Bridget Martell
Bridget Martell, M.A., M.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since November 2021. Dr. Martell has also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Artizan Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company from July 2021-August 2023, a part-time Healthcare Venture Partner with AlleyCorp, an early stage venture capital company, from June 2021-May 2023, and an independent board director of Achieve Life Sciences, since March 2020, POINT Biopharma (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Lilly, Inc.), from June 2023-December 2023, and Ayala Pharmaceuticals, since October 2023, all public biopharmaceutical companies. Under the auspice of her consulting practice, BAM Consultants LLC, Dr. Martell has held various leadership positions in early stage, private companies, including Chief Medical Officer of Nobias Therapeutics from August 2020 to August 2021, Verseau Therapeutics from October 2020 to September 2021, and RRD International, a boutique Contract Research Organization, from April 2018 to January 2020. Concurrently, Dr. Martell held various full and part-time positions at Kura Oncology, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, including VP, Clinical Development from October 2017 to January 2020, as Acting Chief Medical Officer from January 2020 to August 2020 and as Senior Scientific Advisor from August 2020 to December 2021. From January 2015 to September 2017, Dr. Martell served as Senior Vice President, New Product Development at Juniper Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-held specialty pharmaceuticals company. From October 2011 to April 2013, she was Executive Director, Head Medical Affairs at Purdue Pharma L.P., a privately-held pharmaceutical company. Prior to that, Dr. Martell held leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Pfizer, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, from 2005 to 2011. Dr. Martell received her B.S. in microbiology from Cornell University, her M.A. in molecular immunology from Boston University and her M.D. from the Chicago Medical School. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine and was an internal medicine chief resident and RWJ Faculty Clinical Scholar at Yale University. Dr. Martell is board certified in both internal and addiction medicine.
James Scopa
James Scopa has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2021. Mr. Scopa served as a Managing Director of MPM Capital from May 2005 to June 2017. Mr. Scopa spent the prior 15 years working at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown and Thomas Weisel Partners advising growth companies in biopharmaceuticals and medical devices. At Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, Mr. Scopa served as Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Healthcare Investment Banking, and at Thomas Weisel Partners, Mr. Scopa served on the Investment Committee for TWP’s Health Care venture fund as well as Co-Director of Healthcare Investment Banking. Mr. Scopa currently serves on the board of directors of various biotechnology companies, including Neuron23, Inc., and Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc. He previously served on the boards of DICE Therapeutics (sold to Eli Lilly), Semma Therapeutics, Inc. (sold to Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated), True North Therapeutics, Inc. (sold to Bioverativ Inc.), and iPierian, Inc. (sold to Bristol-Myers Squibb). Mr. Scopa also currently serves as a member of the Investment Advisory Committee and Advisory Board of One Ventures, an Australian based venture capital firm. Mr. Scopa holds an A.B. from Harvard College, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Heather Preston
Heather Preston is an experienced healthcare investor and company builder, with more than 30 years of industry experience. She is currently a Senior Advisor to TPG Biotech and serves on the Boards of Oxford Biomedica (OXB:LSE), Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT:LSE), and Azura Opthalmics. Previously, she was a Managing Partner of Pivotal BioVentures and a Firm Partner and Managing Director of TPG Biotech. She also held investing roles at JP Morgan Partners and New Enterprise Associates. Prior to her investing career, Dr. Preston spent five years at McKinsey & Co, where she was a leader of their pharmaceutical and medical products consulting practice. Dr. Preston has an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of London and a medical degree from the University of Oxford. Dr. Preston completed a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular biology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University and trained in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and subspecialized in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at UCSF. During her academic medical career, she was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, a Fulbright Cancer Research Scholarship, a Harlech Scholarship and a Science and Engineering Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award.
Carole Nuechterlein
Carole Nuechterlein, J.D., has served as a member of our board of directors since August 2018. Ms. Nuechterlein joined F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. in 2001 and currently serves as Head of the Roche Venture Fund. She currently serves as a member of the boards of directors of a number of private companies, including Enthera S.r.L., Vivet Therapeutics, CiVi Biopharma, Inc., and Mission Therapeutics Ltd. Ms. Nuechterlein previously served as a member of the board of directors of Entrada Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company from April 2020 to June 2023, Millendo Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded clinical stage biopharmaceutical company from March 2017 to June 2021, BCTG Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company from September 2020 to August 2021, and AveXis, Inc., a publicly traded gene therapy company from October 2014 to May 2017. She received a B.A. in English and Humanities from Valparaiso University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan.
K. Peter Hirth
K. Peter Hirth, Ph.D., has served as a member of our board of directors since August 2018. In 2001, Dr. Hirth co-founded Plexxikon, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, and served as its Chief Executive Officer until April 2013. Dr. Hirth currently serves on the boards of directors of IO Biotech, a publicly traded clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, Vaxcyte, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company, and several private companies. Dr. Hirth holds a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Heidelberg University, Germany and completed his post-doctoral work at the University of California, San Diego.
Margarita Chavez
Margarita Chavez is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive, with over 25 years of dealmaking experience in the healthcare industry. She is currently a Venture Partner at Wellington Partners and is an independent investor and advisor in early-stage biotechs. Margarita also currently serves on the Board of Newron Pharmaceuticals (NWRN:SIX). Margarita was previously Managing Director at AbbVie Ventures and was responsible for investments in Morphic Therapeutics, Alector Therapeutics, Carisma Therapeutics, Jnana Therapeutics, Enthera Pharmaceutials, Palleon Pharmaceuticals, and Accent Therapeutics, among others. As a Director on the Licensing & Acquisitions team of Abbott / AbbVie, Margarita was involved in the in-licensing of Oralissa, and the acquisitions of Immuven and Solvay. Early in her career, Margarita practiced as a corporate and securities lawyer, advising clients on mergers, acquisitions, public and private financings at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP in Silicon Valley. Outside of her venture work, Margarita serves on the Board of Regents at Santa Clara University and on the Board of P33 Chicago.
Kristina Engeseth, M.B.A.
Kristina Engeseth, MBA, joined Aligos in 2021 and is currently the Vice President, Head of People & Culture. In this position, Ms. Engeseth serves as a member of our Senior Leadership Team and is responsible for the human resources and facilities functions. She brings more than 20 years of diversified HR experience from a variety of different sectors. Prior to joining Aligos, Ms. Engeseth served in various HR leadership and diversity, equity, and inclusion roles at companies such as Nike, Electronic Arts, and Google. She began her career in the healthcare space, working for companies such as the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Ms. Engeseth obtained her Bachelor’s and MBA degrees from University of Wisconsin-Madison with specializations in Strategic Human Resource Management and Healthcare Administration.
Tse-I Lin
Tse-I Lin, Ph.D., is currently Vice President, Early Compound Development and Site Head of Aligos Therapeutics at our site in Leuven, Belgium. In this position, Dr. Lin serves as a member of our Senior Leadership Team. Tse-I started his professional career as a Post-Doc at Bayer Pharmaceutical in Germany. He subsequently joined JNJ/Tibotec BVBA in 2003 and worked for over 12 years at Janssen Pharmaceutical in antiviral drug discovery and development, focusing on HBV and HCV, including the HCV protease inhibitor, Simeprevir, which was launched in the US in 2013. In 2010, Tse-I took a leadership position in Shanghai, China for JNJ where he built the Antiviral R&D group. In 2013 he joined Roche as the Head of Molecular Virology Group and led discovery groups in both Shanghai and Basel, Switzerland. In 2015 he became the Leader of the China Acceleration Strategy for the Roche Infectious Disease group. In 2016 he re-joined Janssen’s Infectious Disease group and continued to work on HBV, as an Early Development Project Team Leader. Dr. Lin obtained his B.S. in Public Health from National Taiwan University, Masters and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Freie Berlin University in Germany.
David B. Smith
David B. Smith, Ph.D., has been our Head of Chemical Operations since August 2018. In this position, Dr. Smith serves as a member of our Senior Leadership Team and is responsible for all chemistry related functions of the company at our South San Francisco location, including basic and applied chemical research in the areas of Process, Analytical, Nucleos(t)ide and Oligonucleotide Medicinal Chemistry and all related chemical outsourcing efforts. He is also responsible for the coordination and management of Aligos Intellectual Property across our sites. From May 2015 to August 2018, he served as Vice President at Janssen Pharmaceuticals and was the Global Disease Area Stronghold Leader for Hepatology in the Infectious Diseases Therapy Area. From February 2010 to April 2015 he held positions as Associate Director, Director and Senior Director of Product Development at Alios and Janssen. Dr. Smith started his industrial career as an Associate Research Scientist at Syntex in 1991, where he held positions as Research Scientist and Research Scientist II. Following the acquisition of Syntex by Roche in 1995, he continued in this role rising to Principal Research Scientist in 1998, a position he held until February 2010. During the period from 1993 to 2000, while at Syntex and Roche, he held a simultaneous annual position during winter quarter as Consulting Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University, teaching a Special Topics course in Organic Chemistry. Dr. Smith was an NIH post-doctoral scholar at Stanford University from 1989 through 1991. He earned his BS in Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1984, graduating with highest honors. His graduate work was initiated at Yale University, where he earned the MS and MPhil degrees in 1988, and he completed his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1989. Dr. Smith has been a Medicinal Chemist, Project Team Lead Chemist, Discovery Team Leader and Development Team Leader and has worked in the area of Infectious Diseases for over 20 years, helping to advance multiple small molecule, nucleos(t)ide and oligonucleotide drug candidates into clinical trials. He is a co-inventor on 75 issued US patents and a co-author on more than 45 peer reviewed scientific publications.