john simard
President & CEO and Board Member

Mr. Simard was founder and chief executive officer of CTL ImmunoTherapies Corp., a developer of therapeutic vaccines, headquartered in Los Angeles with over 100 scientists and support staff. Mr. Simard also founded AlleCure Corp., of Valencia, California, a developer of immune-modulating therapies. In 2001, Allecure and CTL ImmunoTherapies were merged with a third company, forming MannKind Corp. (NASDAQ:MNKD) with a combined value of about (US)$1 Billion, where Mr. Simard served as Corporate Vice President and Board Member . Mr. Simard has invented several core technologies that formed the basis for commercialization programs. Operationally, he has championed an integrated approach to drug development, undertaking R&D, pre-clinical development, manufacturing, and clinical regulatory programs under one roof – which he has used as an effective means to  conserve capital and control timelines. Mr. Simard has at his disposal a network of experts and leaders in medicine and industry. Mr. Simard attended graduate studies in Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto and studied biochemistry at the University of Saskatchewan. He has numerous issued and pending patents related to cancer therapy, therapeutic antibodies and vaccines, as well as substantial peer-reviewed scientific publications and the textbook "Handbook of Immune Response Genes" (Plenum Publishers 1998).

w. thorpe mckenzie
Board Member

Mr. McKenzie is Managing Director of Pointer Management Company, Chattanooga, Tennessee, which he co-founded in 1990 to invest in hedge funds and similar types of partnerships utilizing a fund of funds approach. From 1982 until 1990, he was a private investor in New York City, and a director of several public and private companies. From 1980 until 1982, he was founding general partner of TIGER, a global hedge fund. From 1971 until 1980, he was a Vice President of Kidder, Peabody & Co., Inc. in New York. McKenzie is a graduate of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and the Wharton Graduate division of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.


Dr. Rolf Zinkernagel
Scientific & Strategic Advisor

Dr. Zinkernagel is a member of the Board of Directors of Novartis AG, a world leading pharmaceutical company. Dr. Zinkernagel is among the most distinguished medical researchers and immunologists, his recognition including the Nobel Prize for Medicine (1996). Dr. Zinkernagel is formerly Head of the Institute for Experimental Immunology, University of Zurich.

Dr. Walter Singleton
Scientific & Strategic Advisor

Dr. Singleton is a former Director member of the board of Chugai, Japan and former Senior Vice President of New Drug Development at Chugai, USA. Prior to his work at Chugai, Dr. Singleton was Senior Vice President at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Inc., in charge of Medical & Pharmaceutical Development. Dr. Singleton has been in charge of world-wide clinical development of antibody therapeutics.

Ernst Bütler
Strategic and Corporate Advisory

Ernst A. Bütler acts as an independent board member/entrepreneur for various companies in Switzerland, Germany and China, among them Bank Frey & Co AG, Zurich and Solarfun Power Inc., Shanghai (NASDAQ SOLF). Before he was a partner with Partners Group Zug , Switzerland (1999-2005) a large global Private Equity Company. Mr. Bütler had a 25 year career with the Credit Suisse Group, where he was Managing Director and Co-Head Corporate and Investment Banking Switzerland. Mr. Bütler holds a degree in Economics and Business Administration ( Zurich ). Further educations include: INSEAD Fontainebleau and MIT Boston as well as various banking training in Geneva, Zurich, London and the USA.

 

 

 

Dr. Alexander Knuth
Scientific & Clinical Advisor

Dr. Knuth is Chief of Oncology, University of Zurich. Dr. Knuth heads one of Europe’s leading cancer treatment centers, where cutting edge research is translated into novel treatments for cancer for 6,000 cancer patients per year. Dr. Knuth is a scientific advisor for The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, where he was formerly head of Clinical Research, overseeing clinical operations for an organization comprising 2,780 scientists and five Nobel Laureates.

Dr. Jean-Michel Dayer
Scientific and Clinical Advisor

Dr. Dayer is President of Clinical Medical Sciences and Head of the Division of Immunology at University Hospital, Geneva. Dr. Dayer is a world-leading expert on inflammatory diseases and a pioneer in the field of cytokine research. Dr. Dayer was first to identify the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) and to define the value of this molecule as a human therapeutic, which is now marketed by Amgen under the brand name Kineret™.

Reto Crameri
Scientific Advisor

Dr. Crameri is the Head of Allergology, Swiss Institute of Allergy Research. Dr. Crameri is on the Editorial Board of The Biochemical Journal, International Archives of Allergy and Immunology, deputy editor of Mycoses. Dr. Crameri is a world expert on the use of phage display and robot-based high throughput screening technology for fast identification of medically important target molecules. His publication record includes more than 160 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, and about 60 book chapters and other publications.

Hector McKay-Dunn, LLB, QC
Board Member

Mr. MacKay-Dunn is a senior partner at Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP based in Vancouver. Mr. MacKay-Dunn specializes in advising public and private companies, including international public and private securities offerings, mergers, acquisitions and international partnering transactions. Mr. MacKay-Dunn is a Biotechnology specialist and is cited by LEXPERT American Lawyer Media (2006) as one of Canada’s Top Corporate Lawyers, is currently Chair of the British Columbia Innovation Council, Director of Genome British Columbia and a member of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Science Dean’s Advisory Council.

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