Seasoned leadership. A wealth of experience.
Our Leadership Team
Our leadership team is made up of highly experienced executives with proven track records of success in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries.
President & CEO, Director, David Meek
David Meek was appointed as the first CEO soon after FerGene was created. He has over 30 years of biopharma experience commercializing and developing innovative medicines for patients across a range of therapeutic areas.
Before moving to FerGene, David was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a Board Member of Ipsen where he was responsible for delivering industry-leading sales and shareholder growth of a global biopharma focused on oncology and specialty care. David has also held several executive leadership positions including Executive Vice President and President of Baxalta Oncology prior to its acquisition by Shire; CCO of Endocyte; Region Head, Novartis Oncology; CEO of Novartis Canada, and Global Franchise Head. He began his biopharma career at Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceutica. David also serves on the board of directors for two publicly traded biotech companies, uniQure (QURE) and Entasis (ETTX). David has been active throughout his career to enhance the innovation agenda of the biopharma industry. He has previously served as an industry member of the board of directors of the Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Association (EFPIA).
Prior to his biopharma career, David was a commissioned officer in the United States Army, where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
Chief Operating Officer, Ambaw Bellete
Ambaw Bellete serves as chief operating officer at FerGene where he has responsibility for the overall commercial organization comprised of sales and marketing, communications and advocacy, analytics, health outcomes research, business development, and patient access.
With more than 30 years of experience working in the biotech industry, Ambaw has a strong track record of success building and managing multidisciplinary teams from pre-launch to commercialization. Prior to joining FerGene, Ambaw served as the president of Photocure, a company focused on developing and commercializing pharmaceutical products based on photodynamic technology to treat bladder cancer. He grew revenues by 133% over his last 24 months in the organization, which drove an increase in the share price of the company by over 89% in 2019.
Ambaw has also held several global leadership positions with biopharma, biotech and medical device companies, including president of Medical Compression Systems. He started his biopharma career at the Upjohn Company (now Pfizer) and then Sanofi, where he held diverse leadership roles in business development, managed care, marketing and sales positions in specialty, oncology and urology. Ambaw currently serves on the board of directors for BioNJ.
Chief People Officer, Brad Hartman
Brad Hartman will be responsible for overseeing FerGene’s People Strategy & Operations team across Talent Acquisition, Compensation & Benefits, Organizational Effectiveness, Talent Management, and Learning & Development.
Brad brings to FerGene over 15 years of experience working in the biotech industry, having spent most of his time helping build small and mid-sized biotech companies from development through commercialization stages such as Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Dyax (acquired by Shire). He has played a significant role in launching multiple innovative therapies, including Kalydeco® (cystic fibrosis), Kalbitor® (hereditary agioedema), and Incivek® (hepatitis C), which was one of the fastest blockbuster drug launches of all time.
Brad also founded and built out his own Executive Search firm, ConnectedSearch, into a multimillion-dollar annual revenue enterprise.
Senior Vice President, Operations, Michael Seckler
Mike Seckler is a seasoned executive with broad international business experience who oversees business operations at FerGene.
Prior to joining the company, he led the Global Marketing Organization at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, including digital marketing and corporate communications. Prior to this role, Mike was General Manager of Ferring Canada, where he led the business to consecutive years of sales growth. Earlier in his career, he worked in a variety of commercial roles at Ferring, both in the US and internationally.
Mike started his healthcare career at Pfizer and later held roles at Schering-Plough, Pharmacia and a healthcare technology startup company called CareSoft.
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations, Peter Olagunju
Peter serves as senior vice president of technical operations at FerGene where he oversees manufacturing, process and analytical development, quality and supply chain for the company.
Prior to joining the company Peter served as the vice president of patient operations with bluebird bio, a biotech company in Cambridge. In this role, Peter had responsibility for the personalized manufacturing & Centers of Excellence (COE) engagement activities including the collection of patient cells, manufacture of drug product, and operational execution of patient treatments.
During his tenure at bluebird bio, Peter also served as the program leader for Zynteglo®, which was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for patients with transfusion dependent thalassemia. As program lead, he was responsible for the program development team, which was comprised of cross functional representatives spanning research, development, and commercial.
Prior to bluebird bio, Peter served as senior director, global technical operations at Dendreon where he managed the US and EU manufacturing operations and supply chain, including contract manufacturers, external testing sites, and the apheresis network for those regions.
Earlier in his career, Peter had leadership positions within the quality function at ZymoGenetics, a monoclonal antibody organization that was acquired by BMS in 2011.
Vice President, Medical Affairs, Vijay Kasturi, MD
An accomplished hematologist-oncologist and researcher, Dr Vijay Kasturi oversees the medical affairs team at FerGene. For more than 25 years Vijay has built a stellar career establishing and executing global and regional strategies that have brought innovative new treatment options to patients in immunology, hematology and oncology.
Prior to joining FerGene, Vijay led US medical affairs, Oncology for EMD Serono where he had broad leadership responsibilities, including external stakeholder management, evidence generation, medical education and publication strategy. During his time with EMD Serono, Vijay also developed and managed the global medical strategy and integrated development plan for the company’s anti-PD-L1 agent (avelumab), including indications in Merkel cell, urothelial, and kidney cancer.
Earlier in this career, he served as an assistant professor of medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and was the program leader for genitourinary oncology at UMass Memorial Cancer Center. He trained in Hematology-Oncology at the National Cancer Institute and worked as an investigator and physician at the National Cancer Institute and at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
He has authored more than 15 publications and posters and has been the recipient of numerous awards for his work in medicine.
Interim CFO, Wendy DiCicco
With more than 30 years of experience in life sciences, Wendy has a strong record of success in financial, operational and corporate development, Wendy has led many companies through various stages of development and commercialization and currently is a life science advisor serving as a board member to several emerging growth companies or as financial, executive and board advisory consultant to others.
Most recently Wendy was the Chief Operating and Financial Officer of Centinel Spine, where she established the Company’s international operations, and was instrumental in the recapitalization, corporate development and global commercialization initiatives. Previously, Wendy served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Camber Spine Technologies where she significantly expanded the Company’s operations, infrastructure and commercial organization. Prior to Camber Spine, she held several public and private company Chief Financial Officer roles including: Nuron Biotech, Quench USA, Globus Medical and Kensey Nash Corporation. Her career started in public accounting at Deloitte & Touche.
Our Board of Directors
Dominic Moorhead
Dominic Moorhead is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Ferring Pharmaceuticals. In this role, he is responsible globally for Finance, Information Technology, Procurement and Internal Audit.
He has more than 30 years of finance and business experience in the life sciences industry. Prior to joining Ferring Pharmaceuticals in 2017, Dominic held senior leadership roles at Takeda, and prior to that served as CFO at Roche Pharmaceuticals.
A graduate of the University of Nottingham in the UK, he holds a degree in Chemistry and is a UK Chartered Accountant.
Paris Panayiotopoulos, MS
Paris Panayiotopoulos has more than 20 years of experience in biopharma, where he has primarily focused on growth investments in the biotech space.
Paris came to Blackstone Life Sciences in 2018, as part of the acquisition of Clarus. Before working at Clarus, Paris served as President, CEO, and member of the Board of Directors of ARIAD Pharmaceuticals. He also served as President of North American biopharmaceutical business at Merck KgaA, President of the Serono Research and Development Institute, and President of Merck Serono.
Paris holds a Bachelor of Science from University College London and a Master of Science from Cranfield Business School in the United Kingdom.
Aaron Graff, MBA
Aaron Graff is the Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for Ferring Pharmaceuticals.
Since 2010, Aaron led Ferring’s US operations as COO and CEO before moving to his current role. Aaron joined Ferring in 2002 as Vice President Global Marketing, Business Development, and Medical Affairs. After leading the acquisition and integration of Israeli biopharmaceutical company BTG in 2005, he was promoted to Senior Vice President, Asia Region and Global Marketing. Prior to joining Ferring, Aaron worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb for over 17 years in a variety of positions.
Aaron holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan and a Master of Business Administration from the NYU Stern School of Business.
David Meek
David Meek was appointed CEO soon after FerGene was created. He has over 30 years of biopharma experience commercializing and developing innovative medicines for patients across a range of therapeutic areas.
Before moving to FerGene, David was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a Board Member of Ipsen where he was responsible for delivering industry-leading sales and shareholder growth of a global biopharma focused on oncology and specialty care. David has also held several executive leadership positions including Executive Vice President and President of Baxalta Oncology prior to its acquisition by Shire; CCO of Endocyte; Region Head, Novartis Oncology; CEO of Novartis Canada, and Global Franchise Head. He began his biopharma career at Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceutica. David also serves on the board of directors for two publicly traded biotech companies, uniQure (QURE) and Entasis (ETTX). David has been active throughout his career to enhance the innovation agenda of the biopharma industry. He has previously served as an industry member of the board of directors of the Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Association (EFPIA).
Prior to his biopharma career, David was a commissioned officer in the United States Army, where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
Jean Frederic Paulsen
Jean Frederic has a wide range of international business experience.
He was most recently the Senior Advisor to the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia where he advised on international affairs and a number of ministerial initiatives. He is also the chairman of the governing board at the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University.
Jean Frederic graduated from the London School of Economics and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Evan Rachlin, MD, MBA
Dr Evan Rachlin is a Principal at Blackstone Life Sciences.
Before joining Blackstone in April 2019, Evan was the Head of Strategy at Moderna Therapeutics where he helped complete the largest biotech IPO in history. At Moderna, Evan led the development of the company’s long-range plan, as well as the portfolio strategy and executive equity financings. Before joining Moderna, Evan was a Principal at Bain Capital Ventures where he worked with a number of innovative healthcare IT businesses.
Evan holds a Bachelor of Science, a Doctor of Medicine, and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University. Evan supports local organizations and serves on the board of the Boston Children’s Trust.
William Young
Bill Young is an accomplished business leader with extensive experience within life sciences and pharmaceuticals. He spent nearly two decades at Genentech, Inc serving as its COO from 1997 to 1999, and as Chairman and CEO of Monogram Biosciences, Inc from 1999 to 2009.
Previously he served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Biogen Idec and as a member of the board of directors at Biomarin Pharmaceutical. Since 2010, Bill has been a senior advisor at Blackstone Life Sciences and has directorships on the boards of Annexon, SFJ Pharmaceuticals, Praxis Precision Medicine, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
In 1993, Bill was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his contributions to biotechnology. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, an MBA from Indiana University, and an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering from Purdue University.
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