Eugene Williams

Eugene Williams

Chairman and Co-Founder

Eugene Williams is a former SVP at Genzyme, with senior roles integrating commercialization, drug development, and deal making. He is also an entrepreneur, as the founder and director of Adheris, which became the largest company in the patient adherence area. He was previously a strategy consultant at Bain and Corporate Decisions Inc. (a Bain Spin off, now part of Oliver Wyman), where he was co-Head of Healthcare and spent extensive time on speeding and improving the drug development process and on commercialization strategies. Mr. Williams was most recently the CEO of Dart Therapeutics, an Orphan Disease drug development company. Mr. Williams holds a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Neil Cashman, M.D.

Neil Cashman, M.D.

Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder

Dr. Cashman is a physician and scientist focused on neurodegenerative diseases. His first academic posting was at Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital of McGill University. From 1998 to 2005, he was the Diener Professor of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Toronto. In 2005, Professor Cashman moved to the University of British Columbia, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Neurodegeneration and Protein Misfolding Diseases and serves as the Director of the UBC ALS Centre. He has procured over $50 million in research grant funding from the CIHR, CRC, NCE, NIH, and various corporations for his work involving protein misfolding and prion technologies. He was awarded the Jonas Salk Prize for biomedical research in 2000 and was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2008. He is recognized worldwide as one of the leading research scientists pioneering the emerging fields of prion biology and protein misfolding diseases, in particular Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Patrick Kirwin

Patrick Kirwin

Independent Director

Senior partner at Kirwin LLP, has been advising and representing businesses in a range of industries and sizes from local to multinational for over 30 years. He obtained his BA in Economics (First Class Standing) from the University of Alberta in 1978 followed by his JD from the University of Toronto, Faculty of law in 1982. He practiced initially with the Canadian Federal Department of Justice from 1982 to 1986 then founded the predecessor to Kirwin LLP where he currently practices in Edmonton, Alberta.

Josh Mandel-Brehm

Josh Mandel-Brehm

Independent Director

Josh Mandel-Brehm is President & Chief Executive Officer of CAMP4 Therapeutics and holds a dual appointment as entrepreneur partner with Polaris Partners. He is also a co-founder and board member for Vico Therapeutics, an oligonucleotide-based RNA modulating Company focused on developing therapeutics for patients suffering from rare CNS disorders.
Mr. Mandel-Brehm previously held key business development and operations leadership roles at leading biotech companies. Most recently he served as part of the Business Development group at Biogen, where he led multiple strategic activities and corresponding transactions, which included expanding Biogen’s non-malignant hematology franchise, overseeing seminal investments to enter the ophthalmology field and advancing Biogen’s gene therapy strategy. Prior to Biogen, Mr. Mandel-Brehm held several roles of increasing responsibility at Genzyme as part of the business development group for the company’s rare disease business unit.
Mr. Mandel-Brehm earned a BA in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis and holds an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Maggie Shafmaster

Lead Independent Director

Maggie has almost 30 years of experience providing intellectual property advice to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.  She holds a B.A. in Biology from University of California, a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Virology from Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences and a J.D. summa cum laude from New York Law School.  After spending 8 years at the boutique IP firm of Fish & Neave in New York, Maggie spent 14 years at Genzyme, where she ultimately became Sr. Vice President and Chief Patent Counsel.  In that role, she was responsible for providing strategic guidance and IP advice for major commercial and research transactions as well as for developing and implementing strategies to procure, license, defend and enforce Genzyme’s worldwide intellectual property.  Upon Genzyme’s acquisition by Sanofi, Maggie became Vice President and Chief Patent Counsel at Sanofi Pasteur, where she was responsible for leading IP attorneys and agents in the U.S., Canada, France and India.   In 2014, Maggie became an independent IP consultant, providing strategic advice related to IP portfolio development, commercial transactions and potential and ongoing patent and trade secret disputes.

Neil K. Warma

Neil K. Warma

President and Chief Executive Officer

Neil Warma has been a successful healthcare entrepreneur for over 25 years having managed and advised numerous biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies across the globe. Mr. Warma became interim CEO of ProMIS Neurosciences in January 2024. Prior to that he was CEO, Representative Director and Board Member of Genexine, Inc. (095700.KQ) a public, global biopharmaceutical company based in Seoul, South Korea, where he led the company’s restructuring and commercialization of its first products.

Previously, Mr. Warma was the US General Manager of I-Mab Biopharma U.S., (Nasdaq:IMAB) a publicly traded global biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology, with offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, San Diego and Gaithersburg, where he was responsible for the expansion of global operations and a key driver in I-Mab’s U.S. IPO.

Prior to that, Mr. Warma was President and CEO of Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:OPXA), a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company developing novel cellular therapies for autoimmune diseases. Prior to Opexa, he was CEO of Viron Therapeutics, a private biotechnology company developing novel protein-based therapeutics for cardiovascular disease and transplantation.

Mr. Warma spent several years in key management roles at Novartis Pharmaceuticals at its corporate headquarters in Basel, Switzerland in Global Marketing and as Head of International Pharma Policy. He was also President and Co-Founder of MedExact, a health-technology company dedicated to providing an interface between physicians and pharmaceutical companies, which he later sold.

Mr. Warma currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). Mr. Warma obtained an honors Bachelor of Science degree specializing in Neuroscience from the University of Toronto and an International MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto.

William Wyman

William Wyman

Independent Director

Bill Wyman is an advisor to corporate management teams in the pharmaceutical, finance and technology industries.  He has served on some twenty-five Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards of both public and private companies.  Prior to his advisory work, he co-founded Oliver Wyman & Company, today a leading global management consulting firm.  Before founding Oliver Wyman, he was with Booz Allen and Hamilton (New York, Duesseldorf, Athens) as President and Managing Partner of Management Consulting Group, member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors.  He received his BA from Colgate University, and an MBA from Harvard. Following his graduation from Colgate, he served four years in the U.S. Navy.