Leadership

Marcelo is the President and CEO of Ventus Therapeutics, and has extensive experience in neurology. He has published over 330 peer-reviewed papers in the field of neurology, as well as five books. He has been recognized by the American Academy of Neurology with the Harold G. Wolff Award for excellence in research in neurology.

Marcelo has over 15 years of pharmaceutical experience spanning R&D, medical affairs, and scientific affairs. Prior to Ventus, he was CMO and CSO at Teva Pharmaceuticals, leading the team that developed fremanezumab (Ajovy) for several forms of migraine, as well as deutetrabenazine (Austedo) for the treatment of Huntington's disease and Tardive Dyskinesia, as well as other medicines in neurology, psychiatry, pain, and respiratory diseases approved in the US, Canada, and EU.

Prior to his work in the pharmaceutical industry, Marcelo was a faculty member at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Department of Neurology, as well as the Director of Research at New England Center for Headache and Director of Research at Montefiore Headache Center.

Michael is the Chief Scientific Officer of Ventus Therapeutics. He brings to Ventus more than 18 years of drug discovery leadership experience, which includes deep expertise in the fields of respiratory, immunology, and fibrotic disease drug discovery.

Prior to Ventus, Michael was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Versant Ventures where he played an instrumental role in the formation of Ventus. Prior to joining Versant, he held the position of Executive Director and head of late immunology drug discovery and fibrosis research at Celgene where he led preclinical drug discovery in Immunology and Inflammation. Prior to Celgene, Michael was Director of research for tissue injury and fibrosis at Biogen. He spent much of his early career working at Merck & Co as a Director in the respiratory and immunology department.

Michael has a B.Sc. in biochemistry from the University of Western Ontario and a Ph.D. in molecular and medical genetics from the University of Toronto, working in the lab of Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui and the Hospital for Sick Children. Michael conducted his postdoctoral studies at the Amgen Institute (PMH), where he made seminal discoveries in cardiovascular and reproductive biology.

Christine is the Chief Financial Officer of Ventus Therapeutics. She brings to Ventus more than 15 years of diverse strategic and financial experience within the healthcare sector.

Prior to Ventus, Christine was a Managing Director in the healthcare investment banking group at Morgan Stanley, where she advised biopharmaceutical companies on a broad range of strategic and financing initiatives. Previously, Christine held positions at Credit Suisse, Greenhill & Co, Aisling Capital and HSBC. In her 13 years in investment banking, she executed over $24 billion of transactions, including M&A, collaborations, and financings.

Christine received an MBA with honors from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. with honors in Statistics and a B.S. in Mathematics from The University of Chicago.

Dave is the SVP of Regulatory Affairs and Quality of Ventus Therapeutics. Dave has over 35 years of experience in regulatory, quality, drug, and process development. He was SVP of Regulatory and Quality at Carmot Therapeutics, responsible for regulatory and quality strategies for its three GLP-1/GIP dual agonist small molecule and peptide products. Carmot was acquired by Roche, where Dave worked most recently. Prior to that, he served as SVP at Chiasma. Dave is a protein chemist by training and was twice the head of CMC in the past, with wide-ranging GXP compliance experience supporting GLP, GCP, and GMP. Dave holds a B.S. from the University of New Hampshire.

Xavier is the Head of Clinical Development of Ventus Therapeutics. He brings to Ventus more than 25 years of industry and academic experience in immunology and autoimmunity.

Prior to Ventus, Xavier served as head of clinical development at multiple biotech companies, including Tr1X, Strongbridge Biopharma, and Boston Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for all aspects of clinical development, from IND submission to BLA/NDA filings. His experience spans several therapeutic modalities, including small molecules, biologics, and gene and cell therapy. Prior to his tenure in biotech, Xavier served in positions of increasing responsibility in global immunology clinical development at BMS, GSK, and Novo Nordisk. During his academic career, Xavier discovered cadherin-11 to be the molecule responsible for maintaining synovial architecture and its overexpression in rheumatoid arthritis while at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He also spent over six years at the NIH researching the role of FoxP3 regulatory T cells in systemic autoimmune diseases.

Xavier holds an M.D. from the School of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and is a board-certified rheumatologist.