Kevin C. Gorman, Ph.D.
Kevin C.
Gorman, Ph.D.
Director
Kevin C. Gorman, Ph.D. joined our Board in April 2017. He has more than 25 years of experience in the life science business including senior roles in finance, business development and operations. Dr. Gorman is a founder of Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company (“Neurocrine”). He was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Neurocrine in January 2008 after having served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer since September 2006 and prior to that, as Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Development. He has served on the board of directors of Neurocrine since January 2008. From 1990 until 1993, Dr. Gorman was a principal of Avalon Medical Partners, L.P., where he was responsible for the early-stage founding of the company and several other biotechnology companies such as Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Metra Biosystems, Inc., Idun Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Gorman received his Ph.D. in immunology and M.B.A. in finance from the University of California, Los Angeles and did further post-doctoral training at The Rockefeller University. We believe that Dr. Gorman’s experience in biotechnology company leadership roles and his educational background qualify him to serve on our Board.
Independent Director
Kurt A. Gustafson
Kurt A.
Gustafson
Director
Kurt A. Gustafson joined our Board in July 2014. Mr. Gustafson has more than 25 years of diverse experience in corporate finance, with 20 years in senior management roles leading the finance departments of multi-faceted, dynamic and growth-oriented biopharmaceutical industry organizations. Mr. Gustafson has served as Chief Financial Officer of OmniAb Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, since March 2022. From June 2013 to March 2022, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, and from April 2009 to June 2013, he served as Chief Financial Officer at Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. (“Halozyme”), a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company. Before Halozyme, Mr. Gustafson worked at Amgen for over 18 years holding various positions in finance including Treasurer, Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Amgen International based in Switzerland. Mr. Gustafson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting from North Park University in Chicago and an M.B.A. from University of California, Los Angeles. We believe Mr. Gustafson’s experience in biotechnology company leadership and finance and his educational background qualify him to serve on our Board.
Independent Director
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.
Edward Tenthoff
Piper Sandler & Co.