Alden Pritchard
Founder and CEO
B.A., University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
MBA, College of William & Mary
Alden Pritchard has over 30 years of leadership and entrepreneurial experience necessary for successfully leading Kaio Therapy. As a U.S. Navy fighter pilot and serial entrepreneur, he has been responsible for strategy development and implementation, technology procurement, and has owned, partnered or operated businesses in Japan, China, Russia, France and Poland. Before his involvement in Kaio Therapy, Alden worked with Air & Water Solutions (NJ) and Dai Ichi High Frequency Co. Ltd. (Japan) in developing and placing biological environmental control systems.
Phil Hodges
Founder and Chairman
B.S. Chemistry, East Carolina University
M.S. Analytical Chemistry, East Carolina University
Phil Hodges was the founder and President of Metrics, Inc., a contract pharmaceutical company. Founded in 1994 with four employees Metrics now employs 325 in Greenville, NC. Metrics was sold in 2012 to Mayne Pharma Group, Ltd. of Australia for in excess of $115 million. For nineteen years as President of Metrics, he has worked for and been intimately involved with virtual pharma companies. His knowledge base of drug development and people and businesses in the pharmaceutical industry and make him uniquely qualified to help Kaio Therapy achieve success.
Phil sits on the boards of two NC companies as well as Mayne Pharma of Australia.
Peter Geiger
Chief Financial Officer
Peter Geiger is formerly a Vice President Finance for DSM, a $10 billion Dutch multinational corporation. He was the Chief Financial Officer of DSM Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Business Unit which produces >$2 billion worth of final products for customers. Operates as a business partner in steering the organization and offering creative business solutions. Has 18 years broad based experience in various industries including 10 years in pharmaceuticals. Started career in research science at NIH and then transitioned to business. Previous to DSM worked in consulting, as well as finance and M&A for a Fortune 500 company.
Peter spent 10 years as general partner of Geiger Investments, an investment partnership and utilizes his expertise in company valuation to generate above-market returns for partners.
Peter graduated with honors from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania with an MBA in Finance and Strategic Management after completing his undergraduate studies in Behavioral Neuroscience at Lehigh University.
Chris Petty, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
B.S. Chemistry, North Carolina State University
Ph.D. Immunology, North Carolina State University
As an Immunologist, Dr. Petty is experienced in vaccine and therapeutic R&D program development and implementation.
Prior to joining Kaio Therapy, Dr. Petty worked at ImmunoBiosciences as their Director of Research where he led the investigation of an antibody-antigen complex vaccine formulation targeting RSV, influenza and tropical diseases. Previously, Dr. Petty was at the Laboratory of Respiratory Biology Viral Immunology Group at the National Institute of Health in Research Triangle Park, NC.
Weston Straka, Ph.D.
Director Of Research And Development
B.S. Materials Science & Engineering, North Carolina State University
Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, North Carolina State University
Throughout graduate school, Dr. Straka worked on many different types of inorganic materials including nuclear fuels, superconductors, and field electron emission materials. His expertise lies with magnetic and electronic properties of materials and understanding how their structure and chemistry affect the underlying macroproperties of the materials. He also has experience with analytical techniques necessary for characterizing the materials.
Jennifer Harris, Pharm.D.
Director of Clinical Development
Dr. Harris has over 20 years of oncology-focused experience including involvement with 20 IND programs and 2 NDA submissions. Her experience encompasses drug development planning, budgeting and management of oncology trials with particular expertise in first-time-in-human (FTIH) through proof-of-concept (PoC) trials. Clinical experience encompasses large academic research hospitals and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/ National Cancer Institute (NCI) intramural research program and global oncology drug development experience within big pharma, midsize and emerging biotech. She also has CRO experience monitoring and managing global clinical trials. She has experience in medical affairs positions and involvement with cooperative groups, investigator-initiated and registry trials in the oncology therapeutic area including the emerging field of immuno-oncology. Dr. Harris is a contributing author on multiple publications and meeting abstracts and she has demonstrated written and spoken communication skills including presentations to a variety of audiences including physicians, nurses, sales associates and lay persons. She has experience and involvement with patient advocacy groups and foundations. She has line management experience of up to 10 direct reports.
Sandra Silberman, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Silberman’s career in clinical development began at Pfizer, Inc., where she oversaw the initiation of Tarceva (TM) clinical trials. She then led the global development of Gleevec (TM) at Novartis. Sandra was the first Vice President and Global Therapeutic Area Head in Oncology at Eisai, a role in which she advanced five original, compounds into Phases I through III, gaining the first approval for Eisai’s proprietary drug, Halavan (TM). Subsequently, she served as a senior advisor to a number of biopharmaceutical companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Imclone, Roche, and numerous biotech companies as an independent industry consultant. She joined Quintiles in 2009 as the Vice President of Oncology and Global Head of Translational Medicine in the newly formed Innovation division, overseeing drug development and novel technologies for new partnerships with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Sandra earned her B.A., Sc.M. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences, School of Public Health and School of Medicine, respectively. Her major focus of investigation and doctoral thesis was in the burgeoning area of tumor immunology. She received her M.D. from Cornell University Medical College, completing a postdoctoral training and her fellowship in hematology/oncology at the Brigham & Women's and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. She continued to do research in tumor immunology with a clinical investigator award from the NIH and became an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She then served as an attending physician at Yale University Hospital. Sandra has continued in clinical practice throughout her career in industry, and is currently an attending physician in the Hematology/Oncology clinic at the Duke VA in Durham, NC.