Board of Directors

Dr. Carl Goldfischer has been a member of our Board of Directors since 2020 and as our Chairman of the Board since July 2021. He previously served as an Investment Partner and Managing Director of Bay City Capital, serving as a member of the board of directors and executive committee, and is currently a member of their Scientific Advisory Board. His background includes extensive public and private investment and transaction work, as well as clinical trial development knowledge. Prior to joining Bay City Capital, Dr. Goldfischer was the Chief Financial Officer of ImClone Systems where he oversaw financial operations and strategic planning. Dr. Goldfischer has served or currently serves on the board of directors of numerous companies, including: BrainCells, EnteroMedics, Epizyme, Imara, MAP, Metabolex and Poniard. He received an M.D. with honors in Scientific Research from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.

Dr. Jayson Dallas has been a member of our Board of Directors since 2020. Dr. Dallas has served as Chief Executive Officer of Rivus Pharmaceuticals since July 2023, having served as Executive Chair of the company since April 2021. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for potentially life-threatening food allergies, from June 2018 until its acquisition by Sociétés des Produits Nestlé, S.A., in October 2020. Prior to joining Aimmune, he served as the first Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, Inc., a publicly held biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel products for rare and ultra-rare diseases. Prior to Ultragenyx, Dr. Dallas served as General Manager of Roche in the United Kingdom from January 2013 to July 2015. Before joining Roche, he held two different positions at Genentech, a pharmaceutical company, as Head of Global Oncology Launch Excellence and Biosimilar Strategy and Head of Global Product Strategy for Immunology and Ophthalmology, from May 2010 to December 2012 in South San Francisco. Earlier in his career, Dr. Dallas worked at Novartis and Pfizer / Pharmacia in the United States and previously at Roche in Switzerland. Dr. Dallas is a board member of Rivus Pharmaceuticals. He previously served on the board of Arena Pharmaceuticals until its acquisition by Pfizer in March 2022. Dr. Dallas holds an M.D. from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and an M.B.A. from Ashridge Business School in the United Kingdom.

Amit D. Munshi has been a member of our Board of Directors since 2020. Mr. Munshi has more than 30 years of global biopharmaceutical industry experience in executive management, business development, product development and portfolio management.  He currently serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ReNAgade Therapeutics and previously served as the President and CEO of Arena Pharmaceuticals until its acquisition by Pfizer in March 2022. Previously, Mr. Munshi served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Epirus Biopharmaceuticals and Percivia LLC, and prior to that, was a co-founder and served as Chief Business Officer of Kythera Biopharmaceuticals. Earlier in his career, he held multiple leadership positions at Amgen, including General Manager, Nephrology Europe. Mr. Munshi currently serves on the board of directors of Enterprise Therapeutics Ltd, Pulmatrix, ReNAgade and Zura Bio Inc., and previously served on the board of multiple public and private boards, including Arena Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Munshi holds a B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in History from the University of California, Riverside, and an M.B.A. from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, where he currently serves as an advisor and lecturer.

Dr. Anne Prener has been a member of our Board of Directors since 2021. Dr. Prener has more than 25 years of leadership experience within life sciences companies and has led companies and teams across several therapeutic areas, including most recently cardiovascular diseases as CEO and President of Imbria Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where she led the company through three phase 2 clinical trials. As CEO of Freeline, ltd, a liver-directed gene therapy company, she scaled the company from preclinical stage to a fully integrated biotechnology organization, which included a broad, internally developed pipeline., two programs in clinical development and a commercial-scale, high-quality CMC and manufacturing platform. Prior to joining Freeline, she served as Chief Executive Officer of Gyroscope Therapeutics Ltd., a gene therapy company focused on eye diseases. Before that, Dr. Prener was Global Therapeutic Area Head of Hematology and Vice President, Clinical Research Hematology at Baxalta. During her time at Baxalta, three new major product approvals in the U.S. and EU were secured along with a significant advancement in Baxalta’s hematology portfolio. Earlier in her career, Dr. Prener held several positions of increasing responsibility at Novo Nordisk, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, Hemophilia R&D Portfolio, where she was instrumental in building a portfolio of late stage and commercial hemophilia products. She previously served on the board of several life science companies, including Rubius Therapeutics, Kaleido Bioscience and Renovacor. Dr. Prener holds a Ph.D. in epidemiology and an M.D., both from the University of Copenhagen.

Dr. Hans Schambye has served as Chief Executive Officer of the Galecto group since November 2011, including as Chief Executive Officer of Galecto, Inc. since 2020, and as a member of our Board of Directors since 2020.  Dr. Schambye is a seasoned biotech entrepreneur with extensive experience in drug discovery and development. Previously, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of ReceptIcon and as the CEO of Gastrotech Pharma A/S. Before joining Gastrotech, he was Director of Biology and Pharmacology and Head of Portfolio Management at Maxygen, a US biotech company. Dr. Schambye co-founded several biotech companies, including ProFound Pharma A/S, a Danish biotech company, which was acquired by Maxygen in 2000. Prior to this he had a successful research career at Stanford University and Copenhagen University within the field of receptor biology. Dr. Schambye holds an M.D. from Odense University and a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from Copenhagen University.

Dr. David Shapiro has been a member of our Board of Directors since 2020. Dr. Shapiro has considerable experience in drug development and was Chief Medical Officer and head of R&D at Intercept Pharmaceuticals from 2007 until 2019 where he led the development of obeticholic acid. This program culminated in the drug’s approval for the treatment of primary biliary cholangitis and the first successful Phase 3 study and regulatory filing for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), the most prevalent liver disease in the developed world. Prior to this, he was Chief Medical Officer at Idun Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Pfizer in 2005. Dr. Shapiro also served as President of the Scripps Medical Research Center at Scripps Clinic and held senior appointments at several biotechnology companies. Prior to joining the biotech sector, he led Merck’s highly competitive hypertension clinical research program. Dr. Shapiro received his medical degree from Dundee University and undertook post-graduate training in general and respiratory medicine in Oxford and the University of Vermont. He is both a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London and a Fellow of the College’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. He has lectured and organized numerous symposia on improving the drug development process and served twice on the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pharmaceutical Physicians and in 2015-2017 was Co-Chairman of the interdisciplinary Liver Forum, a group of academic, industry and regulatory members focused on speeding the pathway for new therapeutics in NASH.