Engineering the Future of Gene therapy

Dr. Alexander (Sasha) Kamb, Ph.D. served as Senior Vice President of Discovery Research at Amgen, Inc. until January 2017. Dr. Kamb joined Amgen to direct Oncology Research at their South San Francisco site in 2006. A year later, he took over the leadership of the Neuroscience Therapeutic Area and was promoted to Vice President, Research with the remit to build the Genome Analysis Unit, a specialized department within Amgen Research focused on cross-disease-area applications of next-generation sequencing. At the end of 2011, Dr. Kamb was promoted to Senior Vice President to head all of Amgen’s discovery research. Prior to joining Amgen, Dr. Kamb worked in the biotechnology sector for over a decade, specializing in the genetics of cancer and development of oncology pharmaceuticals and leading the Novartis Oncology Research Group.

Dr. Kamb carried out his postdoctoral work in protein crystallography with Nobel laureate Dr. Harold Varmus, Cynthia Kenyon and Robert Stroud at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Kamb received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and his B.A. from Harvard College.

Ronald Richards is currently Managing Director of Gray Wolf Partners, LLC, a strategic financial advisory firm. Mr. Richards provides turnaround, restructuring and general capital markets advice to his clients and has over 28 years of experience working with public and private companies in the areas of investment banking, corporate finance, law and accounting. Mr. Richards previously was Managing Director of Viking Asset Management, LLC. He also served as CEO of Egcell Scientific, Inc. and CFO and Senior Vice President of Business Development of Biopure Corporation.

Mr. Richards has also held various senior management and professional roles with Shoreline Pacific LLC, Wells Fargo Van Kasper, Seyfarth Shaw LLP and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. He is a Member of the State Bar of California and a retired Certified Public Accountant. Mr. Richards holds a JD, an MBA and a BA in Economics and Business from UCLA.

Michael Kamarck is Chief Technology Officer at Vir. Previously, he was senior vice president of Global Vaccines and Biologics Manufacturing and president of Merck BioVentures where he was responsible for the establishment of Merck’s global biosimilars business. Prior to joining Merck BioVentures, Dr. Kamarck lead the development of the global biotechnology network with $3.5 billion of capital investment. While at Wyeth, he also was responsible for global technical operations for all of the Company’s businesses.

Dr. Kamarck graduated from Oberlin College where he currently serves as a Trustee. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is the author of more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and 20 issued patents. He also holds an Honorary Doctorate of Science from University College Dublin.

Joxel Garcia is a physician and former 13th US Assistant Secretary of Health for the Bush Administration. Prior to serving in the US Government, Dr. Garcia graduated from the Ponce School of Medicine, Puerto Rico, and the University of Hartford Barney Schools of Business. Dr. Garcia ran a private practice out of St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center before becoming Commissioner of Public Health for the state of Connecticut in 1999.

In 2012, Dr. Garcia was named the Director of Health in the District of Columbia, and subsequently went on to serve as the Executive Director of the MD Anderson Cancer Control and Prevention Platform and Member of the Leadership Team of the MD Anderson Moon Shots program until 2017. Dr. Garcia currently serves as Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for American Express.

Tim Wesselman is the Founder and CEO of OnRamp BioInformatics, Inc. OnRamp provides storage and analysis of genomic information for academic and pharmaceutical researchers to turn genetic data into actionable insights. Tim brings more than 20 years of executive experience from Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, TI & DoubleClick. His diverse background has equipped him with executive and operations expertise ranging from corporate strategy to finance, investor relations, sales operations, marketing and engineering.

Tim holds a B.S. Mechanical Engineering degree from Texas A&M University, as well as certifications from multiple executive programs in Finance, Accounting, Investor Relations and Executive Marketing from Columbia University, Rice University and University of Michigan.

Scott Massey is Founding Chairman and CEO of Global Action Platform, a leading university-business alliance that advances scalable, sustainable solutions for improving global food, health, and prosperity. Dr. Massey is the former President and CEO of The Meridian Institute (Indianapolis), a national think tank that focuses on economics, education, and healthcare. His other previous roles include President and CEO, The Learning Collaborative, President and CEO, The Indiana Humanities Council, and Founding President and CEO of the Leonard Bernstein Center.

Dr. Massey is also a published author, speaker, and Emmy-Award nominated television documentary producer. Dr. Massey is an expert in connecting academic, business, and government sectors to further economic development initiatives. Dr. Massey earned his PhD from Vanderbilt University with a focus on cybernetics and the philosophy of science and logic.

Remy Szykier is the worldwide managing director, founding member and member of the Board of Directors of Aegis Health Analytics. Ms. Szykier is ultimately responsible for all aspects of the firm’s strategy, team and operations across all worldwide offices.

Aegis is a global health sector advisory services firm which support clients in delivering better care, improving quality of life and operationalizing transformative business models. Ms. Szykier has championed the firm’s commitment to delivering the best record of client results in promoting and protecting health.

Peter Henig brings 12 years of experience in founding, funding and growing a variety of successful start-ups. Over the course of his career, Mr. Henig has led over ten companies from early stage business models through formative technology development to successful liquidity events.

Mr. Henig holds a BA in Economics from Georgetown University and a MA in Economics and Public Policy from Stanford University. As a former business journalist, Mr. Henig’s work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Red Herring, and Venture Capital Journal. Mr. Henig is founder and general partner of Greenhouse Capital Partners, a Silicon Valley-based green technology venture capital firm.