Brian Sullivan, CEO and Co-Founder
Brian has over 25 years of experience founding and building successful technology companies. He was chairman and CEO of Sterilmed, a medical device company, from 2003 until its sale to Johnson & Johnson for $330 million in 2011. Previously he was cofounder and CEO of Recovery Engineering, a filtration company that he took public and subsequently sold to Proctor and Gamble for $265 million in 1999. He has received 7 U.S. patents. He graduated magna cum laude with distinction from Harvard College with an A.B. degree in economics.
Lance Laing, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer and Co-Founder
Lance’s career spans more than 20 years in drug discovery research and technology development. He received his doctorate in biophysics and biochemistry from The Johns Hopkins University and completed a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University Medical School. He has received 19 U.S. patents. His drug discovery research career began at Scriptgen/Anadys Pharmaceuticals (purchased by Novartis), where he worked under Professor Peter Kim, the recently retired president of Merck Research Laboratories. Most recently, Lance served as an executive director for an international drug discovery and development company.
Lance has built a world-class science team that includes drug discovery, cell signaling, high-throughput drug screening, molecular oncology, and human primary cell culture scientists.
Vicky Hahne, CFO
Vicky has more than 20 years of financial leadership experience, including the past 10 years in the healthcare industry. Prior to joining Celcuity, Vicky served as Controller of Respiratory Technologies Inc., a medical device manufacturer. While at Respiratory Technologies, she played a key role in the due diligence process to sell the company to Koninklijke Philips. Prior to Respiratory Technologies, she served as Controller for Ability Network Inc., a healthcare information technology company. From September 2007 through June 2012, Vicky served as Controller of Sterilmed Inc., a medical device reprocessing company, where she played a key role in the sale of the company to Johnson & Johnson. Prior to these roles, Vicky held several senior financial positions at SimonDelivers Inc., including Chief Financial Officer. Vicky has extensive experience in early stage, high growth companies with responsibilities including financial controls and stewardship, financial analysis, mergers and acquisitions, building infrastructure and systems. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Accounting from Northern State University and received her CPA certificate in 1990.
Eric Lindquist, CBO
Eric has over 20 years of experience in the diagnostic and companion diagnostic industry. Prior to joining Celcuity, he was the Global Vice President of Oncology and Rare Disease at Natera, where he launched Signatera to the pharmaceutical industry. He previously served as the Global Vice President of Customer and Companion Diagnostics at Asuragen, a molecular testing company, and as the Director of Business Development and Alliances for Companion Diagnostics at Roche Diagnostics. Early in his career, he was a sales specialist for molecular and companion diagnostics at Abbott Laboratories. He also spent time at Johnson & Johnson’s Veridex division, where he managed co-development partnerships with pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies.
Arthur Decillus, M.D., Chief Medical Officer
Arthur had over 25 years of experience in oncology clinical research and drug development. Previously he was the Chief Medical Officer for Eleven Biotherapeutics (now known as Sesen Bio Inc.), a late-stage clinical company developing next-generation antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapies. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of Clinical Research and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Exelixis, Inc., an oncology-focused biotechnology company. He also served as Executive Director of Oncology Development at Novartis and Group Director of Bristol-Myers Squibb. Arthur has been involved in the development of several commercialized oncology drugs, including SPRYCEL® (dasatinib), AFINITOR® (everolimus), FARYDAK® (panobinostat), and CABOMETYX® (cabozantinib). Arthur was a member of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP), a National Cancer Institute clinical cooperative group at the University of Pittsburgh. He has served as a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology working group on economic analysis in Phase 3 clinical trials and the National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria Review Committee. He holds an M.D. from the University of Rochester and completed an internal medicine residency at Medical College of Virginia, followed by a fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh.
John R. MacDonald, Ph.D., DABT, SVP of R&D
John has over 30 years of experience in all aspects of pharmaceutical drug development and licensing. He led the preclinical and clinical R&D efforts at MGI Pharma, an oncology-focused company, from 1996 through 2005 and served as a consultant through MGI’s acquisition by Eisai in 2008. Prior to MGI he worked in large pharma at Warner-Lambert (now Pfizer) and in academia as an NIH funded researcher at UC San Francisco. Since 2006 he has remained active in drug development as a consultant advising academic institutions, startup, and small pharma companies as the founder of Ridge Road Consulting and as the acting CEO of PepTx, Inc., a University of Minnesota startup. Dr. MacDonald earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Arizona.
Sheri Smith, Head of Clinical Operations (Acting)
Sheri Smith has over 30 years of clinical research and operations experience in the pharmaceutical industry. For the past 17 years, she has served as President of Courante Oncology, a specialty consulting company that provides customized clinical research services to pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Prior to that, she was the Senior Director of Clinical Operations at MGI Pharma, Inc., an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company, where she had supervisory and technical oversight of clinical research, data management, statistics, medical writing and documentation personnel. Early in her career, she was a statistician and clinical research associate at Abbott Laboratories and held various clinical research positions at 3M Pharmaceuticals.
Marie DeGayner Kuker, Head of Regulatory
Marie is the founder and president of Kuker Regulatory Consulting, a consulting firm specializing in biopharmaceutical regulatory affairs and compliance. She has more than 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently as head of global regulatory affairs for 3M Pharmaceuticals and Drug Delivery Systems before founding her consultancy in 2007. She received her B.S. degree in Pharmacy from the University of Minnesota. She is Regulatory Affairs Certified and an appointed Fellow of the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society. She is an Executive in Residence at the Technology Commercialization Discovery Launchpad at the University of Minnesota and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Center for Orphan Drug Research, Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology. She also teaches drug/device regulatory affairs in a Masters of Science program at St. Cloud State University.
Bernhard Lampert, Ph.D., Head of CMC
Bernhard has over 30 years of drug development experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, including ten years in large, fully integrated pharmaceutical companies, including Gilead and GSK. He is currently working as an independent pharmaceutical consultant covering analytics (including bioanalytics), formulation development, API and drug product manufacture, and CMC regulatory documentation. He received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Georgia in 1989. Bernhard has authored/co-authored publications in peer-reviewed journals and is the co-inventor on patents on the manufacture of antiviral drugs.