Management

Harlan W. Waksal, M.D., has led several late-stage and commercial biotech and pharmaceutical companies as well as secured successful financial deals after scaling companies during more than 30 years in the industry. He has led teams who have achieved several U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals and blockbuster product launches, including REZUROCKTM (belumosudil), Erbitux^® (cetuximab), and Cyramaz^®(ramucirumab). He most recently served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors of Kadmon Holdings prior to its acquisition by Sanofi in November 2021.

Prior to Kadmon, Dr. Waksal served as Member of the Board of Directors and Executive Vice President, Business & Scientific Affairs at Acasti Pharma. Previously, he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Senesco Technologies (formerly Sevion Therapeutics). He also co-founded and served as Member of the Board of Directors, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and President at ImClone Systems prior to its acquisition by Eli Lilly in 2008.

Dr. Waksal’s additional roles include serving as a Member of the Board of Directors at Neptune Technologies & Bioresources, Observer of the Board of Directors at NeuroBiopharm, Chairman of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science and Member of the Technology Advisory Board at the New Jersey Edison Innovation Fund. Dr. Waksal holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and an M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine. He completed his training in internal medicine at New England Medical Center and in pathology at Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn.

Maria Palasis, Ph.D., is an accomplished scientist, inventor, entrepreneur and healthcare industry leader who has led the development of multiple highly successful medical device and drug delivery systems. She is considered one of the pioneers of drug-eluting stents, currently over a ~$6B annual commercial market.

Dr. Palasis has served as Lyra’s President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of its board of directors since January 2015. Previously, she was the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer from 2011 to 2015. Prior to Lyra Therapeutics, Dr. Palasis was President and CEO of both Arsenal Medical and its spin-out, 480 Biomedical. At Arsenal Medical and 480 Biomedical, she secured strategic partnerships with large medical device companies and was instrumental in leading the company from pre-clinical into clinical development on multiple programs. As an executive, she has led the raising of  over $300M of private and public proceeds from investors and non-dilutive government and strategic funding.

From 1995 to 2008, Dr. Palasis served in senior leadership roles at Boston Scientific Corporation, Inc., where she spearheaded major strategic alliances with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, led due diligence on investments, and managed a portfolio of external biotechnology and medical device investments totaling $170M. She was an early member of the team that created the TAXUS^® drug-eluting stent, the single most important revenue generator for the company at the time, a $3B annual product.

Dr. Palasis is an inventor on more than 120 issued and pending patents related to drug eluting medical implants and drug delivery systems. She was elected into the National Academy of Engineering in 2021 for outstanding contributions to the design of medical devices and drug delivery systems. Dr. Palasis serves on the Board of Directors of PanTher Therapeutics and is on the Advisory Board of MedExecWomen, a non-profit focused on empowering female executives in medical technology. She holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Biology at the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine.

Dr. Bishop has vast experience in overseeing manufacturing operations, with a track record in the development and management of chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) for late-stage biopharmaceutical companies. He joins Lyra from Forma Therapeutics (acquired by Novo Nordisk), where he was Chief Technology Officer. Prior to Forma, he served as senior vice president of pharmaceutical sciences at Epizyme, where he held overall responsibility for the CMC and quality assurance functions. Previously, he held leadership positions in process development and manufacturing at Genocea Biosciences, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda), DuPont-Merck Pharmaceutical and Alcon Laboratories. Dr. Bishop earned Bachelor of Science degrees in chemistry and German from Tufts University, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from Northeastern University. He served as a Captain in the Chemical Corps for the U.S. Army on active duty from 1990 to 1991.

Jason Cavalier has more than two decades of investment banking leadership experience. Mr. Cavalier has extensive background in originating and executing financial transactions, particularly mergers and acquisitions. Most recently, he served as a Managing Director and the Head of Life Sciences Mergers and Acquisitions at Cantor Fitzgerald, where he led transactions across the medical technology, diagnostics and biopharma sectors. Prior to Cantor, Mr. Cavalier held senior-level positions at RBC Capital Markets, primarily focused on advising senior management and board directors on a range of strategic advisory assignments and capital markets transactions. He also held investment banking roles of increasing responsibility at Barclays Capital, Bear Stearns, and Lehman Brothers.  Mr. Cavalier holds a B.S. in Applied Economics and Business Management from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

Dr. Nieman, a respiratory physician (pulmonologist) with deep pharmaceutical medicine experience, has had prior leadership roles as SVP & Worldwide Medical Head of Immunology at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), Head of R&D China at BMS, Global Medical Officer & Head of Medical at Teva, and Head of Asia Pacific Medical at Bayer. At Teva, he led the company’s medical and heath economic and outcome research (HEOR) function of 550 professionals and was a member of the Specialty Executive Team. In addition to his U.S. experience and credentials, Richard has also spent significant time working in China, throughout Asia and in Europe. He has been involved in bringing numerous important medicines to the market in the U.S. and Europe, including Cinquair in asthma, Copaxone 40 mg 3x/week in multiple sclerosis, Austedo in movement disorders, Ajovy in migraine and Xarelto in thrombosis and stroke prevention. Richard is a Fellow of the UK Royal College of Physicians, a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kings College, London, and was a Visiting Professor at Fudan University School of Public Health in Shanghai, China. He has published extensively and trained and practiced medicine in the UK.

Corinne Noyes has more than 20 years of commercial experience working with pharmaceutical companies from seed-stage ventures to multi-national corporations. Prior to Lyra she worked as a strategic advisor and independent biopharmaceutical consultant providing commercial leadership to emerging life sciences companies, including, among others, AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Avila Therapeutics, Inc. (Celgene Corporation), Adnexus Therapeutics Inc. (Bristol-Myers Squibb Company), Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cubist Pharmaceuticals (Merck & Co), Editas Medicine, Inc., and Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. Previously, Corinne held commercial leadership positions at Biogen in global new product planning and marketing. She began her life sciences career in the New York pharmaceutical practice of Deloitte Management Consulting. She holds a B.A. in Humanities and a B.B.A. in Business from St. Mary’s College of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. in finance from University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Kern has 30 years of experience in the ear, nose and throat field and is a practicing otolaryngologist with a subspecialty interest in rhinology. He also remains in his current position as the George A. Sisson Professor and Chair, Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Kern is the immediate past president of the American Rhinologic Society and current President of the International Society of Inflammation and Allergy of the Nose. He joined the Northwestern faculty over two decades ago and was appointed as Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology in 2006. His ENT clinical practice focuses around complex sinonasal disease and endoscopic skull base surgery and he has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Kern attended medical school at the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and completed an otolaryngology residency at Wayne State University as well as a two-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) research training fellowship. He has an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.

Bob Richard has over 30 years of experience in the development and commercialization of medical device and drug-device combination products. Most recently he served as Vice President of R&D for Anika therapeutics. Previously he held R&D leadership positions at Hyalex Orthopedics, C.R. Bard, Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson. He is an inventor on 39 U.S. Patents and has authored 16 peer reviewed publications in the areas of biomaterials and drug delivery. He holds a Ph.D. in polymer chemistry and plastics engineering from the University of Massachusetts Lowell as well as a B.S. in chemistry and a B.S. in biology from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Vineeta Belanger brings 20 years of clinical experience in the biotechnology industry with clinical expertise in the development of drugs, medical devices and combination products. Most recently, she served as the Vice President of Clinical Affairs for Avedro, Inc. Previously, she held several key positions in clinical research and clinical operations at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. Earlier in her career, she worked in the clinical organizations of Boston Scientific, NeuroVision, and Alcon. Prior to joining the industry, Vineeta provided patient care as an optometrist. She has authored several publications and abstracts. She holds a Ph.D. in physiological optics and vision science from the University of Houston and a B.S. degree in optometry from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Ellen Cavaleri has 14 years of experience in investor relations, communications and public affairs. Before joining Lyra in 2022, Ellen served as Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications at Kadmon Holdings, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company. At Kadmon, she created and implemented the company’s investor relations strategy and oversaw all external and internal communications. She played an active role in several financing rounds for Kadmon and led communications for the clinical development, U.S. regulatory approval and commercialization of the company’s first therapeutic REZUROCK^® (belumosudil) as well as the acquisition of Kadmon by Sanofi in November 2021. Previously, she was a senior associate at The Corkery Group, where she supported Gilead Sciences’ communications strategy. Ms. Cavaleri graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University with a B.A. in English. She received her master’s degree in business administration from New York University.

Gloria Cosgrove has over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry as a leader in Quality at all stages of clinical drug development.  She has expertise across the full range of quality functions, including establishing process improvement systems (e.g., Lean Manufacturing/Six Sigma), building Quality Organizations for QA/QC, implementing GxP quality management, building phase-sensitive scalable Quality Systems and guiding organizations transitioning from Clinical to Commercial. Gloria also has experience leading organizations through regulatory inspections, including FDA, EMA, MHRA and PMDA. Prior to joining Lyra, she was Vice President, Global Quality at Seres Therapeutics. Previously, she held leadership positions within quality at Synageva, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim. She holds a B.A. from Utah State University and is pursuing an M.A. in psychology from the University of Bridgeport.