Board of Directors
Mr. Bisgaard is a Partner in Novo Ventures Novo A/S. He joined Novo A/S in 2001 and has been working in the San Francisco, California office since 2009. He is also currently a member of the board of directors of Altheos, Inc., Asante Solutions, Inc., and Light Sciences Oncology, and was a board member of several biotech companies including NatImmune A/S and Neurokey A/S.
Prior to joining Novo A/S, Mr. Bisgaard was employed with McKinsey & Co. as a general consultant and as a specialist within the Scandinavian Corporate Finance and Strategy Group. At McKinsey, he focused on strategy development, mergers, acquisitions and alliances in various industries. He is the co-author of 'Growth by Mergers & Acquisitions' published by Børsens Forlag, 2004. Mr. Bisgaard obtained an MSc in 1998 from the Technical University of Denmark and was at the same time awarded a post graduate degree in Mathematical Modelling in Economics by the European Consortium for Mathematics in the Industry.
Mr. Dovey has been a Partner of Domain Associates since 1988. Since joining Domain, he has served on the Board of Directors of over 35 private and public companies and has been Chairman of five. He is currently on the board of one public company, Orexigen Therapeutics. Prior to Domain, Mr. Dovey spent six years at Rorer Group (now part of Sanofi Aventis). As President of Rorer from 1986 to 1988, he was the primary architect of this company's strategic shift to pharmaceuticals that resulted in a doubling of annual sales to approximately $1 billion. Previously, Mr. Dovey was President of Survival Technology, a start-up medical products company whose sales growth placed it in the top ten of the Inc 100. He has also held management positions with Howmedica, Howmet Corporation, and New York Telephone.
Mr. Dovey has served as both President and Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association. He is Chair of the Wistar Institute, a leader in preclinical bio-medical research in the non-profit sector. Mr. Dovey serves on the Board of Directors and is also Chairman at the Center for Venture Education (Kauffman Fellows Program). He is a Trustee Emeritus of Germantown Academy, and is a former Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. He was also a former board member of the industry associations representing the medical device industry as well as the association representing consumer pharmaceuticals. Mr. Dovey received his BA from Colgate University and MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Dr. Harris is Professor and Chief of the Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Diego. A neuro-otologic surgeon who deals with disorders of the ear, hearing and balance, and tumors which affect the skull base, he obtained both his MD and PhD at the University of Pennsylvania and performed his otolaryngology residency training at Harvard. He did advanced fellowship training in Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery at the University of Zurich, and holds two board certifications, in both otolaryngology and neurotology/skull base surgery.
Dr. Harris has an active clinical practice and leads a large research team committed to discovering the causes of deafness and other disorders such as acoustic neuromas, Ménière's disease, autoimmune inner ear disease and the effect of inflammation on inner ear structures. He has published over 150 scientific papers and 4 books including one on Ménière's Disease and his latest on the Head and Neck Manifestations of Systemic Disease. He is past president of both the American Otological Society and the Association for Research in Otolarygology and is a member of the Collegium Oto–Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum. He is also one of the scientific founders of Otonomy.
Dr. Lichter is a co-founder of Otonomy and its CEO from inception until the appointment of Dr. Weber in November 2010. Dr. Lichter, a biotechnology and pharmaceutical business executive has over 20 years experience in management, scientific research and business development. Dr. Lichter has participated in licensing or M&A deals valued in excess of $1 billion. He is currently a Managing Director at Avalon Ventures and in that capacity is on the Board of Directors of aFRAXis, Carolus, Zacharon, Incode and Akesis. He is an observer at Syndax Board meetings. Until November 2008, Dr. Lichter served as President and CEO of Akesis Pharmaceuticals, a developer of patent protected diabetes drugs. He remains on the board of directors as Executive Chairman. In 2004, Dr. Lichter co-founded Sytera, Inc., and served as Vice President of Operations and Business Development which was acquired by Sirion Therapeutics, Inc. in July 2006.
Early in his career, Dr. Lichter was a co-founder of Sequana Therapeutics, a genomics-base drug discovery company. Dr. Lichter led negotiations in the development and management of collaborations with numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies across many therapeutic areas. In 2000, Dr. Lichter co-founded and was CEO of Xenopharm, a drug safety company where he drove the development of the company and its ultimate acquisition by Deltagen. He served in management positions at Sequenom, Pfizer and Genset. Upon completing his PhD in 1990, Dr. Lichter held a postdoctoral position in Human Genetics at Yale University, where he received broad training in areas of classical human genetics, clinical genetics & bioinformatics. During his 2 year tenure at Yale, Dr. Lichter continued his postdoctoral work at DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co., where he focused on pharmacogenetics. Dr. Lichter received a BS and PhD from the University of Illinois.
Dr. McKearn is a Venture Partner at RiverVest® Venture Partners. Prior to joining RiverVest in April 2008, he spent 25 years as a successful “drug hunter” in both large and small biopharma including a decade working in small-cap and venture-backed companies. Dr. McKearn has served as Head of R&D, CSO, President, and CEO in private biotech, and Head of Research in public companies (Searle and Pharmacia). He has also served as a director for private and public biotech companies. He holds more than 50 patents and numerous patent applications, primarily in the areas of cancer treatment, pain, and inflammatory disease. Through his efforts, Dr. McKearn helped establish the groundwork that led to the commercialization of several major products, including DayPro, Arthrotec, and most notably, Celebrex, one of the leading pharmaceuticals to treat arthritis.
Prior to 1985, Dr. McKearn’s academic experience included serving as a Member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland, and as a Research Associate in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Washington University in St. Louis. Additionally, he has co-authored more than 70 published, peer-reviewed scientific papers. Dr. McKearn completed his PhD in immunology from the University of Chicago and his BS in biology from Northern Illinois University.
Dr. Preston is a Managing Director of TPG Biotech®. Prior to joining TPG Biotech in May 2005, Dr. Preston spent two years at JP Morgan Partners where she focused on medical device and biotechnology venture capital investing. Prior to JP Morgan Partners, Dr. Preston was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with New Enterprise Associates. Dr. Preston has an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of London and a medical degree from the University of Oxford. After leaving Oxford, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular biology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University. She completed her training in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and then she sub-specialized in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at U.C.S.F. During her academic career, she was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, a Fulbright Cancer Research Scholarship, a Harlech Scholarship and a Science and Engineering Research Council Post-doctoral Fellowship Award. After leaving academic medicine, she spent five years at McKinsey & Co. in New York, where she was a leader of their pharmaceutical and medical products consulting practice. She advised large pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies on critical strategic issues such as R&D portfolio prioritization, M&A opportunities, new technology acquisitions, new product launches and product growth strategies.
Dr. Preston co-founded Virobay Inc., a biotechnology company which is seeking to develop new therapies for the treatment of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and was the CEO from the company's founding until 2010. Dr. Preston also serves on the boards of Albireo, Alder Biotherapeutics, Axcan Pharma, Elevation Pharmaceuticals and Virobay, Inc.
Dr. Weber has broad experience in business and healthcare product development, including over a decade as the chief executive officer of companies developing locally delivered therapeutics. Prior to joining Otonomy, Dr. Weber was CEO of MacuSight, a developer of a sustained delivery formulation of sirolimus for the treatment of severe ocular diseases. In this role, he successfully assembled a management team of proven executives, secured venture financing, licensed product rights in Asia in a deal with $50 million in upfront payments, and rapidly advanced the program into pivotal Phase 2 clinical trials.
Before his work with MacuSight, Dr. Weber served as CEO and executive vice president of Oculex Pharmaceuticals, leading the company until its successful acquisition by Allergan in 2003 for $230 million. During his tenure, he oversaw the development of Posurdex (Ozurdex®), a proprietary, biodegradable, sustained-release ocular implant which has since received regulatory approval in the U.S. and abroad.
Dr. Weber has also held senior management positions with Oral-B Laboratories and The Procter & Gamble Company. In addition to Otonomy, he currently sits on the board of directors of On Demand Therapeutics and Sytera Therapeutics, two development stage companies focused on the treatment of serious retinal diseases. Dr. Weber received his Ph.D. in medical microbiology from Creighton University and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in biological sciences from Wichita State University.