Leading the worldwide fight to treat and cure
Tay-Sachs, Canavan, GM1 and Sandhoff diseases

Corporate Advisory Council

Mission: The Corporate Advisory Council (CAC), through its collective industry expertise, serves as a resource to NTSAD to advance its research agenda and position itself as an attractive partner to industry.

Role: The Council advises NTSAD about its efforts to direct, fund and promote the development of treatments and cures for the NTSAD family of diseases. It will counsel NTSAD in expanding its evolving partnership model, recommend research strategies and assist NTSAD in leveraging its full range of capabilities.

Corporate Advisory Council (CAC) Members

Oved Amitay is Vice President and Head of Commercial at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Before joining Alnylam in 2012, Oved was VP for Strategic Development for the Personalized Genetic Health business unit at Genzyme, where he also led the internal research and development activities for their rare disease business. Oved joined Genzyme in 1998 and held positions in regulatory affairs, medical marketing, market development, and business development in Europe and the Middle East.  Oved graduated from the School of Pharmacy in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and completed his graduate studies in Pharmacology at Northeastern University.

Ritu Baral is a managing director and senior biotechnology analyst at Cowen & Company. Before that, she was an analyst at Canaccord Genuity as Senior Research Associate in Biotechnology. She has a wide range of experience in biotechnology finance, including over 3 years in biotechnology equity research. Previously, Ritu was biotechnology equity research associate at JMP Securities and before that was a Senior Associate at the Trout Group, a biotechnology focused investor relations agency. Ritu graduated with a B.A. in Biological Sciences from Barnard College.

Bradley L. Campbell is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Amicus Therapeutics and is also a member of the Board of Directors. He brings over 15 years of experience in the Orphan Drug industry. Bradely joined Amicus in 2006 and leads the global organization responsible for the commercialization of GalafoldTM for the treatment of Fabry Disease. He also oversees the Technical Operations, Market Access, and Program Management functions.  Prior to Amicus, Mr. Campbell spent time in various commercial and business development roles at Genzyme and Bristol-Myers Squibb and as a strategy consultant for Marakon Associates. Bradley is a past president of NTSAD.  He received a B.A. in Public Policy from Duke University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Laura Cohen is a team leader at Health Advances, a strategy consulting firm. At Health Advances, she focuses on corporate strategy and new product commercialization for biopharma clients. Prior to joining Health Advances, Laura worked within the Patient Advocacy group at Amicus Therapeutics, where she was fortunate enough to meet and work with some of the strong and beautiful families living with orphan diseases. She hopes her involvement in NTSAD will result in her applying her new product commercialization expertise to bring new products to the families who need them most. Laura graduated from Rutgers University, where she earned her B.S. in Public Health and Biology. 

Michael Gladstone is an associate in the life sciences group at Atlas Venture (Biotech venture capital fund focused on new company creation). Prior to joining Atlas in 2012, Michael was a senior associate consultant in the life sciences practice at L.E.K. Consulting, where he focused on business development and corporate strategy for biopharma clients.  While at L.E.K., Michael also served as head of client development for Inspire, a volunteer consulting firm staffed by junior consultants.  Steve Rosner, former NTSAD board member and an LEK partner, introduced Mike and Inspire to NTSAD.  Mike was part of pro bono strategic consulting projects for NTSAD. Michael received a BS in biochemical sciences with highest honors from Harvard College, where he graduated magna cum laude and was awarded the Harvard College Scholarship. 

John Gordon is a partner and CFO at Putnam Associates. He first got involved with NTSAD in 2005, after being inspired by a close friend who has two children with another lysosomal storage disease. Upon joining the Board, John led NTSAD’s strategic planning process, and has continued to be part of strategy development since then. He looks forward to advising NTSAD about advancing their research based on his knowledge gained working in biotech and pharma consulting.

Kate Haviland recently joined Blueprint Medicines. Prior to that, she worked at Idera Pharmaceuticals as Vice President of Rare Diseases.  Previously she was Head of Commercial Development at Sarepta Therapeutics, a company focused on developing therapeutics to treat rare genetic disorders and infectious diseases. Kate's responsibilities included marketing, patient advocacy relations, global access/reimbursement, medical education and commercial operations. Kate also worked at PTC Therapeutics, a company focused on orphan drug development in rare genetic diseases, and at Genzyme in Corporate Development and Marketing. Kate has a BA from Wesleyan University with a double major in Biochemistry and Economics, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.  Kate was inspired to work in the field of genetics and to connect with NTSAD through her late uncle, Dr. David Rimoin, who was a pioneering physician and researcher in the field of medical genetics.

Joan Keutzer is the Vice President of Scientific Affairs at Genzyme Corporation which she joined in 1995. Joan has been involved in the development of therapies for MPS I, Fabry disease, and Pompe disease, including initiating efforts in developing newborn screening assays for the lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs), patient monitoring assays, and an improved diagnostic assay for Pompe disease. In 2003, she established the LSD diagnosis, monitoring and screening group in Genzyme R&D to focus on translating published research methods into protocols for use in clinical and newborn screening labs. She received her Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Kentucky, School of Biological Sciences, and her B.S from Northern Kentucky University.

Walt Kowtoniuk joined Fulcrum after serving as a senior associate at Third Rock Ventures where he led the creation of Fulcrum. Walt joined Third Rock in 2013 to focus on new company formation in the rare genetic disease space. While at Third Rock he also supported the partner development team and contributed to the formation of multiple new companies focused on delivering transformative medicines to patients. Prior to joining Third Rock, Walt was a manager at Clarion Healthcare, a boutique strategy consulting firm in the life sciences industry. At Clarion, Walt focused on developing new business strategies and providing commercial insight into early product development in the rare disease space. He has also worked with pre-commercial companies to build and prepare the organization for product commercialization. Walt has a Ph.D. in chemical biology from Harvard University and a B.S. in biochemistry, molecular biology and philosophy from Gettysburg College.

Greg Licholai, MD, is the President and Chief Scientific Officer at Castle Creek Pharmaceuticals. Before that, he served as VP & General Manager of Spotlight, a McKinsey Solutions Company, which is a proprietary information and analytics company providing software as a service for healthcare industry. Greg is both an entrepreneur and executive in the biopharmaceutical industry. He was Chief Operating Officer at Proteostasis, a private biotechnology company in Cambridge, MA.  Earlier, he had been one of the first employees at Amicus Therapeutics where he was Vice President of Medical Affairs. He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholar at the National Institutes of Health. Greg received his B.S. from Boston College and Pre-Medical studies at Columbia University, his M.D. from Yale Medical School and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Greg was on NTSAD’s Scientific Advisory Committee before transitioning to the Corporate Advisory Council.

 

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