Management

  • Bassil I. Dahiyat, Ph.D.
    President and Chief Executive Officer, Director
    Bassil I. Dahiyat, Ph.D. has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since February 2005 and as a member of our Board since August 1997. Dr. Dahiyat has more than 25 years of experience in the biotechnology business, having co-founded Xencor in 1997. From 1997 to 2003, he served as our Chief Executive Officer, and from 2003 to 2005, served as our Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Dahiyat currently serves on the board of directors of Kodiak Sciences Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company. In 2017, Dr. Dahiyat was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Technology for the Los Angeles Region and in 2005 was recognized as a technology pioneer by the World Economic Forum. Additionally, Dr. Dahiyat was named one of 2003’s Top 100 Young Innovators by MIT’s Technology Review magazine for his work on protein design and its development for therapeutic applications and has received awards from the American Chemical Society, the Controlled Release Society and the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Dahiyat holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and B.S. and M.S.E. degrees in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University. We believe that Dr. Dahiyat’s experience in the pharmaceutical industry and as one of our founders qualifies him to serve on our Board.
    • John R. Desjarlais, Ph.D.
      Executive Vice President, Research & Chief Scientific Officer

      Dr. Desjarlais oversees all aspects of discovery and research at the company including technology development, protein and antibody engineering and generation of drug candidates and has served as chief scientific officer since 2014. Prior to joining Xencor in 2001, Dr. Desjarlais was an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Penn State University, where he developed protein engineering methods. He then conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Desjarlais received a B.S. in physics from the University of Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley.

      • Nancy Valente M.D.
        Executive Vice President & Chief Development Officer

        Dr. Valente is responsible for leading Xencor's clinical and medical strategy and execution. Prior to Xencor, she most recently served as a senior vice president at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and as its global head and co-lead of global product development of its oncology and hematology therapeutic area. In this role at Genentech, Dr. Valente was responsible for strategic planning, clinical development and collaboration activities in the areas of oncology and hematology product development, playing a critical role in the development and approvals of new therapies for patients with serious illnesses, including GAZYVA®, VENCLEXTA®, POLIVY® and HEMLIBRA®. Dr. Valente has held various positions with increasing responsibilities at Genentech and then at Roche after Genentech was acquired by Roche, including vice president for global product development for oncology, hematology franchise and senior group medical director, leader for hematology development. Before Genentech, she served in senior-level positions at Anosys, Inc. and Coulter Pharmaceutical, Inc., and earlier in her career, she held academic positions at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Valente received her M.D. from the University of Missouri and completed her internal medicine training at Oregon Health & Science University, followed by fellowships in hematology at Stanford University and oncology at UCSF.

        • Celia Eckert, J.D.
          Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

          Ms. Eckert joined Xencor as vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary in September 2019. Previously she served as vice president, corporate legal at Synthetic Genomics, Inc. In this role she negotiated licensing and financial transactions and supported other corporate legal matters. Prior to Synthetic Genomics, Ms. Eckert served as associate general counsel at Sequenom, Inc., and as senior director, legal affairs at Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. At Prometheus, she structured transactions, managed substantial patent litigation and supported the growth of the company’s commercial organization. Earlier in her career, she was an associate at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and at Jones Day. Ms. Eckert earned a B.A. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings School of Law.

          • Bart Cornelissen
            Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

            Mr. Cornelissen has primary responsibility for financial reporting, budgeting, cash-flow management, investments, information technology and facilities. He has served as Xencor’s chief financial officer since 2024. Before Xencor, Mr. Cornelissen was vice president, corporate finance at Seagen Inc., where he built and scaled the corporate finance organization to support tremendous revenue growth and dealmaking activity, including the company’s $43 billion acquisition by Pfizer in 2023. Before Seagen, while at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he served as vice president, finance for the END Fund and as finance lead for malaria and neglected tropical disease initiatives. Earlier in his career, Mr. Cornelissen led multiple finance teams at DSM Nutritional Products, a former division of Roche. He began his career in life sciences and health within global financial planning and analysis at Novartis. Mr. Cornelissen received his M.Sc. in Business Administration from the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University.