The Mineralys Team

We are a committed, passionate team focused on developing a targeted approach for the treatment of hypertension through our expertise and focus on the patient.

MANAGEMENT

Jon Congleton

Chief Executive Officer

David Rodman, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Adam Levy

Chief Financial Officer & Chief Business Officer

Jessica Ibbitson

Senior Vice President, Clinical Operations

Robert McKean

Senior Vice President, CMC

Cindy Berejikian

Executive Vice President, Operations

Danielle Bradbury

Senior Vice President, Quality Assurance

Jeff Fellows

Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs

Jose Breton, CPA

Vice President, Finance & Controller

Michael Tortorici

Vice President, Clinical Pharmacology

Borut Cizman, MD

Vice President, Clinical Development

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

BT Slingsby, MD, PhD, MPH

Founder & Executive Chair

Jon Congleton

Chief Executive Officer

Srinivas Akkaraju, MD, PhD

Alexander Asam, PhD

Derek DiRocco, PhD

Daphne Karydas

Olivier Litzka, PhD

Glenn P. Sblendorio​

CLINICAL ADVISORY BOARD

Mineralys benefits from a clinical advisory board with unparalleled expertise in cardiovascular and renal disease.

James Matthew Luther, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology Director, Vanderbilt Hypertension Clinic Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Matt Weir, MD

Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD, MA

Senior Physician, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Head of the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School

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Jon Congleton

Chief Executive Officer

Jon Congleton has served as our Chief Executive Officer and as a member of our Board since November 2020. Prior to joining us, Mr. Congleton was the Chief Executive Officer of Impel NeuroPharma, Inc. from September 2017 to May 2020. Prior to that, he served as the Chief Executive Officer and as a director of Nivalis Therapeutics, Inc. from January 2015 to February 2017. Mr. Congleton was previously at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. (Teva) where, over 18 years, he held positions in general management and global strategic marketing, including Senior Vice President of Teva’s Global Central Nervous System Disorders from April 2013 to December 2014, Senior Vice President of the Global Medicine Group from November 2011 to April 2013, and General Manager of Teva Neuroscience, Inc. in the United States. Prior to joining Teva, Mr. Congleton spent ten years in a variety of commercial roles with predecessor companies of Sanofi. Mr. Congleton earned a B.S. in marketing from Kansas State University.

David Rodman

Chief Medical Officer

David Rodman, M.D. has served as our Chief Medical Officer since January 2021. Previously, Dr. Rodman served in various roles at miRagen, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. Dr. Rodman was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and named an Established Investigator and Fellow of the American Heart Association. Dr. Rodman received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and was subsequently Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado.

Adam Levy

Chief Financial Officer & Chief Business Officer

Adam Levy has served as our Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer since March 2022. Prior to joining Mineralys, he was the Chief Financial Officer at Sanifit Therapeutics until the company was acquired by Vifor Pharma in 2022. Previously, Adam served as the Chief Business Officer at Brickell Biotech from 2019 to 2020 and led the organization’s financial operations transition as it became a publicly listed company on Nasdaq. Prior to that, he served as the Chief Business Officer at miRagen Therapeutics from 2016 to 2019, where he was responsible for a variety of functions including financial strategy, investor relations, business development, legal affairs, intellectual property, project and program management, and human resources. Between 2000 and 2016, Mr. Levy held multiple investment banking positions at Merrill Lynch, Jefferies Group and Wedbush Securities. Mr. Levy received a B.S. in Business Management and Marketing from Cornell University.

Jessica Ibbitson

Senior Vice President, Clinical Operations

Jessica Ibbitson is Senior Vice President, Clinical Operations at Mineralys and is responsible for the delivery of our clinical trial strategy and execution. Prior to joining Mineralys, Jessica led the Clinical & General Operations department at ProQR Therapeutics which included Clinical Operations, Project Management and Digital Health Technologies and was the head of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Clinical Site Services department responsible for start-up of cystic fibrosis clinical development programs which led to the expedited approvals of Kalydeco®, Orkambi® and Symdeko®. Jessica has spent her career focusing on diseases with a high unmet medical need and developing new methods for accelerating clinical trials in order to get potential treatments to patients as quickly as possible.

Robert McKean

Senior Vice President, CMC

Robert McKean has over 30 years’ experience in branded drug pharmaceutical development including preformulation studies through technology transfer to commercial manufacturing organizations. Rob is Senior Vice President, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC) at Mineralys Therapeutics, Inc. He manages drug substance and drug product production for lead drug candidates. Prior to Mineralys, Dr. McKean held the position of VP, CMC at Oncopia Therapeutics where he developed protein degraders for oncology and VP, CMC at Teva Branded Pharmaceuticals where he spent 18 years responsible for chemical and drug product development. Dr. McKean has extensive drug development experience for new chemical entities and GMP manufacturing of clinical dosage forms. His experience covers traditional solid and liquid dosage forms plus nanoparticle drug delivery, poorly soluble drug delivery and transdermal drug delivery. Dr. McKean contributed to 9+ new drug application (NDA) approvals and numerous IND/CTA submissions in the US and Europe. Prior to Teva/Cephalon, Dr. McKean held similar positions at Aventis, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer and Searle. He received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Hartford and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dr. McKean has several patents and publications in the areas of drug crystallization, new drug physical and chemical characterization and new drug formulations.

Cindy Berejikian

Executive Vice President, Operations

Cindy Berejikian has 30 years of strategic and operational experience in biopharmaceutical drug development with executive roles in several start-ups including VP Program Management at Otonomy Inc. Ms. Berejikian has been a program operations executive consultant over the past 13 years for multiple start-up biopharmaceutical companies in which she has played an integral role in moving lead candidates from pre-IND to phase 2. This included acting as a key interface between each start-up and its vendors. Ms. Berejikian has also worked with notable academic Founders to launch successful newcos such as Forty Seven Inc. Other accomplishments include partnering with CEOs and VCs to evaluate and optimize the portfolio of their existing small companies such as Adheron Therapeutics, resulting in pharma acquisition. Previously, Ms. Berejikian spent 16 years at Amgen Inc. which included Director, global program manager for various oncology products including the global BLA filing, approval and launch of Aranesp in Oncology. Ms. Berejikian received her BA in Pharmacology from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and her MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Danielle Bradbury

Senior Vice President, Quality Assurance

For over 20 years, Danielle Bradbury has been a leader and expert in quality assurance for the pharmaceutical industry. Ms. Bradbury’s in-depth knowledge of drug development was acquired on clinical trials that spanned a diverse range of therapeutics that included small molecules, monoclonal antibodies, and combination drug/device products. Her expertise in global operations and quality assurance spans a broad portfolio of early- and late- stage products developed by companies that include Galera Therapeutics, Inclinica, BTG, Actelion, Johnson and Johnson, and, currently, Mineralys. Prior to joining the industry sector, Ms. Bradbury worked in the field as a clinical trial nurse and served as a member of the Institutional Review Board at the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Bradbury received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Wilmington University.

Jeff Fellows

Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs

Jeff is a pharmaceutical industry professional with over 35 years of drug development experience leading Regulatory development efforts ranging from early-stage compounds to post-approval support across numerous product platforms and therapeutic areas covering both North America and Europe. Jeff has been a Regulatory Affairs consultant for the past 16 years where he has filed multiple INDs and lead a number of compounds into Phase 3. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Jeff worked at Cell Therapeutics as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and 10 years at Amgen where he was involved in multiple BLA/NDA filings and approvals including anakinra, cinacalcet, and interferon alfacon-1. He has a B.S. in Microbiology from Oregon State University.

Jose Breton, CPA

Vice President, Finance & Controller

Mr. Breton has over 10 years of financial and accounting experience in biotech. Prior to joining Mineralys, he was the Chief Accounting Officer and Controller of Brickell Biotech, Inc. where he led the organization’s accounting and financial reporting operations. Mr. Breton successfully oversaw Brickell through multiple capital raises totaling over $180 million and a listing on the Nasdaq via reverse merger. Between 2014 and 2015, Mr. Breton was an auditor at Deloitte LLP. Mr. Breton began his career in 2012 as a Client Manager at Global Resource Partners, Inc., an accounting and business advisory firm. In this role, Mr. Breton had overall responsibility for clients’ financial reporting, planning and budgeting, internal controls and equity administration. Mr. Breton holds a B.B.A. degree in accounting and finance and a master’s degree in taxation from the University of Miami.

Michael Tortorici

Vice President, Clinical Pharmacology

Michael Tortorici, PharmD, PhD has over 17 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in clinical pharmacology and nonclinical development for small molecules, biologics, and oligonucleotides across a wide range of diseases. Mike is currently Vice President and Head of Clinical Pharmacology at Mineralys Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to Mineralys, he held the position of Vice President and Head of Nonclinical Development at Aro Biotherapeutics, where he was responsible toxicology, bioanalytical sciences and clinical pharmacology. Prior to that he was Executive Director and Head of Clinical Pharmacology at CSL Behring, with responsibility of leading the team delivering on clinical pharmacology and pharmacometrics aspects for all programs in the portfolio. He received his PharmD and PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy.

Borut Cizman, MD

Vice President, Clinical Development

Dr. Borut Čižman earned his medical degree from the University of Ljubljana School of Medicine, Slovenia and began his clinical journey at the University Medical Center in Ljubljana, specializing in the internal medicine. After completing further clinical nephrology and epidemiological training, Dr. Čižman joined the Electrolyte and Hypertension Division’s faculty at the Perelman School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine. Concurrently, he took on the role of Chief of the Renal Section at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, a position he held until 2006.

Transitioning from academia after seven years, Dr. Čižman joined Baxter Healthcare, spearheading research on devices, solutions, and software tailored for peritoneal dialysis. In 2013, he took the helm of the anemia of CKD ASCEND program at GSK R&D. This program culminated in approval of daprodustat by FDA for the oral treatment of anemia in dialysis population. By 2021, he joined his first pharmaceutical startup: Inozyme Pharma, focusing on the prevention of vascular calcification in CKD and addressing ultra-rare diseases linked to ENPP1 and ABCC6 deficiencies.

In 2023, he furthered his career by joining Mineralys Therapeutics as the Vice President of Clinical Development. Here, he is dedicated to working on lorundrostat, a novel selective aldosterone synthase inhibitor targeting uncontrolled hypertension and the
progression of CKD.

Dr. Čižman’s scientific pursuits encompass a range of nephrological interests, including anemia of chronic kidney disease and ESA hyporesponsiveness, progression of CKD, immune kidney diseases, vascular calcifications, and resistant/uncontrolled hypertension. His contributions to medical literature are significant, with publications in premier medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. Additionally, he has published
in prominent kidney-focused journals, including CJASN, NDT, AJKD, Kidney International, Kidney International Reports, Clinical Kidney Journal, Kidney Medicine, and Kidney 360.

BT Slingsby, MD, PhD, MPH

Founder & Executive Chair

Brian Taylor “BT” Slingsby, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H. founded Mineralys on May 31, 2019 and has served on our board of directors since that time and as Executive Chairman. Dr. Slingsby is Founder & Managing Partner at Catalys Pacific, a venture capital firm focused on life sciences. In addition to serving as founding CEO of Mineralys during its inception and incubation, Dr. Slingsby has served as founding CEO of Pathalys Pharma, Inc., Kirilys Therapeutics, Inc. and Aculys Pharma, KK. Previous to Catalys Pacific, he founded the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, the world’s first public-private fund focused on the development of new medicines for low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Slingsby graduated from Brown University with honors, earned his M.P.H. and Ph.D. from Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo, and received his M.D. with honors from the George Washington University.

Dr. Srinivas Akkaraju, MD, PhD

Srinivas Akkaraju, M.D., Ph.D. has served on our board of directors since February 2021. Dr. Akkaraju has served as Managing General Partner of Samsara BioCapital, a venture capital firm, since he founded the firm in 2017. From April 2013 to March 2017, Dr. Akkaraju was a General Partner and then a Senior Advisor of Sofinnova Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on the life sciences industry. From January 2009 until April 2013, Dr. Akkaraju was a Managing Director of New Leaf Venture Partners, an investment firm focused on the healthcare technology sector. From 2006 to 2008, Dr. Akkaraju served as a Managing Director of Panorama Capital, a venture capital firm that he co-founded along with other members of the former venture capital investment team of J.P. Morgan Partners, a private equity division of JPMorgan Chase & Co. Prior to co-founding Panorama Capital, Dr. Akkaraju was with J.P. Morgan Partners, which he joined in 2001 and of which he became a partner in 2005. From 1998 to 2001, Dr. Akkaraju worked in business and corporate development at Genentech, Inc. (now a member of the Roche Group), a biotechnology company. Dr. Akkaraju has been a director of publicly-traded biopharmaceutical companies Intercept Pharmaceuticals since October 2012, Jiya Acquisition Corp. (where he also serves as Chairman) since November 2020, and Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since June 2017. Dr. Akkaraju also serves on the board of directors of a number of private companies. During the past five years, Dr. Akkaraju previously served as a director of Aravive, Inc. (formerly Versartis, Inc.), aTyr Pharma, Inc., Principia Biopharma Inc., and Seattle Genetics, Inc. (now Seagen Inc.). Dr. Akkaraju received his M.D. and a Ph.D. in Immunology from Stanford University and holds undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and Computer Science from Rice University.

Alexander Asam, PhD

Alexander Asam, Ph.D. has served on our board of directors since February 2021. Since 2007, Dr. Asam has been an Investment Advisor of HBM Partners and brings more than 20 years of experience in the life sciences and private equity businesses. He was a former managing director and partner of Deutsche Venture Capital / Deutsche Bank from 2001 to 2007 and held various positions at Hoechst AG, Aventis S.A. (now: Sanofi) and LION Bioscience AG, among others, as well as a member of the IPO Core Team (dual listing Germany and USA). He is a board member of 1000Farmacia Research, as well as a board observer at Swixx Biopharma and Aculys. Dr. Asam served on the board of directors of publicly-traded Arcutis Biotherapeutics from October 2019 until October 2020. Dr. Asam holds an M.B.A. degree from Aston Business School, Birmingham and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in chemistry from University of Heidelberg.

Derek DiRocco, PhD

Derek DiRocco, Ph.D. has served on our board of directors since June 2022. Dr. DiRocco has been a partner at RA Capital Management, L.P., a multi-stage investment manager dedicated to evidence-based investing in healthcare and life science companies that are developing drugs, medical devices and diagnostics, since December 2020 and was previously a principal from December 2017 until December 2020, an analyst from June 2015 to December 2017 and an associate from July 2013 to June 2015. Dr. DiRocco has served on the board of directors of iTeos Therapeutics, Inc. since March 2020 and 89bio, Inc. since April 2018, each of which is a publicly-traded biotechnology company. Dr. DiRocco also serves on the board of directors of several privately held biotechnology companies. Dr. DiRocco holds a B.A. in biology from College of the Holy Cross and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Washington. He conducted his postdoctoral research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

Daphne Karydas

Ms. Karydas currently serves as President and Chief Financial Officer of Flare Therapeutics Inc. where she has been since October 2021. Prior to Flare Therapeutics, she served as the Chief Financial Officer of Syndax Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: SNDX) from July 2020 to October 2021. From April 2017 to May 2020, Ms. Karydas held several roles at Allergan plc, including Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Financial Planning & Analysis. Prior to her senior executive and top manager roles at these biotech and pharmaceutical companies, Ms. Karydas spent more than 15 years in investment banking and asset management roles that focused exclusively on the healthcare space, including biopharmaceuticals, life sciences and medical technologies. Ms. Karydas has previously served on the boards of directors at Elicio Therapeutics, LogicBio Therapeutics, Inc., and Eucrates Biomedical Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: EUCR). Ms. Karydas received a B.A. and M.S. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Olivier Litzka, PhD

Olivier Litzka, Ph.D. has served on our board of directors since June 2022. Dr. Litzka has served as a partner at Andera Partners, a venture capital firm, since 2006 and started his business career in 1998 with Mercer Management Consulting. In 2000, he joined 3i Group plc with a focus on biopharma and medtech investments. Dr. Litzka currently serves on the boards of MMI Microsystems, T-Knife, Allecra Therapeutics, HighLife Medical, MedLumics, Tricares and JenaValve. He was also a board member of Corvidia, Sapiens, Endosense, Novexel, Supersonic Imagine and Arvelle Therapeutics, up until their respective acquisitions. Dr. Litzka has a Ph.D. in molecular microbiology from the Institut für Genetik und Mikrobiologie in Munich.

Glenn P. Sblendorio

Glenn P. Sblendorio was Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of IVERIC bio, Inc., a publicly-held biotechnology company, from July 2017 until it was acquired by Astellas Pharma in July of 2023. Prior to IVERIC, Mr. Sblendorio was President and Chief Financial Officer of The Medicines Company from March 2006 through March 2016 and was a member of the board of directors of The Medicines Company from July 2011 through December 31, 2015. Before joining The Medicines Company, Mr. Sblendorio was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from February 2002 until it was acquired by OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in November 2005. Mr. Sblendorio also served as a Managing Director of MPM Capital Advisors from 1998 through 2000. Mr. Sblendorio also serves as a member of the board of directors of Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and as a member of the board of directors Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. Mr. Sblendorio received his B.B.A. from Pace University and his M.B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University and is a graduate of the Harvard Advanced Management Program.