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NEOSTEM® MANAGEMENT TEAM
NeoStem®'s combined Management Team and Board of Directors have extensive experience in the healthcare industry. Collectively, they have expert experience in the general medical industry, life science marketing, business management, capital raising, licensing, clinical trails, and strategic partnering.
Robin L. Smith, M.D., MBA
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board
Dr. Robin L. Smith joined the Company as Chairman of its Advisory Board in September 2005 and, effective June 2, 2006, became the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Dr. Smith, who received a medical degree from Yale University in 1992 and a master's degree in business administration from the Wharton School in 1997, brings to the Company extensive experience in medical enterprises and business development. From 2000 to 2003, Dr. Smith served as President & Chief Executive Officer of IP2M, a multi-platform media company specializing in healthcare. During her term, the company was selected as being one of the 10 fastest growing technology companies in Houston. IP2M was sold to a publicly-traded company in February 2003. Previously, from 1998 to 2000, she was Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for HealthHelp, Inc., a National Radiology Management company that managed 14 percent of the healthcare dollars spent by large insurance companies.
Dr. Smith has acted as a senior advisor and investor to both publicly traded and privately held companies including but not limited to China Biopharmaceutical Holdings, Phase III Medical (the Company's predecessor), the Madelin Fund, HC Innovations Inc., Navstar Media Holdings, Strike Force, Health Quest, Red Lion Partners and All American Pet, where she has played a significant role in restructuring and or growing the companies. Dr. Smith served on the Board of Directors of two privately held companies, Talon Air and Biomega, and also served on the Chemotherapy Foundation Board of Trustees and The New York Theatre Ballet. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the NYU Medical Center Board, is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases where she heads up new development efforts and board member recruitment, and serves on the Board of Choose Living. Dr. Smith is the President and serves on the Board of Directors of The Stem for Life Foundation.
Dr. Smith was originally appointed to the Board of Directors in June 2006 pursuant to the terms of the Securities Purchase Agreement in the June 2006 private placement.
Larry A. May, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. May, the former Treasurer of Amgen (one of the world's largest biotechnology companies), initially joined the Company to assist with licensing activities in September 2003. He became an officer of the Company upon the Company's acquisition of the business of NS California in January 2006. For the last 25 years, Mr. May has worked in the areas of life science and biotechnology. From 1983 to 1998, Mr. May worked for Amgen as Corporate Controller (1983 to 1988), Vice President/Corporate Controller/Chief Accounting Officer (1988 to 1997), and Vice President/Treasurer (1997 to 1998). At Amgen, Mr. May helped build Amgen's accounting, finance and IT organizations. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. May served as the Senior Vice President, Finance & Chief Financial Officer of Biosource International, Inc., a provider of biologic research reagents and assays. From 2000 to May 2003, Mr. May served as the Chief Financial Officer of Saronyx, Inc., a company focused on developing productivity tools and secure communication systems for research scientists. From August 2003 to January 2005, Mr. May served as the Chief Financial Officer of NS California. In March 2005, Mr. May was appointed CEO of NS California and in May 2005 he was elected to the Board of Directors of NS California. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration & Accounting in 1971 from the University of Missouri.
Denis Rodgerson, Ph.D., Director of Stem Cell Science
Dr. Rodgerson joined the Company upon the closing of the Company’s acquisition of the business of NeoStem®, Inc. (California). Dr. Rodgerson, one of the original founders of NeoStem® (California), Inc., has over 36 years’ experience managing large tertiary care and reference clinical laboratories with many patents and articles to his credit. Prior to NeoStem® (California), he co-founded StemCyte, and oversaw the company’s growth to become the world’s second largest umbilical cord stem cell bank with multinational collection centers. His distinguished career has included being the Vice-Chairman and Professor of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles and Director of Pediatric Laboratories and Analytical Toxicology Service at the University of Colorado. At UCLA, where he was the Head of Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology and Clinical Laboratory Computing, he was in charge of a laboratory and administrative staff of more than 300 with an annual operating budget of $12 million and revenues of $60 million.
Prior to UCLA, he held the positions of Director of Pediatric Laboratories and Analytical Toxicology Service at the University of Colorado for 12 years. He is a Fellow of the Association of Clinical Scientists and Institute of Medical Laboratory Science. As a long-standing member of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, he served on its Board of Directors and was the Chairman of the 1969 National Meeting and many other committees. The numerous committees that he served on at UCLA and the University of California system-wide, include serving as the Director of the Office of Industry Relations, Chairman of the System-wide Library Committee, member of the System-wide Committee on Information Transfer and Technology Policy and the President’s Task-Force on the California Digital Library. Dr. Rodgerson has published more than 150 articles in the medical and scientific literature. He has held consulting positions for many institutions and corporations, including NASA, National Bureau of Standards, Hewlett Packard, Beckman Instruments, Hybridtech, Boehringer-Mannheim Corporation, 3M Company, Warren-Teed Pharmaceuticals, Micromedic Systems, Ortho Diagnostics, National Health Laboratories, Consolidated Biomedical Laboratories, Bio-Dynamics, Inc., Fisher Scientific, E.I. DuPont de Nemours, Ciba Pharmaceuticals, DNA Technology, and Diagnostic Products Corporation. Dr. Rodgerson received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado.
Catherine M. Vaczy, Esq., Vice President and General Counsel
Ms. Vaczy joined the Company in April 2005 as Vice President and General Counsel. Ms. Vaczy is responsible for overseeing the Company's legal affairs. From 1997 through 2003, Ms. Vaczy held various senior positions at ImClone Systems Incorporated, a then publicly-traded company developing a portfolio of targeted biologic treatments to address the medical needs of patients with a variety of cancers, most recently as its Vice President, Legal and Associate General Counsel. While at ImClone, Ms. Vaczy served as a key advisor in the day-to-day operation of the company and helped forge a number of important strategic alliances, including a $1 billion co-development agreement for Erbitux®, the company's targeted therapy approved for the treatment of metastatic colorectal and head and neck cancers. From 1988 through 1996, Ms. Vaczy served as a corporate attorney advising clients in the life science industry at the New York City law firm of Ross & Hardies. Ms. Vaczy is Secretary and serves on the Board of Directors of The Stem for Life Foundation. Ms. Vaczy received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1983 from Boston College and a Juris Doctor from St. John's University School of Law in 1988.
Alan G. Harris, M.D., Ph.D., FACP, FRCP, Vice President of Drug Development and Regulatory Affairs
Dr. Harris joined NeoStem in July 2009 and comes to us with over 20 years of experience working in clinical drug development in multiple therapeutic areas in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, having conducted and overseen numerous clinical trials in over 30 countries including China. He was recently Senior VP of R&D and Chief Medical Officer at NPS Pharmaceuticals in NJ, where he successfully launched two Phase III registration programs in Gastroenterology and Endocrinology. Previously he served as Chief Medical Officer at Manhattan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., after serving as Therapeutic Head of the Worldwide Medical Endocrine Care group at Pfizer Inc, New York and, earlier, as Vice President, Global Healthcare Research & Outcomes and Senior Director of Medical & Scientific Affairs at Schering-Plough Corp., NJ, where he was involved in the joint venture with Merck in the clinical development of the novel cholesterol medication, ezetimibe (Zetia). Dr. Harris earned his MD from the Louis Pasteur Faculty of Medicine, University of Strasbourg, France, and his Ph.D. in endocrinology from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He was appointed Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA School of Medicine and Director of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology in the Department of Medicine and Medical Director of the Dept of Technology Development and Transfer and Clinical Trials at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Harris during his tenure at Sandoz (Novartis) Pharma in Switzerland, developed octreotide (Sandostatin®) for the treatment of hormone producing tumors of the gut and pituitary. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology at NYU Medical School and Visiting Professor of Medicine in the Dept of Endocrinology at Liege University Medical School, Belgium and in the Dept of Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital of Lausanne in Switzerland. Dr. Harris is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Royal College of Physicians (UK), the Royal Society of Medicine (UK) and the American College of Clinical Pharmacology. He has served on the editorial boards of several international peer reviewed medical journals and has authored 119 peer reviewed scientific papers in the fields of endocrinology, diabetes mellitus, gastroenterology, oncology, cardiology, allergy, immunology and respiratory medicine. He served on the NIH Center for Scientific Review Special Emphasis Panel for Clinical Cardiovascular Sciences Study Section and is currently a Trustee of the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases.
Anthony Salerno, Vice President Strategic Development and Academic Affairs
Mr. Salerno joined NeoStem in August, 2009 and has more than 25 years experience as an executive and entrepreneur in the life sciences industry. From 2008 to 2009, he served as Vice President Strategic Business Development with GenomeQuest, Inc., where he was responsible for guiding the company's entry into the next-generation DNA sequencing bioinformatics market. From 2002 through 2007, Mr. Salerno was Director, Market and Business Intelligence with Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A) where he built and managed a global team charged with providing strategic insights to their $2B Life Science and Chemical Analysis division. Before joining Agilent, he was a successful entrepreneur with notable accomplishments in technology planning, market development and strategy. Mr. Salerno was Founder and President of VectorObjects LLC, the earliest commercial entrant in the emerging field of synthetic biology, and was Managing Director of BioDynamics Associates, a life sciences marketing and strategy consulting firm. In addition, he was Senior Marketing Consultant at Vysis, Inc., now part of Abbott Diagnostics (NYSE: ABT), and also the founding Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Tropix, Inc., now part of Life Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: LIFE). He began his career in the clinical diagnostics industry, and managed several product lines for Diagnostic Products Corporation, recently acquired by Siemens AG (NYSE: SI). Mr. Salerno obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of the Holy Cross, and studied biochemistry and molecular biology in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University.
Teresa Lepore, Vice President Sales and Marketing
Teresa Lepore began serving as the Company's Vice President, Sales and Marketing on October 1, 2009. From March 2005 through the present, she has served as a Senior Vice President for PinnacleCare, a company engaged in Health Advisory Services. Teresa Lepore was responsible for establishing PinnacleCare's Northeast offices in early 2005. Teresa initiated member services, network development, business development as well as staff recruitment and development. Teresa Lepore has a diverse background in medical advisory services, disease management program development, community development, fundraising, marketing non-profit administration. Prior to joining PinnacleCare, from March 2002 through June 2004 she was a Health Education Specialist for WellPoint Health Networks, a company engaged in Health Benefits where she designed disease management programs.
Teresa spent fifteen years in Non-Profit administration before moving into Health Information and Advisory Services. Her non profit background began in crisis intervention programs helping to establish shelters and programs advocating for victims of domestic violence, including Child and Elder abuse. Her responsibilities included the training and supervision of staff grant writing and general fundraising. In addition to direct client service organizations Teresa served as a Resource and Capitalization Coordinator for Common Wealth, Inc., where she was responsible for resource development activities, grant writing, fundraising, and marketing. She provided training and consulting services to community and grassroots groups in community organizing, grant writing, marketing, project planning and resource development. Teresa received a Bachelor of Science from Youngstown State University in 1997.
Lee F. Clough B.S.N., R. N., HP (ASCP), Director of Clinical Affairs and Apheresis
Lee joined NeoStem in August 2009 as the Director of Clinical Affairs and Apheresis. She most recently worked at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC as the Manager of the Blood Donor Center and Therapeutic Apheresis. Her main responsibilities there included educating patients, parents and staff about apheresis and the instruments needed to perform the procedures. Before joining NeoStem, Lee was the apheresis specialist at Dendreon Corporation in Seattle, where she was responsible for all collections and provided training for the apheresis collection centers. She was also the apheresis manager for the Inova Health Care System for five independent collection centers and therapeutic apheresis activities. Lee worked with the American Red Cross, as the Manager of the Research Blood Program at Holland Lab, initiating apheresis collections for research. Lee's apheresis interest began at the Children's' Hospital of Philadelphia, as a staff nurse where she mastered therapeutic apheresis including Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Collections, Red Blood Cell Exchanges, Plasma Exchanges, White Blood Cell Depletions, and Platelet Collections.
Lee has been an active member of AABB and the American Society for Apheresis for many years. She was nominated to sit on the Board of Directors for the American Society for Apheresis 2003-2006. Lee graduated from the University of Delaware in 1983 with her Bachelors of Science in Nursing.
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