Peter Myers, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Art Pappas
Managing Partner, Pappas Ventures

Leonard Post, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer

Alain Schreiber, M.D.
Partner, ProQuest Investments

Peter Myers, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Dr. Myers was most recently VP of Drug Discovery at SGX Pharmaceuticals and led the bcr-abl program which formed the basis of a major collaboration with Novartis. He was previously VP of R&D for Onyx Pharmaceuticals and initiated the Discovery Program that ultimately led to the discovery of Nexavar. Before his position at Onyx, Dr. Myers was VP of Research Chemistry at Glaxo, Inc. in RTP and initially had overall Therapeutic Leadership for their Anti-inflammatory programs and latterly their Metabolic Disease Programs. He was also Deputy Chairman for the Oncology area; this led to the discovery of the 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor Avodart. Formerly as a Director of Medicinal Chemistry in Glaxo UK, he was responsible their chemistry projects in Anti-bacterials and Anti-virals and initiated their research activities in the HIV area. Previously he held senior leadership positions at G.D.Searle and Reckitt and Colman.

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Art Pappas
Managing Partner, Pappas Ventures

Mr. Pappas has over 30 years of operating experience as a pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry executive and venture capital investor in life science companies. He has assembled a team of investment, biotechnology and medical experts who manage over $350 million and oversee investments in more than 40 portfolio companies. Prior to founding Pappas Ventures in 1994, Mr. Pappas held senior level leadership positions at several multinational pharmaceutical companies. He was an executive member of the board of directors of Glaxo Holdings plc, for which he was the chief executive responsible for international operations including research, development and manufacturing. Mr. Pappas previously was Vice President of Commercial Operations for Abbott International Ltd., and he held various executive and general management positions with Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals and the Dow Chemical Company, in the United States and internationally. Among the companies for which he currently serves as a director are: CeNeRx BioPharma, Genstruct, LEAD Therapeutics and TyRx Pharma. He was the founding CEO and is currently the chairman of CoLucid Pharmaceuticals.

Some of the firm’s representative investments include Cerexa Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Forest Laboratories); Syntonix Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Biogen Idec); Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Johnson & Johnson); Panacos Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PANC); NuVasive (Nasdaq: NUVA); Gene Logic (Nasdaq: GLGC); Nuvelo (Nasdaq: NUVO; previously Variagenics); and Arena Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ARNA).

Mr. Pappas is chairman of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s Board of Directors and is a member of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) Medical Industry Group Advisory Board.  He previously served on the boards of AtheroGenics (Nasdaq: AGIX), Embrex (Nasdaq: EMBX), Quintiles Transnational (Nasdaq: QTRN) and Valentis (Nasdaq: VLTS).  Mr. Pappas is a decorated Vietnam veteran, having served as an officer in the US Army 101st Airborne Division and the Special Forces. 

Mr. Pappas received his MBA in Finance from Xavier University, and BS in Biology from Ohio State Univeristy.

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Leonard Post, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Post is a virologist by training. Most recently, he was at Onyx Pharmaceuticals as SVP and was responsible for the co-development (50:50 with Bayer) of Nexavar from IND through FDA approval for renal cell carcinoma. Previously, as VP of Discovery Research at Parke-Davis he led a multi-national drug discovery organization of over 800 people, in cancer, infectious diseases, inflammation, cardiovascular and CNS. Prior to that, he held several positions at the Upjohn Company, including Director of Infectious Disease Research. During his industry career spanning more than 25 years, he has led numerous programs that have resulted in multiple clinical candidates across various therapeutic areas.

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Alain Schreiber, M.D.
Partner, ProQuest Investments

Dr. Schreiber joined ProQuest as a General Partner in 2000. His extensive industry experience provides a commercially-focused operational discipline and a depth of drug development expertise. Prior to joining ProQuest, Dr. Schreiber served as President, Director, and CEO of Vical. Previously, at Rhône-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi-Aventis), Dr. Schreiber served in several roles, including Senior Vice President of Research. Prior to his tenure at Rhône-Poulenc Rorer, Dr. Schreiber was Department Head of Biochemistry at Syntex (now Roche Bioscience). He has previously served on the Board of Directors of ActivX Biosciences, BioRexis Pharmaceutical Corp., Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals, Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Conforma Therapeutics, Gemin X and Somalogic. Currently Dr. Schreiber serves on the Board of Directors of Concentric Medical, Optimer Pharmaceuticals and Tragara Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Schreiber received a B.S. in chemistry, summa cum laude, and an M.D., summa cum laude, from the Free University in Brussels, Belgium. Subsequently, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

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