| Item 5.02 | Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers. |
Election of New Director
On July 20, 2020, the Board of Directors, or the Board, of Ziopharm Oncology, Inc., or the Company, appointed James Huang as a director of the Company, effective immediately. Mr. Huang will serve as a director until the Company’s 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and until such time as his successor is duly elected and qualified, or until his earlier death, resignation or removal. Mr. Huang will not serve on any committees of the Company’s Board.
Mr. Huang, 55, joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers China, or KPCB China, as a managing partner in 2011 and focuses on the firm’s life sciences practice. Prior to joining KPCB China, Mr. Huang was a managing partner at Vivo Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in life sciences investments. Before joining Vivo in 2007, Mr. Huang was president of Anesiva, a biopharmaceutical company focused on pain-management treatments. During his 20-year career in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, he also held senior roles in business development, sales, marketing and R&D with Tularik Inc. (acquired by Amgen), GlaxoSmithKline LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb and ALZA Corp. (acquired by Johnson & Johnson). Mr. Huang is also founding and managing partner of Panacea Venture, a global venture fund focusing on investments in innovative and transformative early and growth stage healthcare and life science companies. Mr. Huang is Chairman of the Board at Kindstar Global (Beijing) Technology, Inc., Windtree Therapeutics, Inc., JHL Biotech, Inc., Tactiva Therapeutics, LLC, and Chime Biologics Limited and Director at CASI Pharmaceuticals Inc. and XW Laboratories Inc. Mr. Huang received an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Mr. Huang will be compensated in accordance with the Company’s standard compensation arrangements for non-employee directors, which are described in greater detail in the Company’s definitive proxy statement on Schedule 14A relating to its 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the Commission, on May 18, 2020.
In connection with his appointment, the Company will enter into its standard form of indemnity agreement with Mr. Huang, the form of which was filed as Exhibit 99.1 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Commission on January 31, 2013. Mr. Huang was not selected as a director pursuant to any arrangements or understandings with the Company or with any other person.
Panacea Venture, where Mr. Huang was the founder and serves as managing partner, has invested in TriArm Therapeutics, Ltd, or TriArm. On December 19, 2018, the Company and TriArm launched a joint venture, operating as Eden BioCell, Ltd., or Eden BioCell, to lead commercialization of the Company’s Sleeping Beauty-generated CAR-T therapies in the People’s Republic of China (including Macau and Hong Kong), Taiwan and Korea. Eden BioCell is focused on advancing the Company’s Rapid Personalized Manufacturing (RPM) technology using patient-derived (autologous) T cells to treat patients with relapsed or refractory CD19+ leukemias and lymphomas. The Company licensed to Eden BioCell the rights in Greater China for its third-generation Sleeping Beauty-generated CAR-T therapies targeting the CD19 antigen. Eden BioCell is owned equally by the Company and TriArm and the parties share decision-making authority. TriArm has contributed $10.0 million to Eden BioCell and has committed up to an additional $25.0 million to this joint venture. TriArm also manages all clinical development in the territory pursuant to a Master Services Agreement between TriArm and Eden BioCell. Mr. Huang and Laurence Cooper M.D., Ph.D., the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, serve as the members of Eden BioCell’s Board of Directors.
