Management

Management and Board of Directors

 

Stephen R. Seiler
Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Seiler is a biotechnology entrepreneur. Prior to founding AesRx, Mr. Seiler has been Chief Executive Officer of several public and private biotech companies which he successfully led through restructuring and refinancing (raising a total of ~$45 million) and/or trade sales. These companies include Idera Pharmaceuticals, Access Pharmaceuticals and Effective Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Seiler was Executive Vice President, Planning, Investment & Development at Elan Corporation plc from 1995 until 2001. He was part of a senior management team that transformed Elan from a small drug delivery company (1996 revenues $200 million) into a fully integrated specialty pharmaceutical company (2000 revenues $1.5 billion). From 1986 to 1995 Mr. Seiler worked as an Investment Banker in New York and London including founding and heading the Pharmaceutical Industry investment banking group for Paribas Capital Markets.

Mr. Seiler is a member of the Board of Associates of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Mr. Seiler received a J.D. (Honors) from Georgetown University and a B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame where he was also nominated to Phi Beta Kappa.

Warren C. Stern, Ph.D.
Sr. Vice President of Drug Development
Dr. Stern is an expert in drug development from pre-IND through NDA. Prior to joining AesRx, he has led successful pre-IND to Phase 3 drug development programs for a number of early stage companies, including QRxPharma (2007-2009), DOV Pharmaceutical (2003-2006), and Jubilant Innovation (2006-2009). He has served as Sr. Vice President of two CROs (Parexel International; Cato Research), as CEO and President of a drug delivery company (Pharmatec) and as head of product development for several early stage companies. Dr. Stern played a leadership role in the preparation and regulatory strategy leading to the NDA filing and regulatory approval of the following marketed products: Wellbutrin for Burroughs Wellcome Company (now GSK) and as Executive Director for Celexa (Forest Laboratories). In addition, he led the early development strategy from pre-IND to end of Phase 2 meetings with the FDA for both of the aforementioned drugs as well as several others. Dr. Stern began his career in the pharmaceutical industry in 1975 as a Sr. Research Scientist in CNS pharmacology at Burroughs Wellcome Company. and progressed to more senior positions as Clinical Project Leader and Director of Clinical Research to Executive Vice President of Development. Dr. Stern has also helped found several companies (RTP Pharma — acquired by SkyePharma; Nobex — acquired by Biocon).

Dr. Stern received his Ph.D. from Indiana University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Boston State Hospital. He received a B.S. from City University of New York. He holds over 10 patents and patent applications and has authored over 90 papers on topics in clinical and animal pharmacology research.

Maggie Flanagan LeFlore, Ph.D.
Director
Dr. LeFlore is a Venture Partner at MedImmune Ventures, Inc. (a subsidiary of AstraZeneca plc.), a position she has held since 2007. Prior to joining MedImmune Ventures, Dr. LeFlore worked in business development for AstraZeneca from 2001-2007, including roles as Head of R&D Ventures as well as Global Alliance Director for Global Sciences and Information, where she led an international group responsible for evaluation, negotiation and management of global technology platform collaborations. In addition, from 2005-2007, while on secondment from AstraZeneca, she was a member of the Healthcare and Life Sciences venture capital investment team of Advent International. Prior to 2001, Dr. LeFlore held business development and scientific management positions at Hybridon, Inc. (1997-2000); Oncogene Science Inc. (1994-1996); and Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1985-1994). Dr. LeFlore is a board observer of Inotek Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Hydra Biosciences and BrainCells, Inc.

She received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Indiana University and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Kansas. Originally trained as a biophysical chemist, Dr. LeFlore also trained in molecular and cellular biology as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of sickle cell researcher Alan Schechter, M.D., at the National Institutes of Health.


Colin Hill
Director
Colin Hill is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Gene Network Sciences, a company he co-founded in 2000. Gene Network Sciences is built on a collaborative team of computational physicists, mathematicians, chemists, molecular biologists, bioinformaticians, and software engineers who together work to reveal the molecular basis of health and disease through examination of the critical biological relationships among genes and proteins and how these complex relationships impact disease progression, drug efficacy and drug toxicity. Mr. Hill is a frequent speaker at international scientific and industry conferences and has appeared in numerous publications and television segments including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC Morning Call, Nature, Forbes, Wired, and The Economist. He was also featured in an article titled, “Masters of Innovation” in the March 2009 issue of Black Enterprise magazine. In 2004, he was named to MIT Technology Review's TR100 list of the top innovators in the world under the age of 35.

Mr. Hill is Chairman of the Board of Fina Technologies, a spin-off of Gene Network Sciences that applies next-generation artificial intelligence technology to real-time financial trading. Mr. Hill received an M.S. in physics from both McGill University and Cornell University. In addition, he received a B.S. in physics from Virginia Tech.

Mary K. Pendergast
Director
 Ms. Pendergast is President of Pendergast Consulting, a firm which provides legal and regulatory consulting services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and other entities, and which Ms. Pendergast founded in 2003. Before that, Ms. Pendergast served as Executive Vice President, Government Affairs for Elan Corporation, plc from 1998 to 2003. Ms. Pendergast was Deputy Commissioner and Senior Advisor to the Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services from 1990 to 1998, and Associate Chief Counsel for Enforcement at FDA from 1979-1990.

Ms. Pendergast is a member of the Board of Directors of ARCA biopharma, having previously served since 2002 as a member of the Board of Directors of Nuvelo, Inc., prior to its merger with ARCA. Ms. Pendergast received her LL.M. from Yale Law School, her J.D. summa cum laude from the University of Iowa College of Law and her B.A. cum laude from Northwestern University.