The Mineralys Team

Mr. Congleton has over thirty years of pharmaceutical experience including roles as CEO of both private and public companies. He has worked in cardiovascular, GI, respiratory and CNS companies with a focus on providing solutions for patients and their caregivers. He has raised over $175M in capital for the companies he has led as well launched and led the team behind market leading Copaxone in multiple sclerosis.

Dr. Rodman is an experienced industry and academic leader with 15+ years of leadership experience in Pharma and Biotechnology preceded by 15+ years of academic medical experience. 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. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and named an Established Investigator and Fellow of the American Heart Association. Dr. Rodman’s pharmaceutical experience includes roles at: Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, miRagen, Nivalis and ProQR.

Jessica Ibbitson is VP, 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 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 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 newco’s 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.

Erin is an Executive Assistant to the CEO with over 13 years of experience. She has advanced Microsoft Office skills, experience supporting senior level management and working in busy operational environments. Prior to Mineralys, Erin was at SAP, one of the leading multinational software companies and has traveled the world in her Executive Assistant roles. She graduated with a BA in Communications from Penn State and currently resides in PA with her husband and two kids.

Dr. Slingsby is Founder & Managing Partner at Catalys Pacific. He served as interim CEO during the creation and incubation of Mineralys. Previous to Catalys Pacific, he founded the GHIT 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 MPH and PhD from Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo, and received his MD with honors from the George Washington University; he has authored over 50 peer-reviewed articles and currently serves as Invited Professor at the Graduate School of Medicine of Kyoto University and University of Osaka.

Mr. Congleton has over thirty years of pharmaceutical experience including roles as CEO of both private and public companies. He has worked in cardiovascular, GI, respiratory and CNS companies with a focus on providing solutions for patients and their caregivers. He has raised over $175M in capital for the companies he has led as well launched and led the team behind market leading Copaxone in multiple sclerosis.

Dr. Srinivas Akkaraju is the Founder and Managing General Partner at Samsara BioCapital. Previously, from April 2013 to February 2016, he served as a General Partner of Sofinnova Ventures. From January 2009 until April 2013, he served as Managing Director of New Leaf Venture Partners. Previously, he served as a Managing Director at Panorama Capital, LLC, a private equity firm. 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 October 1998 to April 2001, he was in Business and Corporate Development at Genentech, Inc. (now a wholly owned member of The Roche Group), a biotechnology company, most recently as Senior Manager.

Prior to joining Genentech, Dr. Akkaraju was a graduate student at Stanford University, where he received his M.D. and a Ph.D. in Immunology. He received his undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and Computer Science from Rice University. Dr. Akkaraju also serves as a director of Intercept Pharmaceuticals and Syros Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he served as a director on the boards of Seattle Genetics, Principia Biopharma, Aravive, Inc., Barrier Therapeutics, Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, ZS Pharma, Synageva Biopharma Corp. and Amarin Corporation.

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 (DVC) / 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). Dr. Asam holds an MBA degree from Aston Business School, Birmingham and a MSc and PhD in chemistry from University of Heidelberg. He is a board member of APR Applied Pharma Research and Sublimity Therapeutics, as well as a board observer at Swixx Biopharma and Longboard. We believe that Dr. Asam is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his extensive experience in the life sciences industry, including as an investor and board member.

Mr. Takahashi is Managing Partner at Catalys Pacific. Prior to Catalys Pacific, he was an investment banker with Morgan Stanley for 12 years and played a significant role in over 30 distinguished transactions with an enterprise value of over US$15.0 billion. Prior to working for Morgan Stanley, Takeshi worked at Merrill Lynch’s asset management division.Takeshi graduated from Waseda University with a degree in Political Science and Economics, and holds an M.B.A. from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Proficiently bilingual and bicultural.