Directors Continuing in Office Until the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders
Andrew Allen, M.D., Ph.D. co-founded Gritstone Oncology, Inc. and has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors since September 2015. Prior to Gritstone, in April 2009, Dr. Allen co-founded Clovis Oncology, Inc., a public pharmaceutical development company, and served as its executive vice president of clinical and preclinical development and chief medical officer from April 2009 to July 2015. Prior to that, he was chief medical officer at Pharmion Corporation from 2006 to 2008. Previously, Dr. Allen served in clinical development leadership roles at Chiron Corporation and Abbott Laboratories, and worked at McKinsey & Company, where he advised life science companies on strategic issues. He currently serves on the board of directors of Epizyme, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, Sierra Oncology, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, TCR2 Therapeutics Inc, a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, and Revitope Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company. Dr. Allen previously served on the board of directors of Cell Design Labs, a private biotechnology company, from November 2015 until its acquisition by Gilead Sciences, Inc. in December 2017. Dr. Allen qualified in medicine at Oxford University and received a Ph.D. in immunology from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London. We believe that Dr. Allen is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his educational experience and his experience as a senior executive of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including his service as our chief executive officer.
Judith Li has served as a member of our board of directors since September 2017. Ms. Li has served as a partner at Lilly Asia Ventures (“LAV”), which is based in Hong Kong and Shanghai and focuses on early and growth stage investments across biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, and diagnostics, both domestically and cross-border, since 2013. Judith is currently a board member of various LAV portfolio companies, including Tmunity Therapeutics, Scineuro Pharmaceuticals, and Fortis; as well as a former board member of EScape Bio and Veritas Genetics Inc. She has also previously served as a board director on public companies Inhibrx and Nextcure, Inc., and Crown BioScience Inc. Previously, Ms. Li served as a senior business analyst at McKinsey & Company, worked in hospital administration at Partners Healthcare, and co-founded an interventional nephrology medical device venture. Judith holds a B.A. in biology from Harvard and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. We believe that Ms. Li is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to her experience as a board member of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and her experience as an investor in new life sciences companies.
Directors Continuing in Office Until the 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders
Richard Heyman, Ph.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since November 2015. Dr. Heyman is executive chairman and co-founder of Metacrine, Inc., a biotechnology company developing new therapeutics for the treatment of liver and gastrointestinal diseases. He also is the co-founder and chairman of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, which is developing drugs to overcome resistance in cancer. Previously, Dr. Heyman served as president and chief executive officer of Seragon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (“Seragon”), a privately-held biotechnology company, which was acquired by Genentech in 2014. Prior to Seragon, he co-founded and served as president and chief executive officer of Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. until it was purchased by Johnson & Johnson in 2013. He has been involved in the discovery and development of multiple therapeutic agents approved by the FDA, including the recently approved prostate cancer drug, Erleada. Dr. Heyman is a venture partner for Arch Ventures and serves on the Board of Directors for Ymanity Therapeutics and Vividion Therapeutics. He is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Salk Institute, on the Board Foundation for the American Association for Cancer Research and on the executive committee at the University of California at San Diego Moores Cancer Center. He has won numerous awards, including Ernst and Young San Diego Regional Entrepreneur of the Year and the Endocrine Society Outstanding Innovation Award. Dr. Heyman received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Connecticut and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Minnesota. He was an NIH post-doctoral fellow and staff scientist at the Salk Institute. We believe that Dr. Heyman is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his educational background and his experience as a board member and senior executive of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Nicholas Simon has served as a member of our board of directors since September 2015. Mr. Simon is a Senior Managing Director in the Blackstone Life Sciences group, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus Ventures, LLC (“Clarus”) in December of 2018. Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Simon was co-founder and Managing Director of Clarus, a venture capital firm focused on life sciences companies, since the firm’s inception in 2005. Prior to Clarus, Mr. Simon was a general partner at MPM Capital, Inc., a healthcare venture