Khurem Farooq,
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Khurem is the Chief Executive Officer at Aiolos Bio. Khurem brings more than 20 years of experience in drug development and operational leadership to the role. Previously, Khurem served as the CEO of Gyroscope Therapeutics which was acquired by Novartis in 2021. Prior to Gyroscope, Khurem served as Senior Vice President of the Immunology and Ophthalmology business unit at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group.

During Khurem’s eleven-year tenure at Genentech, he led the commercialization and launch planning of a number of medicines in the Immunology and Ophthalmology area and helped move a number of medicines into the pipeline as a member of the Late Stage Portfolio Committee. He was also actively involved in a number of business development assessments for the organization.

Khurem began his career at Aventis in the United Kingdom holding various roles in sales and marketing, including leading several pan-European business initiatives at the European Headquarters in Paris. Khurem holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration as well as an Honours degree in Biological Sciences.

Jane Hughes,
Chief Scientific Officer

Jane received her PhD in Molecular Immunology from Keele University in 2000 prior to joining SmithKline Beecham (and then GSK post-merger), during which time she led a range of small molecule projects and managed the CNS Target Identification and Validation Group responsible for prosecuting novel mechanisms of action and developing cell based pharmacological assays. This was followed in 2009 by a move to MedImmune, Cambridge UK where Jane led the CNS Cell Biology group, driving 2 projects from pre-clinical target validation through into early clinical development. During this period, Jane was responsible for due diligence of Neurodegeneration and Pain in-licensing opportunities. Following this, Jane returned to GSK in 2014 as Director of Discovery Medicine in 2014 and was translational lead for Otilimab (GSK3196165) as well as leading several early phase discovery projects. In 2017, Jane moved to Charles River as Senior Director for Integrated Drug Discovery prior to joining Gyroscope Therapeutics as VP Translational Research in Nov 2018 and subsequently being promoted to CSO in Oct 2019 with Gyroscope being acquired by Novartis in December 2021.

Ashley Taylor,
Chief Technical Officer

Ashley brings 32 years of experience in the biotechnology industry in a variety of roles across Operations and CMC disciplines. Prior to joining Aiolos Bio, Ashley spent 20 years with Genentech in a variety of roles including Head of Network Strategy, Site Head, Head of Technical Product Teams, and Head of External Manufacturing. In addition to his Genentech experience, Ashley spent six years with Amgen as Plant Manager for one of Amgen’s production facilities, and prior to that with Abgenix where he was part of establishing production and product launch capability prior to Amgen acquisition.

Ashley’s career has included oversight in various capacities of early stage clinical production through to product launch and commercial production across more than 50 clinical candidates and 20 commercial products. 

Chris Clevenger,
SVP, Clinical Operations

With a PhD in Vascular Biology and Physiology, and over 20 years of experience in the biopharma industry, Chris has held roles of increasing responsibility encompassing medical, clinical, commercial, and strategic consulting. Specific areas of focus include:

• Respiratory portfolio at AstraZeneca as an MSL, MSL Director, and Medical Lead
• Immunology portfolio at Genentech as Head of MSLs and Strategic Partnerships
• Head of Patient Advocacy, MSLs, Patient Finding, and Medical Information for Rare Diseases at Ultragenyx
• Head of Medical Affairs and Clinical Operations at Gyroscope

Chris’ career has been marked by a deep commitment to building early-stage teams to effectively create and share scientific information, deliver innovative solutions, speed enrolment of clinical trials, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.

Michael Doherty,
Head, Regulatory Strategy

Michael was the Head of Product Development at Foundation Medicine from 2016 to 2019. In this role, he led a team dedicated to the introduction of clinical and data products in the field of cancer genomics based on Next-Generation Sequencing, introducing the groundbreaking F1CDx assay as the first FDA approved and CMS reimbursed large oncology panel.

Prior to this he was Head of Regulatory Affairs at Roche Pharmaceuticals and Genentech for a period of 14 years from 2002 to 2016, overseeing the approvals of products in the field of oncology, immunology, hematology and bone disease. During his career, he has worked in Regulatory Affairs in Pharmaceutical Companies based in the UK, France, Switzerland and the US.

In addition, he spent 2 years at Genentech building a new organization called Strategic Innovation which was charged with identifying and deploying disruptive concepts in the field of drug development.

Today, he is a consultant and board member of a number of early-stage companies in both the biotech and diagnostics fields and is chief regulatory officer at Aiolos bio.

Prior to working in the Pharmaceutical Industry, Michael worked at the University of Manchester, UK, and Christie Hospital in the Regional Endocrinology Laboratory. He has a BSc in Biochemistry (University of Reading, UK) and a fellowship of the Institute of Medical Sciences, UK, and a Diploma in Management Studies from the University of Portsmouth, UK.

Kim Harrow,
VP, Life Cycle Management

Kim serves as Vice President of Lifecycle Management at Aiolos Bio, bringing over 23 years of clinical development and operations experience in the global biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Kim draws upon her extensive background in company and asset development to drive the Aiolos’ product lifecycle. Kim joined Aiolos Bio from EQRx, where as VP of Clinical Operations, she built the clinical operations group and led execution of studies across a portfolio of assets.

Previously, Kim was the VP of Clinical Operations at Xcovery Holdings, spearheading clinical operations and development from target identification through Phase 3 studies. 

Additionally, Kim was a founding member of several biotechnology start-ups, including MolecularMD, Tyrogenex, and BioCatalyst.  She has authored numerous publications and presentations at major conferences such as ASCO and ESMO.

Elizabeth Holt,
VP, Corporate Strategy & Operations

Elizabeth leads Aiolos Bio’s Corporate Strategy and Operations function.

Elizabeth has a deep background in life sciences strategy, organization, and operations with a proven track record of success. Most recently, she served as VP, Head of Corporate Planning & Operations for Gyroscope Therapeutics, which was sold to Novartis for up to $1.5B in February 2022. At Gyroscope, her key responsibilities included: leading key financing activities, leading annual business planning and corporate goal setting, monitoring the operational performance of the company, and setting and executing on an IT and analytics strategy to meet the future needs of the business. Previously, Elizabeth was an Associate Partner with McKinsey and Company where she advised senior management in healthcare and life sciences on a range of strategy, organization, and M&A projects. She spent five years at the beginning of her career starting up and managing US- government funded projects in Europe, Asia and Africa, where she had oversight over grants, contracts, operations and finance worth more than $100M.

Elizabeth received an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a BA cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Davidson College.

Peter MacBride,
VP, Commercial Strategy and Operations

Peter leads commercial strategy efforts for Aiolos Bio, including forecasting and market planning, competitive intelligence, marketing, market access strategy, and incorporating the commercial perspective into the clinical development program.

Prior to joining Aiolos Bio, Peter spent ~10 years at Genentech/Roche in a variety of commercial leadership roles, including leading Pricing, Contracting, and Distribution Strategy for the Immunology and Ophthalmology business, heading up the Pipeline Marketing and Launch Strategy team for all non-oncology products, and serving as the Commercial Launch lead for multiple Phase 3 assets in the Immunology and Neurology space.

Prior to joining Genentech, Peter was a consultant at Avalere Health where he focused on federal policy issues and market access strategy for pharmaceutical / biotech companies.

Peter received an MPP in Health Policy from Georgetown University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated magna cum laude.

Andrew Prosser,
SVP, Finance

Andrew has more than 20 years of experience leading finance operations in the pharma industry.  Recently he was SVP Finance of Gyroscope Therapeutics where he spent 3 years supporting the company build, completing private financing rounds, and latterly leading the corporate diligence and transaction closing activities enabling the $1.5bn acquisition of Gyroscope by Novartis in 2022.  Prior to that he led finance in senior roles in Sanofi across Europe, as well at Otsuka pharmaceuticals.

Andrew is a Chartered Accountant by profession, and is graduated from the universities of Nottingham (Mathematics) and Oxford (Financial Strategy).

John F. Milligan, PhD
Executive Chair 4D Molecular Therapeutics
Chair PacBio
Retired President and CEO, Gilead Sciences, Inc.

Dr. Milligan joined Gilead Sciences as the 32^nd employee in 1990 and had a 29-year career with the company, retiring as President and Chief Executive Officer in December 2018. He began his career at Gilead as a research scientist and subsequently held leadership positions in project management and corporate development before being named Chief Financial Officer in 2002.  John was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2007, President and COO in 2008 and President and CEO in 2016.  He retired from Gilead at the end of 2018 and resigned from the board of directors. 

During his long tenure at Gilead, John led teams that developed, manufactured and commercialized more than 25 new therapies for significant unmet needs, including the first single tablet regimen for HIV treatment and the first 12 week, all oral cure for HCV.  John led multiple transformative acquisitions including Triangle Therapeutics in 2003, Myogen in 2006, CV Therapeutics in 2009, Pharmassett in 2012 and Kite in 2017. During his career, he helped the company become a global organization with direct operations in 44 countries that were able to deliver Gilead’s medicines to more than 10 million patients every day.  When John retired in 2018, Gilead had over 11,000 employees, sales of over $21 billion and a market cap of $85 billion.

John is the Executive Chair of 4D Molecular Therapeutics (4DMT/FDMT) and has served in this capacity since August of 2020. 4DMT designs, develops and commercializes transformative genetic medicines for serious unmet medical conditions. 4DMT currently has five clinical stage programs in development.

John has been on the board of PacBio (PACB) since 2013, serving as Chair since 2020 and also serves on the audit and compensation committees. PacBio provides instrumentation to deliver highly accurate long-read next generation gene sequencing, using its Single Molecule Real-Time (SMRT) technology, as well as highly accurate short-read technology.

John received a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University, where he has served as a trustee since 2010, and a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Illinois. John was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at San Francisco.

Tony Adamis MD,
Co-Founder and Board Member

Tony co-founded Aiolos Bio and is on the Board of Directors. He is best known for his co-discovery of the central role of VEGF in eye disease. Tony went on to co-found Eyetech, the company that developed the first FDA-approved anti-VEGF medicine in ophthalmology. His early discovery research was conducted at Harvard, and this work led to his election to the National Academy of Medicine.

Over the course of his career at Genentech/Roche and elsewhere, Tony has led teams that developed 20 medicines across 30 indications, in global trials involving more than 25,000 patients. Seven of these programs received FDA Breakthrough Designation. These efforts led to 25 FDA approvals. Tony has developed drugs in indications as diverse as asthma, pediatric asthma, COPD, chronic spontaneous urticaria, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, giant cell arteritis, granulomatous vasculitis, rheumatoid arthritis, cytokine release syndrome and seasonal influenza.

Michael Gladstone,
Partner, Atlas Venture

Michael is a partner at Atlas Venture, where he builds and invests in new therapeutics companies.

Michael is a co-founder and board member of Diagonal Therapeutics and Third Harmonic Bio (NASDAQ: THRD), and a board member of Day One Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: DAWN) and Pheon Therapeutics. Michael was previously a board member for Versanis Bio (acquired by Lilly).

Prior to joining Atlas in 2012, Michael worked at L.E.K. Consulting, where he focused on business development and corporate strategy for biopharma clients. Previously, Michael worked in the Viral Pathogenesis department of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where he led research on HIV vaccines with Harvard Medical School Professor Norman Letvin.

Michael received an AB in biochemical sciences from Harvard College.

Wouter Joustra
General Partner, Forbion

Wouter is currently General Partner at Forbion, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm. At Forbion, Mr. Joustra is responsible for deal origination, general portfolio management and divestment strategies, and focuses on Forbion´s Growth Opportunities Funds, which concentrates on investing in late-stage life sciences companies. Previously, Mr. Joustra was a Senior Trader, as well as Executive Board member of the life sciences franchise at Kempen, a European boutique investment bank. In this role, Mr. Joustra managed Kempen’s trading portfolio, and he was involved in deal structuring and equity capital markets transactions, as well as larger block trades. Until Gyroscope Therapeutics’s acquisition by Novartis for up to $1.5 billion, Mr. Joustra served as a member of Gyroscope Therapeutics’s board of directors. Mr. Wouter Joustra has also served as a member of the board of directors of VectivBio from December of 2022 until its $1.2 billion acquisition by Ironwood. Mr. Joustra is currently on the board of Forbion’s SPAC vehicle, Forbion European Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: FRBN), in addition to being a board observer at NewAmsterdam Pharma N.V. (NASDAQ: NAMS). Mr. Joustra holds an M.Sc. in Business Administration from the University of Groningen, and a B.Sc. in International Business and Management from this same university.

Maha Katabi, PhD
General Partner, Sofinnova Investments

Maha is a General Partner at Sofinnova Investments, which she joined in 2019. Her experience spans two decades of managing public equities portfolios and private biotech companies through bull and bear markets. She currently serves on the board of directors of Aerovate (AVTE), Quanta, RayzeBio (RYZB), Star and Vera (VERA), and was recently a board member of Gyroscope (acquired by Novartis) and Amplyx (acquired by Pfizer). Prior to joining Sofinnova, Maha was a Managing Partner of Oxalis Capital and Partner at Sectoral Asset Management. She started her career in venture as a principal investor with associate and principal roles at T2C2/Bio and Ventures West.

Maha received a PhD in Pharmacology and a BSc in Biology at McGill University, and is a CFA charter holder.

Amir Zamani, MD
Managing Director, Bain Capital Life Sciences

Dr. Zamani is a Managing Director at Bain Capital Life Sciences, having joined the fund in 2018. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Dr. Zamani was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he was a leader in the Life Sciences Practice. Before McKinsey, he was a resident in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Zamani currently serves as an observer on the boards of directors of JenaValve and Alkeus Pharmaceuticals. He previously served on the board of directors of ViaCyte and as an observer on the boards of directors of Amylyx Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AMLX) and Gynesonics.

Dr. Zamani received his MD from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he graduated Alpha Omega Alpha. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with distinction in both Biological Sciences (BS) and Economics (BA).