Board of Directors
Pheon’s Directors have diverse and complementary backgrounds with deep scientific and commercial expertise and a strong track-record in the ADC industry.
Jeff Albers
Chairman
Jeff Albers has more than 25 years’ experience working in the biopharmaceutical industry, contributing to bringing new medicines to patients with cancer and rare diseases. He is currently Chairman at Blueprint Medicines, where he previously held the position of Chief Executive Officer from 2014 to 2022. As CEO at Blueprint Medicines, a research-stage company, he led the company through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and helped the company evolve into a leading precision medicine company with a global, fully integrated business, including two FDA-approved therapies and a rapidly advancing pipeline. Jeff is currently on the board of directors of Kymera Therapeutics and Magenta Therapeutics and serves on the board of advisors for Life Sciences Cares.
During his career, Jeff has also served as President of Algeta, where he oversaw the successful commercial launch of a targeted cancer therapy prior to the company’s acquisition by Bayer. Prior to Algeta, Jeff held senior commercial and corporate development positions at Genzyme (now a division of Sanofi), including Vice President of the U.S. hematology and oncology business unit. Earlier in his career, Jeff was a life sciences corporate attorney at Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo. He holds a B.S. from Indiana University and an MBA and J.D. from Georgetown University.
Cyrus Mozayeni
Chief Executive Officer of Pheon Therapeutics
Cyrus has over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry and a strong history of driving strategic business growth. He was previously an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Atlas Venture, where he launched Vedere Bio, Inc. and Vedere Bio II, Inc., serving as CEO of both companies from inception through its sale to Novartis, in a deal valued at $280 million.
Prior to Atlas Venture, he was co-founder of CODA Biotherapeutics, and Oncorus, where he served as President and CBO. Before Oncorus, Cyrus was VP and Global Head of Business Development and Alliance Management at Bluebird Bio (NASDAQ: BLUE), where his efforts led to a clinical-stage CAR T-cell program (ABECMAÒ, idecabtagene vicleucel) in collaboration with Celgene, and a successful IPO.
Cyrus earned a Sc.B. in neuroscience from Brown University, M.D. from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is a licensed physician, a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine, and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Enoch Kariuki, Pharm.D
Non-Executive Director
Michael Gladstone
Partner at Atlas Venture
Michael Gladstone is a partner at Atlas Venture, where he builds and invests in innovative therapeutics companies. Michael is a board member of Day One Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: DAWN), Third Harmonic Bio (NASDAQ: THRD), and Versanis Bio. Michael has also served as a board observer for Akero (NASDAQ: AKRO), Delinia (acquired by Celgene), IFM Therapeutics (acquired by BMS; and its spinout IFM Tre acquired by Novartis), Replimune (NASDAQ: REPL), and Q32 Bio. Prior to joining Atlas in 2012, Michael worked at L.E.K. Consulting and previously, he conducted HIV vaccine research in the Viral Pathogenesis department of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He received an AB in biochemical sciences from Harvard College.
Shaun A. Kirkpatrick
President, Biotechnologies
Shaun A. Kirkpatrick is President, Biotechnologies of Research Corporation Technologies (RCT) in Tucson, Arizona, and serves on the company’s Board of Directors. Shaun oversees RCT’s investment portfolio and technology development and licensing activities in therapeutics, life science tools and diagnostics.
RCT’s investment and technology portfolio includes numerous venture-backed companies, including DisperSol Technologies, LLC, Particle Dynamics, LLC, and Translational Drug Development, LLC and some of today’s landmark platforms and pharmaceuticals including the anticancer drugs cisplatin and carboplatin, the PSA blood test for prostate cancer, the technetium-99-based imaging agents, the Pichia protein expression system, the anticonvulsant drug Vimpat®, and the shingles vaccine Shingrix®.
Shaun received a Master’s degree in international economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in economics and ecology/evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona. In addition, Shaun also serves on the boards of several companies in RCT’s venture investment portfolio and is also a board member of the Flinn Foundation in Phoenix, AZ and the Critical Path Institute in Tucson, AZ.
Jonathan Tobin
Partner at Brandon Capital
Jonathan is a Partner at Brandon Capital, based in London. Prior to joining Brandon, Jonathan was a Managing Director at Arix Bioscience, a UK and US-based biotech venture firm, where he sat on several boards including: Artios Pharma, Atox Bio, Depixus, STipe Therapeutics, and VelosBio (acquired by Merck in 2020 for $2.75 billion). Prior to working at Arix, Jonathan spent five years at UK early-stage venture capital firm Touchstone Innovations as a Principal in the Healthcare Ventures team. Jonathan has a degree in Biology from the University of Oxford (St Anne’s College); a PhD in in genetic diseases from UCL; carried out postdoctoral research on cancer cell signalling at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute (now Crick Institute), and an MBA from Imperial College.
Rogier Rooswinkel, PhD
General Partner at Forbion
Rogier is responsible for evaluation and structuring of new investment opportunities across all disease areas with an emphasis on oncology. He was among others closely involved in the investments in Rigontec, Replimune, Enterprise, KaNDy and setting up of the university spin-out Catalym. He currently serves as a board member for Amphista, Catalym, and Tessellate and as a board observer for Enterprise, Prilenia, and Escalier. Previously, Rogier was a board director of Achilles ($ACHL) and an observer at Replimune ($REPL).
Rogier joined Forbion in 2013. Prior to joining Forbion, Rogier worked as a post-doc at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), division of immunology. During his studies, Rogier was active as an independent website designer and founded an IT-company.
In 2013 he received his PhD degree Cum Laude from the University of Amsterdam for the work he performed at the NKI. Before that, he received a Master’s degree in Oncology at the VU university of Amsterdam.
Cariad Chester
Managing Partner at TCGX
Cariad Chester is a Managing Partner at TCGX. Founded in 2021, TCGX partners with intrepid innovators who can translate cutting-edge science into products that will make a meaningful difference for patients. TCGX manages ~$2 billion in capital and operates offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, and New York City.
Prior to joining TCGX, Cariad was a Managing Director at Aquilo Capital. His past investments include Icosavax (acquired by AstraZeneca), Iveric Bio (acquired by Astellas), Gracell Biotechnologies (acquired by AstraZeneca), Versanis (acquired by Eli Lilly), Akouos (acquired by Eli Lilly), VectivBio (acquired by Ironwood), Carmot (acquired by Roche), and Structure Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GPCR). He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Obsidian Therapeutics, Plexium and Beacon Therapeutics.
Prior to investing, Cariad was a research scientist at Stanford University studying tumor-immune system interactions during cancer progression and treatment. Cariad received his B.A. from Swarthmore College, where he double majored in Neuroscience and Comparative Religious Studies.
