We are led by an executive leadership team with decades of experience in kidney drug development, precision medicine and company formation.
President and Chief Executive Officer
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.
Chief Financial and Operating Officer
Kyle Kuvalanka has served as our Chief Financial and Operating Officer since April 2020. Prior to Goldfinch Bio, Mr. Kuvalanka advised private biopharmaceutical companies and portfolio companies of venture capital firms, including Third Rock Ventures, in the areas of corporate and financial strategy. Mr. Kuvalanka served as Chief Operating Officer and Principal Financial and Accounting Officer at Syros Pharmaceuticals from September 2015 to September 2017, and as Chief Business Officer and Principal Financial and Accounting Officer at Blueprint Medicines, from September 2013 to September 2015. In these roles, Mr. Kuvalanka helped to transition the companies from early-stage startups to publicly traded, clinical- stage organizations. In particular, he built the business and finance functions, led the execution of several financings, including the companies’ initial public offerings, and led the formation of the companies’ early strategic collaborations. Before joining Blueprint Medicines, Mr. Kuvalanka worked in roles of increasing responsibility from 2002-2012 at Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, including most recently as Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Strategy. Mr. Kuvalanka holds an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. with Honors from Wesleyan University.
Chief Medical Officer
Frank Czerwiec, M.D., Ph.D. has served as our Chief Medical Officer since December 2018. Prior to joining Goldfinch Bio, Dr. Czerwiec was Vice President, Global Clinical Development at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. from May 2014 to December, 2018, where he led the company’s Cardio-Renal and Metabolic/Medicine group. Dr. Czerwiec previously served in the role of increasing responsibility, Associate to Senior Director, Global Clinical Development at Otsuka from 1998 to 2014. Dr. Czerwiec earned his M.D. and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and conducted his internal medicine residency at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine before completing his post-doctoral training in translational research through a fellowship in Adult Endocrinology and Metabolism at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (NICHD & NIDDK).
Chief Development Officer
Lori Rudolph-Owen joined Goldfinch in 2018 as Senior Vice President of R&D Strategy and Operation and has served as CDO since early 2020. Lori brings over 20 years of leadership experience in pharmaceutical and biotechnology R&D, specifically in strategic portfolio planning and leadership, development operations and building talent for optimal organization growth. Lori’s prior responsibilities include driving multiple INDs and proof of concept studies, CMC Quality improvements and expansion indications for FERAHEME, global registration studies for DACOGEN, and line function responsibilities for US and EU submissions, approvals and launches of VARUBI/VARUBY and ZEJULA.
Prior to joining Goldfinch, Lori served at the Vice President of Portfolio Management and Assessment at TESARO, Inc, and held positions of increasing leadership responsibility at Pfizer, AMAG Pharmaceuticals, MGI Pharma (now Eisai), and Vertex. Lori received her PhD in Cell Biology at Vanderbilt University. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship, she joined Millennium Pharmaceuticals as an Oncology Discovery Scientist before transitioning to Drug Development Program Leadership at Vertex.
Chief Legal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary
Ms. Walker brings over 20 years of in-house and major law firm experience, having worked with several companies to support the research, development, approval, launch and commercialization of orphan and rare disease products. She joins Goldfinch Bio from Stoke Therapeutics, where she served as Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary. In that role, Ms. Walker was responsible for corporate governance and overall management of the legal and compliance functions, and for developing and implementing scalable legal operations processes and systems. Prior to Stoke, Ms. Walker served as Senior Vice President, Head of Legal at Casebia Therapeutics, where she designed and oversaw all aspects of the company’s corporate communications and legal strategy and provided counsel on corporate, governance, employment, compliance and regulatory matters. Previously, she was Associate General Counsel, Corporate, at Biogen Inc., where she provided day-to-day support across a variety of business operations. Earlier in her career, Ms. Walker was Senior Corporate Counsel at Staples, Inc., and a Corporate Associate in the Boston office of K&L Gates.
Senior Vice President, Human Resources
Curtis Demick joined Goldfinch Bio in 2017 as the company’s first vice president and head of Human Resources. With over 25 years of HR experience, Curt is an innovative and results-driven leader who is passionate about developing and implementing the HR strategy and programs that enhance business, team, and individual performance Curt could not be more enthusiastic to be part of the Goldfinch team and champion the company’s mission to transform the treatment paradigm for patients with kidney disease.
Prior to joining Goldfinch, Curt served as the senior director of Human Resources with ARIAD Pharmaceuticals where he led the team’s efforts to attract, retain, and develop top talent and provided HR leadership to take the company commercial and establish a global presence. He has previously held senior leadership HR positions in industries across Life Sciences, Marketing and Advertising, Higher Education, and Financial Services. Curt holds a B.S. in Management from Bentley University.
We are wholly committed to delivering novel precision medicines to defined patient subsets with the goal of preserving kidney function, eliminating the need for dialysis, and improving patients’ quality of life.
President and CEO
Chairwoman of Goldfinch Bio and Partner, Third Rock Ventures
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.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Allena Pharmaceuticals
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.
Partner, Third Rock Ventures
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.
President and Chief Executive Officer
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.
Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Fresenius Medical Care North America
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.
Venture Partner, Yonjin Capital
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.
Sr. Research Analyst, Eventide Asset Management
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.
Harvard Medical School, MIT, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Samuel A. Levin Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Chief of the Renal Division and Founding Chief of the Engineering in Medicine Division, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Joseph Bonventre’s research focuses primarily on the study of kidney injury and repair and signal transduction, with a special emphasis on the role of inflammation, biomarkers and stem cells. He has more than 350 original research publications, 150 reviews/chapters and editorials and 3 books. His recent work also involves the generation of kidney organoids from stem cells and their use in kidney disease modeling. He has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the Association of American Physicians (AAP), the American Clinical and Climatological Association (ACCA) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AMBIE). He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI).
Joseph is past president of the American Society of Nephrology and founding member of the Board of Directors of the National Space Biology Research Institute. Joseph has chaired and served on many NIH Study Sections and is Editor of Seminars in Nephrology. He has been awarded the Osler Medal of the Royal Society of Physicians and the Bywaters Award of the International Society of Nephrology. He currently serves as a member of the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Advisory Council.
In addition to his B.S. with distinction in Engineering Physics from Cornell, Joseph holds M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in biophysics from Harvard University. He has honorary doctorate degrees from Mt. Saint Mary’s College and from the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology in Norway. He was Director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology for 10 years.
The Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School
Institute Member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Founding Director of Glom-NExT Center for Glomerular Kidney Disease and Novel Experimental Therapeutics
Anna Greka leads an interdisciplinary team of students, postdoctoral fellows and staff scientists in laboratories at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute working on diverse projects spanning ion channel biophysics, pharmacology, cell biology, biochemistry, imaging, in vivo studies and computational biology.
Anna currently serves as the founding director of Glom-NExT, a center focused on the development of novel experimental therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In addition to teaching at Harvard Medical School, she serves on the Harvard-MIT MD-PhD Leadership Council.
Anna has given numerous invited lectures nationally and internationally, and she is the recipient of several honors including a career development award from the American Society of Nephrology, a 2014 Top10 Award from the Clinical Research Council, and a 2014 Young Physician Scientist Award from the American Society of Clinical Investigation.
Anna holds an A.B. from Harvard College and an MD and PhD from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-MIT M.D.-Ph.D. program in the Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST). She completed her graduate work in the laboratory of David Clapham in work funded by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Fellowship.
Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital
Warren E. Grupe Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School
Chief of the Division of Nephrology of Boston Children’s Hospital
Friedhelm Hildebrandt’s research work is concerned with the identification and functional characterization of recessive single-gene causes of kidney diseases in children and young adults, including nephrotic syndrome, cystic renal ciliopathies, and congenital anomalies of the kidney. His group has identified over 80 novel monogenic causative genes for chronic kidney disease and delineated the related pathogeneses.
Friedhelm has published over 280 original articles in high-ranking journals. He has received the Mead Johnson Award by the Pediatric Academic Societies, the Homer W. Smith Award by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), the Lillian Jean Kaplan Award for PKD Research, and the Franz Volhard Award. He is a member of the American Association of Physicians (AAP), the German National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine (NAS/IOM), and is an alumnus investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Director, Centre for Population Genomics
Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Daniel MacArthur is a geneticist with a long-standing focus on the use of large-scale genomic data sets to improve the interpretation of human genetic variation, with a special focus on rare disease diagnosis. He led the formation of the Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC), a collection of sequence data from over 60,000 people, which has become a critical resource in clinical genetics. Most recently he was co-director of the Broad Institute’s Center for Mendelian Genomics, and has led the sequencing of over 3,000 members of families affected by rare disease. He has over 15 years of experience in human genetics, including a Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, Australia, and postdoctoral training in genomics at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK.
Founder and Executive Scientific Advisor, Goldfinch Bio
Founder and Executive Scientific Advisor, Goldfinch Bio
Dr. Mundel joined Goldfinch Bio after serving as a consultant to Third Rock Ventures, where he played an important role in the creation and launch of Goldfinch Bio. He brings to the company more than 25 years of experience as a leader in academic research, most recently at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. A major focus of Dr. Mundel’s work has been the development of precision therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases through a mechanistic understanding of the cell biology and pathophysiology of the kidney, with a focus on podocytes.
A pioneer of molecularly targeted treatment for proteinuric kidney disease, Dr. Mundel has published more than 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including in high impact journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, and Nature Cell Biology, and has given numerous invited lectures nationally and internationally. He was inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2003 and has received numerous awards including a Top10 award from the Clinical Research Forum and the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Nephrology. Dr. Mundel holds an M.D. from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Yale School of Medicine
C. N. H. Long Professor of Medicine, Professor of Genetics, and Chief of the Section of Nephrology at the Yale School of Medicine
Steve Somlo’s research interest over the past 25 years has been to understand the genetic and biological bases of human polycystic kidney and liver diseases. His laboratory began with discovering disease genes for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (PKD2), isolated polycystic liver disease (PRKCSH, SEC63) and recessive polycystic kidney disease (PKHD1). His group used these discoveries as the starting point from which to define both genetic and cellular mechanisms underlying the respective human diseases.
Steve graduated from Harvard College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. He did his clinical training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Yale and was on faculty at Albert Einstein before returning to Yale. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians and is a recipient of the Lillian Jean Kaplan International Prize for Polycystic Kidney Disease Research and the Homer W. Smith Award from the American Society of Nephrology.
With our sole focus on kidney diseases, we aspire to be the world’s leading precision medicine kidney company – dedicated to our mission, focused on pursuing world-class science and fully committed to improving the lives of people with kidney disease.