Leadership Team

Laurence Blumberg, M.D.

PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Laurence Blumberg, M.D. is Arch Oncology’s President and Chief Executive Officer and also serves as a Director. He has over thirty years of experience in the biotechnology industry as an executive, founder, analyst, and board member. Before joining Arch Oncology, he was Co-founder, Founding Chief Executive Officer, and Director for Syntimmune, which was acquired by Alexion for a total cash consideration of up to $1.2 billion in 2018. At Syntimmune, he led key operational roles as President and Chief Operating Officer, overseeing all development through clinical proof-of-concept as well as for finance and business development functions.

Previously, Dr. Blumberg worked at Kadmon Corporation, serving as Senior Vice President, Project Management and leading business development. Earlier in his career, he was Co-founder and Director of Syntonix Pharmaceuticals, from the Company’s founding in 1998 through its acquisition by Biogen in 2007. Subsequently, spun out as Bioverativ, Syntonix’s hemophilia therapy program has generated over $2 billion in sales annually and was acquired by Sanofi for approximately $12 billion. As an investment professional, Dr. Blumberg was Managing Member of Blumberg Capital Management, an Analyst covering biotechnology and medical device companies for Alliance Capital Management, and held Associate-level positions at venture capital and public equity firms.

He received a B.A. from Brandeis University, an M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine, and an Executive MBA from Columbia University School of Business. He completed an Internship in Surgery at Abington Memorial Hospital and was an Otolaryngology resident at Geisinger Medical Center prior to his biotechnology career.

Ronald Krasnow, Esq.

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Ronald Krasnow, Esq. is Arch Oncology’s Chief Operating Officer. He has over twenty years of experience serving on executive management teams for life-science and technology companies. Before joining Arch Oncology, he served as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Menlo Therapeutics, Inc. Previously, he was Chief Strategy Officer, General Counsel, and Secretary for Kinestral Technologies, Inc. In addition, he worked at Relypsa for a decade, serving as Senior Vice President and General Counsel as the company developed and commercialized Veltassa^® and subsequently merged with Vifor Pharma. Earlier, he was Senior Vice President, Intellectual Property for Symyx Technologies, Inc., an attorney in private practice for a law firm, and Patent Examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He earned a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from George Washington University School of Law.

Daniel Pereira, Ph.D.

CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER

Daniel Pereira, Ph.D. has over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He has contributed to R&D initiatives resulting in approximately 100 oncology biologic drug candidates, including mono/bispecific antibodies, ADCs and Immuno-oncology candidates, as well as in five FDA-approved products – Erbitux®, Cyramza®, Portrazza®, Lartruvo® and Padcev™.

Dr. Pereira serves as Chief Scientific Officer of Arch Oncology. Prior to joining Arch, he served as Vice President, Discovery Research for six years at Agensys Inc., an affiliate of Astellas Pharmaceuticals Inc. In addition, he served as Site Head and Vice President, Research for four years at Roche/Arius, Hoffmann-La Roche Limited. Dr. Pereira began his career as Director Tumor Biology at ImClone Systems, Inc., where he served for eight years.

Dr. Pereira received a B.S. with honors in biochemistry and a M.S. in chemistry from the University of Manitoba. He earned a Ph.D. in biology and received his doctorate training with Dr. Frank Graham at McMaster University. He received his post-doctoral training with Dr. John Dick at the University of Toronto.

Jackie Walling, MBChB, Ph.D.

CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER

Jackie Walling, MBChB, Ph.D. has over 25 years of experience in the global clinical development of drugs for treating patients with cancer. She has provided leadership to  clinical development programs leading to the successful FDA approval of several drugs, including Gemzar™, ALIMTA^®, Vimizim™, PALYNZIQ™, and TALZENNA^®.

Dr. Walling serves as Chief Medical Officer of Arch Oncology. She has extensive experience serving as a Chief Medical Officer for clients. She previously has served as Vice President of Clinical Development for BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., leading the Company’s global clinical development. Earlier in her career, Dr. Walling was Vice President, Clinical Research for Axys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Medical Director for Tularik, Inc.  Dr. Walling began her pharmaceutical career at Eli Lilly and Company, where she worked for a decade in the United Kingdom and the United States in roles of increasing responsibility for several of the Company’s oncology drug development programs.

Dr. Walling received a B.Sc. in biology and Ph.D. from the University of Southampton, UK. She received her post-doctoral training in cancer research from Aston University, UK. She earned an MBChB (M.D. equivalent) with honors from the University of Bristol, UK, and practiced medicine in the UK.

Arun Kashyap, Ph.D.

VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH

Arun Kashyap, Ph.D. has over 20 years of experience in biologics drug discovery and leading projects from inception through preclinical development.

Dr. Kashyap serves as Vice President, Research of Arch Oncology. Prior to joining, he served as Senior Director, Protein Science at Dren Bio, where he led internal and external research for early-stage research programs. Earlier, he was Director, Antibody Discovery for Compugen USA, Inc., where he led therapeutic antibody discovery and engineering, development of platform technologies, and target selection activities. Previously, he was Principal Scientist at Protagonist Therapeutics, where he led the discovery of structured peptides for oral delivery in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Earlier, he was Founding Scientist at Sea Lane Biotechnologies, where he held positions of increasing responsibility in antibody technology development and its application to infectious disease and oncology therapeutics.

Dr. Kashyap received an A.B. in Zoology from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Kevin Romanko, DPM

VICE PRESIDENT, CLINICAL OPERATIONS

Kevin Romanko, DPM has over 25 years of clinical operations experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He has global clinical operations experience in all phases of drug development, with a focus on oncology, CV and CNS indications.

Dr. Romanko serves as Vice President of Clinical Operations at Arch Oncology, Previously, he was the Senior Director of Clinical Operations at Immune Design where he was responsible for clinical operations execution and deliverables for their Immunotherapy programs. Dr. Romanko also held positions as Senior Director of Clinical Operations at Zogenix, Inc. and earlier at Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he established and built the Company’s first Clinical Operations team.

Dr. Romanko holds B.A. in psychology from Wilkes University and Doctor of Podiatric Medicine from the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine.

Vicki Sung, Ph.D.

VICE PRESIDENT, TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE

Dr. Sung has 20 years of oncology drug development experience, spanning from target discovery and validation through pharmacology and late-stage clinical development.

Dr. Sung serves as Vice President of Translational Medicine at Arch Oncology. Prior to joining Arch, she led translational efforts for hematology and oncology programs for ten years at Celgene, where she helped advance drugs from IND through Phase 3 clinical trials, including the clinical development of Luspatercept, that supported an NDA submission to the FDA. Previously, Dr. Sung held R&D positions at Novartis (Chiron) and Sugen (Pharmacia/Pfizer), where she contributed to the validation and development of both small molecules and biologics.

Dr. Sung holds a B.S. in integrative biology from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.S. in biology from Georgetown University. She earned a Ph.D. in cell biology from the Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed postdoctoral studies in endocrinology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Galit Yaakobovitz

VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE AND OPERATIONS

Galit Yaakobovitz has over 20 years of finance experience, including finance and operations management, strategic finance planning, controllership, compliance, project management, and information systems.

Ms. Yaakobovitz serves as Vice President of Finance and Operations for Arch Oncology. Previously, she worked with Compugen as Senior Director of Finance and Operations, where she built and led the U.S. finance and operations team as the company grew from the early discovery phase through the preclinical and clinical stages of development. Earlier she held global corporate finance and project management positions with SanDisk Corporation and managed strategic enterprise projects. She began her career as a Public Accountant and Auditor at BDO in Israel, where she gained global experience in different industries.

Ms. Yaakobovitz received a Bachelor’s degree, with dual majors in Accounting and Statistics and Operations Research, and an M.B.A., both from Tel Aviv University and a CPA certification from the Institution of Certified Public Accountants, Israel.

Michele DeVries

HEAD, REGULATORY AFFAIRS AND QUALITY

Michele DeVries has nearly 20 years of regulatory affairs experience, spanning from IND submissions through routine submissions for marketed product in the United States and the European Union. She has worked for a number of leading oncology companies in the biotechnology industry.

Ms. DeVries serves as Head of Regulatory Affairs and Quality for Arch Oncology. Previously, she was Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality for Aduro Biotech, Inc., where she led the Regulatory, Quality, and Medical Writing departments and successfully negotiated Breakthrough Therapy and Orphan Drug designations. Earlier in her career, she held regulatory affairs roles of increasing responsibility at Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc., VaxGen, Inc., InterMune, Inc., and Tularik.

Ms. DeVries received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota.