MANAGEMENT
| Senior Management | |
|---|---|
| Name | Position |
| Vijay B. Samant | President and Chief Executive Officer |
| Jill M. Church | Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary |
| Robin M. Jackman, Ph.D. | Senior Vice President, Business Operations |
| Alain P. Rolland, Pharm. D., Ph.D. | Senior Vice President, Product Development |
| Kevin R. Bracken | Vice President, Manufacturing |
| Andrew R. de Guttadauro | Vice President, Corporate Development |
| Ronald B. Moss, M.D. | Vice President, Clinical Development |
| Larry R. Smith, Ph.D. | Vice President, Vaccine Research |
Vijay B. Samant joined us as President and Chief Executive Officer in November 2000. Mr. Samant has 23 years of diverse U.S. and international sales, marketing, operations, and business development experience with Merck. From 1998 to mid-2000, he was Chief Operating Officer of the Merck Vaccine Division. From 1990 to 1998, he served in the Merck Manufacturing Division as Vice President of Vaccine Operations, Vice President of Business Affairs, and Executive Director of Materials Management. Mr. Samant earned his M.B.A. from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. He received a master's degree in chemical engineering from Columbia University in 1977 and a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Bombay, University Department of Chemical Technology, in 1975.
Jill M. Church joined us as Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary in October 2004. From February 1999 until joining us, Ms. Church held various positions at dj Orthopedics, Inc., a publicly-traded medical device company, most recently as Vice President of Finance and Controller with broad responsibilities in finance, accounting, treasury, risk management, and corporate governance. From September 1994 until joining dj Orthopedics, Ms. Church served as an audit manager at Ernst & Young LLP, where her clients included life sciences, computer software and telecommunications companies as well as government contractors. From June 1990 until joining Ernst & Young, she was Division Controller at Medical Imaging Centers of America, Inc., a chain of freestanding imaging centers and mobile imaging centers, where she held divisional accounting and financial reporting responsibilities. Ms. Church received her bachelor's degree in business administration and accounting from San Diego State University, and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Robin M. Jackman, Ph.D., joined us as Vice President, Business Development in June 2004 and was named Senior Vice President, Business Operations in June 2006. Since 2002, Dr. Jackman had been Vice President of Corporate Development at Sequenom, Inc., where he focused primarily on business development and investor relations. From 1998 to 2002, he served in positions of increasing responsibility within the Life Sciences Investment Banking group at Robertson Stephens, culminating as Vice President. He managed a broad range of transactions for biotechnology, medical device, and emerging pharmaceutical companies with an aggregate transaction value over $11 billion. Dr. Jackman received a Ph.D. in immunology from Harvard University, and a master's degree in medicine from Harvard Medical School, during which time he was a biomedical consultant to the investment community. He began his career as a research associate at Protein Design Labs. Dr. Jackman received a bachelor's degree with honors in biological science from Stanford University.
Alain P. Rolland, Pharm.D., Ph.D., joined us as Vice President, Product Development in August 2002 and was named Senior Vice President, Product Development in April 2004. Dr. Rolland was Senior Vice President of Pre-Clinical Research and Development, and Head of The Woodlands Center of Valentis, Inc. from 2000 to 2002. From 1993 to 1999, he served in several positions at a predecessor company to Valentis, Inc., GeneMedicine, Inc., where he progressed from Director of Gene Delivery to Vice President of Research. From 1989 to 1993, he was the Head of Formulation Research at the Research & Development Center of Galderma International, or CIRD, in France. Prior to that, he was a scientist at the Advanced Drug Delivery Research Center of Ciba Geigy Pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom. He received his Pharm.D., D.E.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Rennes University, France. Dr. Rolland holds several U.S. and European patents on advanced drug and gene delivery for medical applications. He has authored numerous publications and books in the area of nonviral gene delivery resulting from his active career in research and development. He also serves on the editorial board of several journals and he is the Editor-in-Chief of "Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology."
Kevin R. Bracken joined us as Vice President, Manufacturing in October 2001. From July 1998 to October 2001, Mr. Bracken was Vice President, Process Engineering and Manufacturing for Universal Preservation Technologies, Inc., and from November 1995 to July 1998, he was Director of Engineering for Molecular Biosystems, Inc. Prior to November 1995, he held a variety of process and engineering positions with Gilead Sciences, Inc., and a predecessor company, Vestar, Inc., with Baxter International, and with E.I. duPont de Nemours and Company. He brings experience in commercial scale-up of biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, process development and optimization, and direction of research, pre-clinical, clinical, production and contract manufacturing. Mr. Bracken earned his master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Rochester in 1973, and his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware in 1970.
Andrew R. de Guttadauro joined us as Vice President, Corporate Development in August 2007. Prior to joining Vical, Mr. de Guttadauro was Senior Director of Strategy at Biogen Idec since February 2007, following a two-year assignment overseeing the commercial development of that company’s Zevalin, the first radioimmunotherapy product approved for use in the United States. Before joining Biogen Idec, he spent the prior year at MedImmune, where he directed marketing efforts for the FluMist inhaled influenza vaccine. Mr. de Guttadauro served in various marketing positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen Inc. over a six-year period, with direct involvement in the marketing of Enbrel, Kineret, Aranesp, and Epogen products. He spent the first seven years of his career at Tap Pharmaceuticals, where he served in a series of sales and marketing positions, including contributions to the success of Prevacid and Lupron. Mr. de Guttadauro earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, followed by a three-year tour of duty as a Captain in the U.S. Army.
Ronald B. Moss, M.D., joined us as Vice President, Clinical Development in June 2006. Prior to joining Vical, Dr. Moss most recently was Vice-President of Medical Affairs at Telos Pharmaceuticals from 2004 to 2006. From 2003 to 2004, he served as a Senior Director of Worldwide Regulatory Affairs for Vaccines/Biologics in the Merck Research Laboratories Division of Merck and Co., Inc., where he worked on multiple vaccine programs. Dr. Moss joined The Immune Response Corp. in 1994 as Medical Director and advanced through positions of increasing responsibility, concluding as Interim President and CEO in 2002. He had previously served for a year as Assistant Medical Director at Immunization Products Ltd., a joint venture between Rhône-Poulenc Rorer and Immune Response. Dr. Moss trained first as a Pediatrics Resident at SUNY and then as a Clinical Associate in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the National Institutes of Health, and is board certified in pediatrics and in allergy & immunology. He earned his M.D. degree at the Chicago Medical School, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree in 1982 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Larry R. Smith, Ph.D., joined us as Executive Director, Vaccinology in September 2003, and was named Vice President, Vaccine Research in October 2006. Dr. Smith was Director of Viral Vaccines Research at Wyeth Vaccines, where he oversaw the immunogenicity testing of various viral vaccines including a number of recombinant viral vectors. Prior to joining Wyeth in 1996, Dr. Smith was a Scientific Investigator at Immune Response Corporation, where he identified autoreactive T cell targets in psoriasis and multiple sclerosis which led to the clinical testing of several therapeutic vaccine candidates. Dr. Smith received a B.S. degree in Biology from Purdue University, a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Texas Medical Branch, and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Immunology Department at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation.