Board of Directors
Dr. Cynthia Bamdad, CEO (Director and Chairman)
Dr. Bamdad is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of Minerva Biotechnologies. She was a pioneer in the field of biochips and is now recognized as a leader in the field of cancer stem cells and cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Bamdad holds a B.S. in Physics from Northeastern University and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University, where she was a Howard Hughes Doctoral Fellow. While a Ph.D. student at Harvard, Dr. Bamdad invented the first electronic DNA chip and the first universal protein chip. Intellectual property surrounding these inventions and extensions thereof, also developed by Dr. Bamdad, formed the cornerstone of a California startup company, which was sold within two years to Motorola for $300 million and is now GenMark. Dr. Bamdad’s invention is now an FDA-approved medical device that electronically reads patient DNA in real-time.
Dr. Bamdad was invited to join the Board of Directors for Pharmacyclics (PCYC), when a major shareholder took over the company in 2008. Dr. Bamdad’s role on the Board from 2008 - 2011 was to assess the strength of each program and advise as to whether to progress, partner or drop. Dr. Bamdad advised to drop 5 of the 7 programs, partner 1 and push, as lead program the BTK inhibitor, now known as Imbruvica. When Dr. Bamdad joined PCYC BOD in 2008, the Company was valued at $15M. Under the new strategy, PCYC sold 50% to J&J for just under $1B in 2011 and a little more than 3 years later sold the other 50% to Abbvie for $21B. Imbruvica is the most successful drug to date for hematological cancers.
Dr. Bamdad has been the Principal Investigator on grants and contracts from the National Cancer Institute, National Institute for Mental Health, National Science Foundation, The Huntington Foundation, National Institute of General Medicine, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Advanced Technology Program (ATP). Dr. Bamdad has served on special committees to advise research arms of the military on the technical challenges of detecting biological warfare agents (BWA). Dr. Bamdad has also given numerous invited talks to U.S. and foreign institutions on the topics of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and biological warfare threat and detection. Dr. Bamdad has also served on the Board of Directors Northeastern University’s School of Social Science, Urban Affairs & Public Policy.
Dr. Bamdad is the sole or co-inventor inventor of over 160 patent applications in the United States and foreign jurisdictions for novel technologies, therapeutics and diagnostics.
Dr. Bamdad in her role as CEO/CSO oversees all corporate strategy, and scientific and business operations of the company.
Kenneth Reed, M.D., P.C. (Director)
Kenneth Reed MD is a board certified dermatologist in private practice. After completing residency at the Harvard-MGH combined dermatology program, he established a clinical practice in a Boston suburb, created DermAsap, and has continued as a clinical investigator for a number of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He currently serves on the board of directors of Red Hill Biopharma, and has served on various scientific advisory boards to a number of pharmaceutical and medical technology companies. Dr. Reed is also a cofounder of Early Cell, a company focused on early detection of circulating fetal cells, and Prescient Pharma which focuses on cellular rejuvenation.
Robert Staszewski, M.D., FACP (Director)
Dr. Robert Staszewski received a B.S. from Columbia University, and A.M. in Physics from Harvard, his M.D. from Yale and completed residencies in Internal Medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital and in Dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, where he was a Chief Resident. Dr. Staszewski is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Dermatology and completed a Clinical and Research Fellowship in Dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. Among his awards are election to the Tau Beta Pi Honor Society, the Award for Outstanding Achievement as an Undergraduate, Columbia University, a Howard Hughes Doctoral Fellowship in Physics at Harvard University, a New York State Regents Medical Scholarship, and a National Research Service Award. Dr. Staszewski has staff privileges at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. Dr. Staszewski has published in numerous peer reviewed journals.
Kenneth S. Kosik, M.D. (Director)
Dr. Kosik received a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from Case Western Reserve University (Cum Laude). He received his M.D. from Medical College of Pennsylvania and an honorary M.A. upon achieving rank of full professor from Harvard University.
Dr. Kosik held the following hospital appointments: Visiting Physician, Clinical Research Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Senior Neurologist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Clinical Associate in Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital; Consulting Staff, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and is currently the Co-Director of the Neuroscience Research Institute at the University of California Santa Barbara.
Dr. Kosik has awards and honors too extensive to list here. He has given over 200 invited lectures around the world. He has authored over 200 published scientific research articles, 86 expert review articles, 3 books and serves on the editorial board of 4 scientific journals. Of late, Dr. Kosik’s work has focused on stem cells and neurodegenerative disease from a molecular, cellular and genetic perspective. He has also served as co-PI (principal investigator) along with Dr. Bamdad in Minerva-UCSB collaborative Stem Cell Research. Dr. Kosik has been featured in a NOVA special and on 60 Minutes as an expert in Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Kosik has also been elected as an AAAS fellow.
Joseph Nathan (Director). Mr. Nathan is a Partner and Chief Financial Officer of Contour Companies (Contour) a Real Estate Development and Management Firm established in 2015. Contour owns and operates a $2 Billion portfolio and is engaged in $3 Billion of developments in the Southeast States.
Prior to Contour, Mr. Nathan was Managing Partner of Insight Technology Capital Partners (Insight) from 2005 until 2015 where he led investments in eight companies with disruptive technologies including Minerva.
Prior to Insight, Mr. Nathan spent 23 years at Compuware Corporation (“Compuware”), where he served as President and Chief Operating Officer from 1994 until his retirement in 2003. While President of Compuware, he developed and executed a business strategy that grew the corporation’s annual revenue from $200 million to more than $2 billion dollars. Prior to becoming President of Compuware, Mr. Nathan served as executive in charge of the Professional Services Division and the Software Products Division.
In addition, he has worked in key information technology positions at organizations such as KPMG, Manufacturer’s National Bank, and National Bank of Detroit.
Mr. Nathan received a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of Detroit.
James Bridges (Director). Mr. Bridges worked with IBM Corp for 15 years where his primary responsibilities were in managing large main-frame maintenance – both hardware and software. He resigned in 1982 to take a position with Compute Languages Research as Exec. VP of Corporate Services where he was responsible for human resources, finance and accounting, and management information systems. He was chief executive officer of Key Airlines (a small air carrier in Las Vegas, Nevada). Mr. Bridges was responsible for a $100 MM plus US Air Force contract to move personnel from Nellis AFB to Tonapah, Nevada. The company retained that contract for a number of years. After Key Airlines was sold, Mr. Bridges became President of World Airlines which moves both personnel and freight for the US Army and the US Air Force. World Airways was a charter member of the CRAF program and Mr. Bridges was instrumental in designing a way for the Air Force to get access to moving belly freight via regularly scheduled commercial passenger aircraft. World Airways took the first load of the 82nd Airborne division to Saudi Arabia for the first Gulf War and continued to support all military efforts there until the war ended. Mr. Bridges then went to work for Miller Investments (via his consulting business) as a financing consultant and has recently retired. He continues to serve on MIG related boards of directors. He was Chairman and CEO of Applied Ultrasonics until the business was sold. Mr. Bridges holds a BS degree in Economics from Troy State University and an MS in Management from Stanford University.
Ron Axelrod (Director)
Ron Axelrod is the Chief Operating Officer at Minerva.
Mr. Axelrod was member of the Crew team at Boston University and rowed in the Head of the Charles until 2006. After completing his degree in Biomedical Engineering, Mr. Axelrod joined the Jet Engine Division of GE, where he worked for ten years. Mr. Axelrod then started a business of brokering networking and communications equipment. In the days before internet auction sites, Ron traveled the country buying out computer lots at auctions and re-selling on the secondary market. Ron has traveled extensively around the globe, currently having visited 110 countries. In 2005, Ron was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and a related platelet disorder. This was the beginning of Ron’s journey into the frontiers of Regenerative Medicine. He started working with Minerva in 2005 when the Company first discovered that the same growth factor receptor and growth factor that mediate the growth of 75% of all cancers – MUC1* and NME’s – also mediate the growth of all human pluripotent stem cells. Ron has been a patient advocate for cell based therapies for MS and for cancers.
At Minerva, Mr. Axelrod is responsible for corporate development, investor relations, facilities and operations, accounting and finance, IT, and procurement. He has raised over $100M in private equity investment for Minerva, which has preserved shareholder value through a strategy of delaying venture capital and institutional investment until a time just prior to initial public offering.
Corporate Advisors
Bank: Bank of America Waltham, Massachusetts
Attorneys Corporate: Gil Breiman, Burns and Levinson, Boston, Massachusetts.
Kenneth A. Clark, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Palo Alto, California
Intellectual Property: Michael Hostetler, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Palo Alto, California
Auditors: BDO USA LLP
Taxes: Lee & Crowley LLC, Boston, Massachusetts