Management and Organization
Neil Desai, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer and Director of Aadi will continue to lead the combined company along with the Aadi management team following this transaction. In addition to Dr. Desai, the Board of Directors will include pre-merger Aadi Board member Rick Maroun, General Counsel & Partner, Legal and Operations at Frazier Healthcare Partners. In addition, Lance Thibault, Managing Director at Danforth Advisors, LLC (“Danforth”), was appointed as interim Chief Financial Officer of the combined company. Mr. Thibault has over 30 years of experience as a life science CFO and senior executive.
Upon the closing of the merger, Caley Castelein, M.D. and Anupam Dalal, M.D., former members of the Aerpio Board of Directors, will continue on the combined company’s Board of Directors.
Also concurrent with the closing of the merger, Aadi’s pre-merger board observer, Karin Hehenberger M.D., Ph.D., has been appointed to the combined company’s board. Dr. Hehenberger brings extensive industry knowledge and medical and life sciences expertise to the combined company’s Board. Dr. Hehenberger currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Lyfebulb, Inc., a patient engagement platform, and previously served in various roles for Coronado Biosciences, Inc. (now Fortress Biotech, Inc.), including Senior Vice President of Scientific Affairs and, most recently, Chief Medical Officer, and several management positions, including as Vice President, Metabolics Strategy and Business Development, at Johnson & Johnson.
In addition, Behzad Aghazadeh, Ph.D. has been appointed to the combined company’s board. Dr. Aghazadeh brings more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, including more than 15 years as an institutional investor and previously six years at Booz Allen as a general management consultant to senior executive teams in the healthcare sector. Dr. Aghazadeh currently is the Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager of Avoro Capital Advisors, a global life sciences investment firm with a focus on supporting emerging biotechnology companies. He previously served as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Immunomedics, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company (now a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences, Inc.).
About Aadi Bioscience and FYARRO™
Aadi is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing precision therapies for genetically-defined cancers. Aadi’s primary goal is to bring transformational therapies to cancer patients with mTOR pathway driver alterations such as alterations in TSC1 or TSC2 genes, where other mTOR inhibitors have not or cannot be effectively