“We are bringing together the leading experts in cellular reprogramming to create a new and powerful force in stem cell science.”
- John P. Walker, CEO, iPierian
John Walker, Chief Executive Officer
John Walker has served as chief executive officer of iPierian since February 2009. Most recently, Walker served as chairman and CEO of Novacea, which merged with Transcept Pharmaceuticals in January 2009. Walker has also been executive chairman and principal executive officer of Renovis Inc.; chairman and interim CEO of Guava Technologies, KAI Pharmaceuticals and Centaur Pharmaceuticals; and chairman and CEO of Bayhill Therapeutics. From 1993 to 2001, he was chairman and CEO of Arris Pharmaceuticals and its successor corporation AXYS Pharmaceuticals Inc., and previously was chairman and CEO of Vitaphore Corporation. Walker began his career with American Hospital Supply Corporation, where he last served as President of the American Hospital Company. His many board experiences have included serving as chairman of Signal Pharmaceuticals and Microcide Pharmaceuticals Inc., and a director of Geron Corporation, Discovery Partners Inc., and several other private companies. Walker received a B.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo and is a graduate of the Advanced Executive Program, J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Affymax, Inc., Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and a couple of private companies.
Dr. Michael Venuti, President and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Michael Venuti joined iPierian as president and chief scientific officer in February, 2010. Prior to joining iPierian, Dr. Venuti served as chief executive officer and member of the board of directors at BioSeek, Inc, a company that uses high throughput biological systems for the discovery and development of human therapeutics, and which was acquired by Asterand plc. He previously served as chief executive officer and member of the board of directors of Discovery Partners International after initially joining as chief scientific officer in 2005, and which was merged into Infinity Pharmaceuticals in 2006. From 2001 through 2005, he held positions as senior vice president, Business Development and Pharmacogenomics, and senior vice president, Research and Preclinical Development at Celera Genomics, and served as the general manager of Celera South San Francisco. He served as senior vice president, Research and Preclinical Development, and chief technical officer at Axys Pharmaceuticals prior to its acquisition by Celera. Prior to joining Axys, Dr. Venuti was director of Bioorganic Chemistry at Genentech, Inc., and began his research career in medicinal chemistry at Syntex ResearchDr. Venuti holds an A.B. from Dartmouth College, and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is on the board of directors of Infinity Pharmaceuticals, and serves as a consultant to a number of biotech and venture capital groups.
Dr. Berta Strulovici, Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Berta Strulovici is chief technology officer at iPierian. Prior to joining the company, Dr. Strulovici served as vice president, Basic Research at Merck Research Laboratories and head of Automated Biology at Merck & Co. At Merck, she was responsible for molecular target identification and led the worldwide development and execution of the early discovery pipeline across all therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Merck in 1996, she held positions at Tularik, Inc. and Syntex Research. Dr. Strulovici received her Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, and conducted her work as a postdoctoral fellow at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Duke University Medical Center.
Dr. Dushyant Pathak, Vice President Business Development
Dr. Dushyant Pathak is vice president of Business Development at iPierian. He joined the company from Cellexicon, Inc., where he served as president and chief business officer. He previously held senior management positions at Renovis, Inc., Centaur Pharmaceuticals, and BioProtocol, Inc. Dr. Pathak has more than ten years experience closing strategically important corporate deals resulting in productive alliances with major pharmaceutical partners and research institutions. Dr. Pathak was a Damon Runyon–Walter Winchell Cancer Fund postdoctoral fellow and an associate research scientist at Yale University’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He completed his Ph.D. at Northwestern University and received his MBA from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Julie McDonnell, Vice President Legal Affairs
Julie McDonnell is vice president of legal affairs at iPierian. Prior to joining the company in June of 2008, Ms. McDonnell was Assistant General Counsel of Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. where she was responsible for all company legal matters and a member of the senior management team. She has extensive experience in intellectual property transactions in the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries. Before her years with Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. from 2001-2008, she previously held positions of increasing responsibility with Dendreon Corporation, Roche Palo Alto and Sybase, Inc. Ms. McDonnell holds a JD from Hastings College of the Law.
Dr. Matthew J. Plunkett, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Matthew J. Plunkett is vice president and chief financial officer at iPierian. Prior to joining the company, Dr. Plunkett spent nine years at Oppenheimer & Co., most recently as Managing Director where he lead the firm’s biotechnology investment banking practice for the West Coast. His investment banking experience includes over 60 completed biopharmaceutical transactions, including initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, convertible debt, private placements, and M&A and other financial advisory assignments. Previously, he worked as a research scientist at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals and at Axys Advanced Technologies. He received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked in the lab of Dr. Jonathan Ellman to develop synthetic methodology for the synthesis of structurally diverse small-molecule combinatorial libraries for drug discovery and lead optimization. He received a B.S. with honors in Chemistry, with a History concentration, from Harvey Mudd College.