Dan has 30 years of experience in the pharma/biotech industry, including over 20 years specifically in oncology commercialization, development, and launch. He joins RayzeBio from Mirati Therapeutics, where he was the Vice President of Worldwide Commercial Portfolio Planning, responsible for strategic input into the Mirati pipeline and the commercial lead for their clinical development plan. Previously, Dan worked for Bristol Myers Squibb Oncology in various capacities across US and worldwide markets, most recently as the Vice President, US Oncology Commercialization, responsible for their immuno-oncology asset launches in thoracic and gastrointestinal tumors. He has also served in positions at Abraxis Bioscience, Aventis Oncology, and Hoffmann-La Roche, where he led numerous successful projects and launches. Dan is a graduate of Rutgers University and completed the General Management Program at CEDEP in France.
Nicholas Smith has more than 20 years of drug discovery experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently at Metacrine Inc., he was a Senior Vice-President of Chemistry and oversaw the chemistry, DMPK and Intellectual Property groups.
Prior to Metacrine, he was at Seragon Pharmaceuticals and Aragon Pharmaceuticals, where he was Vice President of Chemistry and oversaw medicinal chemistry projects, including the development of two estrogen receptor degrader clinical candidates, and a next-generation androgen receptor antagonist program. In addition, Dr. Smith was responsible for the Aragon and then Seragon intellectual property portfolios and aspects of clinical manufacturing.
Prior to Aragon, he was Head of Chemistry at Kalypsys Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Kalypsys, Dr. Smith was a Research Fellow at Merck & Co., where he led chemistry groups that contributed to clinical candidates in the areas of obesity and inflammation.
Kevin has nearly 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience. Over his career, Kevin has successfully launched and managed several CDMO business units focused on and IND enabling drug product development and GMP clinical manufacturing within the US and Canada. Kevin initiated his career with Dura and Elan Pharmaceuticals developing inhaled drug products before transitioning to various CDMO leadership positions, including at Pharmatek/Catalent and Eurofins Canada, where he established and led profitable CDMO business units. Additionally, Kevin has designed and lead over 10 GMP facility build projects focused on oral drug product and clinical packaging operations in the US and Canada. Kevin is a graduate of San Diego State University with continuing education from the University of California San Diego.
Kathie has over 20 years of accounting and finance experience. Prior to joining RayzeBio, she served as VP of Finance at Metacrine, where she led the buildout of the accounting and finance infrastructure and was involved in the preparation efforts of its initial public offering. Prior to Metacrine, she served as VP of Finance at Biotix where she led all aspects of accounting and finance operations and was involved in the business development efforts resulting in its acquisition by Mettler Toledo. Prior to Biotix, she served in various accounting positions with increasing responsibilities at Zogenix, Metabasis and Discovery Partners International.
Kathie is a certified public accountant (inactive) and holds a B.S. in Business Administration (Finance) from San Diego State University.
Amreen Husain, MD is an accomplished physician and drug developer who brings more than a decade of experience across large pharma and small biotech. Her extensive experience in oncology drug development spans all phases and multiple therapeutic areas and modalities including immuno-oncology, ADCs, large and small molecules; as well as a multiple global regulatory filings.
Amreen joins us from Gilead Sciences where she was VP of Oncology Clinical Development and led the International Development team in building Gilead’s global clinical teams across the EMEA, APAC AND LATAM regions; in addition, she was a key member of the corporate development late-stage oncology group. Prior to Gilead she was SVP at EQRX and led development for multiple portfolio products in oncology and inflammatory disease and at Bolt Biotherapeutics where she led clinical development for novel immune-stimulating antibody drug conjugates (ISACs). Amreen started her career in industry at Genentech where she was clinical lead on multiple global regulatory filings for Avastin in gynecologic cancers and then built the development program for Tecentriq in breast and gynecologic cancers. She was the cross-indication team lead for Tecentriq and was instrumental in leading and developing the strategy for the first to market sub-cutaneous CPI. Her experience includes being a Therapeutic area head in safety sciences for ophthalmology, immunology and infectious diseases.
Amreen is passionate about drug development and bringing innovative, impactful therapies to patients. She is a board-certified gynecologic oncologist who completed her residency and fellowship trainings at Cornell University Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center respectively. Following her training she held a faculty position at Stanford University School of Medicine where she was a key member of the cancer center’s clinical trials scientific committee as well as a PI on multiple industry and cooperative group trials and a member on cooperative group committees. She completed her medical education at New York Medical College, NY and her undergraduate education with a degree in Chemistry and Philosophy at Bryn Mawr College, PA.
Megan brings over 15 years of industry experience, most recently at Mirati Therapeutics, where she was Head of Corporate Communications, responsible for external and internal communications, including for the company’s first FDA approved product, executive thought leadership and crisis communications. Previously, Megan held senior leadership roles at biotech- and pharma-focused strategic communications and public affairs agencies, counseling clients on FDA approvals, launches and stakeholder relations. Megan is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, and holds a Masters degree from the S.I. Newhouse School and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.
As Vice President of Human Resources, Sephanie Heintz is responsible for building RayzeBio’s organizational culture and overseeing key areas such as performance management, organizational design, talent management, and total rewards, aligning the RayzeBio people strategy with the objectives Bristol Meyers Squibb.
With a 27-year career spanning energy, healthcare, and life sciences, Stephanie brings 18 years of dedicated HR experience, including extensive work in biotech and pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining RayzeBio, Stephanie was the Head of Human Resources for the US and Netherlands at Neogene Therapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca, which focuses on neoantigen T cell receptor therapies for solid cancers. In this capacity, she managed HR for over 200 employees in a rapidly growing and dynamic environment.
Stephanie’s career is marked by significant HR leadership roles at AnaptysBio, Dendreon, and Endo/Par Pharmaceuticals. At these companies, she was instrumental in establishing HR functions, spearheading strategic initiatives, and enhancing employee engagement and organizational culture. Her recent role included leading the HR integration project for Neogene/AstraZeneca, ensuring a seamless harmonization process.
She holds a Master of Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles, a Master of Science in Human Resources from Chapman University, and a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Biology from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Stephen brings over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry to RayzeBio, joining the team from Mirati Therapeutics. At Mirati, Stephen led the Data and Analytics function, supporting commercial, medical affairs, and clinical operations. Prior to Mirati, Stephen held various commercial analytics leadership positions at Halozyme, Novartis, and Amgen. Stephen received his BA in history and an MA in legislative affairs from The George Washington University, as well as a PhD in political science from the University of Connecticut. He has taught political science at the University of Connecticut and the University of South Florida.
Stephen enjoys trail running, country music, and UCONN basketball.
Eric has a strong multidisciplinary background in metabolic disease and oncology targets with over 20 years of experience in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining RayzeBio, he served as Vice President Development & Operations at Metacrine, Inc. a mid-stage clinical development company where he oversaw nonclinical development of the lead clinical assets for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Prior to Metacrine, he served as Senior Director of Operations at Seragon Pharmaceuticals and was involved in business development efforts resulting in the $1.7B acquisition of Seragon by Genentech, for an upfront payment of $725M and $1B in contingent development milestones. Prior to Ser agon, he served as Director of Operations at Aragon Pharmaceuticals on the development of apalutamide which was successfully commercialized following Aragon’s acquisition by Johnson & Johnson for $1B. In previous positions, Eric worked as a pharmacologist with numerous scientific publications on oncology and metabolic disease targets at companies including X-Ceptor Therapeutics, acquired by Exelixis, Ligand Pharmaceuticals and Hybritech, Inc. Eric is a graduate of the University of California at San Diego.
Abhi has over 20 years of broad cross functional drug discovery experience spanning bio-conjugates, small molecules, and peptides across multiple therapeutic areas. Most recently, Abhi was the Sr. VP and Head of R&D at Design Therapeutics where he oversaw medicinal chemistry, biology, CMC and formulation functions and delivered the lead clinical asset for treatment of Friedrich ataxia along with a preclinical pipeline of GeneTAC™ molecules for treating nucleotide repeat disorders. Abhi was previously the CSO at Pyramid Biosciences where he oversaw the development of two distinct Trk-Kinase inhibitors currently in clinical development for oncology and dermatology indications. Prior to Pyramid, Abhi held R&D leadership roles at Ipsen, Redwood, Pfizer and CovX where he led projects from concept validation through early clinical development in oncology, metabolic diseases, pain and inflammation. Abhi received his PhD from The Ohio State University and conducted postdoctoral research at the Univ. of Arizona.
