Management
Ken Song, MD
President and CEO
Ken is President and CEO at RayzeBio. Ken’s experience spans clinical medicine, basic science research, product development and global commercialization, venture capital, and entrepreneurship. Ken is also the co-founder and Chairman of the Board at Ablaze Pharmaceuticals, which is focused on radiopharmaceuticals development for the Greater China market. Prior to RayzeBio, he was President and CEO of Metacrine, Inc. where he led the organization from research to mid-stage clinical development and also positioned the company for an IPO. From 2010 to 2016, Ken was the co-founder and CEO of Ariosa Diagnostics (acquired by Roche) where he led the organization from early research to global commercialization of the Harmony Prenatal Test in over 100 countries. Ken also served as Executive Chairman of Omniome (acquired by Pacific Biosciences), a sequencing technology company, helping it mature from a research to product development company.
Prior to being an operator and entrepreneur, Ken worked as a venture capitalist at Venrock as well as consultant at McKinsey & Company. Ken trained in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and specialized in gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Washington along with a scientific research fellowship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. He earned his B.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.D. from UCSF.
Susan Moran, MD, MSCE
Chief Medical Officer
Susan has over 20 years of combined industry and academic experience, successfully leading programs through IND clearance to full regulatory approval. Susan has led development, registration, and post-marketing support of products for bile duct, urothelial, gastric, breast, prostate, and thyroid cancer and pediatric low-grade glioma. Before joining RayzeBio, she was Chief Medical Officer at QED Therapeutics, an affiliate of BridgeBio Pharma, where she oversaw the clinical development of infigratinib for oncology and skeletal dysplasia indications, leading to the approval of Truseltiq. Prior to QED, Susan was VP and Head of Clinical Development for Puma Biotechnology, contributing to the approval of Nerlynx. Before Puma, she held senior positions at Millennium and Genzyme. Susan also serves on the board of directors of BioAtla.
Susan is a board-certified internist and previously held faculty appointments at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. Susan received her BA from the University of Virginia, MD from Duke University, and MS in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Arvind Kush
Chief Financial Officer
Arvind has over 13 years of investment banking experience. Before joining RayzeBio, he was a Managing Director in the healthcare investment banking team at Bank of America Securities, advising biopharmaceutical companies on strategic and financing transactions. During his 13 years at Bank of America Securities, he executed over $100 billion in M&A transactions and over $12 billion in equity and equity-linked financings. Prior to joining Bank of America Securities, he was an engineer at Caritor India Pvt. Ltd.
Arvind holds a Bachelor in Engineering in Computer Science from Visvesvaraya Technological University and an MBA from Goizueta Business School, Emory University.
Kimberly Ma, MS
Senior Vice President, Clinical Operations
Kim has over 17 years of clinical research experience in the biotech / pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining RayzeBio, Kim served as Senior Vice President, Clinical Operations at Odonate Therapeutics where she led an in-house clinical operations team in running multiple clinical trials in metastatic breast cancer (Phases 1-3). From 2014 to 2017, Kim was Director, Clinical Project Management at Pfizer and led cross-functional teams for several early development trials in Pfizer’s oncology portfolio. Prior to Pfizer, Kim held positions of increasing responsibility at various CRO and Sponsor companies, including Medtronic Diabetes, ICON plc, and PPD.
Kim earned her Masters of Science in Regulatory Science from the University of Southern California (USC) School of Pharmacy and her Bachelors of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
Eric Bischoff
Senior Vice President, Development & Operations
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.
Kathie Huynh
Senior Vice President, Finance
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.
Abhi Bhat, PhD
Senior Vice President Chemistry, Head of Discovery
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.
Nicholas Smith, PhD
Senior Vice President, Chemistry Innovation
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.
Gary G. Li, PhD
Senior Vice President, Biology & Translational Medicine
Gary has over 15 years of drug discovery and translational research experience at both strategic and operational levels. Before joining RayzeBio, he was SVP, Translational Medicine at QED Therapeutics, leading all aspects of translational research and companion diagnostics. Prior to QED, he was VP of Translational Research at Ignyta, where he built a highly productive research team from ground up and led multiple programs to NDA and IND milestones. Before Ignyta, he held various scientific positions with increasing responsibilities at Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, contributing to target ID/validation, drug discovery and multiple drug approvals.
Gary earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is an inventor of multiple patents, and has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and delivered over 70 invited talks and meeting presentations.
Board of Directors
Richard Heyman, PhDÂ (Chairman)
Dr. Heyman is an accomplished biotechnology veteran with over 25 years of operational experience. Dr. Heyman was recently the Chairman of Amunix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which was acquired by Sanofi, and Vividion Therapeutics, which was acquired by Bayer.
Dr. Heyman currently serves on the board of directors for Enliven, ORIC Pharmaceuticals, PMV Pharma, and Vividion Therapeutics. He is also the Vice Chairman of The Salk Institute, on the Board Foundation for the American Association for Cancer Research, and on the executive committee at the University of California San Diego Moores Cancer Center. Previously, Dr. Heyman was the co-founder and CEO of Aragon and Seragon Pharmaceuticals, two San Diego biotech companies focused on discovering and developing therapeutics targeting hormone-dependent cancers. Johnson & Johnson purchased Aragon in 2013 and Genentech/Roche purchased Seragon in 2014. He was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute, and received a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Connecticut.
Aaron Kantoff
Aaron is a co-founder of RayzeBio and currently serves as a Venture Partner in the Medicxi investment team. Prior to joining Medicxi, Aaron was a partner with Apple Tree Partners (ATP), where he was a key member of the life science investment team since 2011. While at ATP, he played a leading role in assembling several ATP portfolio companies, previously serving on the boards of Akero Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AKRO), Corvidia Therapeutics (acquired by Novo Nordisk), Elstar Therapeutics, Limelight Bio, and Syntimmune acquired by Alexion). During his time at ATP, Aaron was also a board observer at Stoke Therapeutics (NASDAQ: STOK) and led many of ATP’s crossover and public biotech investments. Aaron is also a founding board member of Silagene. Prior to joining ATP, Aaron held roles in private equity and investment banking. Aaron received a BS in Finance and International Business from NYU Stern’s School of Business.
Maha Katabi, PhD
Maha Katabi is a General Partner at Sofinnova Investments. Dr. Katabi is an experienced investor with over two decades in managing public and private biotech companies through bull and bear markets. She is focused on investing in development stage biopharmaceuticals and is currently a member of the board of directors of Aerovate (AVTE), Quanta, and Vera (VERA), and was recently a board member of Gyroscope (acquired by Novartis) and Amplyx (acquired by Pfizer).
Prior to joining Sofinnova in 2019, Maha was Managing Partner of Oxalis Capital. Prior to founding Oxalis, Maha was Partner at Sectoral Asset Management, where she formed and led a dedicated investment team and advisory board to drive investments in private companies. Two of these companies were Ascendis (ASND) and Apellis (APLS), both also Sofinnova portfolio companies. Additionally, she was a Portfolio Manager for a family of funds that invested in small cap healthcare companies. She started her career in venture as a principal investor with associate and principal roles at T2C2/Bio and Ventures West.
Maha received her BSc In Biology and PhD in Pharmacology from McGill University, where she was a Cancer Research Society fellow, and is a CFA charter holder since 2011. She currently serves as Chair of the board of Exactis Innovation, a not-for profit oncology precision medicine network.
Yi Larson
Yi Larson currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer of LianBio, a global biopharmaceutical company dedicated to bringing paradigm-shifting medicines to patients in China and major Asian markets.
Previously, she was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Turning Point Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage precision oncology company. In this role, she oversaw all aspects of the finance and accounting organization, led corporate strategy and business development, helped raise over $1 billion through 3 follow-on offerings, and spearheaded deal-making activities, including the out-licensing of Turning Point’s lead drug candidates for the Chinese market. During her tenure, Yi helped grow Turning Point from $1 billion to $5 billion+ in market cap.
Prior to Turning Point Therapeutics, Ms. Larson was a Managing Director of Healthcare Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs where she worked for over 12 years. She advised senior management teams and boards on a range of strategic and financial matters, successfully executing over 50 deals, including $70 billion in M&A activities and $30 billion in financings.
She has also served as a member of the board of directors of Olema Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, since April 2021. Ms. Larson earned an MBA, concentrated in Finance, from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She also earned a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Alex Rosen, MD
Alex Rosen is a partner at Venrock and focuses on biotechnology investments for Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, the firm’s public and crossover funds. Prior to joining Venrock in 2016, Alex earned an MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, an MBA from the Wharton School, and an AB in Economics from Princeton University. In addition to his clinical training, Alex worked at McKinsey & Company and in business development at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
Aaron Royston, MD
Aaron Royston, M.D., M.B.A. is a Managing Partner at venBio with a background in life science investing, healthcare strategy, and as an entrepreneur. Dr. Royston led venBio’s investments into Akero Therapeutics (Nasdaq: AKRO), Harmony Biosciences (Nasdaq: HRMY), Apellis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: APLS), and Menlo Therapeutics (Nasdaq: MNLO), and currently serves as a director on the boards of multiple private companies. Prior to joining venBio, Dr. Royston was a member of the investment team at Vivo Capital, a life science venture capital firm. Previously, he worked at Bain & Company, where he advised biotechnology companies on a range of strategic and operational issues. Earlier in his career, Dr. Royston coordinated clinical research at Mount Sinai Medical Center, where his research has been published and presented in multiple medical journals and conferences. Dr. Royston received his B.S. in biological sciences from Duke University, and his M.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.
Ken Song, MD
Ken is President and CEO at RayzeBio. Ken’s experience spans clinical medicine, basic science research, product development and global commercialization, venture capital, and entrepreneurship. Ken is also the co-founder and Chairman of the Board at Ablaze Pharmaceuticals, which is focused on radiopharmaceuticals development for the Greater China market. Prior to RayzeBio, he was President and CEO of Metacrine, Inc. where he led the organization from research to mid-stage clinical development and also positioned the company for an IPO. From 2010 to 2016, Ken was the co-founder and CEO of Ariosa Diagnostics (acquired by Roche) where he led the organization from early research to global commercialization of the Harmony Prenatal Test in over 100 countries. Ken also served as Executive Chairman of Omniome (acquired by Pacific Biosciences), a sequencing technology company, helping it mature from a research to product development company.
Prior to being an operator and entrepreneur, Ken worked as a venture capitalist at Venrock as well as consultant at McKinsey & Company. Ken trained in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and specialized in gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Washington along with a scientific research fellowship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. He earned his B.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.D. from UCSF.
Mary Tagliaferri, MD
Dr. Mary Tagliaferri has a highly accomplished biotechnology career and is currently Executive Clinical Fellow and Senior Vice President of Nektar Therapeutics, where she also previously served as Chief Medical Officer. Nektar is a leading research-based biopharmaceutical company that discovers and develops innovative medicines in areas of high unmet medical need including treatments for cancer and auto-immune disease. At Nektar, Dr. Tagliaferri has been responsible for numerous clinical studies evaluating novel therapeutics in oncology and she was also instrumental in establishing key strategic partnerships. Previously, she served as Chief Medical Officer and Chief Regulatory Officer for Kanglaite-USA and was Co-Founder, President and Board Member of Bionovo, Inc. Dr. Tagliaferri currently serves on the board of Enzo Biochem. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree at Cornell University and her medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Tagliaferri was named to the Women who Lead in Life Sciences and Most Influential Women in Business lists by the San Francisco Business Times in 2019 and was recognized as Woman of the Year, 2012, by the State of California, Assembly District 14. She has been lead author or contributor to approximately 80 peer-reviewed journal publications.
Angie You, PhD
Dr. You recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Amunix Pharmaceuticals, where she orchestrated a sale of the company to Sanofi for over $1.2 billion. Prior to joining Amunix, Dr. You served as Chief Business & Strategy Officer and Head of Commercial at Sierra Oncology from 2014 to 2018, where she helped the company through a successful initial public offering and led the company’s strategic and transactional business and commercial efforts. Prior to Sierra Oncology, Dr. You served as Chief Business Officer of Aragon Pharmaceuticals from 2010 through its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson in 2013. In previous roles, Dr. You served as Chief Business Officer at Synosia Therapeutics and Ren Pharmaceuticals. Before joining Ren Pharmaceuticals, Dr. You focused on new company formation at Venrock Ventures. Dr. You also serves on the board of ORIC Pharmaceuticals. Dr. You earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Harvard University and a B.A. in Chemistry from Harvard College.