Foundation and the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO. Dr. Luke’s research has been supported by ASCO, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the National Cancer Institute.