Greg Duncan
Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of the Board of Directors
Greg Duncan is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dogwood Therapeutics. Previously, Mr. Duncan was President and Chief Executive Officer of Celtaxsys, Inc., a privately held biotech company focused on developing anti-inflammatory medicines for rare disease where he scaled the required capital to build out the organizational capability to advance both pre- clinical and clinical development candidates. Prior to Celtaxsys, he served as an Executive Committee member at Belgium based UCB, a specialty pharma entity developing and commercializing medicines for immunologic and central nervous system disorders. Before joining UCB, Mr. Duncan, while at Pfizer he held several executive U.S. and international appointments, including President of Pfizer’s $2B Latin America Operations and SVP of Marketing. His operational teams had accountability for the launches of many pharmaceutical brands including Lipitor, Zoloft, Viagra, Celebrex, Aricept, Lyrica, Cimzia, Zithromax (ZPack), Diflucan, Sutent, Rebif and Vimpat. Mr. Duncan has served as director for Biotie Therapeutics, the American Psychiatric Foundation, Bio International Organization (BIO), Southeast BIO (SEBIO and the Georgia Bio industry association groups. Greg holds a master’s degree in business administration from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the State University of New York in Albany, NY.
Abel De La Rosa
Dr. De La Rosa is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and co-founder of Antios Therapeutics. He was most recently Antios’ Chief Executive Officer and led it from an early stage idea to a clinical-stage bio pharmaceutical company. Dr. De La Rosa was a member of the board of directors of Celtaxsys, Inc. from 2012-2020. Also he was the Chief Scientific Officer of Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory (DRIVE) and the Emory Institute for Drug Development (EIDD) from 2012 to 2018, focused on the discovery and development of antiviral drugs for the treatment of viral diseases of unmet medical need and global concern. Prior to joining Emory University, Dr. De La Rosa was Senior Vice President of Business Development and Scientific Affairs at Pharmasset, from 2002 until its acquisition by Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) for $11 billion in 2012, he was responsible for licensing, strategic transactions, and alliance management of collaborations and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and universities. Prior to Pharmasset, Dr. De La Rosa held both scientific and business positions at Visible Genetics, Innogenetics, Boston Biomedica, and Digene. He is an inventor and author on several U.S. patents and publications relating to molecular diagnostic methods, techniques and therapeutics for infectious diseases and cancer. Dr. De La Rosa earned a Fogarty Fellowship and an Intramural Research Training Award Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health, where he completed post-doctoral training in the Laboratory of Biochemistry and the Laboratory of Pathology of the National Cancer Institute. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Microbiology from the University of California, San Diego, and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Miami University. We believe that Dr. De La Rosa is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his significant knowledge and experience in the pharmaceutical industry and his experience as an officer and director in the pharmaceutical industry.
David Keefer
David Keefer, a director since 2018, is currently leading a technology company focused on enhancing health education and enablement. Mr. Keefer is a 30-year industry veteran with broad-based experience in leading commercial operations. In addition, he is engaged in the nutraceutical area with a healthy energy supplements and drinks company. Mr. Keefer has been a visionary leader in the healthcare industry with a proven track record of success. He is a seven-time winner of Pharma Voice’s top 100 leaders in healthcare. Mr. Keefer has held executive roles at Biovail, Pharmacia, Pfizer, Wyeth and Publicis Health. Roles include CEO, Chief Global Development Officer, Chief Commercial Officer, and other commercial focused roles in marketing and communications. Most recently, Mr. Keefer had overall responsibility for Global Business Development for Publics Health, the world’s largest global health focused organization offering marketing, communications, and personal message delivery solutions to the life sciences market.
John C. Thomas, Jr.
Mr. Thomas has been a director of the Company since December 20, 2020. Mr. Thomas served as the Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of SmartPharm Therapeutics, Inc, a genetic research and development company from 2018 until the company was acquired in 2020. In late 2017, Mr. Thomas rejoined DemeRx, Inc., a privately held company developing non-additive treatments for drug addiction, as the Chief Financial Officer after previously being the Chief Financial Officer from 2010 to 2013. From April 2014 until 2021, Mr. Thomas served as a director of NantKwest, Inc. which merged with Immunity Bio in 2021 (Nasdaq: IBRX) and was chairperson of the audit committee and a member of the compensation committee. From 2001 until 2018, Mr. Thomas served as Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, and from 2001 to 2016 as a director of CorMatrix Cardiovascular, a privately held medical device company. He has also served as Chief Financial Officer, Secretary, and Director of Motion Reality, Inc., a motion capture and simulation company, since 1991. From 2012 until 2019, Mr. Thomas served as a director of Novelion Therapeutics, Inc. (formerly QLT, Inc.), a public company focused on rare diseases and was the Chairperson of their Audit and Risk Committee and Nominating and Governance Committee. During the past ten years, Mr. Thomas served as acting Chief Financial Officer for ClearPoint Neuro (formerly MRI Interventions, Inc.), MiMedx Group, Inc., and DARA BioSciences and as a director of MRI Interventions, Inc. Between 1999 and 2012, Mr. Thomas served as a Trustee and subsequently the Chairman of the Finance Committee of The Walker School, a private school. Mr. Thomas is a Certified Public Accountant and graduated from the University of Virginia, McIntire School of Commerce. We believe that Mr. Thomas is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his significant financial and accounting knowledge and experience serving on boards of directors of public companies.
Melvin Toh, M.B.B.S.
Dr. Melvin Toh is currently the Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of CK Life Sciences Int’l., (Holdings) Inc. He holds Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees from the National University of Singapore and a Master of Science degree in Epidemiology from the University of London. Dr. Toh has over 30 years of experience in clinical medicine and pharmaceutical research and development, and has held various management and scientific positions in Asia and the United States. Dr. Toh was Director of Clinical Pharmacology in Oncology Development, directing a team of scientists working on the clinical development of new cancer drugs for a leading pharmaceutical firm in the United States.
Richard J. Whitley, M.D.
Dr. Whitley is the Distinguished Professor, Loeb Scholar Chair in Pediatrics, and Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology, Medicine and Neurosurgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is the Co-Director, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases; Vice-Chair, Department of Pediatrics; Senior Scientist, Department of Gene Therapy; Director for Drug Discovery and Development; Senior Leader, Comprehensive Cancer Center; Associate Director for Clinical Studies, Center for AIDS Research; and Co-Founder and Co-Director, Alabama Drug Discovery Alliance. Dr. Whitley is responsible for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Collaborative Antiviral Study Group and directs a center for drug discovery in the arena of emerging infections. He is a past President of the International Society of Antiviral Research and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and currently chairs both the NIAID Recombinant DNA Advisory Council and the NIAID HIV Vaccine Data Safety and Management Board. Dr. Whitley served as a director of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) from 2008 to 2021 and served on Gilead’s Scientific Advisory Board from 2003 to 2008. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians and an Honorary member of the Irish Academy of Science. We believe that Dr. Whitely is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his significant knowledge and experience in the pharmaceutical industry and serving on boards of directors of public companies.
Alan Yu
Alan Yu is currently the Deputy Chairman of CK Life Sciences Int’l., (Holdings) Inc. (“CKLS”), a pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and agricultural development and management company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Prior to being Deputy Chairman, he was Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of CKLS, since September 2020. Prior to becoming Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Yu had been Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of CKLS since June 2002. Mr. Yu also served as the Chairman of WEX Pharmaceuticals Inc. Mr. Yu has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Comparative Literature from The University of Hong Kong and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Mr. Yu is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors.