Marcelo Bigal, M.D., Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Marcelo is the President and CEO of Ventus Therapeutics, and has extensive experience in neurology. He has published over 330 peer-reviewed papers in the field of neurology, as well as five books. He has been recognized by the American Academy of Neurology with the Harold G. Wolff Award for excellence in research in neurology.
Marcelo has over 15 years of pharmaceutical experience spanning R&D, medical affairs, and scientific affairs. Prior to Ventus, he was CMO and CSO at Teva Pharmaceuticals, leading the team that developed fremanezumab (Ajovy) for several forms of migraine, as well as deutetrabenazine (Austedo) for the treatment of Huntington's disease and Tardive Dyskinesia, as well as other medicines in neurology, psychiatry, pain, and respiratory diseases approved in the US, Canada, and EU.
Prior to his work in the pharmaceutical industry, Marcelo was a faculty member at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Department of Neurology, as well as the Director of Research at New England Center for Headache and Director of Research at Montefiore Headache Center.
Michele D. Bronson, Ph.D.
Chief Development Officer
Michele is the Chief Development Officer of Ventus Therapeutics. Michele holds a Ph.D. in immunology and has 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical development with 8 drug approvals and over a dozen initial INDs.
Prior to Ventus, Michele was VP of Regulatory, Quality, and Project Management at Medivation, where she led the NDA of enzalutamide in prostate cancer. She then joined Labrys Biologicals as the VP of Regulatory and Quality and was critical to the development of Fremanezumab (Ajovy). After Labrys, Michele worked at Portola Pharmaceuticals as VP of Program Management and Clinical Development Operations. In this capacity, she built the Development Operations organization (program management, medical writing, clinical operations, and biometrics), leading to the US approval of the Factor Xa inhibitor, betrixaban, and the Factor Xa reversals agent, andexanet alfa, for which she was Project Team Lead. She also supported the development of cerdulatinib, a dual syk-jak kinase inhibitor. More recently, she was the Chief Development Officer at Nuvation Bio.
Michele earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Immunology from UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Michael Crackower, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Michael is the Chief Scientific Officer of Ventus Therapeutics. He brings to Ventus more than 18 years of drug discovery leadership experience, which includes deep expertise in the fields of respiratory, immunology, and fibrotic disease drug discovery.
Prior to Ventus, Michael was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Versant Ventures where he played an instrumental role in the formation of Ventus. Prior to joining Versant, he held the position of Executive Director and head of late immunology drug discovery and fibrosis research at Celgene where he led preclinical drug discovery in Immunology and Inflammation. Prior to Celgene, Michael was Director of research for tissue injury and fibrosis at Biogen. He spent much of his early career working at Merck & Co as a Director in the respiratory and immunology department.
Michael has a B.Sc. in biochemistry from the University of Western Ontario and a Ph.D. in molecular and medical genetics from the University of Toronto, working in the lab of Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui and the Hospital for Sick Children. Michael conducted his postdoctoral studies at the Amgen Institute (PMH), where he made seminal discoveries in cardiovascular and reproductive biology.
Christine Ha
Chief Financial Officer
Christine is the Chief Financial Officer of Ventus Therapeutics. She brings to Ventus more than 15 years of diverse strategic and financial experience within the healthcare sector.
Prior to Ventus, Christine was a Managing Director in the healthcare investment banking group at Morgan Stanley, where she advised biopharmaceutical companies on a broad range of strategic and financing initiatives. Previously, Christine held positions at Credit Suisse, Greenhill & Co, Aisling Capital and HSBC. In her 13 years in investment banking, she executed over $24 billion of transactions, including M&A, collaborations, and financings.
Christine received an MBA with honors from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. with honors in Statistics and a B.S. in Mathematics from The University of Chicago.
Daniel Koerwer
Chief Operating Officer
Daniel is Chief Operating Officer of Ventus Therapeutics. Previously, Daniel was Chief Business Officer at Arrakis Therapeutics and BIND Therapeutics and held positions at Biogen in Corporate Development, Discovery Research, and Commercial Operations. He founded and served as President of Biogen's biosimilars business. Daniel is deeply experienced in building high-growth organizations in the US and abroad, designing and implementing creative strategies to build corporate value, financing innovative companies from inception through IPO, negotiating and managing corporate collaborations, and leading groups of diverse functional experts.
He received a B.S. in Biochemistry from Boston College and an MBA from Harvard University.
Xavier Valencia, M.D.
Head of Clinical Development
Xavier is the Head of Clinical Development of Ventus Therapeutics. He brings to Ventus more than 25 years of industry and academic experience in immunology and autoimmunity.
Prior to Ventus, Xavier served as head of clinical development at multiple biotech companies, including Tr1X, Strongbridge Biopharma, and Boston Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for all aspects of clinical development, from IND submission to BLA/NDA filings. His experience spans several therapeutic modalities, including small molecules, biologics, and gene and cell therapy. Prior to his tenure in biotech, Xavier served in positions of increasing responsibility in global immunology clinical development at BMS, GSK, and Novo Nordisk. During his academic career, Xavier discovered cadherin-11 to be the molecule responsible for maintaining synovial architecture and its overexpression in rheumatoid arthritis while at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He also spent over six years at the NIH researching the role of FoxP3 regulatory T cells in systemic autoimmune diseases.
Xavier holds an M.D. from the School of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and is a board-certified rheumatologist.