Team

Ruth is a clinical research professional who brings to the Nuvalent team more than 20 years of experience in oncology drug development spanning across research and development. She joined the team in November 2020 and is currently responsible for oversight of trial execution, clinical compliance, and outsourcing strategy.

Before joining Nuvalent in this role, Ruth was an independent clinical operations consultant, where she collaborated closely with the Nuvalent team. Prior to this, Ruth served as head of clinical operations at Vigeo Therapeutics where she was responsible for leading their inaugural oncology study. During her tenure at BeiGene, Ruth was accountable for the operational program strategy, oversight and execution of US led global hematology studies. At Infinity Pharmaceuticals Ruth managed their registrational study and acted as the NDA submission SME for a program that later resulted in FDA approval of COPIKTRA® for patients with follicular lymphoma, small lymphocytic lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. While at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Ruth held a position in the early phase oncology group where she managed multiple first-in-human studies. Before her transition to clinical operations Ruth was an accomplished medicinal chemist and held positions at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Cambridge Discovery Chemistry, focusing on the design and synthesis of lead oncology compounds.

Ruth earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry at The University of Southampton, UK.

Alex joined Nuvalent as Chief Financial Officer in January 2021, bringing over 15 years of strategic, financial and operational experience in the biotechnology industry to her role.

Prior to joining Nuvalent, she served as Vice President of Finance at SQZ Biotechnologies, where she was responsible for strategic planning, finance and accounting. During her time at SQZ Biotechnologies, she helped raise over $200 million in private and public equity financing, including the 2020 initial public offering. Before joining SQZ, Alex served as Corporate Controller at Agios Pharmaceuticals, where she built the finance and accounting teams and contributed to the company’s strategic financing efforts, raising more than $700 million in equity financing, including playing a key role in the 2013 initial public offering. Alex was responsible for all financial functions of the company including strategic planning, treasury, tax, finance and accounting. Earlier in her career, Alex held positions at both Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-traded oncology company, acquired in 2013 and Coley Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-traded company developing immunotherapies for cancer and other disease areas, acquired by Pfizer in 2007.  

Alex earned her B.B.A in finance from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and her M.B.A from Boston College. Alex is also a certified public accountant in Massachusetts.

Alex joined Nuvalent as Chief Financial Officer in January 2021, bringing over 15 years of strategic, financial and operational experience in the biotechnology industry to her role.

Prior to joining Nuvalent, she served as Vice President of Finance at SQZ Biotechnologies, where she was responsible for strategic planning, finance and accounting. During her time at SQZ Biotechnologies, she helped raise over $200 million in private and public equity financing, including the 2020 initial public offering. Before joining SQZ, Alex served as Corporate Controller at Agios Pharmaceuticals, where she built the finance and accounting teams and contributed to the company’s strategic financing efforts, raising more than $700 million in equity financing, including playing a key role in the 2013 initial public offering. Alex was responsible for all financial functions of the company including strategic planning, treasury, tax, finance and accounting. Earlier in her career, Alex held positions at both Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-traded oncology company, acquired in 2013 and Coley Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-traded company developing immunotherapies for cancer and other disease areas, acquired by Pfizer in 2007.  

Alex earned her B.B.A in finance from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and her M.B.A from Boston College. Alex is also a certified public accountant in Massachusetts.

Joshua joined the Nuvalent team in June 2018. As Vice President of Nuvalent’s discovery chemistry program, Joshua’s team works with scientific collaborators both in the United States and around the world to identify optimized, small-molecule drug candidates.

Joshua brings over 15 years of drug discovery experience spanning the fields of immunology, nephrology, proteopathy, and oncology. Prior to joining Nuvalent, he was a Senior Principal Scientist of Medical Chemistry at Proteostasis Therapeutics where he worked on high-throughput phenotypic screens and subsequent discovery programs in protein-folding diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis. While at Proteostasis he additionally served as head of the Compound Management group and spearheaded Discovery Informatics. Prior to Proteostasis, he held multiple positions at Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, most recently serving as Principal Scientist. At Boehringer he worked on a wide range of targets including: LFA-1, S1P1, RORC, BTK, LPA1, and TRPC6.

Joshua earned his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Stanford University.

For over 16 years, Ben has contributed to the development of pre-clinical through commercial programs at both large and small biotech companies. He joined Nuvalent in October 2020 as the Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development.

Ben started out as a process chemist supporting small molecule development at Biogen, where he helped expand the internal research capabilities and start the first internal kilo-lab. Biogen afforded him the opportunity to quickly become the technical drug substance lead for several Phase 1 and 2 programs in both the neurology and oncology spaces. Following his love for complex synthetic challenges, Ben transitioned to the Process Chemistry group at Infinity Pharmaceuticals to work on the scale up of several semisynthetic natural products, including Saridegib. While serving as the duvelisib drug substance SME, Ben led the process chemistry efforts from drug candidate nomination into process validation. This later resulted in the FDA approval of COPIKTRA® for patients with follicular lymphoma, small lymphocytic lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. While at Agios, Ben led the process chemistry group, which was responsible for pre-clinical to commercial drug substance development and manufacturing. Most notably, Ben has been the Technical Operations asset manager for the Mitapivat program for the treatment of hemolytic anemias and has seen the program through from Phase 1 through process validation. Ben earned his degree PhD from Texas A&M University and held a postdoctoral position at Columbia University. 

Jessie is a multidisciplinary leader with over a dozen years of experience across the life sciences industry, specializing in strategic growth initiatives and corporate communications. Jessie joined the Nuvalent team in September 2021 as Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Portfolio Management.

Before joining Nuvalent in this role, Jessie was an independent consultant working closely with the Nuvalent team through its emergence from stealth, Series B financing, and upsized IPO. Prior to this, Jessie was Director, Strategic Planning & Communications at Verastem Oncology. In this role, she led transformative business development, regulatory, and patient advocacy initiatives which enabled the pivot from an early-stage biotech to a commercial stage oncology company with an FDA approved product in just 3 years. Following the FDA approval of COPIKTRA®, Jessie served as alliance manager for development and commercialization collaborations in China and Japan. Prior to Verastem Oncology, Jessie held roles at Human Care Systems, an agency specializing in developing patient adherence programs for marketed products, Scientia Advisors, a boutique life science strategic consulting firm, and On-Q-ity, a precision oncology start-up developing predictive diagnostics using circulating tumor cells.

Jessie earned her bachelor’s degree in bioengineering as a member of the founding four classes at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.

Matt Metivier brings over 20 years of experience in various human resources leadership roles, specifically within the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry, with a focus on building companies and guiding organizations through the early development phase to commercial launch. Prior to joining Nuvalent, he was the Global Head of Human Resources for Gamida Cell, Ltd, a publicly held biotechnology company based in Israel, where he helped develop and lead the company’s global human resources strategy.  Prior to Gamida Cell, he worked at Sage Therapeutics, Inc. as the Vice President, Human Resources. He also was in various human resource leadership roles for almost a decade at Infinity Pharmaceuticals.  Mr. Metivier holds an MBA from Suffolk University with a concentration in Organizational Behavior and a B.A. in Political Science and Business Studies from Providence College. 

Deborah (Deb) Miller, Ph.D., J.D., joined Nuvalent as Chief Legal Officer in June 2021 and is responsible for legal, human resources, and operations. She brings more than 20 years of senior leadership and global legal expertise across the entire pharmaceutical lifecycle from early discovery through litigation.

Prior to joining Nuvalent, she most recently served as Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Chief IP Counsel for Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma America (SDPA), a shared services company supporting affiliates of the Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Group including Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. and SDP Oncology. At SDPA, she led global IP strategy, various contract dispute matters and business development transactions, and was instrumental in building and protecting their oncologic, neurologic, psychiatric, and respiratory products, including LATUDA®, KYNMOBI®, APTIOM®, and LONHALA® MAGNAIR®.

Earlier in her career, Deb served as Deputy General Counsel and Chief Patent Counsel at Infinity Pharmaceuticals where she was responsible for developing the IP strategy of various oncology products and helped secure multiple strategic partnerships. In addition, she served as Corporate Counsel at Sepracor (now Sunovion) where she managed the litigation of LUNESTA® and developed the IP for various CNS and respiratory products. She began her legal career in private practice at Nutter McClennen & Fish.

Deb earned her Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Swarthmore College, Master’s in Medical Sciences from Harvard Medical School, Ph.D. in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology from Harvard University, and J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.

Darlene Noci brings to Nuvalent over 20 years of experience as an accomplished global product development leader specializing in global regulatory affairs and strategic oversight of early and late-stage programs.

Throughout her career, Darlene contributed to several successful drug approvals, including Fabrazyme^®, Mozobil^®, Clolar^®/Evoltra^®, and Bavencio^®. Prior to founding her own regulatory consulting firm in 2018, Darlene served as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at X4 Pharmaceuticals. Prior to X4, Darlene served as Global Regulatory Lead Strategist, Immuno-Oncology at EMD Serono, the North America biopharma business of Merck KgaA, Darmstadt, Germany where she led the global regulatory strategy and portfolio for Bavencio^®, the company’s anti-programmed death-ligand 1 (PDL-1) antibody. In this role, she was instrumental in the global clinical development to a proof of concept spanning more than 10 solid tumor indications, including non-small cell lung cancer and urothelial carcinoma. Darlene drove the team responsible for securing Bavencio’s Orphan Drug Designation, Fast Track Designation, and Breakthrough Therapy Designation, which led to accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with Merkel Cell Carcinoma. Darlene also served on the joint steering committee with Pfizer. Prior to EMD Serono, she held various regulatory and team leadership positions with increasing responsibility in oncology and rare disease at several companies including Infinity, Sanofi, and Genzyme. She gives credit to her mentors at Genzyme, where she spent 14 years, inspired by leaders driven by science and passion for bringing much needed therapies to patients.

Darlene earned her Master’s degree in Government from Harvard University.

Deborah (Deb) Miller, Ph.D., J.D., joined Nuvalent as Chief Legal Officer in June 2021 and is responsible for legal, human resources, and operations. She brings more than 20 years of senior leadership and global legal expertise across the entire pharmaceutical lifecycle from early discovery through litigation.

Prior to joining Nuvalent, she most recently served as Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Chief IP Counsel for Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma America (SDPA), a shared services company supporting affiliates of the Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Group including Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. and SDP Oncology. At SDPA, she led global IP strategy, various contract dispute matters and business development transactions, and was instrumental in building and protecting their oncologic, neurologic, psychiatric, and respiratory products, including LATUDA®, KYNMOBI®, APTIOM®, and LONHALA® MAGNAIR®.

Earlier in her career, Deb served as Deputy General Counsel and Chief Patent Counsel at Infinity Pharmaceuticals where she was responsible for developing the IP strategy of various oncology products and helped secure multiple strategic partnerships. In addition, she served as Corporate Counsel at Sepracor (now Sunovion) where she managed the litigation of LUNESTA® and developed the IP for various CNS and respiratory products. She began her legal career in private practice at Nutter McClennen & Fish.

Deb earned her Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Swarthmore College, Master’s in Medical Sciences from Harvard Medical School, Ph.D. in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology from Harvard University, and J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.

Darlene Noci brings to Nuvalent over 20 years of experience as an accomplished global product development leader specializing in global regulatory affairs and strategic oversight of early and late-stage programs.

Throughout her career, Darlene contributed to several successful drug approvals, including Fabrazyme^®, Mozobil^®, Clolar^®/Evoltra^®, and Bavencio^®. Prior to founding her own regulatory consulting firm in 2018, Darlene served as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at X4 Pharmaceuticals. Prior to X4, Darlene served as Global Regulatory Lead Strategist, Immuno-Oncology at EMD Serono, the North America biopharma business of Merck KgaA, Darmstadt, Germany where she led the global regulatory strategy and portfolio for Bavencio^®, the company’s anti-programmed death-ligand 1 (PDL-1) antibody. In this role, she was instrumental in the global clinical development to a proof of concept spanning more than 10 solid tumor indications, including non-small cell lung cancer and urothelial carcinoma. Darlene drove the team responsible for securing Bavencio’s Orphan Drug Designation, Fast Track Designation, and Breakthrough Therapy Designation, which led to accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with Merkel Cell Carcinoma. Darlene also served on the joint steering committee with Pfizer. Prior to EMD Serono, she held various regulatory and team leadership positions with increasing responsibility in oncology and rare disease at several companies including Infinity, Sanofi, and Genzyme. She gives credit to her mentors at Genzyme, where she spent 14 years, inspired by leaders driven by science and passion for bringing much needed therapies to patients.

Darlene earned her Master’s degree in Government from Harvard University.

Henry is a multidisciplinary scientist skilled in cancer biology, chemical biology and organic synthesis. He contributed to the creation of Nuvalent and joined full-time in 2018.

Henry’s career has spanned multiple industry and academic appointments. Prior to joining Nuvalent, Henry was a group leader in the laboratory of Professor Matthew Shair at Harvard University. In that role, he built and led a team that discovered a new target, mechanism of action and therapeutic opportunity for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. In parallel, he spearheaded a drug discovery program that culminated in a licensing deal and research agreement between Harvard and Merck in 2016, and subsequently served as a member of the Harvard-Merck Joint Research Committee.

Henry earned a PhD in Chemistry from Harvard University and is an avid runner and swimmer.

Jim is an accomplished cancer researcher with two decades of oncology drug development experience. He joined Nuvalent during company creation in 2018 and became Chief Executive Officer and named to the Nuvalent Board of Directors in January 2020.

Jim began his career at Infinity Pharmaceuticals as one of the initial scientists to join the company in its first year of operation. Over the course of his 15 years at Infinity, he obtained a wide array of company building experience, helping to build the infrastructure and leading high-performing teams in medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical development, alliance management, program management, and product development. At Infinity, he contributed to the research and development programs of six different compounds entering clinical trials, helped secure business development agreements and lead corporate alliances for multiple development compounds, and held increasing roles of responsibility up to Vice President of Product Development. As the duvelisib Product Development team leader, Jim led a cross-functional development team from development candidate nomination through NDA submission, resulting in the FDA approval of COPIKTRA® for patients with follicular lymphoma, small lymphocytic lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Jim led the transition, Product Development team, and NDA submission at Verastem Oncology upon the company’s acquisition of the duvelisib program during Phase 3 clinical development. He earned his BA in chemistry at the College of the Holy Cross and PhD in organic chemistry from Boston College.

Jim is an accomplished cancer researcher with two decades of oncology drug development experience. He joined Nuvalent during company creation in 2018 and became Chief Executive Officer and named to the Nuvalent Board of Directors in January 2020.

Jim began his career at Infinity Pharmaceuticals as one of the initial scientists to join the company in its first year of operation. Over the course of his 15 years at Infinity, he obtained a wide array of company building experience, helping to build the infrastructure and leading high-performing teams in medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical development, alliance management, program management, and product development. At Infinity, he contributed to the research and development programs of six different compounds entering clinical trials, helped secure business development agreements and lead corporate alliances for multiple development compounds, and held increasing roles of responsibility up to Vice President of Product Development. As the duvelisib Product Development team leader, Jim led a cross-functional development team from development candidate nomination through NDA submission, resulting in the FDA approval of COPIKTRA® for patients with follicular lymphoma, small lymphocytic lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Jim led the transition, Product Development team, and NDA submission at Verastem Oncology upon the company’s acquisition of the duvelisib program during Phase 3 clinical development. He earned his BA in chemistry at the College of the Holy Cross and PhD in organic chemistry from Boston College.

Jim is an accomplished cancer researcher with two decades of oncology drug development experience. He joined Nuvalent during company creation in 2018 and became Chief Executive Officer and named to the Nuvalent Board of Directors in January 2020.

Jim began his career at Infinity Pharmaceuticals as one of the initial scientists to join the company in its first year of operation. Over the course of his 15 years at Infinity, he obtained a wide array of company building experience, helping to build the infrastructure and leading high-performing teams in medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical development, alliance management, program management, and product development. At Infinity, he contributed to the research and development programs of six different compounds entering clinical trials, helped secure business development agreements and lead corporate alliances for multiple development compounds, and held increasing roles of responsibility up to Vice President of Product Development. As the duvelisib Product Development team leader, Jim led a cross-functional development team from development candidate nomination through NDA submission, resulting in the FDA approval of COPIKTRA® for patients with follicular lymphoma, small lymphocytic lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Jim led the transition, Product Development team, and NDA submission at Verastem Oncology upon the company’s acquisition of the duvelisib program during Phase 3 clinical development. He earned his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Boston College.

John joined Nuvalent in January 2020 and leads the strategy and execution of translational development activities of the company’s lead programs, including ADME, nonclinical safety and clinical pharmacology.

John began his career at Pfizer in Groton, CT. While at Pfizer, John developed a novel in vitro ADME/safety assay which was used by the company globally to help reduce drug safety risk. In addition to his research, John was a member of the Pfizer hepatotoxicity working group and global hepatotoxicity reduction initiative. In 2005, John was awarded the Pfizer Global Research and Development Achievement Award for his impact, cross functional collaboration and contributions to the company. John then moved to GlaxoSmithKline in North Carolina to become Chief Scientist in the infectious diseases center of emphasis for drug discovery (CEDD). In this role, John served as a senior DMPK project leader, group supervisor and prepared ADME/PK packages for IND submission. At GSK, John was also a member of the global drug induced liver injury (DILI) taskforce, leveraging his experience to reduce drug attrition due to hepatotoxicity. Following his time in pharma, John joined Infinity Pharmaceuticals as head of DMPK in 2012. While at Infinity, John was the DMPK lead on the duvelisib Product Development Team, responsible for preparing the ADME/PK package for NDA submission. John was also the eganelisib (IPI-549) Product Development Team leader, successfully leading the cross-functional team to IND submission and into early clinical development. Most recently John was at Decibel Therapeutics where, in addition to leading the DMPK, clinical pharmacology and regulated bioanalytical functions, he was the early Product Development Scientific Lead on the DB-020 program which is currently in clinical trials for the prevention of chemotherapy induced hearing loss.

John earned his PhD in Chemistry from Northeastern University.

Christopher (Chris) Turner, M.D. is an experienced oncology drug developer and executive with over 20 years of clinical and pharmaceutical experience in both early and late stage oncology drug development. He joined Nuvalent in March 2021 as Chief Medical Officer.

Before joining Nuvalent, Dr. Turner was Vice President of Clinical Development at Blueprint Medicines, where he oversaw the development and approval of kinase inhibitor GAVRETO™ (pralsetinib) in RET fusion positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and RET altered thyroid cancer. Additionally, Dr. Turner oversaw development programs targeting the FGFR4 kinase and EGFR with emergent resistance mutations.

Dr. Turner previously led the development of novel ADC and immune-oncology pipeline compounds at Celldex Therapeutics, and the clinical development at Ariad Pharmaceuticals of two kinase inhibitor therapies that have since been approved for patients with cancer, ICLUSIG^® (ponatinib) for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, and ALUNBRIG^® (brigatinib) for patients with ALK-positive NSCLC.

Prior to that, Dr. Turner was Director of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Outcomes Clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Children’s Hospital Boston and an Instructor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School where he treated children and young adults with brain tumors.

Dr. Turner is double board certified in both Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology and Oncology and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He received his M.D. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York. He completed fellowships in both Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

Christopher (Chris) Turner, M.D. is an experienced oncology drug developer and executive with over 20 years of clinical and pharmaceutical experience in both early and late stage oncology drug development. He joined Nuvalent in March 2021 as Chief Medical Officer.

Before joining Nuvalent, Dr. Turner was Vice President of Clinical Development at Blueprint Medicines, where he oversaw the development and approval of kinase inhibitor GAVRETO™ (pralsetinib) in RET fusion positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and RET altered thyroid cancer. Additionally, Dr. Turner oversaw development programs targeting the FGFR4 kinase and EGFR with emergent resistance mutations.

Dr. Turner previously led the development of novel ADC and immune-oncology pipeline compounds at Celldex Therapeutics, and the clinical development at Ariad Pharmaceuticals of two kinase inhibitor therapies that have since been approved for patients with cancer, ICLUSIG^® (ponatinib) for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, and ALUNBRIG^® (brigatinib) for patients with ALK-positive NSCLC.

Prior to that, Dr. Turner was Director of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Outcomes Clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Children’s Hospital Boston and an Instructor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School where he treated children and young adults with brain tumors.

Dr. Turner is double board certified in both Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology and Oncology and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He received his M.D. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York. He completed fellowships in both Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

Perrin joined Nuvalent as Senior Vice President of Business Development & Strategy in September 2023. Perrin brings over 15 years of experience across business development and commercial functions, including leading deals from research stage to company acquisitions and integrations, championing brand strategy and product launches.

Before joining Nuvalent, Perrin held positions of increasing responsibility at Forma Therapeutics/Novo Nordisk, including Head of Forma Business Development and Integration Management Office, Vice President Business Development and Senior Director Global Marketing, Sickle Cell Disease Strategy. At Forma, Perrin served as the deal lead for the Novo Nordisk acquisition and the out-licensing of Forma’s oncology portfolio to three different partners (both pre-and post-acquisition close). Following the acquisition, Perrin partnered with the Novo Nordisk team and led the integration from the Forma side and served as the alliance manager for the oncology deals. In her commercial role, Perrin was responsible for developing the first global brand plan for Forma’s lead molecule, etavopivat, and supported ex-US and lifecycle management strategy.

Earlier in her career, Perrin spent seven years at Takeda in various business development and commercial roles. During this time, she was responsible for several transactions to strengthen Takeda’s oncology pipeline, including the acquisition of ARIAD. Additionally, Perrin served as the integration lead for ARIAD post-acquisition and led global pre-launch preparations for Takeda’s MDS/AML program, pevonedistat. Prior to Takeda, Perrin served as a Product Manager at Forest Laboratories Canada Inc, where she launched Forest’s first product in the Canadian market, and as Senior Manager of Business Development at Forest Laboratories’ New York City base where she supported a number of transactions to augment Forest’s cardiometabolic pipeline.

Perrin received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Lafayette College and a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from The Rockefeller University.

Dr. Conley is a biotech executive with a track record of advancing disruptive platforms in drug development. Dr. Conley is Chief Executive Officer at Renasant Bio, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to transforming the treatment of ADPKD. Previously, Dr. Conley was CEO at Federation Bio, a clinical stage biotech where she advanced microbial cell therapies in renal disease, autoimmunity and cancer. Prior to that she spent over a decade at 23andMe, where she helped scale the company from 30 employees into the world’s leading platform for genetic-driven drug discovery. As the head of business development at 23andMe, she architected visionary partnerships across pharma and biotech.

In addition to serving on the board of Renasant Bio, Dr. Conley serves on the boards of Nuvalent and TMRW Life Sciences and formerly served on the boards of Medrio, Lesbians Who Tech and the UCSF Alliance Health Project.

Dr. Conley has received numerous awards and honors, including SF Business Times Most Influential Women in Business, Endpoints 20 Biopharma Leaders Under 40, Business Insider’s 30 Biotech Leaders Under 40, and Google Ventures 25 Women shaping the future of Technology.

Prior to industry, Dr. Conley was a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health and is co-author on more than 35 academic publications. She earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University and graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University with a B.A.

Dr. Gary Gilliland is a physician-scientist who has made major contributions to understanding the genetic basis of blood diseases, particularly leukemia, and translated seminal findings into new, precision treatments that stop cancer while causing minimal side effects.

Dr. Gilliland led Fred Hutch from 2015 to early 2020. Among his achievements were strong growth and diversification of the faculty, an increase in the Hutch’s already-strong federal grant funding, a quadrupled endowment, adding the Lake Union Steam Plant to the campus as a nexus of data science and T-cell immunotherapy research, and new internal and external research collaborations. Through his leadership and vision, Gilliland reinforced the Hutch’s longstanding commitment to scientific excellence.

Among Gilliland’s major initiatives was the creation of the Hutch’s Integrated Research Centers, or IRCs, which promote collaboration among researchers across campus and throughout the Fred Hutch/University of Washington Cancer Consortium on high-impact, innovative projects.

Before he was named the Hutch’s fifth president, Dr. Gilliland spent 20 years at Harvard Medical School, led a breakthrough immunotherapy drug to market as senior vice president and global oncology franchise head at Merck and Co., and spearheaded a new model for personalized medicine within the University of Pennsylvania system.

Andrew is a Managing Director of Bain Capital Life Sciences, a private equity fund that invests in biopharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics, and enabling life science technology companies globally. Previously, Andrew served as Chief Financial Officer of Editas Medicine, Inc.

Prior to joining Editas, Andrew was a portfolio manager at Millennium Management LLC, where he ran a healthcare fund focused on biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies. Before joining Millennium, Andrew served as a securities analyst for several healthcare-focused hedge funds and investment banks. Previously, Andrew was Director of Life Sciences of Reify Corporation, a life science tools and drug discovery company.

Andrew serves as a director of Affinivax, Inc., Allena Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc., BCLS Acquisition Corp., Dynavax Technologies, Inc., Imperative Care, Inc., JenaValve Technology, Inc., Mersana Therapeutics, Inc., and Xilio Therapeutics. Andrew received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in molecular genetics and cell biology. 

Dr. Michael Meyers is a medical oncologist and experienced drug developer who has contributed to the successful development and commercialization of multiple new therapies. Michael has served as a Senior Clinical Advisor at Nuvalent since 2020 and was involved in the design of the ongoing Phase 1/2 trials for its parallel lead programs in NSCLC.

Since March 2023, Michael has served as Chief Medical Officer at Flare Therapeutics. Previously, Michael served as the Senior Vice President, Chief Development Officer and Chief Medical Officer at Syndax Pharmaceuticals from 2015 until March 2022, where he led the development of multiple molecules in breast cancer, various immune-oncology indications, acute leukemias, and chronic Graft versus Host Disease.

Prior to joining Syndax, he held a number of senior R&D roles at Johnson & Johnson, including serving as Vice President, GU Oncology, Compound and Clinical Leader, and as Vice President, Oncology Scientific Innovation in Johnson and Johnson’s London Innovation Centre. Michael also led the U.S. Oncology Medical Affairs team at Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc and worked in oncology clinical development at the Schering-Plough Research Institute. Prior, he was on the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center faculty, specializing in clinical immunology and melanoma.

He received his MD and his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha (the medical school honor society). He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and his fellowship, where he served as Chief Fellow in Medical Oncology, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Joseph is the Vice President of Scientific Affairs on the Biotherapeutics group at Deerfield and joined the Firm in 2017. Prior to Deerfield, Joseph was the Vice President of Clinical Development at Infinity Pharmaceuticals. Before Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Joseph worked as a Medical Director in the oncology unit of Sanofi. He received his MD at the University of California, San Francisco, and completed his clinical training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He earned his PhD in Molecular Biology from Harvard University and was a Lecturer in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School.

Anna Protopapas is a veteran biotech executive with a substantial track record of leadership and business experience in oncology. Her broad industry experience ranges from global development to commercial expertise with a focus on building businesses from start-ups to leaders in their categories to deliver meaningful therapies to patients. She joined Nuvalent as Board Chair in March 2022.

Most recently, Ms. Protopapas served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mersana Therapeutics from 2015 until September 2023, where she led advancement of the company’s ADC platforms, pipeline, collaborations, transitioning the company to a publicly traded, clinical-stage entity.

Prior to Mersana, Ms. Protopapas was President of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, where she led Takeda’s oncology business. Ms. Protopapas also served as Executive Vice President of Global Business Development at Takeda, was a member of the company’s executive committee and served as a corporate officer. Earlier, Ms. Protopapas was an executive officer at Millennium and served in various senior leadership positions, playing an integral role in the company’s transformation from a genomics start-up to a fully integrated oncology leader.

Ms. Protopapas serves on the Board of Directors for Mersana Therapeutics and previously served on the Board of Directors for leading biotechnology companies ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Bioverativ and Dicerna Pharmaceuticals. She received her B.S. in Science and Engineering from Princeton University, M.S. in Chemical Engineering Practice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Matt is a world-leading chemical biologist and organic chemist who has made important contributions to the discovery of new therapeutic targets, to understanding their mechanism and to the development of small molecules to perturb their function. Matt conceived of Nuvalent and in 2017 he founded the company with Deerfield Management.

Matt is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University as well as an affiliate of the Broad Institute and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Matt and his lab at Harvard have made critical strides in target-oriented synthesis of complex molecules including syntheses of CP-263,114, longithorone and cortistatin A. His lab helped pioneer diversity-oriented synthesis and they were amongst the first to combine it with cell-based phenotypic screening to identify new compounds with novel activities, including the discovery of the Cdc42 inhibitor secramine. They identified the first small molecules to inhibit the oxysterol-binding protein family, and these compounds are now used to study the role of these proteins at membrane contact sites.  Matt’s lab discovered that CDK8 and CDK19 are therapeutic targets for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. These studies provided a deeper understanding of how these kinases regulate transcription in cancer and they led Matt’s lab to develop candidate small molecule therapeutic inhibitors of CDK8/19, which they out-licensed, resulting in one the largest upfront licensing payments in Harvard’s history. Due in-part to his lab’s studies, CDK8/19 inhibitors have now entered clinical trials for treatment of AML/MDS. Matt contributed to the founding of Infinity Pharmaceuticals and he has been an advisor to several large and small pharmaceutical companies. Matt has been the recipient of many awards for his research contributions including the Cope Scholar Award and the Sackler Prize in the Chemical Sciences.

Sapna Srivastava, Ph.D, has served as a member of Nuvalent’s board of directors since July 2021. Dr. Srivastava has over 20 years of experience as a senior executive in the biopharmaceutical industry. She most recently served as the interim Chief Financial Officer at eGenesis Bio from April 2021 until October 2021. From September 2017 to January 2019, Dr. Srivastava served as the Chief Financial and Strategy Officer at Abide Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by H. Lundbeck A/S in 2019. From April 2015 to December 2016, Dr. Srivastava served as the Chief Financial and Strategy Officer at Intellia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTLA), a gene editing company. Previously, for nearly 15 years Dr. Srivastava was a senior biotechnology analyst at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and ThinkEquity Partners, LLC. She began her career as a research associate at JP Morgan. Dr. Srivastava currently serves on the boards of directors of Tourmaline Bio (NASDAQ: TRML), Aura Biosciences, and Innoviva. Dr. Srivastava holds a Ph.D. from New York University School of Medicine and a B.Sc. from St. Xavier’s College, University of Bombay.

Cameron is a Partner on the Biotherapeutics group at Deerfield and joined the Firm in 2014. Prior to Deerfield, he worked for and on behalf of Eleven Biotherapeutics, Inc. as a director since 2009. Previous to that, he was Manager of the Business Development and Operations team at Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and a Senior Associate at Third Rock Ventures, LLC. Cameron holds a PhD and SM in Biological Engineering and an SB in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.