serve or currently serving on our Board of Directors should serve as a director. In addition to the information presented below, we believe that each director meets the minimum qualifications established by the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of our Board of Directors.
M. James Barrett, Ph.D. Dr. Barrett has served on our Board of Directors since May 2015 and as Chairman since June 2016. Dr. Barrett has been a general partner of New Enterprise Associates, Inc., or NEA, a venture capital fund, since 2001. He also serves on the boards of Clovis Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLVS), Galera Therapeutics, GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC), PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals Inc., Senseonics Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SENS) and Tarveda Therapeutics, Inc. He formerly served on the boards of, among others, Roka Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROKA), CoGenesys Inc. (acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NASDAQ: TEVA)), Iomai Corporation (acquired by Intercell AG (OTCBB: INRLF, INRLY)), MedImmune, Inc. (acquired by AstraZeneca plc (NYSE: AZN)), Pharmion Corp. (acquired by Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG)), Inhibitex, Inc. (NASDAQ: INHX, acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY)), Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUPN), LOXO Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ: LOXO), Zosano Pharma Corporation (NASDAQ: ZSAN), Cerecor, Inc. (NASDAQ: CERC) and Peptimmune, Inc. Prior to NEA, Dr. Barrett served as Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sensors for Medicine and Science, Inc. (n/k/a Senseonics) and also led threeNEA-funded companies, serving as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Genetic Therapy, Inc., President and Chief Executive Officer of Life Technologies, Inc. (acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (NYSE:TMO)), which was formed through the merger of GIBCO Corporation and Bethesda Research Labs, Inc., where Dr. Barrett was President and Chief Executive Officer. Previously, he worked in various divisions of SmithKline and French (now GlaxoSmithKline Plc (NYSE: GSK)). Dr. Barrett received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Tennessee, his M.B.A. from the University of Santa Clara, and a B.S. in Chemistry from Boston College. We believe that Dr. Barrett’s extensive venture capital industry experience and technical background, along with his service on the board of directors of a number of public and private biopharmaceutical companies make him qualified to serve as a member of our Board of Directors and its Chairman.
Franklin M. Berger, CFA. Mr. Berger joined our Board of Directors in February 2016. Mr. Berger is a consultant to biotechnology industry participants, including major biopharmaceutical firms,mid-capitalization biotechnology companies, specialist asset managers and venture capital companies, providing business development, strategic advisory, financing, partnering and royalty acquisition advice. Mr. Berger is also a biotechnology industry analyst with over 25 years of experience in capital markets and financial analysis. Mr. Berger worked at Sectoral Asset Management as aco-founder of thesmall-cap focused NEMO Fund from January 2007 through May 2008. From May 1998 to March 2003, he served at J.P. Morgan Securities, most recently as Managing Director, Equity Research and Senior Biotechnology Analyst. Previously, Mr. Berger served in similar capacities at Salomon Smith Barney and Josephthal & Co. Mr. Berger also serves on the boards of directors of BELLUS Health, Inc. (OTCPK: BLUSF), ESSA Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: EPIX), Immune Design Corp. (NASDAQ: IMDZ) and Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FPRX), each of which is a public biotechnology company. Mr. Berger formerly served on the boards of Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SGEN), Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AUPH) and Emisphere Technologies, Inc., BioTime, Inc. and VaxGen, Inc., each of which were public biopharmaceutical companies during Mr. Berger’s service as a director. Mr. Berger received a B.A. in International Relations and an M.A. in International Economics both from Johns Hopkins University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst. We believe that Mr. Berger’s financial background and experience as an equity analyst in the biotechnology industry combined with his experience serving on the boards of directors of multiple public companies are important to our strategic planning and financing activities and make him qualified to serve as a member of our Board of Directors.
Meenu Chhabra. Ms. Chhabra has been serving as our President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board of Directors since May 2014. From August 2007 to May 2014, Ms. Chhabra was President and Chief Executive Officer at Allozyne, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company. From December 2006 to August 2007, she served as Vice President of Business Development and Licensing at the Novartis Pharmaceuticals division of
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