About

Xiaodong Yang, MD, PhD

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Yang founded Apexigen in July of 2010, and serves as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors. Prior to forming Apexigen, he served as Vice President of Preclinical Development at Intradigm Corporation (now Silence Therapeutics). Dr. Yang began his career as a founding scientist at Abgenix, Inc. now Amgen) where he was Senior Director and headed the Oncology Therapeutic Program Team responsible for setting strategy and managing the company’s oncology portfolio. While at Abgenix he served as the project team leader for Vectibix^® (panitumumab) and played a key role in its discovery, development and BLA approval. Dr. Yang also managed Abgenix’s partnerships on a number of therapeutic antibody collaboration programs. He has over 20 years of experience in the research and development of antibody and siRNA therapeutics.

Dr. Yang was an American Diabetes Association and Juvenile Diabetes Foundation post-doctoral fellow in Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He received his Medical Degree from Beijing Medical University and was awarded his Doctorate in Immunology from University of Bern in Switzerland.

Francis Sarena

President and Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Sarena joined Apexigen in January 2022 and serves as President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Sarena is a seasoned biotech executive with a track record of operational success, transactional acumen, and guiding companies through different stages to maximize performance. He has overseen strategic planning and execution, business development, investor relations, commercial, project management, legal, IP, quality and compliance and has significant executive experience in company-wide financial planning, budgeting and organizational development. From 2010 to 2021, Mr. Sarena served at Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: FPRX) in positions of increasing responsibility, most recently as Chief Strategy Officer. He was a key leader in Five Prime’s transition from a private, research-focused company to a public clinical-stage company with a growing pipeline of cancer therapies and in the company’s sale to Amgen for $1.9 billion. Prior to Five Prime, Mr. Sarena served as Vice President and General Counsel of Facet Biotech Corporation (Nasdaq: FACT) from 2008 until 2010 when Abbott Laboratories acquired Facet. From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Sarena served in roles of increasing responsibility with PDL BioPharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: PDLI), most recently as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. He began his career at Bingham McCutchen LLP. Mr. Sarena earned his law degree from University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and holds a B.S., summa cum laude, in finance from San Francisco State University.

William Duke

Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Duke has more than 20 years of operations, finance and accounting experience with over a decade of that in the life science industry. Mr. Duke joins us from Kaleido Biosciences, Inc., where he served as chief financial offer from November 2019 to April 2022. At Kaleido, he was responsible for all areas of finance and accounting, implemented capital formation strategies to fund operations, and lead the successful completion of financings totaling $115 million. From June 2015 to November 2019, Mr. Duke was chief financial officer of Pulmatrix, Inc., where he oversaw the company’s financial strategy, helped negotiate the company’s first product partnership, and led the successful completion of several public offerings. Prior to that, he was the chief financial officer at Valeritas, Inc. where he was responsible for the strategic planning, development, and leadership of the corporate finance function. Mr. Duke also was senior director of finance at Genzyme Corporation, helping in the sale of the company to Sanofi, and director of finance/accounting at Haemonetics Corporation. Over the course of his career in corporate finance, Mr. Duke has raised more than $260 million in equity and debt financings. He is a certified public accountant and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Stonehill College and a Master of Business Administration degree from Bentley College.

Frank Hsu, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Hsu joined Apexigen as Chief Medical Officer in August of 2021. He is a medical oncologist with more than 30 years of clinical cancer research and development experience in the biotech industry and academics. Most recently, he served as Chief Medical Officer of Oncternal Therapeutics where he oversaw the development of both antibody and small molecule therapeutics. Earlier in his career, he served as Vice President and Head of Oncology at Immune Design Corporation, where he was responsible for development of several immuno-oncology programs and as Chief Medical Officer at Zyngenia, Inc., where he was responsible for development of its multivalent antibody/protein therapeutics. Dr. Hsu started his biotech industry career as a Senior Medical Director at Genzyme Corporation, and over a 10 year period led several multifunctional teams and oversaw the clinical development of investigational and approved agents, including Mozobil^®, Campath^®, fresolimumab, and other immuno-oncology agents. 

Before joining the biotech industry, Dr. Hsu had a distinguished career in academics. He was a faculty member at Yale University, serving as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section of Oncology and co-Director/Director of the Immunology Research Program of the Yale Cancer Center and was a clinical and research fellow with Dr. Ron Levy at Stanford. Dr. Hsu’s basic and translational research was in the development of lymphoma vaccines and antibody therapeutics and included the first human clinical trial of a dendritic cell-based vaccine. Dr. Hsu holds a B.S. degree in biology from Stanford University, and an M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School and the Health Science and Technology Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his internship/residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and his oncology training at Stanford University.

Amy Wong

Senior Vice President, Finance and Operations

Ms. Wong joined Apexigen in April of 2014 and serves as Senior Vice President, Finance and Operations, in which she holds responsibility for both finance and human resource functions. Prior to joining Apexigen, Ms. Wong served as Vice President of Finance, Human Resources and Operations at Tobi.com, overseeing all financial affairs of the company as well as managing 24/7 fulfillment operations. Prior to Tobi, Ms. Wong served as Director of Finance and Human Resources at Mozes (now ePrize), whith responsibility for all finance and human resource operations. While at Mozes, she helped raise two rounds of venture financing and supported the acquisition of the company by ePrize. Prior to Mozes, Ms. Wong served as accounting manager for Montalvo Systems (acquired by Sun Microsystems) and Airgo Networks (acquired by Qualcomm), and held positions of increasing responsibility at the publicly traded companies, Foundry Networks and Redback Networks.

Ms. Wong has more than 20 years of public and private company experience in finance, accounting and human resources, and has managed all facets of accounting issues, including financial reporting, SEC filings, audit compliance, closing strategies, M&A and foreign subsidiaries. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from California State University, Sacramento.

Jason Wright, PhD

Senior Vice President, CMC

Dr. Wright joined Apexigen in October 2019 as Vice President, CMC. Before joining Apexigen, he served as Vice President of Manufacturing at Proclara Biosciences, where he established and oversaw all CMC activities. Prior to Proclara, Dr. Wright served as Head of CMC for Cambridge Antibody Technology (a subsidiary of AstraZeneca), leading multidisciplinary teams for CAT’s oncology projects, including LUMOXITI®. At Rinat Neuroscience, he was the CMC project lead for multiple programs (including tanezumab and ponezumab) prior to the acquisition by Pfizer and established and managed the internal Cell Culture and Fermentation group. Earlier in his career, Dr. Wright worked in R & D groups at Bayer and Boehringer Mannheim in Germany.

Dr. Wright is an Industry veteran with almost 20 years of experience managing CMC programs for biologics. Dr. Wright received his Doctorate in Cellular Biotechnology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). He also holds a Masters in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Glasgow and a BSc in Process Biotechnology from University of Teesside in the UK.

Meenu Karson

Chair of the Board

Since 2021, Ms. Karson has served as President and CEO of a private, discovery-stage company focused on GPCR neurobiology for the development of medicines that address multiple neuroscience indications. Prior to this role, Ms. Karson served as President and CEO of Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage company focused on cystic fibrosis (CF). During her tenure at Proteostasis, Ms. Karson played a key role in creating value through clinical validation and strategic partnering, raising more than $300 million in crossover and public financings, including the company’s IPO. Prior to Proteostasis, she served as President and CEO at Allozyne Inc., a clinical-stage protein bioconjugation company, where she drove accelerated development of the platform technology and clinical pipeline and created strategic partnering opportunities. Other career appointments include Vice President of Business Development and Licensing at Novartis AG, where she was a key member in all licensing strategies, processes and outcomes in Europe and emerging growth markets as well as global M&A, and Chief Business Officer of Bioxell S.p.A. where she led development of all corporate and commercial strategy. Additionally, Ms. Karson currently serves as a Board Member for Vallon Pharmaceuticals, Fore Biotherapeutics, and Vasomune Therapeutics. Ms. Karson received a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacology from the University of Toronto and a Master of Business Administration in Strategy and Finance from the Schulich School of Business at York University.

Herb Cross

Board Member

Mr. Cross has more than 20 years of experience in executive leadership roles with responsibility for strategic financial management and corporate operations and currently serves as Chief Financial Officer at Atreca. His experience includes Chief Financial Officer roles at a number of life sciences companies including ARMO BioSciences, Balance Therapeutics, KaloBios Pharmaceuticals and Affymax. Earlier in his career, he also served as Vice President of Finance at Neoforma, PDL BioPharma and Facet Biotech. While at ARMO BioSciences, Mr. Cross led all administrative functions and corporate development in driving their successful 2018 initial public offering as well as the subsequent acquisition of the company by Eli Lilly for $1.6 billion.

Mr. Cross received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley and is a certified public accountant.

Jakob Dupont, M.D.

Board Member

Dr. Dupont is a renowned expert in the fields of tumor immunology, oncology drug development, and cell therapy, with long-standing and deep experience in developing therapies and programs dedicated to addressing high unmet medical needs. Dr. Dupont is currently Global Head of Research & Development (R&D) for Atara Biotherapeutics. Prior to joining Atara, he served as the Chief Medical Officer at Gossamer Bio, working to advance therapeutics in the disease areas of immunology, inflammation, and oncology.

Dr. Dupont has also served as Vice President and Global Head of Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Development for Genentech/Roche, where he was responsible for the global development of Herceptin^®, Perjeta^®, Kadcyla^®, and Tecentriq^®, among others and securing a number of important global regulatory approvals. Prior to that, Dr. Dupont was Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he oversaw the successful submissions of a number of investigational new drug applications (INDs) of novel drug candidates including anti-TIGIT and GITR-Fc. He started his industry career at Genentech where he was responsible for the development of Avastin in breast and gynecologic cancers and also gaining a number of regulatory approvals in these indications.

Dr. Dupont has been involved in tumor immunology research and clinical investigations for more than 25 years, ranging from cellular therapy to tumor vaccine therapy and immune checkpoints. Dr. Dupont has received numerous grants and awards, and has co-authored 47 peer-reviewed publications, has 30 patents, and has also served as a faculty member and laboratory researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and adjunct clinical faculty in medical oncology at Stanford University.

Dr. Dupont received his M.D. from the Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University, his M.A. in philosophy from New York University, and his undergraduate degree in philosophy from Vassar College. He also served as Assistant Chief Resident and completed his Medical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), his Internal Medicine Residency at the New-York Presbyterian Hospital — Cornell Campus, and his Internal Medicine Internship at The University of Michigan Medical Center.

Gordon Ringold

Board Member

Dr. Ringold has over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry in numerous executive leadership and drug development roles. He is currently on the board of directors of Ardelyx, Sagimet, Protein Metrics, and Okava Pharmaceuticals. Since 2015, Dr. Ringold has served as CEO of Quadriga BioSciences, a privately-held pharmaceutical company focused on developing targeted anti-cancer therapies. From 1997 to 2015, he served in various capacities as Co-Founder and/or CEO of Maxygen, SurroMed, Alexza, and Alavita. From 1991 to 2000, Dr. Ringold was CEO and Scientific Director of Affymax Research Institute (acquired by Glaxo in 1995) where he managed the development of novel technologies to accelerate the pace of drug discovery; prior to that he was VP and Director of the Institute for Cancer and Developmental Biology at Syntex Corporation (1986-1991). Dr. Ringold received his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Harold Varmus, before joining the Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology (1978-1987). While on the Stanford faculty he invented technologies for manufacturing of recombinant proteins in mammalian cells, now widely used for production of dozens of therapeutic products and received the John J. Abel Award as the best Pharmacologist in the US under the age of 35. Dr. Ringold is an alumnus of Crown College, UC Santa Cruz, 1972.

Scott Smith

Board Member

Mr. Smith is currently President of BioAtla, LLC, which is developing novel therapies for the treatment of cancer. Prior to BioAtla, Mr. Smith spent 10 years at Celgene Corporation, most recently serving as President and COO with responsibility for key functions, including Oncology Franchise Commercial Operations, Inflammation & Immunology Franchise Commercial Operations, Clinical Development, Regulatory Affairs and Manufacturing. During his time at Celgene, he established Celgene’s Inflammation and Immunology Franchise and built it into a global billion-dollar franchise with over 1,000 employees, oversaw a pipeline of a dozen mid- to late-stage development programs, and took Otezla from Phase 2a through proof of concept, late-stage clinical development, regulatory approval and global commercialization in multiple indications. Earlier, he held senior commercial positions in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia with Biovail Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Pharmacia & Upjohn, Inc. Mr. Smith received both his BSc degree in Chemistry and Biology and his HBSc degree in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Western Ontario and his Masters of International Business Management from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird).

Samuel P. Wertheimer, Ph.D.

Board Member

Since 2017, Dr. Wertheimer has served as Senior Scientific Advisor at Brookline Capital Markets. From 2020 to 2022, he also served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Brookline Capital Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), before our business combination. From 2012 to 2016, he served as co-founder of Poliwogg, Inc. a financial services firm bringing innovation to healthcare investing. While at Poliwogg, he helped develop the Poliwogg Medical Breakthrough Index that serves as the underlying index for the ALPS Medical Breakthrough ETF (SBIO). From 2000 to 2011, Dr. Wertheimer was a Private Equity Partner at OrbiMed Advisors, LLC, where he was involved in raising and investing four venture capital funds with more than $1.5 billion in committed capital. He previously served on the boards of multiple public and private companies, including Biodel (Nasdaq: BIOD); ChemoCentryx (CCXI); Corus Pharma (acquired by Gilead); InteKrin Therapeutics (acquired by Coherus); NeurAxon; and Salmedix (acquired by Cephalon). He helped bring to market several new drugs including Treanda^®, Cayston^®, and Orbactiv^®. Dr. Wertheimer received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from New York University, his Master of Public Health, with Honors, from Yale University and his Bachelor of Arts from the Johns Hopkins University.

Xiaodong Yang, MD, Ph.D.

Board Member

Dr. Yang founded Apexigen in July of 2010, and serves as President, CEO and a member of the board of directors. Prior to forming Apexigen, he served as Vice President of Research and Preclinical Development at Intradigm Corporation (now Silence Therapeutics). Dr. Yang began his career as a founding scientist at Abgenix (now Amgen) where he was Senior Director and headed the Oncology Therapeutic Program Team responsible for setting strategy and managing the company’s oncology portfolio. While at Abgenix he served as the project team leader for Vectibix^® (panitumumab) and played a key role in its discovery, development and BLA approval, and managed the company’s partnerships on a number of therapeutic antibody collaboration programs. He has over 20 years of experience in the research and development of antibody and siRNA therapeutics.

Dr. Yang was an American Diabetes Association and Juvenile Diabetes Foundation post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine in Microbiology and Immunology. He received his medical degree from Beijing Medical University and was awarded his doctorate in Immunology from University of Bern in Switzerland.

Dan Zabrowski, Ph.D.

Board Member

Dr. Dan Zabrowski is a Venture Partner at Decheng Capital and has been with the firm since July 2016. Prior to joining Decheng, Dr. Zabrowski worked over 20 years for Roche in a number of key global leadership positions, including Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, Global Head of Development Operations, Global Head of Roche Pharma Partnering, President of Ventana Medical Systems and President of the Roche Sequencing Unit. During his tenure in Business Development and Diagnostics, Dr. Zabrowski and his teams delivered 300+ acquisition and partnership deals. In addition, he was Board member of Chugai Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Roche, Dr. Zabrowski worked at Syntex, Fujisawa (now Astellas) and G.D. Searle in their pharmaceutical R&D organizations and served as Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Pharmacy, University of Illinois — Chicago. Dr. Zabrowski received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Indiana University, Bloomington and his BA degree in Chemistry from Saint Louis University.

David Ho, M.D.

David D. Ho is the founding Scientific Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, a world-renowned biomedical research institute. He is also the Irene Diamond Professor at The Rockefeller University.

Dr. Ho received his degrees from California Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, he did his clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center/UCLA School of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, respectively.

Dr. David Ho has been at the forefront of AIDS research for 33 years, publishing over 400 papers. His elegant studies, beginning in 1994, unveiled the dynamic nature of HIV replication in vivo and revolutionized our basic understanding of this horrific disease. This knowledge led Dr. Ho to champion combination antiretroviral therapy that resulted in unprecedented control of HIV in patients. AIDS mortality in richer nations has declined dramatically since 1996, and a massive international effort is now underway to bring such life-saving treatment to millions in the developing world. To date over 10 million patients have benefitted from combination antiretroviral therapy. Dr. Ho has been the major driving force behind this major medical breakthrough in what is arguably the worst plague in human history.

Dr. Ho’s research team is now devoting considerable efforts to develop HIV vaccines, as well as antibody-based strategies and long-acting antiretroviral drugs as pre-exposure prophylaxis to halt or slow the spread of the AIDS epidemic.

Dr. Ho has received numerous honors and awards for his scientific accomplishments. He is the recipient of thirteen honorary doctorates. He has been chosen as the commencement speaker at Caltech, MIT, and Harvard School of Public Health. Additional accolades include the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine, Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Science & Technology, the Squibb Award, and the Hoechst Marion Roussel Award. Dr. Ho has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academia Sinica, Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Science in the United States. He was also inducted into the California Hall of Fame. Recently, Dr. Ho was recognized by the Kingdom of Thailand with the Prince Mahidol Award in Medicine.

Dr. Ho was a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology. He is currently a board member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation. Dr. Ho was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1996, and was the recipient of a Presidential Medal from Bill Clinton in 2001.

Ronald Levy, M.D, Ph.D.

Dr. Ronald Levy is a Professor of Medicine, Director of the Lymphoma Program, and Former Chief of the Division of Oncology at Stanford University. He obtained his bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Harvard University in 1963 and his medical degree from Stanford University in 1968. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.

Dr. Levy's research has focused for more than 20 years on monoclonal antibodies to B cells. He was the first to successfully treat human lymphoma with a monoclonal antibody, and went on to make important contributions to the development of rituximab (Rituxan^®), for the treatment of patients with resistant low-grade lymphomas. He is currently conducting clinical trials of a lymphoma vaccine. His research concentrates on the study of malignant lymphoma, using the tools of immunology and molecular biology to develop a better understanding of the initiation and progression of the malignant process. Dr. Levy is using lymphocyte receptors as targets for new therapies for lymphoma. Dr. Levy has published over 270 articles in the fields of oncology and immunology.

Dr. Levy has received international acclaim for his work using the body's own arsenal to fight cancer. In 1982 he shared the first Armand Hammer Award for Cancer Research, and was later awarded the Ciba-Geigy/Drew Award in Biomedical Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology Karnofsky Award, the General Motors Charles Kettering Prize, the Key to the Cure Award by the Cure for Lymphoma Foundation, the Medal of Honor by the American Cancer Society, the Evelyn Hoffman Memorial Award by the Lymphoma Research Foundation of America, the 2004 Damashek Prize from the American Society of Hematology and in 2009 he won the King Faisal International Prize.