Dinu Sen, Chief Executive Officer
Prior to joining Avera, Mr. Sen was Chief Commercial Officer at Corus Pharma, Inc., where he held overall responsibility for sales, marketing, business development, manufacturing, QC, project management, information technology and inhalation technology. Prior to joining Corus Pharma, Mr. Sen was President and Chief Operating officer at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, where he held overall responsibility for the day to day operations of the company. In addition to his roles at Corus and Cubist, Mr. Sen has served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for PathoGenesis Corporation, and held several senior marketing roles at Schwarz Pharma, Amgen, Inc, and Abbott Laboratories.

During his 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Sen has held key roles in the launch and marketing of several successful products, including Epogen®, Neupogen® and TOBI®. Furthermore, he has been instrumental in licensing products, raising capital from venture and corporate partners, and was a member of the executive teams that sold PathoGenesis to Chiron Corporation (now Novartis) and Corus Pharma to Gilead Sciences, Inc.

Mr. Sen is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and holds a Masters in Management (MBA) from the J. L. Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.    

Bernard D. King, M.D., MBA, Chief Medical Officer
Dr. King is serving as Chief Medical Officer at Avera Pharmaceuticals. His responsibilities include all clinical and medical aspects related to pharmaceutical product development at Avera. He also provides support for Business Development activities.

During Dr. King has nearly 25 years experience managing business and development operations in the pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology and Contract Research Organization (CRO) industries.

Most recently, Dr. King was Senior Vice President, Development at Kemia. Prior to that, he was President and CEO od Predict, Inc., a New Jersey-based bioinformatics company. Prior to joining predict, Dr. King was Vice President and General Manager of San Diego Operations for PAREXEL and head of PAREXCEL’s Emerging Growth Opportunities Group; President and COO at Advanced Bioresearch Associates; EVP for Biological Sciences and Medical Affairs at Trega Biosciences (and President of ChromoXome after its acquisition by Trega); President of Segenix, a spinout of Advanced Tissue Sciences, where Dr. King had previously headed Research and Development; VP Worldwide Medical and Regulatory Affairs for ConvaTec, a BristolMyers Squibb subsidiary; and Director of Clinical Investigation at SmithKline.

Dr. King graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame, majoring in English and Preprofessional studies, and received his M.D. from Ohio State University College of Medicine. Following completion of residency training in Medicine and Pathology at Ohio State and his Cardiology fellowship training at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New york, he was an Assistant Professor in Medicine (Cardiology) and Physiology at New York Medical College. He is board certified in Cardiology and Internal Medicine. He received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania .    

William H. Pitlick, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Pitlick was Vice President, Product Development for Ocularis Pharma prior to joining Avera. Before joining Ocularis, Dr. Pitlick was Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Chiron and Vice President Regulatory Affairs & Clinical Development for PathoGenesis.

Dr. Pitlick has 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical clinical development and regulatory affairs, including the FDA, the National Institutes of Health and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Dr. Pitlick received his bachelor's, Master's and Ph.D. from the School of Pharmacy at University of Washington. Dr. Pitlick also received a degree in advanced training in Biomedical Research Management from Harvard University School of Public Health.     

Mark T. Edgar, Ph.D., Head of Manufacturing
Dr. Edgar has provided consulting services to over 25 companies in Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls and in project management from 2003 to present. From 1999 to 2003, Dr. Edgar served as Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Product Development at Ancile Pharmaceuticals where he was engaged in developing products for a newly defined regulatory pathway for natural products. From 1995 to 1999, as Vice President of Product Development at La Jolla Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Edgarplanned and executed in-house development and commercial scale up of oligonucleotide manufacturing from research scale. Dr. Edgar held several positions at Syntex from 1979 to 1995 including Process Chemist, R/D Process Development and Scale Up Manager, Engineering Director in a commercial drug product manufacturing facility, Operations Director in a foreign commercial bulk drug substance production facility, and Program Director/Vice President of Development Research of a joint venture drug development program.

Dr. Edgar has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and a MBA .    

Susan Knudson, Senior Director Finance and Administration
Ms. Knudson has over 15 years of experience in accounting, finance and operations. Prior to joining Avera, she served as Director of Finance and Administration at MD Edge, Assistant Director of Accounting at Isis Pharmaceuticals, and Controller of CombiChem Inc.

Ms. Knudson has also held senior accounting positions at General Atomics and Deloitte & Touche. Ms Knudson received her Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from the University of San Diego in 1987.    

Nadine Knowles, Director Program Management
Ms. Knowles joined Avera in April 2005. She has over 10 years industry experience in Clinical Research. Prior to joining Avera, she held positions of increasing responsibility in Clinical Development at Ligand Pharmaceuticals and Aventis /Rhone Polenc Rorer. Ms. Knowles has worked on Phase 1 through 3 clinical programs in adults and pediatrics. She has experience in infectious diseases, oncology, neurologic and psychiatric disorders, respiratory, and genitourinary diseases. Prior to her career in Clinical Development, she worked as a Certified Study Coordinator in Rheumatology and as a Research Associate in Pharmacology/Toxicology at Houghten Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Knowles holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and is currently working on her Master’s degree in Pharmacology from Thomas Jefferson University.