About
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 is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Millendo Therapeutics and 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.
Dr. Backstrom joined Acceleron as EVP, Head of Research & Development, in December 2019. Prior to that, he served as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Head of Regulatory Affairs at Celgene.
Dr. Backstrom joined Celgene in 2008 as Vice President, Clinical R&D, with a focus in hematology/oncology, later advancing to the position of CMO and Head of Regulatory Affairs. Prior to Celgene, he served as Vice President, Global Medical Affairs and Safety at Pharmion. Dr. Backstrom began his career in industry in 1990 at Marion Merrell Dow and continued as part of its successor companies including Hoechst Marion Roussel, where he held positions in Clinical Research and Global Drug Surveillance and Pharmacoepidemiology. He also spent nearly three years at Quintiles in Medical and Scientific Services, including Therapeutic Head, Cardiovascular, Respiratory and Critical Care, where he oversaw extensive clinical work across a variety of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases.
Prior to his move to industry, Dr. Backstrom served as staff physician and Medical Director of the Samuel U. Rodgers Community Health Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Dr. Backstrom holds an M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine and received post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at Temple University Hospital. He also earned a Master’s in Public Health from Saint Louis University School of Public Health.
Dr. Desiderio joined Acceleron in April 2007 and is Senior Vice President, Regulatory and Quality. 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 is Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Investor Relations and a member of the Executive Management Team at Acceleron.
Since joining Acceleron in 2015, Mr. James has built the company’s in-house team and capabilities in investor relations and corporate and internal communications. He is also responsible for overseeing patient advocacy, government affairs, public relations, and corporate social responsibility. For the past two years, Mr. James was named to Institutional Investor Magazine’s All-America Executive Team as Best IR Professional in Biotechnology and most recently was ranked #1 in the 2020 poll for small and mid-cap companies.
Prior to Acceleron, Mr. James spent 9 years at Trout Group/Trout Capital, an investor relations and strategic advisory firm dedicated to the biopharmaceutical industry. 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 more than $2 billion of financial and strategic transactions. Mr. James began his career on Wall Street as part of the Biotechnology Capital Markets Intelligence Team within the Corporate Group at Thomson Financial.
Mr. James was part of National Investor Relations Institute’s inaugural class of Investor Relations Charter (IRC) credential recipients in 2016. He graduated with a degree in Financial Economics from Moravian College in 2004.
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. 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.
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. Since January 2015, Mr. McLaughlin has served on the board of directors of Vericel Corporation, and since August 2017 has served on the board of directors of Stealth Biotherapeutics Inc. 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.
Mr. McManus joined Acceleron in August 2019 as Chief Human Resources Officer. He most recently served as Vice President and HR Business Partner Pharmaceuticals Americas for Bayer Corporation, where he held leadership positions in HR supporting the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare groups since 2013. Prior to Bayer, he was Vice President of Global HR Business Operations for generic drug-maker Mylan and had previously been Chief People Officer and Global Head of Human Resources at The Ladders.com. Mr. McManus also spent nearly 10 years with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, with his final role as SVP, Global Human Resources for the medical device spin-off ConvaTec, for which he led all activities for all people aspects of the transaction and served as head of the global HR function upon completion of the transaction for the standalone company. He began his HR career with GTE Corporation. Mr. McManus received his BS in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.
Ms. Sacco joined Acceleron in 2012, bringing more than 10 years of industry experience in commercial and business development roles. As Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Alliance Management, 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. Veness is Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary. Since joining Acceleron in 2014, Mr. Veness has held various positions of increasing responsibility leading to his appointment as General Counsel. Mr. Veness established Acceleron’s securities compliance and capital markets internal capabilities as well as the commercial compliance function. He also served as Acceleron’s Compliance Officer until he became General Counsel in 2019.
Prior to joining Acceleron, Mr. Veness was a corporate and securities attorney at the Boston offices of the law firm Mintz Levin. At Mintz Levin, he represented and counseled public and private companies in the biopharmaceutical, technology, and healthcare industries in securities and capital markets transactions, securities compliance, venture capital financings, executive compensation, and corporate governance. Earlier in his career, Mr. Veness was an attorney for a boutique litigation firm representing companies and individuals in a variety of matters, including employment and general civil litigation.
Mr. Veness received a B.A. in political science and philosophy from Tulane University and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law.
Lisa Wyman is Vice President of Operations, overseeing manufacturing, quality, supply chain, process development, and engineering.
She joined Acceleron in January 2019 from Shire, where she held global roles with increasing responsibility leading more than 30 pipeline development programs from preclinical to launch and lifecycle management of more than 40 commercial assets. Prior to her work at Shire, she held positions in manufacturing, engineering and quality at Boston Scientific, Wyeth, and Lonza.
Lisa is an accomplished leader with a strong history of transforming programs, improving regulatory compliance, and driving exponential growth. Recognized as an expert in the industry, she has been honored with an Engineering Leader award by Plant Engineering, Mentor of the Year Award for Advancement of Women in Compliance, and was a Boston Business Journal Top 40 Under 40 award recipient.
Lisa received a BS in Biology from Ithaca College and an MS in Engineering Management from Tufts University.
