Afferent Pharmaceuticals

Board of Directors

Kevin Starr
chairman of Afferent and partner, Third Rock Ventures

Mr. Starr is a proven operational leader with over 25 years of experience building and operating leading biotech companies. Mr. Starr co-founded Third Rock Ventures in 2007 and focuses on the formation, development and business strategy of its portfolio companies as well as actively identifying and evaluating new investments. He also assumes active leadership roles in Third Rock portfolio companies.

Prior to Third Rock Ventures, Mr. Starr was chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he led key roles in raising billions of dollars in capital through strategic alliances and public financing and driving growth through company expansion and mergers and acquisitions. Earlier in his career, he served in various executive roles at Millennium BioTherapeutics, Biogen and Digital Equipment Corporation.

Mr. Starr holds an M.S. in corporate finance from Boston College and a B.A. in mathematics and business from Colby College. He is currently a Board Member of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Agios Pharmaceuticals and Zafgen Pharmaceuticals, and was formerly interim chief executive officer at both companies.

 

Arthur M. Pappas
managing partner, Pappas Ventures

Mr. Pappas has over 30 years of operating experience as a pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry executive and venture capital investor in life science companies. He has assembled a team of investment, biotechnology and medical experts who manage over $350 million and oversee investments in more than 40 portfolio companies.

Prior to founding Pappas Ventures in 1994, Mr. Pappas held senior level leadership positions at several multinational pharmaceutical companies. He was an executive member of the board of directors of Glaxo Holdings plc, for which he was the chief executive responsible for international operations including research, development and manufacturing. Mr. Pappas previously was vice president of commercial operations for Abbott International Ltd., and he held various executive and general management positions with Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals and the Dow Chemical Company, in the United States and internationally.

Among the companies for which he currently serves as a director are: CeNeRx BioPharma, Genstruct, LEAD Therapeutics and TyRx Pharma. He was the founding chief executive officer and is currently the chairman of CoLucid Pharmaceuticals. In addition to Afferent, some of the Pappas Ventures’ representative investments include Cerexa Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Forest Laboratories); Syntonix Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Biogen Idec); Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Johnson & Johnson); Panacos Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PANC); NuVasive (Nasdaq: NUVA); Gene Logic (Nasdaq: GLGC); Nuvelo (Nasdaq: NUVO; previously Variagenics); and Arena Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ARNA).

Mr. Pappas is chairman of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center's Board of Directors and is a member of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) Medical Industry Group Advisory Board. He previously served on the boards of AtheroGenics (Nasdaq: AGIX), Embrex (Nasdaq: EMBX), Quintiles Transnational (Nasdaq: QTRN) and Valentis (Nasdaq: VLTS). Mr. Pappas is a decorated Vietnam veteran, having served as an officer in the US Army 101st Airborne Division and the Special Forces. He received a B.S. in biology from Ohio State University and an M.B.A. in finance from Xavier University.

 

Liam Ratcliffe, M.D., Ph.D.
Afferent Board member and acting chief medical officer, and venture partner, New Leaf Venture Partners

Dr. Ratcliffe is a venture partner with New Leaf Ventures and concentrates on the firm’s biopharmaceuticals efforts. Dr. Ratcliffe joined New Leaf in September 2008. He most recently served as senior vice president and development head for Pfizer Neuroscience, as well as worldwide head of clinical research and development. Additional positions at Pfizer included vice president of exploratory development for the Mid West region, and head of experimental medicine at Pfizer’s Sandwich, UK Laboratories. As head of neurosciences, Dr. Ratcliffe was responsible for the development of several successful late-stage projects and marketed products, including PD 332, 334, Lyrica, Chantix and Geodon. In previous roles, he gained extensive experience in early drug development and translational research across multiple therapeutic areas, including inflammation, pain, cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases and genitor-urinary medicine.

Dr. Ratcliffe began his career in the pharmaceutical industry in a medical marketing role at Roche in South Africa. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Cape Town and his M.B.A. from the University of Michigan. Dr. Ratcliffe completed his internal medicine training and fellowship in Immunology at Groote Schuur Hospital and additional teaching hospitals in Cape Town, South Africa. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Neuronetics.

 

Jesse I. Treu, Ph.D.
partner, Domain Associates

Dr. Treu has been a partner of Domain since its inception in 1985. He has been a director of more than 30 early-stage health care companies, 18 of which have so far become successful public companies.

At present, in addition to Afferent, his board memberships include Aesthetic Sciences, Altea Therapeutics, CoLucid, Regado Biosciences, Somaxon Pharmaceuticals and Tandem Diabetes Care. He has served as a founder, president and chairman of numerous venture stage companies.

Prior to the formation of Domain, Dr. Treu was vice president of the predecessor organization to The Wilkerson Group, and its venture capital arm, CW Ventures. While at CW Ventures, he served as president and chief executive officer of Microsonics, pioneer in computer image processing for cardiology. Prior to that, Dr. Treu held executive positions at Technicon Instruments Corporation (now Siemens Medical Solutions Diagnostics), and at GE. He received a B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University.