MANAGEMENT
Julius Knowles – Chief Executive OfficerBrant Binder – Co-Founder and President
Yan Chen, M.D., Ph.D. – Senior Vice President, R&D
Tod Woolf, Ph.D. – Chief Technology Officer
Jeff Troderman – Chief Financial Officer
Julius Knowles – Chief Executive Officer
Julius (Jay) Knowles was most recently Head, Platforms, Strategic Alliances for Novartis, where he headed a team responsible for creating technology-based and drug discovery collaborations, forging a number of major strategic alliances with biotech companies. Previously, Mr. Knowles was founder and President of Novalar Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company that brought a drug from idea stage through the clinic and on to the market. Prior to this, he was Vice President, Business Development, at Structural Genomix, and Director, Research and Development Planning at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. He has an MBA in Finance from Wharton Business School, an M.Sc. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley, and a BA with Distinction in Chemistry from Carleton College.
Brant Binder – President and Founder
Brant Binder was the founder and CFO of SRU Biosystems. Previously, he served Vice-President responsible for both domestic and international private equity at Trust Company of the West, where he helped to raise $500 million in equity commitments. Mr. Binder previously held the position of Vice-President at Bankers Trust Company. Mr. Binder received an M.B.A. from the Sloan School at MIT and a B.S. from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
Yan Chen, M.D., Ph.D. – Senior Vice President, R&D
Dr. Chen has over 15 years of experience in antibody discovery and therapeutic antibody development. Prior to joining X-BODY Biosciences, she was Head, Project Team Leader, Oncology Biological Therapeutics at Novartis, where she led multiple cross functional teams for global therapeutic antibody programs from discovery through pre-clinical studies. Previously, she was the Head of the Antibody Program at Phylos/Adnexus and had established a novel human antibody discovery platform using mRNA display technology, leading to the platform and technology transfer to Abbott. In addition, she is the primary inventor of the first antibody mimetic therapeutic agent Adnectin CT-322 currently in phase II/III clinical trials. Dr. Chen received her Doctor of Medicine degree from Shandong University Medical School and her Ph.D in Immunology from the National University of Singapore.
Tod Woolf, Ph.D. - Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Woolf has twenty years of experience developing and commercializing innovative biomedical technologies. Dr. Woolf co-founded RXi Pharmaceuticals in 2006 and brought the company public as CEO in 2008. Previously, he founded and served as CEO of Sequitur, an RNAi company acquired by Life Technologies in 2003. Prior to that, he helped to develop and partner the core therapeutic technology at RPI (now Sirna/Merck) and Ontogeny (now Curis). Dr. Woolf has served as a scientific and business advisor to a number of biotechnology companies including Praecis, Invitrogen, Advirna, Adarza and TriLink Biotechnologies. He holds a Masters and Ph.D. in Cellular and Development Biology from Harvard University and has authored 40 patent applications and scientific publications.
Jeff Troderman - Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Troderman has 25 years experience in senior roles in accounting and finance including six years as a principal with Malley and Franey Financial Group. He has a wide range of management experience with companies in biotechnology and other industries. Prior to joining the firm, he was a Management Consultant for eight years, a Regional Analyst with the US Trustees Office in Boston for eight years, and spent five years as a CPA with KPMG and BDO Seidman. He received a bachelor's degree in Accounting from the University of Massachusetts and his MBA at Babson College.