Our best-in-class team have launched and commercialized products that have changed the way medicine is practiced across the globe. They possess strong knowledge and understanding of the needs of medical communities worldwide, with proven track records and complimentary skills in:
– Corporate development and partnering on a global basis
– Financing for both private and public stage companies
– Rapidly building a strong entrepreneurial organization into a world-class company in
– diverse markets
CORPORATE LEADERSHIP
Simba Gill - Chief Executive Officer & President
Prior to founding moksha8, Dr. Gill was an Entrepreneur in Residence and Venture Partner at TPG Growth. He was involved in several of TPG's healthcare investments in the Emerging Markets including ShangPharma and Agria. Prior to joining TPG, Dr. Gill was President of Maxygen and led its IPO in 1999 and raised over $500MM in both public and private financings as well as corporate partnerships. During his tenure at Maxygen, he played a lead role in founding and building three successful spinout companies (Avidia, protein therapeutic company sold to Amgen; Verdia, agri-biotech sold to Dupont and Codexis a novel chemicals company). Dr Gill has previously led Corporate Development activities in a number of biotech companies and formed many significant strategic partnerships with several of the world's major pharmaceutical, agricultural and chemical companies including Roche, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novo, Novartis, Lundbeck and DuPont. Earlier in his career, Dr. Gill was Global Marketing Director at Boehringer Mannheim / Roche for the EPO franchise where he helped grow the product to over $1.5BB sales worldwide. Dr Gill also led corporate and market development activities from inception to launch for Roche/Boehringer Mannheim's lead immunodiagnostic platform: the Elecsys system. Dr. Gill began his career in the UK's first biotechnology company, Celltech, as a scientist focused on antibody research and development in the field of cancer research. He earned his PhD in antibody engineering from King's College, London and his MBA from INSEAD in Fontainbleau, France. Dr Gill has lived and worked in eight countries / four continents and speaks five languages. He is based in Hong Kong.
Alan Levin - Chief Financial Officer
Before joining moksha8, Mr. Levin was Chief Financial Officer of Pfizer Inc. He worked at Pfizer for over 20 years in a variety of executive capacities, including Treasurer of the company; Vice President of Finance with responsibility for taxes and financial reporting; and as a senior vice president in the company's Global Research & Development Division, with responsibility for a wide range of staff functions, including information technology, strategic planning, procurement and corporate affairs. He played an integral role in over a dozen acquisition, divestiture and other business development transactions totaling more than $200 billion in value. Mr. Levin oversaw the design and implementation of a broad array of financial strategies, as well as the restructuring of various parts of the company's operations through the implementation of shared services, focused and disciplined outsourcing of non-core operations, the implementation of enterprise-wide systems, the streamlining and rationalization of diverse processes and procedures, and a tighter integration of support functions and core operations. Prior to joining Pfizer, Mr. Levin worked at Arthur Andersen & Co., where he qualified as a certified public accountant. Mr. Levin received his bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a master's degree from New York University's Stern School of Business. He speaks three languages and is based in New York City.
Alex Howarth - Chief Business Officer
Before joining moksha8, Mr. Howarth was Chief Business Officer at Vitae Pharmaceuticals leading commercial, business development and legal. While at Vitae, Mr. Howarth led the two key strategic alliances with GSK ($175MM) and Boehringer Ingelheim ($336MM) to advance development of its hypertension and diabetes programs. Prior to joining Vitae, Mr. Howarth was Head, Venture Partnerships at GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) where he led a team focused on generating value by partnering GSK clinical assets globally. As part of the Worldwide Business Development group, Mr. Howarth executed numerous licensing transactions totaling over $2BB in deal valuations across all phases of development and in a variety of therapeutic areas. Prior to joining GSK, Mr. Howarth worked at KPMG, where he qualified as a chartered accountant. Mr. Howarth received his BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Bath, United Kingdom and conducted molecular biology and neuroscience research at Celltech and Merck. Mr. Howarth has worked in three countries on three continents, speaks two languages and is based in Pennsylvania.
Dee Athwal - Chief Scientific Officer
Dee Athwal leads the Research and Development activities of the Biosimilars Business Unit for moksha8. Prior to joining moksha8, he was Vice President of Business Development at Celltech-UCB Group from 1998 to 2006 and was involved in the $2.5BB merger between Celltech and UCB. Mr. Athwal is a world-renowned expert in the antibody field responsible for designing every humanized antibody that Celltech has put into clinical development over the past 15 years. During his 25-year tenure at Celltech-UCB Group, he was instrumental in the advancement of the key development programs and in the establishment of some of the biotech / pharmaceutical industry's largest collaborations with organizations such as Amgen, Biogen and Imclone. Mr. Athwal is a visiting lecturer at Kings College, Sheffield University, Oxford University and Nottingham University. He speaks three languages and is based in London.
Akram Bouchenaki - Senior Vice President, Global Strategic Marketing
Prior to joining moksha8, Dr. Bouchenaki led International Commercial Operations for Gilead Sciences. He joined Gilead in 2000 and helped establish and grow its anti-infectives franchise across more than 40 countries to over $1B under his leadership. In 2006, Truvada, Gilead's new HIV combination product, achieved $ 1.2B in sales representing half of Gilead's overall sales. Before joining Gilead, Dr. Bouchenaki held various senior positions in commercial operations at BMS and GSK and was responsible for marketing multiple blockbusters including Zantac, Zerit and Taxol. Dr. Bouchenaki received his doctorate in pharmacology from the Paris University of Pharmacy. He speaks six languages and has lived and worked in seven different countries on four continents and is based in Hong Kong.
Jeannine Medeiros - Vice President, Human Resources and Investor Relations
Prior to joining moksha8, Ms. Medeiros led the investor and public relations department at Maxygen and was actively involved in raising over $300MM in private and public equity financings. She led the branding and corporate positioning of Maxygen from its inception to its highest valuation at a $6BB market capitalization. She also served as head of Human Resources managing growth of the organization in both the US and International headquarters. Ms. Medeiros also ran the West Coast operations of EURO RSCG Life / Noonan Russo representing biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device clients. Ms. Medeiros received her B.A. from Santa Clara University. She has lived and worked in four countries on three continents, speaks three languages and is based in Hong Kong.
OPERATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Philip Ball - Senior Vice President, IT and Project Management
Prior to joining moksha8, Mr. Ball was Vice President of Alliance Consulting with responsibility for over 200 consultants implementing SAP, JDS Edwards and other Enterprise Resource Planning systems. Before this Mr. Ball was President of Morse Consulting a leading consultancy, providing specialist advice to clients in business and IT strategy. Mr. Ball has over 15 years experience in IT consulting, primarily focused on SAP implementation. Prior to his work in the IT industry, Mr. Ball held several senior management positions in Project Management in the Aerospace industry. Mr. Ball has a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and an MSc in Information Systems Strategy from Kingston University. He is based in Pennsylvania.
Peter Tu - Vice President, Legal and Chief IP Counsel
Prior to joining moksha8, Mr. Tu was Senior Director of Intellectual Property at Vitae Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for licensing, patents, trademarks and other legal matters. While at Vitae, Mr. Tu negotiated and drafted numerous licenses and other agreements, including Vitae's $336MM collaboration agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim. Prior to joining Vitae, Mr. Tu served as in-house counsel for various pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Physiome Sciences, Inc. Mr. Tu has received numerous honors and awards, including the Whipple Memorial Scholarship and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association's "Best Lawyers under 40 in the United States" award in 2002. Mr. Tu earned bachelor's degrees in chemical engineering and biology from MIT, an MBA in finance from Seton Hall University and a JD (magna cum laude) from Seton Hall Law School. Mr. Tu has lived and worked in five countries and three continents, and is based in Pennsylvania.
Akber Pabani - Vice President, Finance
Prior to joining Moksha8, Mr. Pabani was Vice President, Finance at Mars Electronics, the Global Vending and Self Service division of 'M&M' Mars Inc. At Mars Electronics, Mr. Pabani led the global turnaround of the business as the Global Controller and progressed to managing a global business unit. Latterly, Mr. Pabani was the Vice-President – Finance with a focus on M&A activity. Mr. Pabani was a member of the leadership that divested Mars Electronics to Bain Capital in June 2006. Prior to Mars Inc. Mr. Pabani was the Divisional CFO of EDS's pan European Financial Services IT outsourcing business. Mr. Pabani began his career at Eastman Kodak where he was European CFO – Kodak Professional Division. Mr. Pabani is a Chartered Accountant and CPA. He holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Kent, and received his MBA from London Business School. Mr. Pabani is based in Pennsylvania.
ASIA COMMERCIAL LEADERSHIP
Hocine Sidi-Said - EVP & Head of Asia, Africa and MENA (Middle East – North Africa)
Prior to joining moksha8, Mr. Sidi-Said was President of Emerging Markets for UCB where he covered Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Latin America managing a workforce of over 1,200 employees. In addition to leading operational strategy, Mr. Sidi Said led several business development and re-structuring initiatives including the integration of the Schwarz business in China, the Philippines, Korea and Algeria as well as various changes in business model in Pakistan, Indonesia and Vietnam. Prior to joining UCB, Mr. Sidi-Said held various executive positions at Pfizer as General Manager in many key Emerging Markets territories including India, Indonesia and marketing roles in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Mr. Sidi-Said received a B.A. in International Marketing from the Institut Franco-American de Management and a B.A. in Business Administration from Schiller International University. He has lived and worked in eight countries on four continents speaks four languages and is based in Hong Kong.
Steen Kroyer - Executive Chairman, China
Prior to joining moksha8, Dr. Kroyer was Chairman of China for AstraZeneca. He held several senior management roles at AstraZeneca including President, China, Norway, Poland and South Africa. He was also the Managing Director for AstraZeneca Malaysia, Brunei and Sri Lanka. During his tenure at AstraZeneca in China from 2002 to 2006, he was responsible for growing the business from a sales revenue of USD$80MM to over USD$300MM and expanding the organization from approximately 700 employees in 2002 to more than 2,500 currently. In addition, he also had overall responsibilities for Hong Kong, the manufacturing facility in Wuxi, China, and the R&D investment strategy. Dr. Kroyer received his MD from the University of Copenhagen Medical School. He has lived and worked in seven countries on three continents and speaks two languages. He is based in Hong Kong.
Andy Liu - Vice President Commercial Operations Asia
Prior to joining moksha8, Mr. Liu was General Manager, Taiwan for UCB where he led the organization from negative growth to over 15% growth within 18 months. Prior to UCB, Mr. Liu spent over 12 years with Merck and Co. Inc. in various senior management positions leading marketing and business units in Taiwan and the USA. During his tenure managed a team of over 100 employees and launched six core products across key therapeutic franchises of hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes, arthritis and osteoporosis including leading products such as Zocor, Vytorin, Cozaar, Hyzaar and Fosamax. He received his B.A. from Amherst College. Mr. Liu has lived and worked in nine countries on four continents, speaks three languages and is based in Hong Kong.
Ying Qian - Vice President, Strategic Marketing, Asia
Prior to joining moksha8, Mr. Qian was a Manager of Worldwide Strategy and Operations for Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) leading the Asia Pacific and China project strategy to optimize product portfolio development and product launches in China and other Asia Pacific territories. He was a member of the leadership team at BMS China responsible for the launch of Baraclude, one of the most successful pharmaceutical product launches in China in recent history. Today, Baraclude sells close to $100M in China. Prior to BMS, Mr. Qian worked for SmithKline Beecham and Eli Lilly, Asia in various management positions with responsibility for key negotiations with the China Medical Association. Mr. Qian received his BSc from China Pharmaceutical University and his MBA from Indiana University. He is based in Shanghai. He has lived and worked in three countries on three continents and speaks three languages.
LATIN AMERICA COMMERCIAL LEADERSHIP
Mario Grieco - EVP & Head of Latin America
Prior to joining moksha8, Dr. Grieco was President, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) Brazil, one of the largest pharma companies in Brazil. During his tenure at BMS, he was implemented a strong turn-around strategy, reorganizing the company and refocusing its marketing efforts. Under his leadership BMS grew by 80% in Brazil. Dr. Grieco also led BMS's government relations strategy in Brazil, working closely on pricing and reimbursement policies. Prior to BMS, Dr. Grieco was Vice President of Latin America for Pharmacia managing over 1,500 employees including three manufacturing sites, growing revenue by 19% to $300MM and earnings by 21%. Prior to working for Pharmacia, Dr. Grieco held a variety of executive positions at GD Searle where he directed Sales and Marketing efforts for Asia Pacific, Latin America and Canada. Dr. Grieco received his M.D. from the Medical School of São Paulo and his M.B.A. from F.S.Camilo, São Paulo, Brazil. He has lived and worked in three countries on two continents, speaks four languages and is based in São Paulo, Brazil.
Silvia Pelizon de Freitas - Director, Marketing
Prior to joining moksha8, Ms. Pelizon de Freitas was Associate Director at Bristol-Myers Squibb where she led commercial activities in the virology area and marketing activities in Brazil and Latam (US based) for several therapeutic areas including diabetes, cardio vascular, OTC and anti-infectives. She was responsible for life cycle management, strategic brand planning and development of advertising and commercial campaigns. Additionally, she was responsible for developing strategies to guide negotiations with the Brazilian government for the virology area. While at BMS, Ms. Pelizon de Freitas maintained growth of the HIV brands at 15-30% and drove Hep B business growth of over 200%. Ms. Pelizon de Freitas received her degree in industrial engineering from Sao Paulo State University and her MBA from Fundacao Dom Cabral. She speaks four languages and is based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Caterina Fazenda - Director, Legal
Prior to joining moksha8, Ms. Fazenda was Director of Legal at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) Brazil. In this role she led the legal department reporting directly to the BMS General Counsel in the US. During her tenure she designed and implemented the BMS Compliance and Business Ethics Program and obtained an unprecedented win in transfer price litigation. Before BMS, Ms. Fazenda held senior corporate legal positions at Monsanto and Pharmacia in Brazil facilitating M&A and licensing transactions. Ms. Fazenda received her JD from the University of São Paulo Law School and completed post-graduate studies in Business Administration at the Fundação Getulio Vargas. She speaks four languages and is based in São Paulo, Brazil.
Lucia Freitas - Director, Regulatory Affairs
Prior to joining moksha8, Ms. Freitas was Director, Regulatory, Pharmacovigilance and Medical Information at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) Brazil. There she led the Regulatory department and was responsible for negotiations with regulatory authorities including ANVISA (Brazilian National Agency of Sanitary Surveillance), CMED (Government Medicines Price Chamber) and CVS (Sanitary Surveillance at District level). Ms. Freitas also led the design and implementation of drug registration strategies, pharmacovigilance activities and promotional compliance and risk management training across the organization. Before BMS, Ms. Freitas held several senior regulatory positions at Pharmacia Brazil and Searle Monsanto Brazil. She received her degree in Pharmacy and Biochemistry from the University of São Paulo. She speaks two languages and is based in São Paulo, Brazil.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
We have assembled a world class Board of Directors to help guide the company and contribute to all key aspects of the business. The board is comprised of executives with a deep experience in building global successful companies with international operations and has exceptionally strong connections with Big Pharma and Biotech and across all markets.
Simba Gill, CEO moksha8 & Special Advisor to TPG
Prior to founding moksha8, Dr. Gill was an Entrepreneur in Residence and Venture Partner at TPG Growth. He was involved in several of TPG's healthcare investments in the Emerging Markets including ShangPharma and Agria. Prior to joining TPG, Dr. Gill was President of Maxygen and led its IPO in 1999 and raised over $500MM in both public and private financings as well as corporate partnerships. During his tenure at Maxygen, he played a lead role in founding and building three successful spinout companies (Avidia, protein therapeutic company sold to Amgen; Verdia, agri-biotech sold to Dupont and Codexis a novel chemicals company). Dr Gill has previously led Corporate Development activities in a number of biotech companies and formed many significant strategic partnerships with several of the world's major pharmaceutical, agricultural and chemical companies including Roche, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novo, Novartis, Lundbeck, and DuPont. Earlier in his career, Dr. Gill was Global Marketing Director at Boehringer Mannheim / Roche for the EPO franchise where he helped grow the product to over $1.5BB sales worldwide. Dr Gill also led corporate and market development activities from inception to launch for Roche/Boehringer Mannheim's lead immunodiagnostic platform: the Elecsys system. Dr. Gill began his career in the UK's first biotechnology company, Celltech, as a scientist focused on antibody research and development in the field of cancer research. He earned his PhD in antibody engineering from King's College, London and his MBA from INSEAD in Fontainbleau, France. Dr Gill has lived and worked in eight countries/ four continents and speaks five languages. He is based in Hong Kong.
Geoff Duyk, General Partner, TPG Ventures & Chairman of the Board, moksha8
Prior to joining TPG Growth in 2004, Dr. Duyk served on the Board of Directors and was President of Research & Development at Exelixis where he led a 550+ person group focused on the discovery and development of small molecule therapeutics. Prior to Exelixis, he was one of the founding scientific staff at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Before Millennium, Dr. Duyk was an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS) in the Department of Genetics and Assistant Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Dr. Duyk has been and continues to be a member of numerous NIH panels and oversight committees focused on the planning and execution of the human genome project. Dr. Duyk holds a Ph.D. and M.D. from Case Western Reserve University and completed his medical and fellowship training at University of California, San Francisco.
Bruce Carter, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Zymogenetics
Dr. Carter has been ZymoGenetics' CEO since 1998 and Chairman of the Board since 2005. Dr. Carter first joined ZymoGenetics in 1986 as Vice President of Research and Development. In 1994, he was chosen as Corporate Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer for Novo Nordisk A/S, the former parent company of ZymoGenetics. He was elected to the board of ZymoGenetics in 1987 and was appointed president in 1998. Dr. Carter led the negotiations that established ZymoGenetics as an independent company from Novo Nordisk in 2000. Dr. Carter held various positions of increasing responsibility at G.D. Searle & Co., Ltd. from 1982 to 1986 and was a Lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin from 1975 to 1982. Dr. Carter received a B.Sc. with Honors in Botany from the University of Nottingham, England, and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Queen Elizabeth College, University of London.
William L. Meaney, CEO, Zuellig Group
Mr. William L. Meaney is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Zuellig Group, a company with $8B in revenue focused on selling and distributing healthcare products across 12 markets in Asia. Prior to joining Zuellig, Mr. Meaney was the Chief Commercial Officer of Swiss International Airlines. Mr. Meaney has over 20 years' experience in a professional management capacity and a proven track record for successfully building companies in an international career spanning the United States, Africa, Europe and Asia. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselear in Troy, New York and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg.
Mohand Sidi-Said, Board Observer/ Advisor to moksha8
Mr. Sidi Said is a former Pfizer Inc. Vice President, and Area President Japan, Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America in the Global Pharmaceuticals Division. In addition, he held the positions of Senior Vice President, member of the Executive Leadership Team in the worldwide pharmaceuticals division. He was also a member of the Pfizer Strategy Group, where R&D, Licensing and Development and Acquisitions investment projects were discussed and reviewed. During his years of service with Pfizer, Mr. Sidi Said maintained professional associations with several organizations. He represented Pfizer on the Executive Committee of PhRMA international section and served as the chairman of the PhRMA Japan Steering Committee. Operationally, Mr. Sidi Said was responsible for regions comprising over 50 countries with accountability for several thousand employees and a several billion dollars of revenues. Prior to his role at the New York Headquarters and during his 39 years with Pfizer, he held several operational and leadership positions in many emerging markets.
Davinder Singh Brar, former CEO Ranbaxy Ltd
Mr. Brar served for over 25 years as an executive of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, a leading global generics company, rising to Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. During his tenure, Ranbaxy grew to $1BB in revenue with operations and partnerships outside of India in the United States, Europe and Asia including China. He currently serves as Chairman of GVK Biosciences Private Ltd., a life sciences research company based in India. Mr. Brar was a member of India's Prime Minister's Task Force on Pharmaceuticals and Knowledge-Based Industries, which drafted the blue print for the growth and global expansion of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry including R&D and Pricing policies.
Fernando Reinach, General Partner, Votorantim Novos Negocios
Dr. Reinach is a general partner at Votorantim Novos Negocios and Head of Life Sciences investments. Prior to joining Votorantim, he has been a serial entrepreneur in Brazil. He was one of the founders of ComDomino, a data services provider, and of Genomic Engenharia Molecular, one of the first medical lab companies in Brazil to apply genetics based paternity testing. Dr. Reinach holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University Medical College, was a Professor at University of São Paulo and Secretary of Science of Brazil.
Sharad Mansukani, Senior Advisor to TPG
Dr. Mansukani was most recently with the Department of Health and Human Services, where he was a senior advisor and medical officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Prior to joining CMS, Dr. Mansukani was senior vice president and Chief Medical Officer at Health Partners, a non-profit Medicaid/Medicare Managed Care Organization. Dr. Mansukani is on the faculty at both the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University Schools of Medicine.
Barbara Kosacz, Partner, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP & Secretary, moksha8 Board
Barbara is a partner in the business department of Cooley Godward Kronish's Palo Alto office, and the national head of the Firm's Life Sciences practice. Ms. Kosacz has over 15 years of experience in counseling clients in the Life Sciences arena. Her clients range from early-stage start ups to large public companies. Ms. Kosacz advises clients on a variety of legal and business issues. Her particular expertise is in complex strategic partnering and joint venture transactions. She received her BA from Stanford University in 1980, majoring in Classics.
