TERRY ROSEN, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer
 

Terry has been leading successful organizations in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries for almost 30 years. Most recently, he served as Vice President, Therapeutic Discovery (TD) at Amgen and as the Site Head for Amgen South San Francisco, having joined Amgen with the acquisition of Tularik in 2004. He was named Amgen Washington Site Head in 2006, transitioned to a role heading Chemistry Research and Discovery in 2007 and became the head of Protein Sciences in 2011.  He and his leadership team were responsible for the creation of the TD organization, a group of 550+ staff responsible for all of Amgen’s large and small molecule drug discovery efforts.

 

Prior to joining Amgen, Terry held several executive positions at Tularik, including Executive Vice President, Operations; Vice President, Research Operations; and Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry.  He has also held scientific and management positions at Pfizer and Abbott Laboratories.  He has extensive experience in negotiating and leading collaborations with corporate and academic institutions. Terry has a B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.  He holds numerous patents and has published extensively in the areas of medicinal and synthetic organic chemistry.

 

 

 

JUAN JAEN, Ph.D.

President, Head of R&D
 

Juan has been engaged in all aspects of drug discovery and development for over 30 years. Most recently, he held the position of Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery at ChemoCentryx. During his almost 7-year tenure there, Juan led the discovery and progression into the clinic of 8 novel drug candidates in the immunology area, the most advanced of which is currently undergoing Phase 3 evaluation in Crohn’s disease. At ChemoCentryx, Juan was responsible for all aspects of Research and Preclinical Development and led a multi-year collaboration with GSK, which generated over $100M in non-dilutive milestone payments and fees.

 

Prior to joining ChemoCentryx, Juan held scientific management positions at Tularik and then Amgen (after its acquisition of Tularik in 2004), most recently as Vice President of Chemistry.  From 1983 to 1996, Juan held scientific and leadership positions at Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert.  Juan holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Organic Chemistry from Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain and received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Michigan.  He has co-authored over 100 scientific papers and is an inventor on over 50 issued U.S. patents. Juan has been responsible for the advancement of over 20 novel molecules into clinical development for diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s, Crohn’s, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and asthma, among others.

 

YUJIRO HATA, M.B.A.

Chief Operating Officer
 

Yujiro brings nearly two decades of operating experience building and managing biotechnology companies that have brought to market several approved therapies.  From 2010 through its acquisition in October 2013 by Amgen, Yujiro served as Vice President, Corporate Development & Strategy at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, where he held various senior management roles, including Head of Corporate Strategy and Strategic Asset Management and Head of Transactions (M&A, licensing, and partnerships).  From 2002 to 2010, Yujiro held roles of increasing responsibility as Vice President, Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer at Enanta Pharmaceuticals.  He previously served in roles spanning business and R&D at McKinsey & Company, ImClone and Columbia Medical School.

 

Yujiro obtained his MBA at Wharton, as a Henry J Kaiser recipient, and completed undergraduate studies in chemistry and biology at Oxford University and Colorado College.  Yujiro serves as a guest lecturer on strategic partnerships at the University of California, Berkeley and is a founder of a non-profit that provides yoga instruction for cancer survivors.

 

JORDAN FRIDMAN, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer
 

Jordan joined Flexus following 11 highly successful years at Incyte Corporation.  While at Incyte, Jordan held positions of increasing responsibility in the drug discovery organization, most recently as Executive Director, Pharmacology.  In addition, he oversaw the external research program and co-directed efforts to validate and nominate new drug discovery targets.
 

Jordan has contributed to the advancement of multiple clinical compounds in disease areas such as oncology and autoimmune disease.  Most notably, he made seminal contributions to the discovery and successful clinical development of Jakafi® (ruxolitinib), the first FDA-approved JAK inhibitor.  In 2011, he received the National Institute of Health “Hero Award” for contributions to the JAK-STAT field.  Jordan received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Rochester and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan Medical School.  He carried out postdoctoral work in the laboratories of Professor Scott Lowe at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.  He has over 30 publications in the areas of biology and drug discovery.

 

 

 

JAY POWERS, Ph.D.

VP Drug Discovery

 

Jay has been in scientific and leadership roles in the biopharmaceutical industry for almost 20 years.  Most recently, he was Vice President of Drug Discovery at ChemoCentryx.  During his tenure there of just under 7 years, Jay was involved in the discovery and progression into the clinic of 7 novel drug candidates in the immunology area, the most advanced of which is currently undergoing Phase 2 evaluation in ANCA-associated renal vasculitis.  At ChemoCentryx, Jay was responsible for Medicinal Chemistry, early Process Chemistry, Preclinical DMPK, SAR Assay support and Vivarium operations.  Prior to joining ChemoCentryx in 2007, Jay was at Tularik and then Amgen (after its acquisition of Tularik in 2004), most recently as Scientific Director in Medicinal Chemistry.  Jay began his career in 1996, working in the anti-infective area at Abbott Laboratories.

 

Jay received a B.S. degree in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Minnesota and completed postdoctoral studies in the laboratories of Professor Gilbert Stork at Columbia University.  He is an inventor on 34 issued U.S. patents and has published extensively in the areas of medicinal and synthetic organic chemistry.  Over the course of his career, Jay has been responsible for the discovery of 14 compounds that have gone into clinical development in the oncology, immunomodulation, inflammation, antiviral and metabolic disease areas.

 

 

 

STEVE YOUNG, Ph.D.

VP Technology

 

Steve has 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience, with an outstanding track record of and a tremendous passion for the pragmatic development and implementation of state-of-the-art technologies to accelerate drug discovery.  In this context, he has built several high-tech laboratories, most recently at Amgen, where he served as Executive Director.  During his time at Amgen, Steve held positions of increasing responsibility, ultimately heading the Discovery Technologies function, with responsibility for automated laboratories in Germany and across North America.  He also served as the inaugural Site Head at Amgen Massachusetts.

 

Prior to Amgen’s acquisition of Tularik in 2004, Steve was Tularik’s Director of Lead Discovery.  Previously, he held senior scientific and leadership positions at Roche Discovery and Glaxo Wellcome R&D, both in the U.K., where he worked in Immunology and High Throughput Screening.  Steve received a B.Sc. (Hons) and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol, England. He also holds a Management Diploma from The Open University, England.  Over the course of his career, Steve has been responsible for over 300 high throughput screens and provided quantitative biology support for more than 80 small molecule drug discovery programs.