Our People

Vlad Coric, M.D.

MEET OUR CEO

In his over seven years as CEO of Biohaven, Dr. Coric led the company in the pursuit of its bold vision from an entrepreneurial start-up into a modern, publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the mission of advancing novel medications to underserved patients. His leadership translated into dramatic growth for the company, from its initial pre-money valuation of about $6M to the sale of the company for $13B in total considerations. Dr. Coric successfully led the company through its first FDA approval and the launch of Nurtec® ODT (rimegepant; CGRP receptor antagonist) for the acute treatment of migraine. A little more than one year later, Biohaven transformed the migraine treatment paradigm with the FDA approval of an expanded indication for Nurtec ODT for the preventive treatment of episodic migraine — becoming the first all-in-one migraine medication for the acute and preventive treatment of migraine. Biohaven also received approval in Europe and other major markets — advancing its “treat and prevent” migraine therapy to the approximately one billion patients suffering from migraine across the world. Under his leadership, the company also filed an NDA for its second drug candidate, zavegepant, as the first intranasal CGRP antagonist for ultra-rapid relief of migraine. Capitalizing on the extraordinary patient and shareholder value that Biohaven has built with Nurtec ODT and its CGRP franchise, Dr. Coric spearheaded the acquisition of Biohaven by Pfizer in May 2022 for approximately $13 billion in total consideration.

Dr. Coric has positioned Biohaven on its new course continuing its growth trajectory, harnessing its proven drug development expertise, extensive portfolio of clinical-stage assets and robust discovery research capabilities. The pillars of the company’s success — Commitment to Patients, Winning with Science and Creating Shareholder Value — continue to be the foundation of Biohaven’s ongoing growth.

Under Dr. Coric’s stewardship, Biohaven has focused on discovering, developing and commercializing life-changing therapies that address unmet medical needs. The company’s focus on scientific innovation is evidenced in its broad therapeutic portfolio comprised of early- and late-stage product candidates targeting neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases, including rare disorders, with little or no treatment options. These include epilepsy, pain and mood disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In February 2022, Dr. Coric led Biohaven’s acquisition of a novel Kv7 channel targeting platform — adding the latest advances in ion-channel modulation to Biohaven’s neuroscience portfolio.

A proponent of innovation that extends beyond the R&D cycle to all aspects of pharmaceutical operations, Dr. Coric has been instrumental in establishing Biohaven’s agile, digital-centric operating and commercial model. Today, Biohaven is an industry leader in the use of digital tools and technologies to increase patient engagement and enhance the success of its novel treatments. Dr. Coric has also led the expansion of Biohaven to international markets, including the formation of subsidiaries in Ireland and Asia-Pacific.

Dr. Coric has more than 20 years of drug discovery and clinical development experience at Yale School of Medicine and Bristol-Myers Squibb prior to leading Biohaven. Within the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Coric has expertise working across therapeutic areas including neuroscience, virology, oncology and immuno-oncology. During his career, he has been involved in multiple drug development programs, including marketed drugs or filed NDAs such as Nurtec ODT (rimegepant; oral calcitonin related peptide antagonist), zavegepant (intranasal calcitonin related peptide antagonist), Abilify® (aripiprazole; partial dopamine agonist), Opdivo® (nivolumab; anti-PD1), Yervoy® (Ipilimumab; anti-CTLA-4), Daklinza® (daclatasvir; NS5A inhibitor), and Sunvepra® (asunaprevir; NS3 inhibitor).

Since July 2001, Dr. Coric has also continued to serve as an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. He previously served as the inpatient chief of the Yale Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit and the director of the Yale Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Research Clinic. He has served as president of the Connecticut Psychiatric Society. Dr. Coric has authored more than 65 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Coric completed his internship at Yale-New Haven Hospital and residency training at the Yale Psychiatry Residency Training Program, where he also served as the program-wide chief resident for the Yale Department of Psychiatry, and chief resident on the PTSD service at the West-Haven Connecticut Veterans Administration Hospital.

Dr. Coric earned his medical degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and was an honors scholar in neurobiology and physiology at the University of Connecticut, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree. He was named one of the Top 25 Healthcare Technology Leaders of Connecticut for 2022 by The Healthcare Technology Report. He was the recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 Award in the New York region.

Matthew Buten

Matt has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare investing and more than 15 years as an advisor in investment banking, structuring deals for both small and large capitalization companies. From 2012 to 2021, he was a Managing Director at Foresite Capital, a dedicated healthcare venture and growth equity fund. He served many roles during his nine years at Foresite, including opening their NY office, sourcing and helping manage public and private investments, developing and maintaining relationships with Wall Street banking, research and sales and participating in the Investment Committee.

Prior to that, he was a healthcare portfolio manager at Catapult/Millennium Partners focused on U.S. healthcare services, medical technology, life science tools, big pharmaceutical, and specialty pharmaceutical companies. While at Millennium, Matt managed $400-600 million in combined long/short market neutral capital. Prior to joining Millennium, he was co-founder and co-manager of Sapphire Capital, where he focused on medical technology, diagnostics, life science tools suppliers, diagnostic services, and healthcare information technology.

Matt started his career as an investment banking associate focused on mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financings and spin-offs. He spent 10 years at Smith Barney as a Director in Investment Banking before becoming Managing Director and Head of Healthcare Investment Banking for Needham and Company. While at Needham, he sourced healthcare venture capital opportunities for their venture capital fund, Needham Capital Partners. After that, Matt was an equity analyst at Argus Partners, a $1 billion healthcare fund where he focused on medical technology, life science tools and diagnostics and specialty services (PBMs). Matt graduated from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in economics.

Cliff Bechtold, M.S.

Cliff is a 27-year veteran of the Pharmaceutical industry with a broad drug development experience and a track record of optimizing organizations and capabilities. Prior to joining Biohaven, Cliff was the Development Lead for Genetically Defined Diseases at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS). In this role he led the teams which developed innovative strategies and executed on two novel programs in neuromuscular and neurodegenerative diseases. In addition to these disease areas, Cliff has in-depth experience in all stages of program advancement from discovery to launch in diverse disease areas including virology, oncology, immunology, cardiovascular and neuroscience. This includes key leadership roles for the development and launch of Reyataz® and Sprycel®. At BMS, he also served as Head of Biologics Strategy and Operations with a key role in optimizing the company’s biologics development and manufacturing capabilities. As the Head of Strategic Operations at Adnexus Therapeutics, Cliff oversaw the organizational optimization and strategic integration. Through his career, Cliff has held multiple positions in Discovery, Clinical Development and leadership roles in Project Planning and Management. Cliff is currently serving as a member of the TREAT-NMD Advisory Committee for Therapeutics (TACT), ImagingDMD scientific advisory board and consults for Project Parent Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD). Cliff holds a Master of Science degree in Medical Microbiology from Creighton University School of Medicine and a Bachelor of Science degree from South Dakota State University.

Kimberly Gentile

Ms. Gentile has 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in all phases of clinical research from Phase 1 through Phase 4, predominantly in the areas of psychiatry and neurology. She has deep, hands-on experience in most key operational aspects of drug development, having held positions at small biotechnology companies, contract research organizations, investigative sites as well as small and large pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Biohaven in 2014, Ms. Gentile spent 14 years in the Clinical Operations group at Bristol-Myers Squibb where she was responsible for operational oversight of large-scale global programs in the areas of psychiatry and neurology, including the management of complex global programs in Anxiety Disorders, Treatment Resistant Depression and Alzheimer’s Disease. She has a proven track record of successfully managing complex and challenging drug development programs within set timelines and budgets.

Irfan Qureshi, M.D.

Irfan is a Board-certified neurologist and physician-scientist who brings 13 years of industry and academic experience to Biohaven from Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, including early and late stage clinical development, translational research, and patient care. At BMS, he served as clinical lead for several small molecule and biologic compounds targeting rare disease indications. Irfan propelled the BMS-986168/BIIB092 anti-tau antibody development program in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy from Phase 1 into a global registrational trial (PASSPORT Study). This innovative program was licensed from BMS to Biogen in 2017. Irfan continues to hold appointments of Clinical Assistant Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Medicine at Einstein where he conducted translational research on neurological and psychiatric disorders with an emphasis on emerging technology platforms (epigenetics, non-protein-coding RNAs, and stem cells and regenerative medicine); and also served as an investigator in clinical trials evaluating a spectrum of novel diagnostics, small molecule and biological therapeutics, and medical devices.

Irfan has a deep interest in biomedical technology innovation and has served as an advisor to early stage companies, investors, and university technology transfer offices (i.e., Einstein, Burke Research Institute, SUNY Downstate Medical Center). Prior to medical school, he was an associate at Anthem Capital Management, a venture capital firm. Irfan completed his neurology training and earned his M.D. from Einstein (Hunt Scholar). He also holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University (Goldwater Scholar). He has published more than 35 articles and book chapters, in leading journals such as Nature Reviews Neuroscience, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Trends in Neurosciences.

Bruce D. Car, DVM, Ph.D., DACVP

Dr. Car joined Biohaven on August 1, 2022, having served since January 2020 as Chief Scientific Officer at Agios Pharmaceuticals, where the research focus was initially oncology and genetically defined diseases (GDD), later driving the portfolio to sole GDD approaches. Prior to Agios, Bruce spent 25 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and its legacy companies, working across all therapeutic areas and drug modalities. For more than two decades, he held roles of increasing responsibility in drug discovery, covering all therapeutic areas, drug platforms, India R&D site, and different stages of discovery. In early 2017, he became the first head of the BMS Translational Medicine function, where he built a cohesive team of over 300 scientists and specialists covering biomarkers through data science and pharmaco-diagnostics. During his tenure with BMS, Dr. Car contributed to progressing approximately 250 internally discovered drug candidates and over 18 drug registrations. Dr. Car left BMS as the interim head of Drug Discovery. Dr. Car received a degree in Veterinary Medicine from The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (’83), and his Ph.D (’89). from Cornell University, NY, USA. He holds specialty certifications in anatomic and clinical pathology. Dr. Car undertook his postdoctoral studies in immunology and inflammation at the Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Berne and ETH/University of Zurich in Switzerland.

*DVM equivalent Australian qualification (BVSc Hon).

Warren Volles, J.D.

Warren has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare legal functions and over 10 years of legal experience in the chemical industry and other disciplines. Warren is registered to practice in Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island. He is also a registered U.S. patent attorney.

Prior to joining Biohaven, Warren founded IPraxus Legal, a global law firm focusing on intellectual property and transactions for companies in the biopharma industry. From 2002 to 2016, Warren was a member of the Legal Department at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he held roles as senior IP counsel and regional counsel for the Asia Pacific region. Prior to joining Bristol-Myers Squibb, Warren worked as a licensing transaction counsel for UOP, a technology licensing company in the petroleum refining industry and as an IP counsel for the Dow Chemical Company.

Warren received a B.S. in chemical and materials engineering from the University of Connecticut and a J.D degree from Pace University.

Nick Kozauer, M.D.

Dr. Kozauer joined Biohaven in April 2023 after an illustrious career at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) where he served in positions of increasing responsibility, most recently as Director of Division of Neurology 2, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. During his tenure at the FDA, Dr. Kozauer was responsible for the regulation of all Investigational New Drug (IND) applications, New Drug Applications (NDAs), and Biological Licensing Applications (BLAs) for drugs being developed and/or approved for the treatment of neuroimmunologic conditions, epilepsies, migraine, stroke, traumatic brain injury, inner ear disorders, and other products.

Prior to joining the FDA, Dr. Kozauer worked in academia at the Johns Hopkins Memory Center where he oversaw clinical care of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, and in private practice focusing on complex neuropsychiatric conditions. Dr. Kozauer completed his residency and fellowship training at Georgetown University Medical Center and Johns Hopkins, respectively, and received his M.D. from Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School.

Jimi Ayodele, MBA

Jimi joins Biohaven with more than 28 years of finance experience. Most recently, with Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc., Jimi served in numerous, evolving roles during his 16-year tenure. His experiences included establishing the first corporate planning function, transaction support leadership for business development, finance alliance and partnership management lead, and R&D finance. From his start with Otsuka, Jimi led finance activities for the commercialization and launch of Abilify, as well as other successful assets in the renal, oncology, and neuroscience categories. Jimi ended his tenure with Otsuka as head of operations and finance for the three-year-old Otsuka-incubated startup, Otsuka Digital Health. Prior to his time at Otsuka, Jimi’s experience included time with Celera Genomics during the race to map the human genome, as well as work with PricewaterhouseCoopers both domestically and in Europe. He earned his accounting degree from Morgan State University and MBA from New York University. Jimi is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Elyse Stock, M.D.

Dr. Stock has 30 years of clinical and drug development experience. After practicing psychiatry for 11 years she joined the pharmaceutical industry. Within the industry, Dr. Stock has spent the last 19 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb developingnumerous experimental agents across multiple therapeutic areas including neuroscience, oncology, immunology and cardiovascular. She has led numerous large and complex programs across all aspects of development including those leading to the marketing of products such as ABILIFY®, ORENCIA®, and EMPLICITI®. She is an experienced developer of both biologic and non-biologic compounds. Dr. Stock completed her residency at Payne Whitney Clinic, Cornell Medical Center and her fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital National Medical Center in Washington D.C. She earned her medical degree at New York University School of Medicine.

Michael Bozik, M.D.

Dr. Bozik has more than 30 years of experience in drug discovery and development and in academic research and practice. He comes to Biohaven after 17 years as President and CEO of Knopp Biosciences, a Pittsburgh-based biotechnology company that discovered BHV-7000. Over his career, Dr. Bozik has led pioneering discovery and clinical research programs in cancer immunotherapy, neurodegeneration, neuroexcitablility, and neuropsychiatric diseases, including leading the team that secured the New Drug Approval of ABILIFY® (aripiprazole). He is the author of more than 20 peer-reviewed publications, the principal investigator on NIH grants totaling more than $3 million, and an inventor on 28 issued U.S. patents related to drugs developed for ALS, epilepsy, and asthma.

Dr. Bozik previously served at Bristol-Myers Squibb as Vice President of Neuroscience Clinical Development and Vice President of Research, Development, and Business Operations in the Specialty Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Medicines Group. He directed the Brain Tumor Center at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and headed its Division of Neuro-Oncology. He is a recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and a director of Areteia Therapeutics and Life Sciences PA. He received his M.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and conducted his fellowship training in neurology and neuro-oncology at the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh.

George Clark, CPA

George has over 10 years of experience in the areas of SEC reporting, accounting advisory, internal controls, and corporate finance. He joined Biohaven from KPMG, LLP where he was a Senior Manager in the Hartford Audit Practice, leading various audits for one of the firm’s largest clients. Prior to KPMG, George held positions in the finance group at The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. and began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP in the Hartford Assurance and Advisory Practices. George is a graduate of the University of Connecticut where he earned Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Richard Bertz, Ph.D.

Rick Bertz joined Biohaven Pharmaceuticals in 2019 as Vice President, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics. Rick has worked in pharmaceutical industry for over 25 years, most recently as Vice President and Head, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics at Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Rick has been involved in all phases of clinical drug development, with a focus on the analysis and interpretation of clinical pharmacology and pharmacometric data. He has mentored, coached, managed and developed numerous clinical pharmacologists and drug development scientists. Rick has been integrally involved in the completion of components of NDA submissions that have led to worldwide regulatory approval for several antiviral drugs for treatment of HIV and HCV.

Rick has coauthored over 75 peer-reviewed publications and given numerous invited presentations at national and international scientific meetings. He previously held a faculty appointment as Professor and Associate Dean at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Pharmacy, where he is currently an Adjunct Professor. Rick received a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Wisconsin and earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh Clinical Pharmaceutical Scientist Graduate Program.

Amy O'Donnell, J.D., M.D.

Amy O’Donnell, J.D., M.D., is a neurologist who joined Biohaven as Vice President, Head of Pharmacovigilance after 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Amy spent the last 6 years at Janssen where she led the Safety Management Team for two Neuroscience drugs and served as medical lead for a medical affairs post-marketing study.

Prior to that, she spent 7 years at Inventiv Health, where she served as medical monitor for studies in a variety of Neuroscience indications including pain, multiple sclerosis, autism, Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia. Amy spent the early part of her career at Bristol-Myers Squibb in drug safety and Neuroscience clinical development. Amy received her MD from Brown University Medical School. After finishing her Neurology residency at Brown, she completed a fellowship in Headache Disorders at Harvard. She also has a law degree from New York University Law School and a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College.

David Pirman, Ph.D.

David has  over 10 years experience in drug discovery primarily focused on understanding fundamental metabolism applied to oncology, immunology and genetically defined diseases. Previously, he lead the metabolism and proteomics department at Agios Pharmaceuticals. He spent over eight years starting  as bench level scientist working and leading projects across the portfolio and indication space. The team he led supported all aspects of a project’s life cycle from developing a fundamental understanding of target biology to leading translational approaches to better understand clinical observations. He and his team’s efforts have led to over 20+ publications and numerous successful academic collaborations at Agios and contributed to the successful development of IDH inhibitors and PK activators. His main interests lie at the intersection of technology and biology particularly applied to drug discovery. He recently joined Biohaven to lead the development of our discovery labs in Cambridge, MA.

David earned is PhD at the University of Florida under Rick Yost and completed his postdoc at Pfizer in Groton, CT where he built metabolism platforms to better understand the impacts of pharmacological regulation of enzymes in metabolic disease indications.

Steven Dworetzky, Ph.D.

Dr. Dworetzky’s career spans more than 30 years of drug discovery, primarily in ion channel pharmacology of the central nervous system. Before joining Biohaven, he was Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Discovery Research at Knopp Biosciences, a Pittsburgh-based biotechnology company, where he led the discovery and preclinical development of BHV7000 and the creation of Biohaven’s Kv7 activator platform and led nonclinical dexpramipexole research in eosinophil biology.

Over his 17 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb, he led discovery programs in neuroprotection, schizophrenia, and pain, and discovered and first cloned multiple members of the KCNQ gene family. He is an inventor on 17 issued U.S. patents and the author of more than 40 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Dworetzky received his Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of Florida, performed post-doctoral research at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Molecular Physiology at Yale University.

Jennifer Porcelli

Jen joined Biohaven as VP of Investor Relations in 2022. She has more than two decades of experience providing investor relations, corporate communications, and capital formation/fundraising support to biotechnology and life sciences companies, most recently serving as Head of Investor Relations of Centessa Pharmaceuticals.

In prior years, Jen was a Managing Director at Solebury Trout, a leading life sciences investor relations and capital markets advisory firm where she worked closely with Biohaven following its initial public offering in 2018. Jen started her career at JPMorgan and UBS Investment Bank, where she held evolving roles across marketing, communications, and corporate access functions.

Jen holds a BS in Business Administration from Georgetown University.

Rajesh Kumar, Ph.D.

Rajesh Kumar Ph.D. joined Biohaven as Vice President of Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) in 2018. He has more than 20 years of experience in developing immediate and controlled release pharmaceutical dosage forms, including drug-device combination products. He has extensive experience and clear understanding of the phase appropriate requirements for developing products from feasibility to commercialization. Prior to joining Biohaven, he served as a Senior Director of CMC at the Proprietary Products Division of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories/Promius Pharma where he was responsible for CMC and device related development, overseeing external R&D and manufacturing partners for exploratory, clinical and commercial products. At Dr. Reddy’s he was responsible for the development and commercial manufacturing of Zembrace® (autoinjector). Dr. Kumar also spent 13+ years at Alkermes, Plc with increasing responsibilities and represented or led the CMC function in the development of multiple long acting complex injectable products including BYDUREON®, Aristada®, Risperdal® Consta® and Vivitrol®

Dr. Kumar obtained his Bachelor and Masters degree in Pharmacy from India and his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Auburn University, AL.

Gene Dubowchik, Ph.D.

Gene has 30 years of experience in medicinal chemistry, specifically in Neuroscience and Oncology. He joined Biohaven from Bristol-Myers Squibb where he led efforts in antibody-drug conjugates for cancer and contributed to diverse neuroscience programs in migraine (CGRP antagonists), depression (CRF antagonists, ion channel blockers), FK-506 binding proteins (FKBPs, immunophilins), Alzheimer’s Disease (GSK-3 inhibitors) and sleep (melatonin agonists and antagonists). He oversaw chemist teams leading to the discovery of two CGRP receptor antagonist clinical candidates, BHV-3000 (formerly BMS-927711) for oral delivery, and BHV-3500 (formerly BMS-742413) for intranasal delivery. He also developed the dipeptide-based linkage system used in the antibody drug conjugate (ADC) Adcetris®, approved by the FDA in 2011, and numerous other ADCs now in clinical trials and pre-clinical development. Gene received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Princeton University and did postdoctoral work at the University of British Columbia. He received his bachelor’s degree from Franklin and Marshall College, majoring in chemistry and history.

Marianne Frost, M.A.

Ms. Frost has over 20 years of drug development experience with 18 years in various roles within Regulatory Affairs. She joined Biohaven after 11 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb, 5 years at CuraGen Corporation, and 5 years at Wyeth working in the therapeutic areas of neuroscience, virology, immunology, oncology and women’s health. Her experience spans all phases of drug development from preclinical research through Phases 3 and marketed products. Her numerous successful health authority interactions globally include approval of a new drug application for Daklinza and several Abilify sNDAs in the U.S. Ms. Frost has a B.A. in psychology from Northeastern University and a M.A. in behavioral neuroscience from the University of Connecticut.

David Stock, Ph.D.

Dr. Stock has more than 20 years of experience developing biostatistical solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. David came to Biohaven from Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), where he was the Therapeutic Area Lead for Genetically Defined Diseases. While at BMS, David also served as Statistical Lead for late stage HIV compounds, and Head of Nonclinical Biostatistics. In addition, he oversaw the response-adaptive clinical trial which established the efficacy of Rimegepant. David’s publication record includes articles on evaluating the value of backup compounds in drug development, large sample inference techniques for high throughput screening, and numerous clinical trials. He is currently Co-chair of the Council of Biopharmaceutical Statistics, former Chair of the Quantitative Sciences in the Pharmaceutical Industry (QSPI) Committee and was an elected member of the PhRMA Biostatistics and Data Management Technical Group (BDMTG). David first entered the pharmaceutical industry from Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) where he worked on projects for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy. David received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, with a specialization in Statistics, at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Ashwini Ghatpande, M.S.

Ashwini has over 14 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in writing and editing clinical and regulatory documents and 10 years of diverse scientific research experience from academic institutions and pharmaceutical industry.

Prior to joining Biohaven, Ashwini worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb as a group director , where she led a team of writers to develop and implement regulatory documentation and product labeling strategy across therapeutic areas to support and facilitate global submissions and approvals. Ashwini’s medical writing expertise spans a wide variety of regulatory documents that are part of both US and international dossiers. In her previous role, she was part of a cross functional leadership team that implemented change management initiatives to improve cycle time and quality of regulatory documentation for global submissions. She brings extensive experience in resource planning, management and staff development to establish strategic, scientific, and technical expertise in support and delivery of high-quality regulatory documents. Ashwini earned her Masters and M.Phil in Molecular and Developmental Biology from the University of Pune, India.

Victoria Wirtz, M.S.

Victoria is a biostatistician with over 28 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She was previously employed at Bristol-Myers Squibb where she was promoted from protocol statistician to the virology lead for the HIV and HBV portfolio where she oversaw all phases of clinical trials. Victoria has led her teams to successful global filings for both adult and pediatric indications while also helping to build a new function within the statistics department, Planning and Execution (P&E). Victoria managed a team of P&E leads overseeing oncology, cardiovascular and virology, working closely with the internal teams and vendors to ensure high quality analyses. As a member of cross-functional teams, she has been part of due diligence for in-licensing assets as well as selecting statistical programming vendors. Victoria earned her M.S. in Biostatistics at the University of Minnesota.

Stephen Kaplita

Stephen is a biostatistician with over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

He comes to Biohaven from Bristol-Myers Squibb where he worked on projects in neuroscience, virology and oncology. His work has helped lead to global registrational approvals for drugs to treat pain, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar mania.

Stephen has also led teams to successful registrational approvals in pediatric indications in virology and oncology.

Stephen earned his M.S. degree in Statistics at the University of Connecticut.

Ricardo Garvao, MBA

Ricardo currently leads efforts to build the corporate capabilities of Biohaven Ireland and the operating plan of the broader Biohaven organization. Ricardo has over 14 years’ experience in healthcare industries, joining Biohaven from Canadian biotech Klox Technologies, where he established and led their global animal health business, based out of Ireland, bringing it from technology platform to a market-ready portfolio, successfully licensed globally to a top industry player. Ricardo was an executive board member in two of the group’s Irish healthcare companies and played a key part developing and optimizing the Irish corporate operations. Earlier in his career, Ricardo held various commercial roles with large pharmaceutical multinationals Novartis and later Zoetis (Pfizer spin out), where he led the marketing and technical function of one of their UK businesses.

Ricardo earned his veterinary medicine degree at Technical University Lisbon and holds a Master of Business Administration from the Warwick Business School.

Lisa Stocking, M.S.P.H.

Lisa has over 33 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in global drug development comprised of 17 years in Regulatory Affairs and Operations and 16 years in nonclinical laboratory drug development. Lisa has extensive knowledge of regulatory requirements for dossier development and submission for the US, EU, Australia and Canada in several therapeutic areas including neurology, virology, and oncology.

Lisa joined Biohaven after spending 12 years in Global Dossier Management at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Lisa’s 16 years of nonclinical laboratory experience in metabolism and pharmacokinetics included positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Bayer and Marion Merrell Dow. Lisa’s work has supported many successful filings, approvals, and other regulatory commitments across the globe.

Lisa received her Master of Science in Public Health – Toxicology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and her Bachelor of Science – Toxicology from Northeastern University.”

Anthony Gentile, MBA

Mr. Gentile has over 27 years of pharmaceutical experience at Bristol-Myers Squibb in the areas of Drug Discovery, Clinical Operations and Finance. While working in Neuroscience Drug Discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Mr. Gentile worked on the team that discovered a novel treatment for Non-24 Sleep-Wake Disorder. As a Protocol Manager in Clinical Operations, Mr. Gentile managed several pneumonia and sinusitis studies conducted for the development of the antibiotic Tequin. For the 15 years prior to joining Biohaven, Mr. Gentile worked as an Associate Director in Finance where he managed the development budgets and financial forecasts for several key BMS products including Abilify, Reyataz, Daklinza, Sunvepra, Nulojix, Orencia, Empliciti, Opdivo and Eliquis. Mr. Gentile also functioned as the Finance Alliance Manager between BMS and Pfizer for the clinical development of Eliquis. Mr. Gentile holds a B.S. in biology from Eastern Connecticut State University, a M.S. in biology from the University of Hartford and a M.B.A. in Finance from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to BMS, Mr. Gentile worked as an Extrusion Chemist at U.S. Surgical Corporation.

Javier Gonzalez

Biopharmaceutical executive with over 20 years of Domestic and International experience in the areas of Technical Operations, Supply chain, External Manufacturing, Product Launch, Drug-Device Combination Products, Packaging Development, Human Factors, Equipment Engineering & Process Development. Javier is a functional leader with significant experience in the development and launch of numerous pharmaceutical & biologics products in several dosage forms: intranasal, injectable, oral solids, and topical. Many products are well recognized global brands generating several billion dollars in revenues. Javier joined Biohaven from Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories where he was Director, Technical Operations. He also worked in various technical roles of increased responsibilities at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer. Javier holds an MBA from University of Phoenix, a BSME from Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico and numerous courses, certificates and trainings from various Universities.

Ajaya Kumar Reka, Ph.D.

Ajaya comes to Biohaven from Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Inc (DRL) where he served as product development lead for five years. He led the product development for multiple projects, in neurology, dermatology, and oncology therapeutic areas, from ideation stage to Phase 2/3 clinical trials and commercialization. Before DRL, Ajaya served as a faculty in Internal Medicine Department of University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Ajaya published his research work in highly rated scientific journals, and he is one of the inventors on many patents. Before moving to the USA, he spent over ten years in the discovery and development of NCEs at Dr. Reddy’s Discovery Research Foundation, India.

David Leahy, Ph.D.

Dr. Leahy has 17 years of pharmaceutical process chemistry experience, with expertise in drug substance manufacturing, catalysis and green chemistry.

Prior to joining Biohaven in 2020, he had roles of increasing scope from Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Bristol-Myers Squibb. At Takeda, he built capabilities in process chemistry automation, biocatalysis, and green micellar chemistry leading to one of the industry’s first manufacturing processes of a complex API almost exclusively in water instead of organic solvents. He also led multiple academic collaborations to solve complex chemistry challenges leading to advances in catalytic asymmetric nucleotide couplings, as well as nanocatalysis in aqueous micelles.

At Bristol-Myers Squibb, he led process chemistry efforts to develop the manufacturing route and process for the drug substance of Nurtec® ODT. Dr. Leahy also has extensive experience in green chemistry and sustainability, having served as a co-chair of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable and program chair and advisory board member of the ACS Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference.

He completed his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Indiana University.

Jon Blaskovich

Jon has over 25 years of experience in Information Technology.

Prior to Biohaven, Mr. Blaskovich held the position of Vice President of Technology for Epsilon and has overseen the technical operations for one of the largest independent Marketing Services companies in North America, serving Fortune 500 clients.

Jon holds a B.S. from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Beth Morris

Beth brings 25 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical, Biotech and CRO industries and has worked in all phases of clinical research from Phase 1 through Phase 4 in various roles such as Clinical Research Associate, Clinical Trial/Site Manager, Acquisition Integration Lead and Operations Lead within the CNS and Oncology therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Biohaven in 2016, Beth spent 14 years in the Clinical Operations department at Bristol-Myers Squibb where she was responsible for operational oversight of large-scale global programs with focus in migraine, pain indications, and psychiatry in addition to holding direct management responsibilities within the Regional Clinical Operations group. Beth also worked at several CROs, such as Scirex Corporation, and INC. Prior to her work in the Pharmaceutical Industry, Beth worked as a social worker at a private school for children. She earned her BA in Psychology from Central Connecticut State University.

Debora Robertson

Debbie has over 20 years of experience with clinical supplies management in all phases of development with a primary focus in neuroscience, virology and oncology.

Prior to joining Biohaven in 2019, Debbie had roles of increasing responsibility within the Clinical Supply Operations team at Bristol-Myers Squibb where she led the team of up to 15 people in Wallingford, CT. She subsequently worked at Sunovion in Massachusetts.

Debbie has extensive experience with many different oral/parental formulations and their associated packaging/labeling requirements for global use, including high precision labeling for syringes. She has experience with implementing and managing multiple RTSM/IRT and clinical forecasting systems for proactive management of clinical supplies and has a strong interest in improving processes through the use of Lean Sigma tools.

Debbie has a BS in Pharmacy from UConn and started her career as a clinical pharmacist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Melissa Beiner, M.D.

Dr. Beiner was formerly a board certified, practicing pediatrician prior to joining Biohaven in 2017. Dr. Beiner conducted pre-clinical research in neuroscience, focusing on spinal cord injury and neuronal regeneration both at the Yale School of Medicine Neurosurgical Research Laboratories and at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. In her current role at Biohaven, Dr. Beiner is the Director of Research and Development and is the program lead for the spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) program. Dr. Beiner also leads a clinical study in trigeminal neuralgia and supports the OCD program.

A graduate of Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Beiner completed her internship and residency in Pediatrics at the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.

Gilbert L'italien, Ph.D.

Gil is an accomplished Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) executive with over 25 years of global and regional HEOR/Epidemiology experience in both academia and industry across a wide variety of disease areas, with emphasis in the neuroscience field. Gil has held roles of increasing responsibility previously at Bristol Myers Squibb Company, and most recently at Alexion Inc and Biogen Inc. He has deep expertise with regard to orphan disease drug development, psychometric and functional scale validation and real-world evidence generation to support regulatory and reimbursement objectives. Prior to his industry roles, Gil served as Cardiovascular Research Director at Mass General Hospital and held a faculty appointment at Harvard University.

Gil is also a committed volunteer, devoting his time and resources to helping underserved children globally and our vulnerable elderly population in the U.S. Gil earned his PhD in Epidemiology/Biostatistics from the Boston University School of Public Health and has served as Adjunct Assistant Professor at Yale University School of Medicine.

Francine Healy

Francine Healy has over 22 years of scientific research experience, including 13 years of neuroscience research in pharmaceutical drug development at Bristol-Myers Squibb and in academia at Yale School of Medicine. Prior to joining Biohaven, Francine spent the previous 8 years in the Global Scientific and Regulatory Documentation group at Bristol-Myers Squibb where she was responsible for development and implementation of regulatory document strategy. Her experience spans across multiple therapeutic areas including neuroscience, oncology, immunology, and immuno-oncology. Her work has supported numerous successful global filings, approvals, and other regulatory commitments across the US, EU, and Japan.

Tracy Nepomuceno

Tracy joins Biohaven with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry primarily in clinical operations. Tracy spent 17 years at Bristol-Myers Squib working in neuroscience, anti-infective, oncology and rare diseases clinical research. She subsequently worked at Pfizer in vaccine and rare diseases clinical operations prior to joining Biohaven in 2020.

Tracy has a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Connecticut and started her career as a pharmacist at Hartford Hospital.

Chris Jensen, Pharm. D., MBA

Chris has over 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry across multiple therapeutic and functional areas. He has broad Medical Affairs experience including medical strategy, scientific communications & publications, medical information, external engagement, lifecycle management, and more. His experience ranges from pre-launch, launch, and commercial stage products, as well as early pipeline and late stage development programs.

Prior to Biohaven, Chris was a postdoctoral fellow at Alexion and had previous experience at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi Genzyme. Chris graduated from the University of Connecticut where he received his Doctor of Pharmacy and Master of Business Administration degrees.

Matthew DeLawder

Matt brings over 20 years of Accounting and Finance experience to Biohaven including 16 years within the pharmaceutical industry at Bayer Healthcare and Alexion Pharmaceuticals where he was Senior Manager of Global R&D.

Debra Orlando

Prior to joining Biohaven in 2016, Deb was employed as a Staff Accountant, Real Estate Investments, at John Hancock in Boston, MA. She received a B.S. in Economics from Boston College, and an M.S. in Accounting from LIU Post.

Lia Donahue, M.A.

Lia has over 18 years of combined clinical research experience at Yale University and the pharmaceutical industry including Bristol-Myers Squibb. Her passion and most of her focus in her career have been in neuroscience research, and she also has significant experience in oncology and virology research. For the past four years, Lia has been increasingly involved in the biotech industry and working to help start-up companies grow and thrive. She has her Masters in Psychology.

Susan Durham

Susan joined Biohaven with 30 years of clinical operations experience in the pharmaceutical industry, across all phases of clinical research and multiple therapeutic areas, having held various positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, ranging from Clinical Site Monitor, Clinical Scientist, Protocol Manager, Associate Director-Global Clinical Operations and Strategy, Immuno-Oncology Submissions Operations Lead, to Relationship Lead-Strategic Clinical Trial Relationships.

She has successfully managed the operational oversight of large and complex global drug development programs, resulting in multiple marketing approvals for oncology and infectious diseases assets.

Prior to BMS, Susan held positions at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill-Cornell Medical’s Hypertension Center, Burroughs Wellcome Pharmacology Laboratories and the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Susan received a BA in Neuroscience and Behavior/Biopsychology from Vassar College, and has completed graduate coursework in Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and in Public Administration at New York University.

Jennifer Hould

Ms. Hould has worked for more than 15 years in both industry and academia. Prior to joining Biohaven, Jennifer held increasing roles of responsibilities at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer Inc, Middlesex Hospital and Yale University. Within the pharmaceutical industry, Jennifer has experience working in multiple therapeutic areas including: neuroscience, virology and immuno-oncology. Jennifer has led multiple clinical trials and managed CROs in all clinical trial phases from Phase I to Phase IV and has worked at investigative sites within large and small pharmaceutical companies. Jennifer has an interest in data management with a focus on clinical data review. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at Coker College in South Carolina.

Laura Ruggiero

Laura brings more than 15 years of pharmaceutical industry experience to the Biohaven team. Prior to joining Biohaven, Laura worked for Bristol-Myers Squibb managing patient recruitment for clinical trials and then as a clinical site manager in the operations group. Her therapeutic areas of focus were neuroscience and oncology. Prior to joining BMS, she worked as a project manager for a medical education company.

Laura holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of New Haven.

Timothy McCormack

Tim has 17 years of clinical research experience in the areas of CNS and Oncology.

He came to Biohaven from Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he worked in both clinical operations and outsourcing management.

Tim earned his Bachelor of Arts at Keene State College.

Christine Lesczczynski

Christine brings more than 25 years of academia and pharmaceutical industry experience to the Biohaven team. Prior to joining Biohaven, she worked at the New York College of Podiatric Medicine as a clinical research coordinator and then at Bristol-Myers Squib as a senior clinical trial associate and site manager. At Bristol-Myers Squibb, she focused on neuroscience and oncology. Christine was instrumental in supporting several FDA filings and approvals.

Germana Pereira

Gerri brings more than 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience to the Biohaven team. Prior to joining Biohaven, she worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb where she held several years of Clinical Trial Associate role in the Clinical Operations before moving into the Regulatory Department. At Bristol-Myers Squibb, she focused on therapeutic areas involving neurology and oncology. Gerri was instrumental in supporting several FDA filings. She supported and organized neurology and oncology studies in support of several approved FDA filings.

Jeri-Anne Finley

Jeri-Anne brings more than 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience to the Biohaven team. Prior to joining Biohaven, she worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb where she held several administrative roles in clinical research before moving into site management. At Bristol-Myers Squibb, she focused on multiple therapeutic areas involving infectious disease, anti-virals (HBV, HCV), neurology and oncology. Jeri-Anne was instrumental in supporting several FDA filings. She supported and organized the non-clinical programs for in-vivo and in-vitro studies in support of the anti-infective FDA filings. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut.

Micaela Forshaw, M.P.H.

Micaela has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for seven years. She comes to Biohaven from Bristol-Myers Squibb where she worked in the Clinical Operations group and held multiple roles of increasing responsibility, including Senior Clinical Trial Associate and Clinical Site Manager. She has experience in multiple therapeutic areas including Oncology, Neurosciences and Immunology. Micaela earned her undergraduate degree at Southern Connecticut State University (Bachelor of Sciences in Public Health) and graduate degree at University of Connecticut (Masters of Public Health).

Juan Anchondo, Jr.

Juan has been working in the clinical research industry for nine years with a primary focus in central nervous system diseases. Prior to coming to Biohaven, he worked at CRO, INC Research (now Syneos Health) and prior to that in the Phase 1 clinic from PPD in Austin, TX. Juan holds a Bachelor degree from Texas State University.

Deborah Price, M.L.S.

Deborah has been working in the research field for 15 years. Prior to working at Biohaven, she worked in academic research that focused primarily on neurobehavioral research. Deborah has worked in multiples roles within Biohaven since the company inception. Deborah has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Trinity College, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Sacred Heart University and a Master of Library Science degree from Southern Connecticut State University.

Valerie Milewski

Valerie is an accomplished and highly organized Clinical Trial Associate with more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

Prior to joining Biohaven, Valerie worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb for 18 years where she was an Executive Assistant in Infectious Diseases and Virology working on their HIV and Hep-C programs.

She has an Associate’s Degree in Science from Middlesex Community-Technical College.

Kathryn Phillips

Kathryn has research experience in college and graduated Lehigh University with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Health, Medicine and Society.

Wendy Goss

Wendy has worked in the Biotech industry for over 10 years. Prior to joining Biohaven, Wendy worked at Kolltan supporting the CMO and working in accounts payable. Before that she worked at a recruitment firm for 13 years.

At Biohaven, Wendy works as a Clinical Trial Associate and focuses on recruitment efforts for OCD and other clinical trials.

Lucy Sullivan

Lucy has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 15 years. Prior to joining Biohaven, she worked at Alexion Pharmaceuticals where she supported the Senior Vice President, US Commercial and Vice Presidents of the Neurology and Metabolics Business Units including support of the field sales and marketing teams. During her 11 years at Alexion, Lucy supported four drug launches for ultra-rare diseases. She excelled as an executive administrative coordinator and has a great deal of experience in travel and calendar management, budget management, vendor management, new hire on-boarding, congress and exhibit planning, coordinating hiring events, launch team management, planning off-site meetings, patient meetings and National Sales Meetings. Prior to working at Alexion, Lucy worked at Microsoft in various roles for seven years. Lucy graduated from the University of Connecticut with a B.A. in Communications.

Tracey Douglass

Tracey has over 20 years of Quality experience in the pharmaceutical industry with roles in Auditing, Compliance and Inspection Management at BMS, Alexion, Vion Pharmaceuticals and most recently Boehringer-Ingelheim. She has experience in multiple therapeutic areas including Oncology, Rare Disease, Virology and Neurosciences

Tracey received a B.S. in Business Administration and B.S. in Marketing followed with a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of New Haven.

Mary Donohue, M.S., PMP

Mary joined Biohaven with 19 years of experience in the biotech industry, with an emphasis in early phase clinical development program planning and management. She has worked in antiviral, pulmonary, nephrology, and neurology indications. She has coordinated successful multi-disciplinary project teams for the transition of novel compounds from discovery phase into Phase 3, including the development of PET imaging agents and various imaging modalities for use in diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological conditions. Prior to her work in biotech, Mary worked for 11 years in toxicology and occupational health & safety consulting in the chemical, industrial metals, and petroleum industries. Mary completed her B.A. in Biology from the College of the Holy Cross. She holds an M.S. in Environmental Health and Toxicology from the University of Massachusetts and has her certification as a Project Management Professional.

Chris Barrett

Mr. Barrett possesses over 25 years of diverse commercial experience in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry and has held several senior leadership positions in Managed Markets, Marketing, and Sales. He joined Biohaven in 2019 in the role of Senior Vice President, Managed Markets & Government Affairs and served as a key member of the commercial management team for the launch of Nurtec.

In previous roles with Boehringer-Ingelheim, Schering-Plough, Johnson & Johnson, Caremark International, and DBV Technologies, Mr. Barrett gained extensive therapeutic area experience in neurology, cardio-metabolic, respiratory, oncology, and immunology. He has also held leadership roles for more than 10 product launches, including Managed Markets lead for Spiriva, and Marketing lead for Jardiance and Pradaxa; all three of which achieved blockbuster status. Mr. Barrett is a graduate of Manhattan College, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.

Kari Soderstrom

Kari has over ten years of experience in human resources and systems integration. She comes to Biohaven from Arvinas where she helped the company grow HR and IT resources in line with the rapidly expanding employee population. Kari loves the startup atmosphere of collaboration and has balanced positions across all departments including finance, information technology, and human resources. As Arvinas expanded from 15 employees to 100+, Kari specialized in combining information technology with human resources.

At Biohaven, Kari works to provide employees with the software platforms needed to create a community in a blossoming remote work culture. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Women’s Studies from Hope College in Holland, MI.

Katheryn Grossman, P.A.

Kathy, is a certified Physician Assistant (PA-C) with clinical patient care experience in many areas of medicine including orthopedics, surgical, emergency, urgent care, and primary care. Kathy has history in the pharmaceutical industry working for Pfizer Pharmaceutical as a Research and Development Process Organic Chemist prior to becoming a PA-C. She joined Biohaven in 2019 as Director of Clinical Development, where she utilizes her previous pharmaceutical and medical knowledge and experiences to helping manage clinical research trials in rare neurological diseases.

Kathy earned Master of Science in Physician-Assistant Studies at A.T. Still University in Mesa, Arizona and Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Cum Laude, at San Diego State University in San Diego, California.

John Cahill

John has over 30 years of experience in various roles within IT. Much of his career was spent in the advertising/premedia space focused on infrastructure and corporate solutions.

Prior to joining Biohaven, John was directly responsible for the corporate technology, infrastructure, and policies for approx. 9000 production associates at Publicis. Before that, he worked for Vertis, Inc., where he transitioned to Vertis’ National Operations team from a Co-Director of Technology position after the acquisition of Gamma One. His group was responsible for all production and datacenter infrastructure across 30 U.S. locations.

Samantha Hudspeth

Samantha comes to Biohaven with over 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to Biohaven, she worked at Alexion Pharmaceuticals for 12 years, as a Project Manager in Global Training & Development. In this role she established a credentialing process to support the field staff’s access to customers, launched a global mentorship program, and managed all commercial National Sales Meetings, responsible for all logistics, planning, and execution. Additionally, she was responsible for configuring and launching a global, company-wide learning management system.

At Biohaven, Samantha works as a paralegal, with primary focus on our patent and trademark portfolio.

Samantha received her B.A. in Psychology at the University of Connecticut and more recently her Paralegal Certification from Duke University.

Peter Ackerman, M.D.

Pete has spent his entire industry career in clinical development, having served as the medical monitor, clinical lead, and most recently, as a development team lead while working on assets across all stages of development lifecycle (Stage 1 through Stage 3/4). During his time in industry, he has played an important role in the successful clinical development, filing, and launch of multiple medications for both pediatric and adult indications. Pete’s work has been widely published in peer-reviewed journals and has been presented at numerous international conferences. Within clinical development, Pete has a special interest in data visualization and innovative and adaptive clinical trial design.

Pete completed a combined residency in internal medicine and pediatrics and a fellowship in adult infectious disease.

Lisa Kamen, MHA

Lisa joins Biohaven with 20+ years of experience within clinical operations, primarily in CNS and most recently also in Oncology. Lisa has held the role of Director of Clinical Operations at two different biotech companies and spent 14 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb where she was managed and oversaw pivotal clinical studies. Lisa led the Abilify Autism to a successful approval for treating irritability associated with autistic disorder in children and adolescents. Lisa holds a bachelor of science degree, with a biology / zoology focus from the University of Rhode Island and Master of Healthcare Administration from Quinnipiac University.

Meghan Lovegren

Meghan Lovegren is approaching 20 years of experience in clinical research. Prior to joining Biohaven, Meghan managed clinical studies in genetic diseases (Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy) and virology (HBV and HCV) at Bristol-Myers Squibb for 12 years. At BMS, Meghan ran global pivotal studies in both pediatric and adult populations. Prior to BMS, Meghan worked at Pfizer, Yale University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She has a BS in Biology from the University of Minnesota, College of Biological Sciences.

Caroline Dircks Ph.D.

Caroline has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 25 years primarily in R&D operations.

Caroline spent 14 years at Bristol Myers Squibb in R&D operations, her most recent role as Head Regional R&D operations and Schedule management. Her overall responsibilities included the oversight of the Specialty (non-oncology) portfolio including CV, IMS, Virology, Fibrotic Disease and Genetically Defined Diseases as well as managing licensing, partnering and acquisition opportunities. In addition, Caroline had oversight of R&D operations in China and Japan.

Prior to joining BMS, Caroline spent eight years at Vion Pharmaceuticals, starting as a bench scientist in Microbiology and ending her tenure as the Director of Quality Control/ Analytical and Bio-Analytical Development and Manufacturing where she was responsible for all pre-clinical and clinical analytical development for biologics and small molecules as well as analysis of clinical samples and all operational logistics to support clinical PK/PD.

Caroline received her BA in Biochemistry from Clark University and her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and completed her post-doctoral work at Yale University.

Lindsey Lair, M.D., MBA, F.A.A.N.

Lindsey Lee Lair, MD, MBA, FAAN, is a Board-certified neurologist and autonomic specialist with 15 years of industry experience in early and late-stage clinical development and global medical affairs in neurologic, psychiatric, and immune-related disorders, among others, including rare and common diseases. Lindsey comes to Biohaven from Janssen, where she was Senior Director, Experimental Medicine, Neuroscience. At Janssen, Lindsey helped launch PONVORY for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, and she worked in Alzheimer’s disease on the tau vaccine, tau monoclonal antibody, and BACE inhibitor programs, as well as in depression and pain.

Before joining Janssen, Lindsey was Global Director, Medical Affairs at Merck and supported the launches of BELSOMRA and BRIDION, and worked on Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, migraine, mood disorders, schizophrenia, and allergy disorders.

Lindsey is a Clinical Assistant Professor at New York Medical College, where she teaches bioethics, and she sits on the Board of Directors of the New York State Neurological Society. Lindsey has participated in advocacy, healthcare policy, and women’s leadership through the American Academy of Neurology, where she is a Fellow (FAAN), and other organizations. Lindsey’s experience in patient care has included providing pro bono neurologic care to underserved populations.

Lindsey obtained her MD degree from Tulane Medical School, completed her internship and adult neurology residency at New York University (NYU), and fellowship in clinical neurophysiology with a focus on autonomic nervous system and peripheral nerve disorders at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. Most recently, Lindsey completed her MBA at Louisiana State University (LSU), Shreveport.

Lopa Bakrania

Dr. Lopa Bakrania has 16 years of pharmaceutical process chemistry and CMC regulatory affairs experience. She is the head of CMC regulatory affairs at Biohaven.

Prior to joining Biohaven in 2021, she spent 9 years as a CMC regulatory technical documentation strategist at Bristol Myers Squibb. She has led multiple early and late-stage global CMC submissions, one of them being Sotyktu (deucravacitinib), which she managed from early development to the marketing application. Dr. Bakrania spent early part of her career as a process chemist at Bristol Myers Squibb. During which time she was contributed toward the development of the manufacturing route and process for the drug substance of Nurtec® ODT. Dr. Bakrania completed her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Laura Heller, Pharm.D.

Laura brings 21 years of Medical Affairs experience to Biohaven from BMS, Wyeth, Biogen, Novartis, Sio Gene Therapies & Amicus Therapeutics, across multiple neuroscience and neurology programs, including rare disease.

She has led numerous teams through pre-commercialization, launch and commercialization in the therapeutic areas of Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Anxiety, Multiple Sclerosis, Migraine, Alzheimer’s, Sleep Disturbance, Fabry & Pompe Disease.
Her experience spans all functions of medical affairs including scientific communication & publications, external thought leader & advocacy engagement and Phase IV research.

Laura received her Pharm.D. from Rutgers College of Pharmacy and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at BMS in Neuroscience Medical Affairs.

Neal Sharpe, Ph.D.

Neal has worked in Toxicology and Preclinical Development for over 30 years.  Neal’s work experience has crossed multiple therapeutic areas including neuroscience, infectious disease, oncology and rare disease in various modalities; small molecule, biologics, oligonucleotides and cell therapies.

Prior experience includes roles at Schering-Plough, Merck, Biogen and small biotech companies supporting toxicology, DMPK, and translational sciences across discovery and preclinical development through registration.  Neal received a PhD in neuroscience from Rutgers, The State University of NJ. He is originally from New Jersey and currently lives in Upstate New York.

Heather Sevinsky

Heather has worked in clinical pharmacology drug development for 15 years across all phases of drug development, most recently at Arbutus Biopharma, where she was senior director, clinical pharmacology and compound development lead for their RNAi targeting chronic hepatitis B infection. Prior to Arbutus, her focus was clinical pharmacology and pharmacometrics in HIV drug development at Bristol Myers Squibb and ViiV Healthcare.

Heather received Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and has extensive training in the area of Clinical Pharmacology.

Volkan Granit, M.D., MSc

Volkan Granit, M.D., MSc, joins Biohaven as Medical Director, Clinical Development. He is a neurologist with expertise in neuromuscular medicine and brings 10 years of research and clinical experience in academia. He has served as an investigator in clinical trials targeting indications such as ALS, myasthenia gravis, and Guillain-Barré Syndrome, including those using novel modalities (antisense oligonucleotides and CAR-T cells). Before joining Biohaven, Volkan held faculty positions at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine followed by the University of Miami. At Montefiore, he established a Myasthenia Gravis Clinic and served as its Director and was co-Director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic. At University of Miami, he served as Medical Director of the multidisciplinary ALS Center and associate program director for the neuromuscular fellowship program. Volkan obtained his medical degree from Istanbul University (Turkey). He completed a Master of Neuroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and a neurology residency and neuromuscular fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center.

Anne Neumann, RN, BSN

Anne brings over 25 years’ experience in the healthcare, from nonprofit to clinical practice to various roles with the pharmaceutical industry. Anne received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Chamberlain University. She did her clinical practice at Western Connecticut Health where she practiced in several different specialties, including medical/surgical, oncology and neurology. Since then, Anne has worked as a nurse case manager for Alexion Pharmaceuticals, field nurse educator for Novartis Oncology, and oncology sales representative for Novartis, supporting several disease states. Anne became a product trainer for oncology at Novartis before joining Biohaven. Anne also continues to support her love of public health as chairmen of the board for the Housatonic Valley Health Department which she has supported for nine years, in several volunteer capacities, including growing the department during the Covid pandemic.

Jason Lerner, M.D.

Dr. Lerner is a board-certified pediatric neurologist and epileptologist and was a Clinical Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles prior to joining Biohaven in the spring of 2022. At UCLA Dr. Lerner was the associate Child Neurology Division Chief and the Director of the Adolescent Epilepsy Center at UCLA. During his tenure he held many leadership positions including Director of the Pediatric Neurophysiology Lab and Director of the Child Neurology Residency Program and contributed to numerous clinical trials. He has published more than 35 articles and book chapters in leading journals such as Epilepsia, Neurology and the Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology. In his current role at Biohaven, Dr. Lerner is a Medical Director and clinical lead of the BHV-7000 development program in epilepsy.

After graduating from the New Jersey Medical School in 2000, Dr Lerner completed a residency in Pediatrics at the Penn State Health, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, residency in Child Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, and fellowship in Pediatric Clinical Neurophysiology at UCLA.

Connor Colbum, CPA

Connor has over seven years of experience in the areas of SEC reporting, internal controls, corporate finance, and employee benefits. He joined Biohaven from Xerox Holdings Corporation where he was a Manager of Accounting Policy, focused on financial reporting and accounting for employee benefits.

Prior to Xerox, Connor began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP in the Hartford Assurance Practice. Connor is a graduate of the University of Connecticut where he earned Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Suman Pathi, Ph.D.

Suman joins Biohaven as Research Investigator, Medicinal Chemistry. He is currently working on designing and synthesizing small molecule Kv7.2/7.3 activators for treatment for epilepsy and neuropathic pain. Suman has over 8 years of medicinal chemistry experience both in the industry and academia and has worked on a range of various targets in developing lead candidates for CNS, cancer, and bacterial infectious diseases.

Prior to joining Biohaven, Suman was with Knopp Bioscience, where he was working on Kv7 channel targeting platform in optimizing lead small molecule potassium channel activators. He worked as Staff scientist at St John’s University, where he involved in identifying small molecule dual inhibitors of PARP and HDAC proteins targeting BRCA1 mutant breast cancers.

He did his post-doctoral at Rowan University, where he led multiple projects in the hit-to-lead phase which focused on design, synthesis, and optimization of small molecules for treatment of TNBC diseases and bacterial infections. Suman holds a Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from Indian Institute of Chemical Technology. He is an innovator with few patents to his credit.

Wes Kazmierski

Wes has 30 years of experience in synthetic and medicinal chemistry, primarily in Virology, Cancer and Neuroscience therapeutic areas. He is currently involved in developing new medicinal chemistry approaches to protein degradation, novel syntheses of homogeneous, well-structurally defined ADCs and in small molecule drug discovery, further expanding Biohaven’s MoDE™, MATE™ and ARM™ platform technologies. Wes joined Biohaven’s legacy company Kleo Pharmaceuticals in 2020, where he led discovery effort of Covid MATE™ BHV-1200. Prior to joining Biohaven, Wes led multiple discovery teams at ViiV Healthcare and GlaxoSmithKline, delivering many small molecule clinical compounds (HCV protease inhibitor, HCV NS5A inhibitor, HIV CCR5 inhibitor) and a marketed HIV-protease inhibitor – Fosampernavir®. Wes obtained his Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from the University of Arizona, where he helped to develop the one-bead-one-peptide (OBOC) combinatorial chemistry library approach, and M.Sc. in organic chemistry from Warsaw University. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Wes was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island. He was a recipient of a Gold Medal at the International Chemistry Olympiad.

Gregory Hebrank, M.D., MBA

Prior to joining Biohaven, Greg Hebrank was a co-founder, Board Member and EVP of Finance and Corporate Operations for 18 years at Knopp Biosciences (KBS) where he had responsibility for finance, audit, fundraising, corporate operations and participated in clinical development activities. Prior to KBS, he was an experienced public and private biotech equities investor and the co-founder of and partner in a successful clinical obstetrics and gynecologic practice in Pennsylvania.

He earned a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, an M.D. from Tulane University School of Medicine, and an MBA at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. He completed his residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Magee-Women’s Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and is an inventor on six issued U.S. patents.

He remains committed to the discovery and development of new medicines for indications of high unmet need and has a particular interest in ion channel discovery and development for the modulation of important smooth muscle indications.

Katy McGrath

Katy has been working in the lab animal science field for over 17 years. Prior to joining Biohaven she worked with Bristol Myers Squibb, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Jackson Laboratory, Kleo Pharmaceuticals, and Regeneron. The part of her work she is most proud of is performing the in vivo work that went forward to support the IND of BVH-1100.

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from the University of Connecticut.

Rachel Kopper

Rachel joins Biohaven with over 15 years of experience in the life sciences sector, responsible for essential aspects of corporate operations including finance, insurance, HR, IT, and investor relations. She has a solid reputation for anticipating organizational needs and uncovering unique solutions. Ms. Kopper also currently serves as National President-Emeritus of Women In Bio, an organization of more than 2,500 professional members committed to promoting careers, leadership, and entrepreneurship for women in the life sciences.

Previously she was instrumental in establishing the Pittsburgh chapter of WIB and remains an active volunteer. Earlier in her career she served as project manager focused on employee development for Boston-based The Forum Corporation and served as a forestry extension volunteer for the United States Peace Corps in Thailand. She holds an MBA from Chatham University and is a graduate of Westminster College, a western Pennsylvania liberal arts institution.

Lawrence Marcin, Ph.D.

Larry has 25 years of experience in synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry, primarily in neuroscience, immunology, and oncology. He joined Biohaven from Valo Health in 2022 where he integrated machine learning capabilities with medicinal chemistry to improve drug discovery metrics.

Prior to Valo Health, Larry co-chaired preclinical drug discovery programs at Bristol-Myers Squibb and contributed to the discovery of several optimized candidates for stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and depression, including the GluN2B modulator BMS-986163. At Biohaven, he is currently heading medicinal chemistry activities, while serving as site lead for the New Haven laboratories, and team lead for the protein degradation platform.

Larry received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois and was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University where he contributed to the first total synthesis of Batrachotoxin. Larry received his bachelor’s degree with honors from Penn State, majoring in chemistry.

Nova Yates, CPA

Nova is a CPA and CISA with over 15 years experience in Risk Management & Internal Controls, Assurance, and Compliance. Prior to Biohaven, Nova worked at Alexion Pharmaceuticals in Internal Audit, and Deloitte in Assurance & Audit.

She holds a Masters in Accounting from West Virginia University and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Florida.

Jane Marushak

Jane brings to Biohaven over 20 years of experience within the Medical Device industry.  Prior to joining Biohaven, she worked at Conmed Corporation, who acquired SurgiQuest, Inc., a capital venture backed Company. At SurgiQuest, Jane was a founding member, a leadership team member and held the role of HR and Business Operations Manager.  Her experience varied throughout the organization with experience in Managing Operations, Human Resources, Facilities, Quality and Regulatory support, Logistics as well as Coordination capacities.

Jane holds her AS Degree and is completing her BS Degree in Operations Management.

Simone Nicholson, Ph.D., DABT

Simone’s 12 plus years of safety assessment and drug development experience spans multiple modalities including small molecules, biologics, and both viral vector and LNP delivery systems for gene therapy. Prior to joining Biohaven, Simone spent 10 years at MedImmune/AstraZeneca where she defined the safety assessment strategy and designed the preclinical investigative and regulatory tox studies for multiple biologics.

She has also conducted pharmacology studies to assess efficacy and developed in-house assays for small molecule safety assessment during her time at Dyax Corp and Epix Pharmaceuticals, respectively.

Simone has her Ph.D. in Immunology from Northwestern University and is board certified in Toxicology.

Ann Marie Rossi

Ann Marie comes to Biohaven with over 37 years of experience as a cell biologist, primarily focused on cancer. She started her career at Pfizer in their cancer group where she worked for 15 years. She then worked at CGI which was purchased by Gilead Sciences where she was able to train in immunological assays expanding my tool kit to include Basophil degranulation assays and dabble in platelet work.

From there, she went on to Arvinas where she was the first bench biologist and set up the screening cascade that identified their lead molecules currently in the clinic. This experience in protein degradation helped her integrate into Kleo where she was the cell biology assay designer that drove the CD38 program that produced Biohaven’s Phase 1 clinical program.

Ann Marie received her MS from the University of Kentucky.

Alex Greif

Alex has over 12 years of experience in operations, procurement & supply chain management gained in the biotech and robotics industries in Pittsburgh, PA. He  joins Biohaven as the Director, Lab Operations & Facilities where he oversees the day-to-day operations across all Biohaven Labs sites.

Prior to Biohaven, Alex spent a number of years working at Knopp Biosciences. His time at Knopp was followed by six years with Uber where he supported a team of engineers working on self-driving technology as a Supply Chain and Procurement Manager. Just before joining Biohaven, he worked as the Supply Chain Lead at a robotic vertical farming startup called Fifth Season.

Alex is a native of Pittsburgh and an alum of Robert Morris University where he received his BSBA.

Isis Amaye, Ph.D.

Isis joins Biohaven as a Research Investigator with the Medicinal Chemistry team at Pittsburgh where she is currently working on designing and synthesizing small molecule Kv7.2/7.3 activators for treatment for epilepsy and neuropathic pain. Isis has about 5 years of medicinal chemistry experience in designing and synthesizing small molecules for CNS drug applications in academia.

Prior to joining Biohaven, Isis was with Knopp Bioscience, where she worked on the Kv7 channel target platform in lead optimization of small molecule potassium channel activators.

Katherine Sellers, Ph.D.

Katherine has over 10 years of biomedical research experience in oncology and immunology. She comes to Biohaven from Rheos Medicines, where she led the Discovery Metabolism Team to identify and prosecute novel metabolic targets for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. While at Rheos, she co-led two drug discovery pipeline programs, including a successful collaboration target with Roche. Prior to Rheos, Katherine worked across the portfolio within the oncology therapeutic area at Agios Pharmaceuticals, including FDA approved IDH inhibitors.

Katherine’s interests lie in leveraging the therapeutic opportunity afforded by dysregulated metabolism in disease and developing assays and biomarkers to advance drug discovery programs. Katherine was trained as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Francis Crick Institute in London after getting her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Louisville. In both positions she developed an expertise focused on translatable models ranging from human patients, mouse models, organoids and ex vivo tissue slice cultures.

Kelly Picchione, Ph.D.

Kelly has over 15 years of experience in ion channel pharmacology and drug discovery. She comes to Biohaven from Knopp Bioscience where she co-led a team in the discovery and development of BHV-7000. At Biohaven, she enjoys cross team collaboration to enable acceleration of programs for the benefit of patients. Kelly received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University at Buffalo, where she gained valuable experience with assay development and electrophysiology.

Seong Lee

Seong is an experienced in vivo scientist with over 10 years of expertise in animal research, gained through working in academic research labs. In his current role, he is responsible for designing and conducting in vivo toxicology and PK/PD studies, as well as developing animal models and ex vivo assays to support Biohaven’s drug discovery programs.

Before joining Biohaven, Seong focused his studies on neuroscience, specifically in the areas of nerve regeneration and therapeutic target discovery for various neurological diseases. His academic research has resulted in 17 publications and he has received 4 honors and awards for his achievements.

In addition to his academic background, Seong has previous industry experience, where he played a key role in establishing high throughput screening systems and developing various bioassays to support the development of novel microbial strains and cell lines.

Seong completed his undergraduate studies in biology and microbiology in Korea, and he obtained his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stony Brook University in New York, USA.

Ivonne Cerezo-Faure

Ivonne joins Biohaven with years of experience in the Human Resources, Office Administration and Paralegal fields in addition to serving in the US Army.

Currently, Ivonne collaborates with the IP/Legal team providing support to the global trademark registrations and Management of Contracts and works out of our Ireland office.

Prior to working at Biohaven, Ivonne worked as a Paralegal and Bilingual Human Resources Generalist in various US companies. Her departmental efforts led her as a key point of contact in the organization for the Hispanic and Latino employees.

Anna Collins

Anna has worked in clinical operations for over 10 years specializing in OCD and Epilepsy.

Prior to Biohaven, she worked in clinical operations at Bristol Myers Squibb in Wallingford, CT. She also has experience working as an Executive Assistant to the President at South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority in New Haven, CT.

Jeremy Cordova, MS, CCRA

Jeremy has been supporting Clinical Operations for 20+ years. He began his career in research managing clinical trials at the Investigator Site level for the Yale University School of Medicine, West Haven VA Medical Center, and Middlesex Hospital before turning to the industry side of the business as a Clinical Research Associate for Eli Lily and Co.

As a CRA, Jeremy provided clinical monitoring support to Phase II through IV trials primarily in Neuroscience and Auto-Immune Disorders. Jeremy worked as a Clinical Operations Manager supporting a team of CRAs in General Therapeutics for IQVIA and has served as a technical coach and mentor with a strong focus in clinical monitoring.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Research Psychology, a Master of Science degree in Research Measurements and Quantitative Analysis and is a Certified Clinical Research Associate through the Academy of Clinical Research Professionals.

Brianna Collins

Brianna started her career at Biohaven after receiving a Masters degree in Public Health from Sacred Heart University. She joins Biohaven as a Clinical Trial Associate and has contributed to several clinical studies including the Acute Treatment of Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS) Study, the Acute Treatment of Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD) Study, and Evaluating the Efficacy and Safety of Taldefgrobep Alfa in Ambulatory and Non-Ambulatory Participants with Spinal Muscular Atrophy with Open-Label Extension Study. For these studies, Brianna has been able to assist her team with obtaining and filing regulatory documentation, tracking and providing updates on clinical activities, and presenting assigned projects.

Brianna also holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Health Science and a minor in Business and Chemistry from Sacred Heart University.

Deb Young

Deb has over 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience including 13 years in Regulatory Affairs and Operations and 15 years in nonclinical laboratory drug development.

She joined Biohaven after spending 3 years in Submission Management at PRA and 8 years in Global Dossier Management at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Her nonclinical laboratory experience includes work in the Department of Endocrinology at Yale University School of Medicine and in several departments at Bayer Healthcare, including QA and Research Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism.

Deb has a Master of Science degree in Chemistry from Southern Connecticut State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from the University of New Hampshire.

Don Archibald

Don is a Biostatistician with over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and 13 years at the Veterans Administration designing and analyzing clinical trails. He comes to us from Knopp Biosciences where he was Senior Director of Biostatistics working on the BHV7000 program and the dexpramipexole asthma program.

Prior to Knopp, he worked at Bristol Myers Squibb where he was Biostatistics Therapeutic Area Lead for Central Nervous System clinical research and previously Cardiovascular clinical research. He oversaw statistical aspects of the approval of ABILIFY® globally for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and treatment resistant depression, Sotalol for arrhythmia, and Nefazodone for depression. He is the coauthor on more than 30 peer-reviewed publications including 3 clinical trial results published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Don completed an MS in Mathematics from Rensselaer and an MA, M.Phil in statistics from Yale University.

Jackie Marin

Jackie has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry primarily in clinical operations. Jackie spent 14 years at Bristol-Myers Squib working neuroscience, virology, and oncology clinical research. She subsequently worked at Pfizer and EMD Serono in immunology clinical operations with an emphasis on global startup of complex trials prior to joining Biohaven in 2021. She started her career as a study coordinator at The Hospital of Central Connecticut.

Jackie has a BS in Psychology from Fairfield University, in CT.

Glen Poisson, MD, MBA

Dr. Poisson, is currently  Medical Director of Pharmacovigilance at Biohaven. He left Seagen to join Biohaven in 2021. Glen has worked in the field of pharmacovigilance for more than 10 years. He has experience with both pre- and post market products, involving pharmaceuticals, medical device, and combination drug-device products. Glen’s career has involved a diverse range of therapeutic realms including oncology, neurology, psychiatry, and rare disease.

Lori Schroeder

Lori joined Biohaven with over two decades of experience in the healthcare industry, international development, civil and criminal prosecution, and higher education.

Prior to joining Biohaven, Lori worked at the Yale/Yale New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research & Evaluation (Yale/CORE) where she oversaw the center’s federal contracting, regulatory compliance, and multi-million-dollar contract bids for services contracts and collaborative agreements funded by CMS, AHRQ, and the FDA.

Prior to this, Lori consulted as a key strategic advisor with an international development firm, and she worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office on the investigation and prosecution of matters involving securities and investor fraud, mail and wire fraud, health care insurance fraud, money laundering, and complex Ponzi schemes.

Lori started her legal career in Texas as an Eminent Domain and Criminal Law prosecutor. She received her BA from the University of Tampa, her JD from Florida State University, and her LLM in International & Latin American Law from the University of Texas at Austin. While obtaining her LLM, she conducted fellowship research in Brazil where she immersed herself in the language, culture, and beaches, and she also designed and managed a USAID-funded program to train state court judges in Mexico. Lori is a licensed attorney in Texas and is currently licensed to practice as In-House Counsel in Connecticut.

Throughout her career, Lori has taught numerous pre-law and graduate courses including a master’s course in Law & Public Health which she currently teaches in the University of New Haven’s School of Health Sciences.

Maria Esposito

Maria has spent over 25 years in the medical device and engineering industry serving in various capacities including Project Coordination/Management, Executive Administration and as a Design Control Specialist. Prior to Biohaven Maria was the Office/HR Manager at Kleo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. preceded by her years in R&D at Medtronic. Her areas of expertise are Quality Compliance, Contract Management, HR Management, Operations and Event Management.

Maria attended Southern CT State University majoring in Journalism and Communications.

Mark Angelicola, M.S.

Mark joins Biohaven with over 17 years of industry experience.  Prior to joining Biohaven, Mark worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb and most recently, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals.

Mark has experience managing clinical studies in both adult and pediatric populations in Virology (HBV, HCV, HIV) and CNS (ADHD).  He has also contributed to filing activities for antiviral products.  Mark has held a variety of roles from Therapeutic Area management for the US (Immunology, Oncology), leading Ph III registrational programs, data management, and people management.

Mark has a BA in Biology from Assumption College.  He holds a MS in Biology from Southern Connecticut State University and is currently enrolled in the MS Organizational Psychology program at the University of Hartford.

Samantha Johnson

Samantha has over 15 years of pharmaceutical industry experience including over 12 years of early and late phase medical writing experience. Prior to joining Biohaven, Samantha was a Medical Writer, Senior Manager in rare diseases and vaccines at Pfizer, where she was responsible for creating a wide variety of regulatory documents including (but not limited to) clinical study protocols, clinical study reports, briefing documents, and clinical summaries for marketing applications.

Samantha previously was a medical writer in early phase at contract research organizations, including ICON. Samantha brings clinical development and medical writing experience in clinical pharmacology, specifically in a wide variety of Phase 1 clinical trials such as single ascending dose, multiple ascending dose, bioavailability/bioequivalence, hepatic/renal impairment, Japanese bridging, thorough QT, food effect, and drug-drug interaction.

She has a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from William Jewell College.

Lindsay Cox, SHRM-CP

Lindsay has spent over a decade in the people & operations functions of the biotech industry. She comes to Biohaven from Knopp Biosciences, where she helped develop people capabilities, events and benefits initiatives, and supported business operations. Lindsay holds a professional certification in human resources and prioritizes people strategy, leader development, and culture acceleration. She enjoys supporting others on their professional development journeys to drive individual and organizational performance and culture.

Prior to joining the biotech industry, Lindsay spent the early part of her career in broadcast media, advertising, and event planning. She received her bachelor’s degree in Media & Professional Communication with a concentration in Corporate & Community Relations from University of Pittsburgh, and is currently pursuing her leadership and performance coaching certification through Brown University.

Zoë Barlow, PharmD

Dr. Barlow has over 3 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in Clinical Operations and Development. Before joining Biohaven, Dr. Barlow worked in community pharmacy and has clinical experience in endocrinology and psychiatry.

Dr. Barlow graduated from the University of Connecticut, where she earned her Doctor of Pharmacy, and Saint Olaf College, where she earned her BA in Biology.

Yola Ammerman, MS

Yola has over 15 years of experience in clinical research. She brings experience from both a site and CRO perspective to her position here as a Clinical Trial Lead. She was a clinical research coordinator for over 10 years at Yale University and UCONN Health Center with a focus in psychiatry, primarily in the areas of schizophrenia and addiction. She also has over 5 years’ experience as a clinical research associate at IQVIA where she monitored clinical trials in a variety of indications including neurology, rheumatology, and endocrinology. Yola joined Biohaven in 2021 focusing on site selection, startup and regulatory compliance.

Yola holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology with a minor in biology from St. Michael’s College, and a Masters degree in psychology from Southern CT State University.

Jim Hale

Jim is a medicinal chemist with 11 years of experience in drug discovery. He comes to Biohaven from Knopp Biosciences where he designed and synthesized small molecule voltage gated potassium channel modulators, optimized synthetic routes for advanced discovery candidates, and managed in vitro ADMET outsourcing. His experience spans supporting projects from target identification to clinical candidate selection primarily in the realm of neurology. Jim enjoys focusing on developing efficient synthetic routes, designing drug-like molecules, and collaborating across functional groups.

Prior to his work at Knopp, Jim completed his PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh working on the synthesis of natural product Apoptolidin C utilizing novel asymmetric organocatalysis.

Brianna Askew

Bri is an Associate Clinical Trial Lead in Clinical Operations. Prior to Biohaven, she worked at an Alzheimer’s disease academic coordinating center/CRO, as a Clinical Research Project Manager where she had dual assignments in strategic initiatives and clinical operations.

She holds a bachelor’s degree with a double major in psychology and humanities from Azusa Pacific University.

Bharat Awsare, MD

Bharat Awsare, MD, joined Biohaven in 2020 with a background in pulmonary, critical care, and internal medicine. Prior to joining Biohaven, Bharat worked as a clinician at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital for 18 years, and an educator in the Sidney Kimmel Medical College. In addition, he was medical director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit and medical director of the Pulmonary Embolism Response Team.
 
At Biohaven, he has been medical lead of multiple early development phase 1 programs as well as medical lead on Phase 3 and post marketing Phase 4 studies.
 
Bharat received his BS at Wake Forest University and received his MD at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. He was trained in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, and critical care medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Taina Badillo

Taina has over 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry in the areas of executive support, project management and sourcing operations.

Prior to Biohaven Taina, worked at Alexion Pharmaceuticals as an Executive Assistant supporting the CFO and various members of the executive team before transitioning to the Sourcing Organization. She oversaw the Supplier Diversity and Sustainability programs, championing for the inclusion of small and diverse businesses into our sourcing practices and vendor portfolio.

Taina has a BS in Management and AS in Marketing from Post University in Waterbury, CT.

Bavani Shankar

Bavani is a senior business development executive with over 25+ years of successful track record in both pharma and biotech companies.
 
Prior to Biohaven, she held various global roles at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, with the most recent being Head of Transactions, Biopharmaceuticals R&D with responsibility for all in-licensing, out-licensing, collaborations, co-development and co-commercialization deals for the respiratory, immunology, metabolic, cardiovascular and neuroscience therapy areas. During the pandemic, she also led the licensing and global supply agreements (over 2 billion doses) for the AstraZeneca’s vaccine and antibody, making a significant contribution to the success of both these programs.
 
Over her career, her responsibilities have included business development across multiple therapeutics areas globally (identification, evaluation, diligence, financial analysis, identifying deal structures and negotiating transactions of programs for licensing and collaborations), alliance management and therapy area strategy.
 
She received her MBA from Columbia University, New York.

Andrea Ivans

Andrea joins Biohaven with 20 years of experience in clinical research. Prior to joining Biohaven, she spent 6 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb, as well as at start up biotech, medical device and CRO organizations.

Andrea has successfully managed clinical studies in virology, oncology, migraine and psychiatry, as well as a unique opportunity managing Risk Based Monitoring at BMS. She has been responsible for the coordination of studies in Phase I-IV, including the development of post-market commitment programs in pediatrics and pregnancy.

Andrea has a BA from Boston College, and a Master of Health Science from Quinnipiac University.

Ana Estrella

Ana has over 10 years of extensive experience in medical and biomedical research, specializing in working with small laboratory animals and expertise in both in vivo and in vitro experimental design and study execution.

In her current role at Biohaven, Ana is responsible with planning and conducting in vivo pharmacology studies. This involves the formulation and administration of experimental compounds through various routes for PK/PD/efficacy drug development experimental studies. These efforts significantly contribute to supporting Biohaven’s drug discovery programs.

Prior to joining Biohaven, Ana initiated her pharmaceutical career at Artizan Biosciences. In this role, she played an integral role in the small molecule program focused on treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Ana managed key pre-clinical experiments using animal models of colitis, fibrosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma in specific-pathogen-free (SPF) and gnotobiotic mice.

In addition to her pharmaceutical career, Ana has a noteworthy academic background. She played a crucial role in researching rare diseases and contributed to the preclinical development of novel gene therapy treatments for Glycogen Storage Diseases at the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Connecticut (UCONN).

Ana received her MD degree at Universidad Catolica de Cuenca in Ecuador.

Madison Collins

Madison started her career at Biohaven after receiving a Master’s degree in Public Health from Sacred Heart University. She joins Biohaven as a Clinical Trial Associate and has contributed to several clinical studies including the study to assess efficacy and safety of the treatment of migraine in children and adolescents and the BHV7000 Program. While at Biohaven Madison has been able to assist her team with obtaining and filing regulatory documentation, tracking, and providing updates on clinical activities.

Madison holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Science.

Upender Velaparthi

Upender has 25 years of experience in synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry primarily in the areas of oncology and immuno-oncology. He joined Biohaven in May 2023 from Bristol-Myers Squibb where he led chemistry efforts in several preclinical drug discovery programs. He contributed to the identification of clinical candidates in DGKa/z and IGF-1R programs and nomination ready candidates in TGFbR1, CK1a/e and Cyp17 programs. He is an inventor on 30 issued patents and author of more than 26 peer-reviewed publications and 3 book chapters.

Upender received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, India and did an NCI sponsored postdoctoral work at SRI International, Menlo Park, CA.

Whitney Lesch

Whitney has over 13 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry.

Prior to joining Biohaven, she was responsible for business operations, project management, change management and clinical trial transparency initiatives at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Medical University of South Carolina, and Genome Medical.

Whitney holds a BS in Chemistry from Elon University and MBA in Pharmaceutical Management from Rutgers Business School.

Mary Ricciuti

Mary joined Biohaven with over 24 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including the previous 8 years in regulatory writing.

She was previously employed at Pfizer as a submission medical writer, where she served as the medical writing lead for successful global filings and approvals in rare disease and co-led initiatives to improve processes and increase speed to regulatory submissions.

Prior to employment at Pfizer, Mary spent 17 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb both in regulatory writing and as a lead in clinical data management operations. In the data lead role, Mary was responsible for developing clinical program-level data collection and review strategy and co-led multiple improvement initiatives, gaining extensive experience collaborating across functions and mentoring members of the data team. She partnered with cross-functional leads to ensure studies within a clinical development program met data consistency and quality requirements for several successful global submissions, approvals, and post-approval commitments in HIV and immuno-oncology.

Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Mary worked for several years as a cancer program coordinator/cancer registrar. Mary earned her MPH in chronic disease epidemiology from Yale University and BS in animal science from Cornell.

Landon Durak

Landon has been in the pharmaceutical industry for eight years focusing on drug substance development. Prior to joining Biohaven, he spent six years at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in the process chemistry and development group where he worked on several small molecule APIs and was the project lead for Mobocertinib, which was approved by the FDA in 2021.

At Biohaven Landon has overseen the late-stage development and NDA submissions of Zavegepant (now with Pfizer) and Troriluzole. Currently he manages approximately half of the drug substance assets in Biohaven’s pipeline including BHV-7000, BHV-2100, and BHV-8000.

He received his bachelor’s degree from Boston College and his PhD from the University of Chicago.

Silvina Del Carmen

Dr. Silvina del Carmen-Heller joined Biohaven with over a decade of experience in the development of experimental animal models and cell culture assay design, focusing on immunology. As the Associate Director of Biology, she is a vital member of the In Vivo Pharmacology Team, applying her expertise to advance drug development, particularly in autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases.
 
She began her pharmaceutical career at Artizan Biosciences, where she led a small molecule program for treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), employing advanced methodologies such as germ-free animal models, human 3D organoid cultures, flow cytometry, and sequencing analysis. At Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, she now oversees drug discovery programs, concentrating on Degrader Programs and excelling in cross-functional collaboration.
 
Deeply committed to early drug discovery, Dr. del Carmen-Heller leverages drug mechanisms of action to identify successful candidates and is dedicated to teamwork and mentoring emerging scientists. Her academic journey commenced at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán in Argentina, where she earned her B.S. in Biotechnology and Ph.D. in Biochemistry. Her postdoctoral work at Yale and the Jackson Laboratory, which garnered fellowships from the American Association of Immunologists and the Pew Charitable Trusts, has been instrumental in her scientific career.

Natarajan Venkatesan, Ph.D.

Natarajan (Venkat), has over 20 years of both Industrial and academic research experience in the development of various pharmaceutical dosage forms.

Prior to joining Biohaven he was with GSK Consumer Healthcare, where he lead the formulation development for the Global Otrivin Brand.

Venkat obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from India, he was recipient of the JSPS Post-doctoral Fellowship, Japan.

Srinivas Yandrapu

Srinivas (Srini) is an experienced Quality leader with over 25 years of experience in Quality and Regulatory Compliance in the pharmaceutical and OTC industries.

Srini comes to Biohaven from GlaxoSmithKline & Haleon NJ, where he was responsible for leading the US Business Unit Supply Chain Quality and Post marketing Quality Operations, which included New Product Launches, Health Authority interactions, and Regulatory intelligence implementation.

Earlier in his career, Srini held various Quality roles with increasing responsibilities at Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., Princeton, NJ, where he focused on setting up R&D Quality systems, supporting CMC Programs for IND and NDA Products, Third-Party Management, and New Product Launches.

Srini holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science from Nagarjuna University and a Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry from Andhra University

Heather Franceschini

Heather has over 10 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry with expertise in neurology, urology and hematology/oncology.

Prior to Biohaven, she worked as an Administrative and Clinical Support Specialist for a small pediatric healthcare organization where she discovered her affinity for research becoming fully emerged in all aspects of Phase 1 through 4 studies. She also has experience as a CRA and a CTM in the CRO setting.

Heather earned her Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Management from Wilmington University and her Master’s Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Healthcare Administration from Wilmington University in New Castle, DE.

Brian Lestini, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Lestini is a biotechnology executive, pharmaceutical industry leader, and physician-scientist with nearly 15 years of experience in all aspects of oncology drug development and translational medicine, from early-stage through commercialization.

Prior to joining Biohaven, Dr. Lestini was Chief Executive Officer and previously Chief Medical Officer at Pyramid Biosciences, a clinical-stage oncology biotechnology company responsible for the in-licensing of BHV-1510. Before moving to biotech, Dr. Lestini most recently served as Vice President of Oncology Development at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), where he led the registrational development program for OPDUALAG (nivolumab plus relatlimab), and led the first global approvals of OPDIVO (nivolumab) in non-small cell lung cancer. While at BMS, Dr. Lestini also served as the Global Medical Affairs Head and Development Leader for three hematology products: OPDIVO, SPRYCEL (dasatinib), and EMPLICITI (elotuzumab). Prior to joining BMS, he led early-stage clinical development for BRAF inhibitor programs at Hoffmann-La Roche.

Dr. Lestini is co-author on several peer-reviewed scientific papers, including two publications in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A board-certified Pediatric Hematologist-Oncologist, Dr. Lestini received his MD and PhD degrees from Case Western Reserve University, undertook his pediatrics residency at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), and completed his hematology-oncology fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

Gabrielle Valles

Gabrielle has over eight years expertise in biophysics and structural biology. Before joining Biohaven, Gabrielle was a biochemist at a stealth-mode biotech startup. Here, she was responsible for characterizing the activity and specificity of novel, human-evolved proteases. At Biohaven, she is a Research Investigator (Biochemistry) supporting several discovery programs.

Gabrielle completed her Ph.D. at UConn Health in Molecular Biology and Biophysics, where she studied the dynamics of enzyme regulation using NMR spectroscopy, then did her post-doctoral studies at Tufts Medical Center in Molecular Microbiology, where she studied protein-protein interactions involved in spore germination of C. difficile.

Kelly Smith

Kelly has over 10 years experience in electrophysiology and sensory neurobiology research. She comes to Biohaven from The University of Pittsburgh where she was a post-doctoral researcher investigating the spinal circuits underlying pain and itch.

Kelly received her Bachelor of Biomedical Science and PhD in Physiology from The University of Newcastle, Australia.

Kathleen Collins

Kathleen (Kate) Collins has over 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience with Pfizer and Sanofi and 10 years of critical care nursing experience at Mount Sinai Hospital, NYC.
 
Kate has held regulatory leadership positions at global and regional levels spanning early to late-stage development in the areas of drug and biologics, across various therapeutic areas including pain, addiction, neuroscience, cardiovascular, metabolic, women’s health and Covid vaccine. Kate’s specialties include regulatory leadership for New Drug and Biological License Applications and providing strategic leadership for key public Advisory Committee meetings with FDA.
 
Kate has a Nursing Diploma from the University College Hospital Galway, Ireland, a Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Pace University NYC, and a Masters of Science degree in Critical Care Nurse Practitioner from Columbia University, NYC.

Tara Manion

Tara has over 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience across therapeutic areas in contract research organizations such as ICON and large pharmaceutical companies including Bristol Meyers Squibb and Pfizer. In her last role as a Medical Writing Manger at Pfizer, she was responsible for creating a wide variety of regulatory documents including (but not limited to) clinical study protocols, clinical study reports, briefing documents, clinical summaries for marketing applications, and responses to queries from regulatory authorities.

Tara brings clinical development and medical writing and expertise in clinical pharmacology, specifically in a wide variety of Phase 1 clinical trials such as single ascending dose multiple ascending dose, bioavailability/bioequivalence, hepatic/renal impairment, Japanese bridging, thorough QT, pediatric, food effect, and drug-drug interaction. She served as a Study Manager for multiple Phase 1 clinical trials at Pfizer with responsibility for all aspects of clinical trial execution from start up to close out.

Tara has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Animal Science and a Master of Science Degree in Pathobiology from the University of Connecticut.