Meet Our Board of Directors

James Brady is an experienced international business executive who served in multiple leadership roles of increasing responsibility for AstraZeneca prior to his retirement. His more than thirty years of progressive experience at AstraZeneca included successful national, regional and global finance roles in corporate operations, manufacturing, commercial, marketing, market access, audit, international business, and biologics discovery & development. James most recently served as Chief Financial Officer of MedImmune, the biologics division of AstraZeneca. During his tenure at MedImmune, biologics grew to represent more than half of the product development portfolio of AstraZeneca and five biologics were successfully brought to market. Throughout his career at AstraZeneca, James had P&L and management responsibilities for significant operating units and finance functions including MedImmune, the Asia Pacific Region, US Government, Policy and Managed Markets, and Global Marketing. James also served as the Chief Audit Executive for AstraZeneca. His experience spans the full product development cycle from early research and clinical development to sales and product contracting. James currently serves as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Verona Pharma plc (Nasdaq: VRNA). He previously served on the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee and as Chair of the Audit & Finance Committee of the Montgomery County, Maryland Economic Development Corporation. James is a CPA and worked at Arthur Andersen & Company. He holds a B.S in Accounting from Saint Joseph University and an MBA from Drexel University.

Cynthia (Cindy) Collins, is a recognized leader in cell and gene therapy, genomic medicine, molecular diagnostics, life sciences, and therapeutics. Prior to her most recent position as CEO of Editas Medicine (Nasdaq:EDIT), she served as CEO of Human Longevity Inc, a genomics-based company.  Prior to Human Longevity Cindy served as CEO/GM of General Electric’s Healthcare Cell Therapy Business, Lab Businesses, and Clarient Diagnostics. Before GE, Cindy served as CEO of GenVec (Nasdaq:GNVC) and Group Vice President, Cellular Analysis Business of Beckman Coulter. Prior to Beckman Coulter, she served as CEO of Sequoia Pharmaceuticals. Earlier, Cindy served as President of Clinical Micro Sensors, a subsidiary of Motorola. Prior to Motorola, she spent seventeen years with Baxter Healthcare and six years with Abbott Laboratories.  Cindy received her BS degree in Microbiology from the University of Illinois, Urbana and her MBA, from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Cindy is a member of the board of directors of DermTech (Nasdaq:DMTKQ), Certara (Nasdaq:CERT), Poseida Therapeutics (Nasdaq:PSTX), MaxCyte (Nasdaq:MXCT), Charles Draper Laboratory, Nutcracker Therapeutics, and Alanis Therapeutics.

Marla Persky is CEO and President of WOMN LLC, a company dedicated to helping women succeed in the business of law by increasing their knowledge of and acuity with financial drivers, client development, and leadership. Marla retired in 2014 as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Boehringer Ingelheim Inc. She was a member of Boehringer’s executive management team and a director of the company and several of its subsidiaries. Prior to joining Boehringer Ingelheim, Marla spent 19 years at Baxter International Inc. where she held numerous business and legal positions, the most recent of which was Acting General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Marla currently serves Chairperson of the Board of Directors and is a member of the Audit and Governance Committees of Xeris Biopharma Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: XERS), a biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing unique therapies for patient populations in endocrinology, neurology, and gastroenterology. Additionally, she is on the Board of Directors of REVOLO Biotherapeutics which develops therapies to reset the immune system to achieve long-term remission for patients with autoimmune and allergic diseases. Ms. Persky also serves on the Audit and Strategic Planning Committees of the Board of Directors of YGEIA, a medical informatics technology company. Previously, she served on the Board of Directors of Cytyc Corporation (NASDAQ: CYTYC) a device and diagnostics company specializing in women’s health. In addition to her corporate activities, Ms. Persky is on the Board of several not-for-profit organizations such as the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and Primary Stages (Off-Broadway Theater Company). Ms. Persky received her JD from Washington University School of Law and her BS from Northwestern University.

Dr. Erich Platzer brings expertise in financing startup companies focused on life sciences to Panavance. He is currently the chairman of Alzheimer company Vivoryon Therapeutics NV (Euronext, Amsterdam) and board member of oncology focused Aptose Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ, TSE). He serves as board member of various private companies LMD SA, Biozen LLC, Nitinotes and Coramaze. He is an advisor to Swiss VC firm MTIP which is focused on digital health. Dr. Platzer has been a Business Angel since 2010; and President of StartAngelsNetwork, Switzerland. From 2001 to 2015 he was co-founder and investment advisor of HBM BioVentures (now HBM Healthcare Invest­ments). He has had multiple roles as chairman or board member of various biotech companies, public or private. Dr. Platzer spent 10 years at Roche (development and business) with his last position as therapeutic area head business oncology. Prior to his roles in industry he spent 12 years in academic medicine and research and was the co-lead team that purified human G-CSF at MSKCC, licensed to Amgen (Neupogen®). Dr Platzer is board certified for Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology.  He was a medical faculty member at University of Erlangen, Germany since 1989: Dr. med. habil (~M.D.Ph.D.).