Team Category: Leadership

Cherry joined Catamaran as Chief Medical Officer in April 2022.  She has extensive pharmaceutical and biotech industry experience and expertise in the clinical development of oncology therapeutics, including allogeneic cell therapies. Prior to joining Catamaran, Cherry was senior vice president of clinical development at Caribou Biosciences. She initiated and built Caribou’s clinical development program and advanced the company’s first allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy into the clinic. Prior to this role, Cherry held positions of increasing responsibility and leadership in U.S. and global clinical development and medical affairs, including at Array Biopharma/Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, and Amgen. Cherry completed her residency in radiation oncology at the University of Michigan and is a licensed physician and surgeon. She holds an MD from the University of California, Irvine and a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Mike joined Catamaran as Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and New Product Planning in February 2022. He has extensive experience leading product planning and portfolio strategy in the cell therapy and immuno-oncology areas. Prior to Catamaran, Mike was Vice President, Medicine Commercialization Leader for Cell and Gene Therapies at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). In this role he was responsible for planning the global launch of letetresgene autoleucel (NY-ESO-1 TCR-T cell therapy), operational design and implementation of GSK’s cell therapy capabilities, and for cell therapy portfolio strategy.  He also made major contributions to GSK’s reentry into oncology by playing a leading role in the company’s $5B acquisition of Tesaro in 2019.  Prior to this, he held roles of increasing responsibility at GSK in new product planning and business development across a range of disease areas. Mike began his career as a strategy consultant at LEK Consulting.  Mike holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a BSE in Bioengineering from Tulane University.

Tara joined Catamaran as Vice President, Human Resources and Organizational Effectiveness in November 2021. She brings more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of human resources, implementing organizational strategies to drive business results and support high-growth companies. As a global human resources leader, Tara has broad experience and proven expertise in building cultures that attract, retain and develop world class talent. Prior to joining Catamaran, Tara led human resources at Chiasma, Inc., where she oversaw all organizational development and HR initiatives, including talent acquisition, leadership development, and employee retention strategies, as the company transitioned to a commercial biotech organization. During her tenure with Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Biogen, Tara held leadership roles in many aspects of human resources, including talent acquisition, learning and development, employee engagement, and diversity and inclusion. Tara holds a BA in Psychology from Boston University and an MBA from Simmons Graduate School of Management.

Alvin joined Catamaran as President and CEO in February 2021.  He is an experienced physician and biopharma executive with a track record of building and leading companies that develop therapeutics addressing significant unmet medical needs.  Most recently, Alvin was CEO of Disarm Therapeutics, a private neuroscience company that was acquired by Eli Lilly in 2020.  Prior to Disarm, Alvin was CEO of Enzyvant Therapeutics, a company developing cell/tissue-based regenerative medicines for rare diseases.  He previously held senior leadership roles at Retrophin and Pfizer, where he was the Chief Operating Officer of the Pfizer Rare Disease Research Unit.  Alvin began his industry career as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co. and LEK Consulting.  He holds an MD from the University of Alabama, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, and a BA from Vanderbilt University.  Alvin completed his residency training in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Finola joined Catamaran as Director, Pipeline Research in May 2021. Prior to Catamaran, Finola was Director of Program Management, Research, at Arbor Biotechnologies, where she managed the collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals focused on innovative programs in gene therapy, including the development of novel CRISPR nucleases for therapeutic gene editing. Before Arbor, Finola was Associate Director of Immune Tolerance at SQZ Biotechnologies, where she led the cell therapy project to modulate the immune system for the treatment of autoimmune disease. This project at SQZ received awards from private foundations and grants, and Finola won a Women in the Enterprise of Science and Technology award during this time. Finola conducted her postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School with a focus on stem cells in cancer for their role in leukemia relapse. Finola holds a PhD in Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry from Northwestern University and a BS in Biology and Genetics from McGill University.

Dave joined Catamaran as Vice President, Finance in June 2021. He has worked at growing biotech companies and built a track record of progressive operational finance experience. Most recently, Dave was Senior Director, Finance at Akebia Therapeutics, a publicly-traded, fully integrated biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes renal therapeutics. Prior to Akebia, he served as the Senior Director of Finance & Accounting and Controller at Keryx Biopharmaceuticals. While at Keryx, Dave was a key finance partner in the company’s strategic merger with Akebia. He began his career at PwC in the assurance practice, supporting clients in the life sciences and healthcare industries. Dave holds an MS in Accounting and a BS in Finance and Accounting from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and is a certified public accountant in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Dominic joined Catamaran as Senior Director, In Vivo Pharmacology in March 2021. Prior to joining Catamaran, Dominic led the in vivo pharmacology teams at Cobalt Biomedicine and subsequently Sana Biotechnology. In those roles, Dominic focused on proof of concept and candidate selection studies for gene and engineered cell therapeutic approaches in a variety of disease indications including oncology, rare monogenic hepatic disorders and acute liver failure. Prior to his gene/cell therapy experience, Dominic managed external preclinical studies for Catabasis Pharmaceuticals with a specific focus on NASH, Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy, and Cystic Fibrosis. Dominic began his post academic career at LeukoSite where he focused on integrins and chemokine receptors as therapeutic targets to modulate homing and recruitment of specific leukocyte subsets to sites of inflammation involved in the pathogenesis of multiple disease indications. He conducted his postdoctoral training in the Immunobiology Section at Yale University where he studied mechanisms of peripheral anergy of T cells. Dominic holds a PhD in Immunology from Tufts University, and he earned an MS in Microbiology and an AB in Chemistry from Rutgers University.

Joe joined Catamaran as Vice President, Technical Operations and Manufacturing, in August 2021. He brings more than twenty-five years of experience in cell therapy development and GMP manufacturing of cell and gene therapies. Prior to Catamaran, Joe served as Senior Director, Manufacturing at City of Hope’s Center for Biomedicine and Genetics where he led viral vector and cell therapy process development and GMP manufacturing for oncology and regenerative medicine projects for City of Hope clinical trials and external clients. Before his role at City of Hope, he worked at Stanford’s Cardiovascular Institute as Assistant Director of Translational Research, working to bring stem cell-derived therapies for heart failure to the clinic.  Joe began his career in biotechnology at Geron Corporation, where he headed up basic research into pluripotent stem cell-derived therapies for diseases ranging from spinal cord injury to diabetes to heart failure. Joe performed his postdoctoral research at UCSF in early embryological development. He holds a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard and a BS in Biology from University of Pennsylvania.

Scott joined Catamaran as CFO in April 2021. He is an experienced biopharma executive with a strong track record of financing, building and strategically positioning private and public companies for growth and value creation. Most recently, Scott was CFO of Disarm Therapeutics, a private neuroscience company that was acquired by Eli Lilly in 2020 for up to $1.36B in upfront and milestones payments. Prior to Disarm, Scott was CFO of Kiadis Pharma N.V., a Netherlands based NK cell therapy company.  Previously Scott was Chief Financial Officer at Keryx Biopharmaceuticals until its merger with Akebia Therapeutics. He also held served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations at AMAG Pharmaceuticals. Scott began his career at Ernst & Young in both the Assurance and Transaction Advisory Services practices.  He holds an MS/MBA from Northeastern University and a BA in History from Middlebury College.