Our Focus
Aprea Therapeutics Inc., (NASDAQ: APRE) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing novel cancer therapeutics targeting DNA damage response (DDR) pathways.
Our Leadership
Aprea’s outstanding team includes world class scientific and clinical oncology leaders executing our mission to create novel DDR-targeted cancer therapies. Together with our board of directors, our scientific founders and executive management team have significant experience in drug discovery and development and finance. Collectively, we believe our team’s strong capabilities position us to build a leading biotech company focused on developing novel cancer therapies to address the significant unmet medical need of patients with cancer.
Management Team
Oren Gilad, Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Oren Gilad, Ph.D., has served as Chief Executive Officer since July 2022 and as President and a member of our Board of Directors since May 2022. He previously served as President and CEO of Atrin Pharmaceuticals Inc. at the time of its acquisition by Aprea. He brings extensive experience across multiple phases of drug development. Prior to founding Atrin in 2011, Dr. Gilad authored several high impact scientific publications over the course of a 13-year academic career, including demonstration of the importance of the ATR pathway in cancer development and treatment. Dr. Gilad holds a Ph.D from University of California at Davis and a B.Sc from the Hebrew University.
John P. Hamill, CPA
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
John joined Aprea in January 2023 from Windtree Therapeutics where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since 2020. He brings more than 30 years of financial leadership experience in the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and clinical research sectors. He brings broad-based experience in financial, administrative, information technology, and facility functions, in addition to successfully completing IPO and follow-on offerings for several pharmaceutical companies. John has also recently provided consulting services to various life science companies, headed up finance at Trevena, Inc., where he was instrumental in successfully raising equity; NephroGenex, Inc., where he actively led the IPO and subsequent financial restructuring and sale of the company; Savient Pharmaceuticals, where he led a sale process resulting in $120 million in proceeds; and PharmaNet where he successfully completed its sale for approximately $250 million, which then became known as PharmaNet Development Group, where he directed financial and administrative operations for the company. John received a B.S. in Accounting and Business and Computer Science from DeSales University and is a certified public accountant.
Ze’ev Weiss, CPA, B.Sc.
Chief Business Advisor
Ze’ev Weiss, CPA, B.Sc., has served as our Chief Business Advisor since May 2022. Ze’ev brings over 20 years of broad and extensive biopharmaceuticals industry experience in strategic, operational, and corporate development in the emerging and established healthcare industry. He previously served as Chief Business Officer of Atrin Pharmaceuticals Inc. at the time of its acquisition by Aprea. Until 2017, Ze’ev served as the CEO and formerly as Executive VP Commercial Operations of Intec Pharma (NASDAQ: NTEC), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing drugs based on its proprietary Accordion Pill® platform technology. He successfully led Intec’s IPO on NASDAQ as well as multiple collaboration agreements with global leading pharmaceutical companies. Ze’ev also had a central role in leading Intec from their very early stage into late clinical stage, including financing, pre-clinical and clinical development, regulatory and intellectual property activities. Prior to Intec, Ze’ev was Head of Life Sciences Strategic Consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Israel. At PwC, he led numerous corporate developments, business development, strategic planning and corporate finance consulting engagements with various healthcare companies. Ze’ev holds a BA in accounting and is a certified public accountant. He also earned a B.Sc in Biology and has completed M.Sc. in Neuro-Biochemistry studies from Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Nadeem Mirza, M.D., M.P.H.
Senior Medical Advisor
Nadeem Mirza, M.D., M.P.H. has served as Senior Medical Advisor to Aprea since February 2023. Dr. Mirza brings over 30 years of clinical and developmental experience in solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. He currently serves as Senior Vice President, Clinical Development at Salarius Pharmaceuticals and previously served as Chief Medical Advisor at TRIGR Therapeutics developing bispecific antibodies. Prior to that, Dr. Mirza served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Medical Affairs at Verastem Oncology where he oversaw the launch of Copiktra®. Prior to Verastem, he served as Global Head Hematology and Solid Tumors at Abbvie Oncology where he oversaw the global launch of Venclexta®. Before Abbvie, he was Vice President, Head of Oncology, North America Medical Affairs at Sanofi Oncology where he was responsible for medical affairs programs to support 12 products across several oncology indications. Dr. Mirza has also held leadership roles in medical affairs and clinical development at Genzyme/Sanofi, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Abraxis Oncology and Berlex Oncology. He holds an M.P.H. from the University of Texas at Houston, and earned his M.D. from the University of Punjab.
Mike Carleton, Ph.D.
Translational Medicine Advisor
Dr. Carleton joins Aprea with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry where he has held leadership roles in preclinical and clinical drug development. He most recently served as Vice President of Translational Medicine at Inipharm and Mavupharma until its acquisition by Abbvie. Prior to that, he was the Director of Translational Medicine at Bristol Meyers Squibb, where he led clinical oncology biomarker programs; his team led innovation and established elevated serum IL-8 is associated with reduced clinical benefit to immune checkpoint blockade. Dr. Carleton also led research groups at Presage Biosciences and Matrix Genetics, and led the Niraparib (PARP inhibitor) biomarker program at Merck prior its out licensing to Tesaro and its subsequent successful commercialization. Dr. Carleton obtained his Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Texas at Austin, was a CRI postdoctoral fellow, and recently served as Senior Scientific Director at The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research.
Board of Directors
Richard Peters, M.D., Ph.D.
Chairman of the Board
Richard Peters, M.D., Ph.D. has served as a member of our Board of Directors since June 2020, including as Chairman since August 2023. Dr. Peters brings more than 25 years of experience developing new therapies for difficult-to-treat diseases. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Kineta Inc., having previously served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director at Yumanity Therapeutics Inc. Dr. Peters joined Yumanity from Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he was President & Chief Executive Officer. Prior to Merrimack, he served as Senior Vice President and Head, Global Rare Diseases at Genzyme (Sanofi). Dr. Peters is a Harvard-trained physician and scientist, has served on the faculty at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and completed a Howard Huges Medical Institute Fellowship in biophysics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Peters commenced his medical studies at UC Louvain in Belgium and holds M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Medical University of South Carolina.
Oren Gilad, Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Oren Gilad, Ph.D., has served as Chief Executive Officer since July 2022 and as President and a member of our Board of Directors since May 2022. He previously served as President and CEO of Atrin Pharmaceuticals Inc. at the time of its acquisition by Aprea. He brings extensive experience across multiple phases of drug development. Prior to founding Atrin in 2011, Dr. Gilad authored several high impact scientific publications over the course of a 13-year academic career, including demonstration of the importance of the ATR pathway in cancer development and treatment. Dr. Gilad holds a Ph.D from University of California at Davis and a B.Sc from the Hebrew University.
Jean-Pierre Bizzari, M.D.
Director
Dr. Jean-Pierre Bizzari joined the Aprea Board in August 2023 with a remarkable and distinguished career in oncology. He has been responsible for numerous global approvals of several billion-dollar therapies, including: Fotomustine, Taxotere, Revlimid, Abraxane, Vidaza, PTCL, Eloxatin, CPT-11, Gliadel, Rasburicase, and Pomalidomide to name a few. He has been involved in acquisition and licensing agreements with several major pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Bizzari is a member and leader on many scientific committees and is currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the National Cancer Institute in France; a Board member of the European Organization of Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and Chairman of the EORTC New Drug Advisory Committee. He currently is on the Boards of Halozyme, ADC Therapeutics, NETRIS Pharma, and Oxford BioTherapeutics. Most recently, Dr. Bizzari was the Group Head Clinical Development Oncology at Celgene. He led global clinical development conducting over 25 Phase 3 trials, was responsible for global operations of over 950 people and was chairman of the Hematology Oncology development committee. Prior to Celgene, Dr. Bizzari was the VP of clinical development oncology at Sanofi-Aventis where he was responsible for the worldwide clinical development and approvals. He also served as VP of clinical development oncology at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer where he shepherded a deep pipeline of oncology candidates. Dr. Bizzari holds a degree in mathematics, and completed his medical studies in Nice, France. He completed his residency in oncology at Pitie Salpetriere Hospital in Paris.
Marc Duey
Director
Marc Duey has served as a member of our Board of Directors since May 2022 and previously served on the Board of Directors of Atrin Pharmaceuticals Inc. at the time of its acquisition by Aprea. He brings over three decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Mr. Duey is the Founder, President and CEO of ProMetrics Inc. Prior to founding ProMetrics, Mr. Duey was founder and President of DuWest Research, an international management consulting firm for diagnostic and biotechnology companies. He serves on the Board of Trustees of International House Philadelphia and is a member of the Leadership Council of the Wistar Institute. He is an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), the American Association of Pharmaceutical Science (AAPS), and the Licensing Executive Society (LES). Mr. Duey holds a B.S. and an M.S. degree in science from the University of Ottawa, and an M.B.A. from the Ivey Business School at Western University, London, Canada.
Michael Grissinger
Director
Michael Grissinger has served as a member of our Board of Directors since May 2022 and previously served on the Board of Directors of Atrin Pharmaceuticals Inc. at the time of its acquisition by Aprea. Mr. Grissinger brings to Atrin extensive experience in business and corporate development, finance, marketing and strategic planning in the pharmaceutical industry. He spent 22 years at Johnson & Johnson, holding positions of Vice President and Head, Worldwide Pharmaceutical Licensing as well as Vice President and Head of Worldwide Pharmaceutical Corporate Development and M&A. He has led transactions and teams across a broad span of deal types, geographies, and therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Mr. Grissinger spent 20 years in the healthcare industry with Ciba-Geigy and SmithKline Beckman. Mr. Grissinger holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Juniata College and an M.B.A. from Temple University-Fox School of Business.
Gabriela Gruia, M.D.
Director
Gabriela Gruia, M.D. has served as a member of our Board of Directors since May 2023. Dr. Gruia brings over 25 years of clinical, regulatory and life science leadership experience. Dr. Gruia currently serves as an Independent Board Director at Tessa Therapeutics, TScan Therapeutics, and Molecular Templates. Prior to her time as a consultant, Dr. Gruia served as the Chief Development Officer at Ichnos Sciences Inc. where she led clinical development activities. Prior to that, she was Senior Vice President and Head of Drug Regulatory Affairs for Novartis Oncology, where she led an oncology regulatory affairs organization which oversaw worldwide regulatory submissions and approvals of twelve molecular oncological entities, and over 100 sNDAs and MAAs. Previously, Dr. Gruia held leadership roles in research and development at Novartis, Pfizer, Pharmacia, Aventis and Rhone Poulenc. Dr. Gruia received her M.D. from Bucharest Medical School in Romania and a Masters in Breast Pathology and Mammography from Rene Huguenin/Curie Institute Cancer Center in Paris, France. She received her training in oncology and hematology from Rene Descartes University in Paris, France.
John B. Henneman
Director
John B. Henneman III has served as a member of our Board of Directors since August 2019. Mr. Henneman has more than 25 years of combined financial and operational management experience in the life sciences industry. From July 2018 until November 2018, Mr. Henneman served as the Chief Administrative Officer of NewLink Genetics Corporation, a biotechnology company, and prior to that, served as NewLink’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from October 2014 to July 2018. From 1998 to 2014, Mr. Henneman served at Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corp., a publicly held medical device company, in various capacities. Before becoming Integra’s Chief Financial Officer in 2007, Mr. Henneman was Chief Administrative Officer, responsible for Integra’s regulatory affairs, quality systems, clinical affairs, human resources, information systems and legal affairs functions, the management of Integra’s surgical instruments business, and Integra’s business development function. Mr. Henneman serves on the boards of directors of R1 RCM, Inc., a publicly held revenue cycle technology and management services company, SeaSpine Holdings Corporation, a publicly held medical technology company, and Alafair Biosciences, Inc., a privately held medical device company. Mr. Henneman is also senior advisor to Prettybrook Partners, a private equity firm, and a consultant to SparkMed Advisors LLC, which provides consulting and other services to start-up medical device and biotechnology companies.
Rifat Pamukcu, M.D.
Director
Rifat Pamukcu, M.D., has served as a member of our Board of Directors since May 2022 and previously served on the Board of Directors of Atrin Pharmaceuticals Inc. at the time of its acquisition by Aprea. Dr. Pamukcu has extensive experience in pharmaceuticals and drug development, with a particular focus on oncology. He currently serves as the President and CEO of RxMP Therapeutics, Inc. He was also a co-founder, Director and CSO of Cell Pathways (NASDAQ:CLPA) until its acquisition by OSI Pharmaceuticals in 2003. Dr. Pamukcu has been a member of the Advisory Council to the National Prostate Cancer Coalition, the GI Oncology Task Force of the American Gastroenterological Association, Executive Steering Committee of the Gastroenterology Research Group and Scientific Advisory Board of the Hereditary Colon Cancer Association. He has authored or co-authored over 110 journal articles, book chapters and abstracts in the fields of gastroenterology, cancer, cancer chemoprevention and signal transduction systems and is an inventor on over 150 issued or pending patents in the areas of drug discovery and development of agents for cancer prevention and therapeutics, inflammatory bowel disease, osteoporosis and the prevention and treatment of hemorrhage. Dr. Pamukcu holds a B.A. in Biology from the John Hopkins University and an M.D. from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center and his Fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Chicago.
Bernd R. Seizinger, M.D., Ph.D.
Director
Bernd Seizinger, M.D., Ph.D., has served as a member of our Board of Directors since 2016. Dr. Seizinger currently serves as Chairman or Board member in a number of public and private biotech companies in the U.S., Europe and Canada, including: Oxford BioTherapeutics, Aprea, CryptoMedix, Oncolytics and BioInvent. Previously he was President and Chief Executive Officer of GPC Biotech; Vice President, Oncology Drug Discovery and, in parallel, Vice President, Corporate and Academic Alliances at Bristol-Myers Squibb; Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Genome Therapeutics; and held Senior Faculty positions at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and Princeton University.