Mr. Dable joined Acceleron in December 2016 as the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer and member of its Board of Directors.
Mr. Dable most recently served as President of U.S. Pharmaceuticals at Bayer AG. During his 22-year tenure there, Mr. Dable held positions of increasing responsibility. In addition to President of U.S. Pharmaceuticals, he also served as Executive Vice President, Global Head Specialty Medicine; Vice President, Ophthalmology, Global Launch Team Head, EYLEA®, Global Head, Neurology and Ophthalmology; Vice President, Regional Head, Hematology and Cardiology; Director of International Sales and Marketing, Biologics Research; and Head of Strategic Planning, Pharmaceuticals, Japan. Mr. Dable’s earlier experience at Bayer AG includes various sales and sales management positions in Canada.
As Executive Vice President, Global Head Specialty Medicine, Mr. Dable led the launch of various blockbuster brands, including EYLEA®, Stivarga®, and Xofigo®. Mr. Dable also managed research and development collaborations and served on Joint Steering Committees with companies such as Algeta ASA, Orion Corporation and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Dable most recently served on the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
Mr. Dable received a BBA in Marketing and Finance and his MBA from the University of New Brunswick.
Mr. Kango joined Acceleron in February 2018, and is responsible for establishing the Company’s North America commercial footprint in preparation for the potential launch of luspatercept in late 2019. He leads the development of North America commercial capabilities and U.S. commercial operations and brings over 25 years of commercial leadership and expertise, in both biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies. Throughout his career, he has led multiple global product launches, including Kyprolis® and Remicade®, built commercial teams, and also served in collaboration leadership roles for both the Onyx Pharmaceuticals-Bayer and Infinity Pharmaceuticals-AbbVie partnerships. Most recently at AbbVie, Mr. Kango served as the Vice President of Global Commercial Development for Oncology, prior to which he served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Infinity Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Kango also served as Vice President, Global Marketing, and Sales Operations at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, an Amgen subsidiary. Prior to Onyx, he held several leadership positions including Vice President Sales and Marketing-Oncology at Merck & Co., Global Commercial Leader-Procrit®/Eprex® at Ortho-Biotech, and various sales and marketing positions at Schering-Plough. Mr. Kango earned a B.S. in Microbiology and an MBA from McNeese State University.
Dr. Sherman joined Acceleron in May 2006 and is Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Synta Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for clinical research, clinical operations, biostatistics, data management, regulatory affairs, quality assurance and program management. Prior to that, Dr. Sherman worked at Genetics Institute and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in various capacities including Therapeutic Area Director for Oncology. While at Wyeth, Dr. Sherman provided senior oncology and hematology leadership for worldwide clinical development for both small molecule and biologic therapeutics, including the submission and approval of Mylotarg® by the FDA. He has published numerous papers and book chapters in the field of oncology and clinical development and is named as an inventor of several patents. Dr. Sherman is board certified in Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine and held various clinical positions at Harvard Medical School with corresponding hospital appointments at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Sherman received an SB in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MD from Dartmouth Medical School.
Mr. McLaughlin joined Acceleron in November 2010 and is the Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. He most recently served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Qteros, Inc., a cellulosic biofuels company. He was a co-founder of Aptius Education, Inc. and from 2007 through 2009 he worked as the Chief Operating Officer and a director. From 1996 through 2007, Mr. McLaughlin held several executive positions with PRAECIS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He joined PRAECIS as their first Chief Financial Officer where he had responsibility for private financings, partnership financings, the company’s initial public offering and subsequent stock offering. Later, Mr. McLaughlin became COO, and then President and CEO, and he served as a member of the board of directors. In this capacity he was responsible for negotiating the sale of the company to GlaxoSmithKline. He began his career in senior financial roles at Prime Computer and Computervision Corporation. Mr. McLaughlin received a BS in business from Northeastern University and an MBA from Babson College.
Dr. Kumar joined Acceleron in March 2004 and is currently Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Kumar established and currently leads Acceleron discovery research. Previously, Dr. Kumar worked for 12 years at Genetics Institute and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. At Genetics Institute, Dr. Kumar was a key member of the Small Molecule Drug Discovery group and was responsible for cell biology. Following the integration of discovery functions from GI and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Kumar served as Senior Scientist in the Biological Chemistry group. Dr. Kumar is the author of several key scientific manuscripts in the area of protein glycosylation and is named as an inventor of several patents. Dr. Kumar received his BS in chemistry from Rohilkhand University, his MS in chemistry from Meerut University, his Ph.D. from University of New Brunswick and he completed his post-doctoral fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in Bronx, NY.
Ms. Sullivan joined Acceleron in 2004 and has had varying responsibilities from Facilities and IT to Operations and Human Resources. As Vice President of Human Resources, Ms. Sullivan is responsible for developing and executing HR strategies, as well as talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, performance management, employee relations, and training and development. Ms. Sullivan has over 25 years of experience in startup as well as public companies. Throughout her career, she worked for several high-technology companies including Cullinet Software, Lotus Development Corp., Shiva Corp., and Wheelhouse Corp. Her most recent position before joining Acceleron was as Director of Operations at a startup boutique investment bank in Boston, MA.
Dr. Quisel joined Acceleron in 2006 and is Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and General Counsel. Since joining Acceleron, Dr. Quisel has held a variety of roles spanning legal, intellectual property, business development and research strategy. Dr. Quisel established the company’s intellectual property, in-licensing, compliance and corporate governance functions. As head of legal, Dr. Quisel supported and negotiated venture capital financings, the company’s 2013 IPO and subsequent public offerings, in addition to the negotiation of collaboration and licensing agreements with Celgene Corp., Shire Plc and many academic institutions. Prior to joining Acceleron, Dr. Quisel worked at the Boston office of Ropes & Gray LLP and, prior to that, the Boston office of Foley Hoag LLP. In his capacity as external counsel, Dr. Quisel has, through strategic in-licensing and protection of internal research programs, assembled and licensed product and platform focused intellectual property portfolios for numerous biotechnology ventures. Dr. Quisel received an AB in biology from Harvard University, an MS in biology from Stanford University, a PhD in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Ms. Sacco joined Acceleron in 2012, bringing more than 10 years of industry experience in commercial and business development roles. As Vice President of Market Development, she is responsible for leading commercial strategy for Acceleron’s pipeline of products. Most recently, Ms. Sacco was responsible for leading business development and commercial strategy for the Renal business of Sanofi (formerly Genzyme). Prior to that, she worked in corporate development at Pfizer. Earlier in her career, Ms. Sacco worked in investment management at Morgan Stanley Investment Management and AllianceBernstein.
Ms. Sacco holds a BS in Economics from Boston College and an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.
Mr. Rovaldi joined Acceleron in 2007 and is Senior Vice President of Program Management and Operations. He has over 10 years of Program Management experience leading antiviral, antibacterial and biologic programs spanning the development cycle from pre-IND to marketing authorization. He has worked at several biotechnology companies including Cubist Pharmaceuticals and Idenix Pharmaceuticals where he was also involved in managing various aspects of the commercial infrastructure to support each company’s first product launch. Mr. Rovaldi holds a BS and MS degree in Microbiology from the University of New Hampshire.
Dr. Desiderio joined Acceleron in April 2007 and is currently Vice President, Regulatory Affairs. Dr. Desiderio has more than 30 years of experience in research and development of small molecule and protein therapeutics, and has been integrally involved in programs leading to more than 10 currently marketed products. Previously, Dr. Desiderio has held various positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Gilead Sciences and Cubist Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Desiderio received his BS in Biology from Southampton College LIU, and his MS in Veterinary Medicine and Ph.D. in Immunology from the College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Mr. James joined Acceleron in 2015. He is Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications and a member of the Executive Management Committee.
Prior to joining Acceleron, Mr. James spent 9 years at Trout Group/Trout Capital, a boutique strategic advisory firm servicing the biopharmaceutical industry, in New York, NY. As part of the management team at Trout, he counselled biopharmaceutical companies on corporate strategy, investor relations, communications, capital markets, and research and development funding. During his tenure, he advised private and public biotech companies on over $2B of financial and strategic transactions. Earlier in his career, Mr. James served as a Capital Markets Intelligence Analyst at Thomson Financial.
In 2016, Todd was part of NIRI’s inaugural class of Investor Relations Charter (IRC) credential recipients. He graduated with a BA in Financial Economics from Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA.