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.    

William H. Pitlick, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President, Development
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.

Kathleen Gibbon, Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs
Ms. Gibbon joined Avera in December 2004. She has over 15 years industry experience, 11 of those have been in Regulatory Affairs. Prior to joining Avera, she held positions of increasing responsibility in Regulatory Affairs at Alliance Pharmaceuticals Inc., SkyePharma Inc., and Apovia Inc. Ms. Gibbon has worked on investigational and marketing applications and has experience with drugs, biologics, and medical devices. Prior to her career in Regulatory Affairs, she worked in R&D at MicroScan, a diagnostics division of Baxter Healthcare. Ms. Gibbon holds a Bachelor's degree in Physiology from the University of California at Berkeley and received US Regulatory Affairs Certification in 2000.

Susan Mourneau, Senior Director Finance and Administration
Ms. Mourneau 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. Mourneau has also held senior accounting positions at General Atomics and Deloitte & Touche. Ms Mourneau received her Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from the University of San Diego in 1987.    

Chris Kemmerer, Ph.D., Director of Pharmaceutical Development
Dr. Kemmerer is responsible for all CMC development and manufacturing activities of Avera's drug candidates. He has over 18 years of development experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Avera, Dr. Kemmerer worked on the early and late stage development of numerous drug candidates at Merck and Pfizer. He has particular expertise in the formulation of poorly water-soluble drug candidates and controlled release dosage forms. Dr. Kemmerer obtained his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Temple University.

Gregg Timony, Director Preclinical Development
Prior to joining Avera in 2006, Mr. Timony was Director of Pharmacokinetics and Toxicology at Conforma Therapeutics (2001-2006) where he managed non-clinical development activities ranging from compound screening to GLP toxicology for two HSP90 inhibitors that advanced to Phase I clinical evaluation in oncology.

During his 16 years of pharmaceutical experience, Mr. Timony has participated in the development of both bio-pharmaceuticals (Genetics Institute, 1989-1999) and small molecules (Conforma Therapeutics, Ligand Pharmaceuticals) covering numerous therapeutic areas with responsibility for the conduct of IND enabling non-clinical ADMET studies and preparation of ADME and toxicology sections for eight INDs. As a Scientist/Group Leader in PK and PD sciences at Genetics Institute, Mr. Timony contributed to the early non-clinical development of three currently marketed bio-pharmaceutical products (INFUSEÒ, NeumegaÒ and BeneFixÒ).

Gregg holds a B.S. in Biology (1985, University of Toledo, Ohio) and an M.S. in Pharmacology (1994, Northeastern University, Boston, MA).

Nadine Knowles, Associate 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.