Chief Medical Officer at Nektar Therapeutics from April 2022 to June 2023 and was Senior Vice President and Head of Immunology at Nektar from April 2017 to April 2022. From 2004 to 2015, he was Vice President, Global and Clinical Development and Head, Inflammation Therapeutic Area at Amgen, directing the global development efforts for product candidates in the inflammation area. During his period at Amgen, he also served as Vice President, Translational Sciences, and Head of Medical Sciences. Before joining Amgen, Dr. Kotzin was the head of Clinical Immunology in the Department of Medicine and director of the Autoimmunity Center of Excellence at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. Dr. Kotzin has won numerous honors, including elected “Master” of the American College of Rheumatology, the Kirkland Scholar Award for Lupus Research, the Henry Claman Chair in Clinical Immunology, the Gretchen Kramer Award for Outstanding Contributions to Medicine, and Chairmanship of the National Institutes of Health Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence. He earned his medical degree from Stanford and undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Southern California.
Dr. Kotzin was selected to serve as a member of the Board in part due to his extensive experience with developing therapeutics, particularly in the area of immunology, which is the core of our treatment focus for fostamatinib and our pipeline.
| THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS RECOMMENDS A VOTE IN FAVOR OF EACH NAMED NOMINEE. | |
DIRECTORS CONTINUING IN OFFICE UNTIL THE 2025 ANNUAL MEETING OF STOCKHOLDERS
Kamil Ali-Jackson, Esq., age 65, joined us as a director in December 2021. In January 2022, Ms. Ali-Jackson retired from her position as chief legal officer, chief compliance officer, and corporate secretary at Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, which she co-founded in 2012 and led the team which took the company public in 2015. In addition, Ms. Ali-Jackson co-founded and successfully transitioned several specialty pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies through multimillion-dollar acquisitions by global life sciences companies. In 2011, Ms. Ali-Jackson also co-founded NeXeption, Inc. a biopharmaceutical assets management company and was legal counsel for the company and its affiliated companies until 2020. She has served as legal counsel and as a licensing business executive for a number of pharmaceutical companies, including Merck & Co. Inc., Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., and Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Ms. Ali-Jackson currently serves on the board of directors, audit committee, compensation committee, and is the chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee of PDS Biotechnology Corporation, a publicly traded clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, and she is also an independent director of Moda Operandi, a privately traded online luxury retail company. She has also served on several nonprofit boards and is the chair of the East Bradford Township Zoning Hearing Board, her local township zoning board. In July 2023, she was elected to the board of trustees for Princeton University. Ms. Ali-Jackson received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and Bachelor of Arts in politics from Princeton University. She was a 2011 Philadelphia Business Journal Woman of Distinction winner and a 2015 Pepper Hamilton, LLP remarkable alumna.
The Board concluded that Ms. Ali-Jackson should continue to serve as a member of the Board in part due to her broad experience in the areas of acquisitions, licensing, legal, compliance and corporate governance as well as her experience as an executive officer, legal counsel, and co-founder in the life sciences industry.
Jane Wasman, age 67, joined us as a director in March 2019. Ms. Wasman is a strategic leader with approximately 25 years of experience in the biopharma industry working with both large, multinational corporations and privately held start-ups. Ms. Wasman is founder and president of JWasman Advisors since 2020. She previously served from 2004-2019 at Acorda Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing and commercializing neurology therapies for Parkinson’s disease, migraine and multiple sclerosis, most recently as President, International & General Counsel. At Acorda, she led global strategic development, including long range planning and development, as well as international expansion, and also built and led the Legal and Quality departments. Prior to joining Acorda, Ms. Wasman held various leadership positions at Schering-Plough, including Staff Vice President and Associate General Counsel. Previously, Ms. Wasman was an attorney at two global law firms and Associate Counsel for the U.S. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Ms. Wasman is chair of the board of Sellas Life Sciences, a public oncology-