Meet Our Finches

Abbie Celniker, Ph.D. has served as our chairwoman and as member of our board of directors, and as a partner at Third Rock Ventures, a venture capital firm, since September 2016. From September 2016 until December 2017, Dr. Celniker also served as our interim Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Celniker was previously the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sesen Bio, Inc. from September 2011 to September 2016. Prior to joining Sesen Bio, Inc., Dr. Celniker served as the Executive Vice President of Translational Medicine of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from January 2011 to August 2011. Prior to joining Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Celniker served as the President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the board of directors of Taligen Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company, from July 2008 to January 2011, when Taligen Therapeutics was acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Dr. Celniker served as the Global Head of Biologics of Novartis AG, the Senior Vice President of Research and Development Strategy and Operations of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and the Vice President Protein Technologies of the Wyeth Research facilities in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Celniker had previously served as the Chair of the Board of Directors of ImaginAb, Inc. and as a member of the board of directors of Sesen Bio, Inc.. Dr. Celniker received a B.A. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Arizona.

Louis Brenner, M.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since December 2016. Dr. Brenner has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Allena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since February 2019 and as President since February 2017. He previously served as Chief Operating Officer of Allena Pharmaceuticals from April 2015 to January 2019. From January 2014 to April 2015, Dr. Brenner served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Brenner served as Chief Medical Officer for Radius Health, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from November 2011 to January 2014. Dr. Brenner earned a B.S. from Yale University, an M.D. from Duke University, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his fellowship in nephrology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Brenner currently serves on the board of Allena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Brenner holds a clinical appointment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Wen Chen has served as a member of our board of directors since August 2019. Mr. Chen has

been Venture Partner at Yonghua Capital since 2016, full time since May 2020. Prior to joining Yonghua Capital, Mr. Chen served as Senior Vice President, Head of Business Development and Operations at Tigermed, a publicly-traded contract research company located in China from April 2009 to February 2020. Mr. Chen received his B.S. from Purdue University, M.S. from Washington University in St. Louis, and M.B.A. from Durham University.

U.S. Senator William “Mo” Cowan (retired) serves as Chief Legal and External Affairs Officer for Devoted Health, Inc. A member of Devoted’s executive leadership team, Mo is responsible for all legal, corporate governance, regulatory, and public affairs functions for this next-generation, tech-enabled, vertically integrated payor and provider of healthcare services.
Prior to joining the Devoted team, Mo led global government affairs and policy, and global litigation for General Electric Co. Earlier in his career, Mo was a partner at the national law firm Mintz Levin and served as chief executive officer of Mintz Levin’s government relations consulting firm, ML Strategies, LLC.
In 2013, Mo served as the interim U.S. Senator representing Massachusetts, after serving in key senior leadership roles – Chief Legal Counsel, Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor – in the administration of Governor Deval Patrick (MA).
Mo serves on governance and advisory boards for a number of nationally recognized institutions including, the Massachusetts General Hospital, Duke University, Goldfinch Bio, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, Eastern Bank Corporation, MassChallenge, and Mass General Brigham.

Neil Exter has served as a member of our board of directors since November 2015. Mr. Exter has been a partner at Third Rock Ventures, a venture capital firm, since November 2007. Prior to joining Third Rock Ventures, Mr. Exter was the Chief Business Officer of Alantos Pharmaceuticals Holding, Inc., leading the sale of the company to Amgen, Inc., and vice president of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., directing in-licensing and M&A. Earlier in his career, he held various executive management roles within the high technology industry. Mr. Exter currently serves on the board of directors of REVOLUTION Medicines, Inc., Pliant Therapeutics, Decibel Therapeutics, Cedilla Therapeutics, Celsius Therapeutics, Thrive Cancer Detect, and Element Science, Inc. Mr. Exter previously served on the board of directors of Lotus Tissue Repair (acquired by Shire plc), Rhythm Pharmaceutics, Cibiem, Inc., CytomX Therapeutics and Seventh Sense Biosystems, Inc. Additionally, Mr. Exter is a member of the Innovation Research Fund at Partners Healthcare. Mr. Exter received his B.S. from Cornell University, M.S. from Stanford University and M.B.A. as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School.

Joy Ghosh, Ph.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since June 2020. He has served as a Senior Research Analyst at Eventide Asset Management, with a primary focus on healthcare and life sciences since March 2020. Prior to joining Eventide, Dr. Ghosh was an Associate and Vice President at Bain Capital with the Life Sciences Fund from January 2017 to March 2020. From May 2016 to January 2017, Dr. Ghosh served as the Senior Manager of Business Development, M&A and Strategy at Biogen, and prior to that, Dr. Ghosh was an investigator at the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research from May 2009 to May 2016. Dr. Ghosh currently serves on the board of Prometheus Biosciences, Inc. Dr. Ghosh received his B.S. from The University of Texas at Austin and Ph.D. from the School of Medicine at the University of Washington.

Anthony Johnson, M.D. has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since December 2017. Prior to his role at Goldfinch Bio, Dr. Johnson was Senior Vice President, Early Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer of the Innovative Medicines and Early Development Biotech Unit at AstraZeneca from April 2014 to November 2017, and a Fellow at Homerton College, Cambridge, United Kingdom from March 2016 to November 2017. From October 2012 to December 2013, Dr. Johnson was a venture partner at OrbiMed Advisors. Dr. Johnson previously held positions as Vice President of Discovery Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology with Bristol-Myers Squibb from 2006 to 2012, as well as Vice President of Discovery Medicine at GlaxoSmithKline from 2001 to 2006 and served as the Founding Director of the GlaxoWelcome Medicines Research Unit from 1999 to 2001. He was a tenured Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Queensland, Australia (1993 to 1999) prior to his industry experience. Dr. Johnson was a Board Director for Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals from October 2012 to December 2015, and a Board Observer for Rgenix from January 2014 to August 2015. Dr. Johnson received an M.B.B.S. (1983) and M.D. (1993) from the University of New South Wales and his M.P.H. (1996) from the University of Queensland. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and is board certified in internal medicine, geriatric medicine and clinical pharmacology.

Frank Maddux, M.D., F.A.C.P. has served as a member of our board of directors since March 2018. Dr. Maddux has been the Global Chief Medical Officer for Fresenius Medical Care since January 2020, where he oversees all medical, clinical analytics and development of the clinical support for the largest vertically integrated company caring for people with kidney disease. He previously was the Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President for Clinical and Scientific Affairs for Fresenius Medical Care North America, from 2009 to 2020. Prior to joining Fresenius, Dr. Maddux served as Co-Founder, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Specialty Care Services Group from 2006 to 2009 and formerly served as president of Virginia’s Danville Urologic Clinic, where he was a practicing nephrologist for nearly two decades. Dr. Maddux currently serves on the boards of Fresenius Medical Care, Vifor Fresenius Medical Care Renal Pharma, The American Council on Germany and Humacyte as a board observer. He recently completed a 17-year role as director of American National Bank & Trust (NASDAQ: AMNB) where he chaired the audit committee for ten years. Dr. Maddux received his B.S. from Vanderbilt University and an M.D. from the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Rivers is Executive Director of Corporate Development at AstraZeneca, where he is responsible for creating and executing innovative, value-enhancing business strategies.  Prior to assuming this role in 2014, he worked at MedImmune Ventures, specializing in biotechnology investing. Earlier in his career, Dr. Rivers held various positions at Merck & Co., where he led technical support for commercial vaccines and directed global business initiatives for assessing key technologies for research and development. He currently serves as a Board member of ADC Therapeutics, Armaron Bio and Cerapedics. Dr. Rivers holds his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and an M.B.A. from the New York University Stern School of Business.

Ms. Zausner brings over 35 years of financial and operational experience in the pharmaceutical industry. For much of her corporate career, Ms. Zausner worked at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, where she was instrumental in creating the blueprint for the Novartis Oncology Business Unit and engineering the launch of the first Novartis shared services organization. During her time at Novartis, Ms. Zausner served as the company’s Chief Financial and Administrative Officer in the United States, and as a member of its Pharmaceutical Executive Committee and Global Finance Leadership Team. Ms. Zausner currently serves as a Board member of Seres Therapeutics. Ms. Zausner holds her B.S. in Accounting and Economics from The State University of New York at Albany and earned her CPA in New York.