Board of Directors
Yasir Al-Wakeel, BM BCh
Non-Executive Director
Yasir Al-Wakeel has served on our Board since June 2021. Dr. Al-Wakeel has served as chief executive officer of a private biotechnology company since September 2023. Dr. Al-Wakeel previously served as chief financial officer and head of corporate development of Kronos Bio, Inc., from August 2020 to September 2023.
Prior to Kronos Bio, Dr. Al-Wakeel served as the chief financial officer of Neon Therapeutics, Inc., from 2017 to May 2020. Previously, Dr. Al-Wakeel served as the chief financial officer and head of corporate development at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc., from 2015 until 2017.
Dr. Al-Wakeel previously served in various capacities at Credit Suisse, an investment banking firm, from 2008 to 2015. While at Credit Suisse, Dr. Al-Wakeel was director of healthcare investment banking, focused on biotechnology, and, prior to that role, he was an equity research analyst covering the biotechnology and specialty pharmaceuticals sectors. Before joining Credit Suisse, Dr. Al-Wakeel was a practicing physician, holding both clinical and academic medical posts.
Dr. Al-Wakeel received his BM BCh (Doctor of Medicine and Surgery) from Oxford University and his MA in theology from Cambridge University.
Our Board believes that Dr. Al-Wakeel’s significant scientific and finance background qualifies him to serve as a director.
Yasir Al-Wakeel, BM BCh
Non-Executive Director
Patrick Balthrop, Sr.
Non-Executive Director
Patrick Balthrop has served on our Board since November 2022. Mr. Balthrop has more than three decades of experience in the healthcare sector, particularly in diagnostics, life science tools and medical devices. From 2004 until his retirement in 2014, Mr. Balthrop was president, chief executive officer and a director of Luminex Corporation, a publicly held life science tools and molecular diagnostics company.
From 2002 to 2004, he served as president of Fisher Healthcare, now a division of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. He previously served for more than 20 years in roles of increasing responsibility with Abbott Laboratories, including as head of Abbott Vascular and corporate vice president of worldwide operations for Abbott Diagnostics.
He currently serves as chairman of the board of the privately held life sciences companies Agendia, Inc., and Discovery Life Sciences, as director of the privately held contract research and instrument manufacturing company Acential Technologies, and as director of the privately held life sciences company Pattern Biosciences. Within the past five years, he served as a director of the publicly held diagnostics company Oxford Immunotec Global PLC, including as its chairman from June 2019 until March 2021. He also served as a member of the board of directors of Personalis, Inc., a publicly held cancer genomics company, from 2015 until March 2021.
In 2015, Mr. Balthrop founded and has since served as principal of Apalachee Ventures, LLC, an investment and advisory firm. He also serves as executive advisor to Water Street Healthcare Partners, a healthcare-focused private equity firm. Mr. Balthrop holds a BS in Biology from Spring Hill College and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Our Board believes Mr. Balthrop’s public company board experience and extensive knowledge and experience in the biotechnology industry qualify him to serve as a director.
Patrick Balthrop, Sr.
Non-Executive Director
Will Brooke
Non-Executive Director
Will Brooke has served on our Board since 2004. Mr. Brooke retired from Harbert Management Corporation (HMC) in December 2021, having served in various capacities since he co-founded HMC in 1993.
He most recently served as executive vice president and limited partner prior to his retirement from HMC and also served as managing partner of HMC’s venture capital funds family from 2003 to 2014. Mr. Brooke has been advising and investing in early-stage and growth companies for more than 30 years and previously served on the boards of numerous pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies such as nContact, Inc., NovaMin Technology, Inc., and Emageon Corporation.
Since December 2018, he has also served as a board member of KPX, LLC, an environmental, social and governance advisory firm serving the investment and advisory sectors. Prior to joining HMC, Mr. Brooke practiced law for a decade. Mr. Brooke received a BS in business management and a JD from the University of Alabama.
Our Board believes Mr. Brooke’s extensive business experience and deep financial knowledge qualify him to serve as a director.
Will Brooke
Non-Executive Director
Cynthia Collins
Non-Executive Director
Cynthia Collins has served on our Board since October of 2024. Previously, she held the role of chief executive officer at Editas Medicine, a clinical-stage gene editing company, chief executive officer at Human Longevity, a precision medicine company, chief executive officer/general manager of General Electric Healthcare’s Cell Therapy and Lab Businesses, and chief executive officer of GenVec, a vaccine and gene therapy company. She also held various positions at Baxter Healthcare and Abbott Laboratories.
Currently, Ms. Collins serves as a member of the board of directors of several healthcare companies, including Alanis Therapeutics, Nutcracker Therapeutics, Panavance Therapeutics, Poseida Therapeutics, Certara, DermTech and Triumvira Immunologics. She is also a board member of the Alliance for mRNA Medicines. Ms. Collins received a Bachelor of Science in microbiology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Our Board believes Ms. Collins’ extensive and impressive leadership experience in the fields of cell therapy and genetic medicine qualify her to serve as a director.
Cynthia Collins
Non-Executive Director
Richard Douglas, PhD
Non-Executive Chairman
Richard Douglas, PhD, has served on our Board since 2018 and as our Non-Executive Chairman since October 2021. Dr. Douglas served as the senior vice president of corporate development of Genzyme Corporation where he worked from 1989 until 2011 when Genzyme was acquired by Sanofi.
Prior to joining Genzyme, Dr. Douglas served in science and corporate development capacities at Integrated Genetics prior to its acquisition by Genzyme in 1989. Since 2011, Dr. Douglas has served as an adviser to RedSky Partners, a biotechnology-focused advisory firm and also as executive director of Labyrinth Choir, Inc.
He is the chairman of the board of directors of the publicly held company Aldeyra Therapeutics, which he joined in 2016, and has been a board member of Novavax, Inc., since 2010. He has a BS in chemistry from the University of Michigan, where he now serves as chair of the National Advisory Board for Innovation Partnerships, and a PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Our Board believes that Dr. Douglas’s significant business experience and scientific background qualify him to serve as a director.
Richard Douglas, PhD
Non-Executive Chairman
Stan Erck
Non-Executive Director
Stanley Erck has served on our Board since 2005. Mr. Erck served as president and chief executive officer of Novavax, Inc., from 2011, and as a director of Novavax from 2009, until his retirement in January 2023.
Mr. Erck previously served as executive chairman of Novavax from 2010 to 2011 and interim chief financial officer from 2017 to 2018. From 2000 to 2008, Mr. Erck served as president and chief executive officer of Iomai Corporation, a developer of vaccines and immune system therapies, which was acquired in 2008 by Intercell AG.
He previously held leadership positions at Procept, a publicly traded immunology company, Integrated Genetics, now Sanofi Genzyme, and Baxter International. Within the past five years, Mr. Erck served on the board of directors of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Erck received a BS in economics from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the University of Chicago. During his tenure as chief executive officer of Novavax, Mr. Erck led the company from preclinical development through global commercialization with first year revenues of $2 billion.
Our Board believes Mr. Erck’s public company board experience and extensive knowledge and experience in the biotechnology industry qualify him to serve as a director.
Stan Erck
Non-Executive Director
Rekha Hemrajani
Non-Executive Director
Rekha Hemrajani has served on our Board since June 2021. Previously, Ms. Hemrajani served as chief executive officer and a director of Jiya Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company, as president and chief executive officer and a director of Aravive, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, as the chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Arcus Biosciences, a biotechnology company, as chief operating officer of FLX Bio, Inc. (now RAPT Therapeutics, Inc.), a biotechnology company, as chief financial officer and senior vice president of business and financial operations at 3-V Biosciences, Inc. (now Sagimet Biosciences, Inc.), a biotechnology company.
Ms. Hemrajani currently serves as a director of the publicly held company ALX Oncology Holdings, Inc., as well as BioAge Labs, a privately held company. She holds a BS in economics and computer science from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Our Board believes Ms. Hemrajani is qualified to serve as a director due to her executive and financial experience at multiple companies in the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Rekha Hemrajani
Non-Executive Director
Art Mandell
Non-Executive Director
Art Mandell has served on our Board since 2006. Mr. Mandell served as president and chief operating officer of Prestwick Pharmaceuticals, Inc., from 2005 to 2007. Prior to Prestwick, Mr. Mandell was president and chief executive officer and a director of Cellective Therapeutics, Inc., from 2004 to 2005, when it was acquired by Astra Zeneca/MedImmune.
Before Cellective, Mr. Mandell served as president and chief executive officer and director of Stemron Corporation from 2001 to 2003 and as senior vice president and chief business officer of Human Genome Sciences, Inc., from 1997 to 2001. Mr. Mandell began his healthcare career at Syntex Pharmaceutical Corporation where he spent 14 years in various senior management positions both domestically and abroad.
More recently, Mr. Mandell has provided consulting services to healthcare and technology companies. Mr. Mandell received his BS from San Jose State University and his MBA from Santa Clara University.
Our Board believes Mr. Mandell’s extensive knowledge and experience in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industries qualify him to serve as a director.
Art Mandell
Non-Executive Director
John Johnston
Non-Executive Director
John Johnston has served on our Board since 2016. From 2011 until his retirement from his financial career in 2013, Mr. Johnston served as managing director of institutional sales at Nomura Code Securities, Ltd., a brokerage company, and from 2008 to 2011, he was director of sales and trading at the investment bank Seymour Pierce.
In 2003, Mr. Johnston founded Revera Asset Management, where he oversaw an investment trust, a unit trust and a hedge fund, which he ran until 2007. Mr. Johnston began his investment career at the Royal Bank of Scotland and previously held positions at investment firms Legg Mason Investors and Murray Johnstone. Within the past five years, Mr. Johnston served as a non-executive director of the publicly held company Midatech Pharma plc (now Biodexa Pharmaceuticals plc). Mr. Johnston received his BA in commerce from Abertay University and his MBA from the University of Dundee.
Our Board believes Mr. Johnston’s executive leadership and operational experience qualify him to serve as a director.
John Johnston
Non-Executive Director
Maher Masoud
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Masoud was named President and Chief Executive Officer of MaxCyte in January of 2024. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, including 17 years as an attorney and general counsel, to his new role at MaxCyte. Mr. Masoud has most recently served as Executive Vice President, Head of Global Business Development, and Chief Counsel at MaxCyte. During his tenure, MaxCyte’s strategic platform license (SPL) partnerships grew to include 29 partners (as of September 2024).
Mr. Masoud started his biopharmaceutical career as a research associate with Glen Research, a Maravai company, before joining Human Genome Sciences as Director and Corporate Counsel, overseeing legal activities for the company’s global clinical trials, until its acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline. Prior to joining MaxCyte, he oversaw the operations of six business subsidiaries at Wellstat, a life science holding company. During his tenure at Human Genome Sciences and Wellstat, Mr. Masoud supported the launch of three FDA approved therapies, Benlysta®, Vistogard® and Xuriden®.
Mr. Masoud earned his Juris Doctor degree from Michigan State University College of Law after completing his Bachelor of Science degree in cell and molecular biology genetics at the University of Maryland.
Maher Masoud
President and Chief Executive Officer
