Cabrellis Management

Cabrellis has assembled an expert team of entrepreneurs to carry out its mission. These individuals have extensive experience in essential areas of the Cabrellis mission: market-driven cancer product development, marketing, business development, biotechnology and specialty pharmaceutical management, and finance.

Executive Management

Thomas M. Estok
President and Chief Executive Officer
To his role as founding CEO of Cabrellis, Mr. Estok brings 20 years of experience in the development and commercialization of pharmaceuticals, joining Cabrellis from Conforma Therapeutics where he served as Chief Commercial Officer. A 19-year veteran of Schering-Plough, Mr. Estok held a number of positions with progressing responsibility in R&D, in both international and domestic marketing, sales, and commercial development. His most recent position was Vice President, US Marketing and Commercial Development, Oncology. During his tenure at Schering-Plough, Mr. Estok led the oncology marketing efforts on several products including temozolomide, liposomal doxorubicin, and the interferon franchise. Mr. Estok graduated from Virginia Tech with a BS degree in Biochemistry and was awarded an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

John E. Crawford
Chief Financial and Administrative Officer
Mr. Crawford has been an executive officer in early-stage life science and technology firms since 1981. Prior to becoming a founder of Cabrellis, he was the first full-time executive at International Genetic Engineering, Inc. and the founding president of San Diego-based Corvas International, Inc., shepherding both of these firms through listings on NASDAQ. During his 12-year tenure at Corvas, Mr. Crawford raised over $200 million from equity investors and corporate alliances in his capacity as its chief financial officer. Mr. Crawford was most recently CFO for Conforma Therapeutics and since 1998, Mr. Crawford has been a consultant, executive officer or board member for eight additional venture-backed and privately funded technology firms. He is also a member of the board of directors and chairman of the audit committee of Lipid Sciences, Inc. Mr. Crawford holds a B.S. degree in Mathematical Sciences from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Tracy Lawhon, J.D.
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Development Operations
Ms. Lawhon joins Cabrellis from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation in Florham Park, New Jersey, where she had been executive director, Project Management since 2004. From 1997 to 2004, she was with Schering-Plough Research Institute in Kenilworth, New Jersey, where she was senior manager, Regulatory Affairs, CMC and associate director, Project Management. Prior to that, she worked with Warner Lambert Company, Eli Lilly and Company, and Abbott Laboratories. Ms. Lawhon has a B.S. in microbiology from Indiana University and a Jurisprudence Doctorate from the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is a member of the Indiana State Bar Association and United Way Women's Leadership Initiative.

Christopher C. LeMasters
Chief Business Officer
Mr. LeMasters is also a founder of Cabrellis, joining after serving as Vice President, Business Development of Conforma Therapeutics. While at Conforma, Mr. LeMasters was responsible for the in-licensing of Calsed™ from Dainippon Sumitomo and for negotiating the merger with Biogen Idec. Mr. LeMasters earlier worked for six years in Corporate Business Development at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. In that role, he was responsible for the successful negotiation of numerous research and development collaborations across diverse therapeutic areas. Additionally, he led or contributed to multiple strategy development projects, and was instrumental in the redesign of Lillys licensing processes and organization. Prior to Lilly, he was a management consultant with Coopers & Lybrand Consulting in Chicago for four years, where he led strategy consulting projects for Fortune 500 clients. He began his business career as an operational auditor for Owens-Corning Fiberglas in Toledo. Mr. LeMasters has a B.A. in Finance from Indiana University and an M.B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago.

Sara Zaknoen, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Zaknoen joins Cabrellis from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation in Florham Park, New Jersey, where she had been executive director of Clinical Oncology Research since 2002. From 1998 to 2002, she was with Schering-Plough Research Institute in Kenilworth, New Jersey, where she was director, Clinical Oncology Research. In addition to her work in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Zaknoen has led a distinguished academic and clinical career. Previously, she was assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in Ohio, medical director at the Barrett Cancer Center in Ohio, and director of Experimental Therapeutics at the Western Pennsylvania Hospital in Pennsylvania. Dr. Zaknoen has a B.S. with distinction from Valparaiso University and an M.D. from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, where she graduated summa cum laude. She completed her residency in internal medicine and her fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at the University of Minnesota. She continued her research work at the National Cancer Institute where she served as a Medical Staff Fellow.

Board of Directors

Stuart J.M. Collinson, Ph.D.
Partner, Forward Ventures
Dr. Stuart Collinson is a partner at Forward Ventures, the largest life science venture capital firm in Southern California. Previously Dr. Collinson was Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Aurora Biosciences Corporation where he completed a merger with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., valuing Aurora at $600 million. Before Aurora, Dr. Collinson was Chief Executive Officer of privately held Andaris Limited where he completed a merger with Quadrant plc (now part of Elan Corporation plc). He held senior management positions at GlaxoWellcome plc (now GlaxoSmithKline plc) and Baxter International Inc. and was a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group. Dr. Collinson is a director of Asteres Inc., Essentialis Inc., GeneOhm Sciences Inc., NovaCardia Inc., Oxagen Limited, Tioga Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., and until its merger with Biogen-Idec in May 2006, was a Chairman of the Board of Conforma Therapeutics. Dr. Collinson was awarded an MBA from Harvard Business School and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

Thomas M. Estok
President and Chief Executive Officer, Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
See profile above.

Lawrence C. Fritz, Ph.D.
Formerly President, CEO and Founder, Conforma Therapeutics
Dr. Fritz has extensive experience in the biotechnology industry, having started three successful biopharmaceutical companies. Dr. Fritz co-founded Athena Neurosciences, now wholly-owned by Elan Corporation, plc., Idun Pharmaceuticals (purchased by Pfizer) and Conforma Therapeutics (recently merged with Biogen-Idec). As Vice President of Research at Athena, his work led to the clinical development of products for multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and neuromuscular disorders. While Executive Vice President, Research at Idun, his efforts resulted in the identification of the first specific apoptotic pathway inhibitor to enter the clinic. As CEO of Conforma, Dr. Fritz led this firm to recognized leadership in products that treat disease by regulating protein folding and degradation, specifically the heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) cellular chaperones that control protein conformation. In addition to being a founder of Cabrellis, Dr. Fritz is also a member of the Board of Directors of Kinetek Pharmaceuticals, a private biotechnology company in Vancouver, British Columbia. Dr. Fritz holds an AB degree from Harvard, an MSc degree from University College London, and a PhD from The Rockefeller University.

Alain Schreiber, M.D.
Managing Partner, ProQuest Investments
Dr. Schreiber has been a Managing Partner at ProQuest Investments since 2000. He was previously CEO of Vical, Inc. developing novel vaccine technologies, and an executive with Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (now Aventis) and Syntex (now Roche Bioscience). At Vical, he led the company in raising over $200 million in private and public capital and pioneered new approaches to vaccine development in collaboration with companies such as Merck, Pfizer and Aventis. As Senior Vice President of Research at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Dr. Schreiber directed R&D efforts that led to the development of numerous product candidates in hematology, endocrinology, pulmonology, cardiology and oncology. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of BioRexis, Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Concentric Medical, Optimer Pharmaceuticals and Somalogic Corporation. Dr. Schreiber received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry and his M.D. from Free University Brussels in Belgium, before pursuing his postdoctoral fellowship at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

S. Edward Torres
Principal, Lilly Ventures
Mr. Torres is a Principal of Lilly Ventures, the venture capital arm of Eli Lilly and Company. Lilly Ventures manages $175 million in committed capital and invests in start up biotech, medical device and healthcare IT companies of potential strategic interest to the pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Torres participates in the Boards of Fluidigm Corporation and Serenex, Inc., and was a member of the board of directors of Conforma Therapeutics until its recent merger with Biogen-Idec. Mr. Torres joined Eli Lilly and Company in 1989 and has had a diverse set of experiences throughout the domestic and international pharmaceutical businesses including operational finance, planning, M&A, business development and global sales and marketing roles. As the founding CFO of Lilly Argentina, Mr. Torres was part of the management team that built a successful and profitable business there. He received a BA from Creighton University and an MBA from the University of Michigan Business School, where he was a Consortium Fellow.

Eckard Weber, M.D.
Venture Partner, Domain Associates
Dr. Weber joined Domain in 2001 as a Partner, with the mission to actively search for novel, investment-worthy drug products or technologies and to found biotechnology and biopharmaceutical start-up companies around those products or technologies. Dr. Weber actively manages, on an interim basis, the companies he founds until permanent, full-time management has been recruited. Dr. Weber has been founding CEO of multiple biopharmaceutical companies in the Domain portfolio including Cytovia, Acea Pharmaceuticals, Novacea, NovaCardia, Novalar Pharmaceuticals, Orexigen Therapeutics, Domain Antibacterial Acquisition Corporation, Ascenta Therapeutics, Konova, and Ocera. He currently serves as interim CEO of Tragara Pharmaceuticals and Syndax Pharmaceuticals, two seed-stage biopharmaceutical companies. He is Chairman of the Board at Novacea, NovaCardia, Cerexa, Orexigen, Novalar, Ocera, and Ascenta. He was Chairman of Peninsula Pharmaceuticals until its sale to Johnson & Johnson in 2005. In addition, he is a board member of DiObex and Biovascular, Inc. He was also a board member of Conforma Therapeutics until its sale to Biogen-Idec in May 2006. Until 1995, Dr. Weber was a tenured Professor of Pharmacology at the University of California at Irvine. He has over 20 years of drug discovery and development experience and has been a consultant to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He is the inventor or co-inventor of over 40 patents and patent applications, and he has published over 130 papers in scientific periodicals. Dr. Weber graduated from Kolping College in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and he received his M.D. degree from the University of Ulm Medical School. He conducted his postdoctoral training at Stanford University Medical School.