John D. Diekman, Ph.D.
Chairman of the Board
Dr. Diekman is a founder and Managing Partner of 5AM Ventures. In addition, Dr. Diekman is a founder and former Vice Chairman of Bay City Capital, a General Partner of Aravis Venture I, L.P., a European-based life science venture fund, Chairman of the Singapore Biomedical Sciences Investment Fund, and Vice Chairman of Affymetrix, Inc. Dr. Diekman has an extensive operating history having served as CEO of Affymetrix and in senior leadership positions at Affymax N.V., Monoclonal Antibodies, Salutar, and Zoecon Corporation. Dr. Diekman currently serves on the boards of Ambrx, GenoSpectra, Hill Top Research, InGenuity Systems, Kalypsys, Metabolex, Phenomix, S*BIO, and Syrrx.
Richard D. DiMarchi, Ph.D.
Dr. DiMarchi was formerly Group Vice President for Biotechnology and Product Development at Lilly Research Laboratories, where he made major contributions to Lilly in biotechnology and endocrinology. Dr. DiMarchi was directly involved in the discovery and development of several Lilly drugs, including Humulin(R), Humatrope(R), Evista(R), Xigris(R), and Forteo(R). He was a co-inventor of Humalog(R), the first biosynthetic protein approved for human use. Additionally, at Lilly he championed the introduction and integration of cutting-edge biotechnologies, including genomics, proteomics, high-throughput screening, and combinatorial chemistry. Dr. DiMarchi is presently a Professor of Chemistry and the Jack and Linda Gill Distinguished Chair in Biomolecular Science at Indiana University. Dr. DiMarchi is a co-founder of Ambrx.
Shehan Dissanayake, Ph.D.
Dr. Dissanayake is the CEO of Tavistock Life Sciences. In this capacity he oversees all of its operations and investments in portfolio companies, including CovX, The Medical Device Group, Eidogen-Sertanty, Kalypsys, and Ambrx.
Stephen W. Kaldor, Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Prior to joining Ambrx, Inc., Dr. Kaldor served as President and CSO of Takeda San Diego Inc., the US Discovery Research Center for Takeda Pharmaceuticals. He instigated and led the March 2005 $270MM acquisition of Syrrx Inc. by Takeda that resulted in the creation of Takeda San Diego. Dr. Kaldor ran Syrrx, a privately held, structure-based drug discovery company, as its President and CSO from 2003 -2005. Syrrx built a robust portfolio of metabolic diseases and oncology clinical candidates during his tenure including SYR-322 (Alogliptin), a dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitor for the treatment of diabetes now in Phase III clinical trials. Prior to joining Syrrx, Dr. Kaldor gained over 12 years of drug discovery and development experience at Eli Lilly and Company, as both a researcher and Director with line management responsibility for groups of up to 270 people. He received his formal education in organic chemistry at Harvard University, (Ph.D., 1989) and Columbia University, (B.S., 1984). Dr. Kaldor is the co-inventor of multiple compounds that have advanced into the clinic including ViraceptTM, a marketed HIV protease inhibitor.
Allan Marchington, Ph.D.
Dr. Allan Marchington is General Partner of Apposite Capital, LLP, London, UK, responsible for life science investments. Prior to joining Apposite Capital, Dr. Marchington was the founder and CEO of Cambridge Discovery Chemistry, which was started in 1997, and purchased by Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc, in July 2000. He then relocated to Boston and joined the Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., management team.
Dr. Marchington began his career as a medicinal chemist at Pfizer Central Research, Sandwich, UK, where he was responsible for a number of compounds entering clinical development. He holds a Doctorate in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of Liverpool, UK.
Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D.
Dr. Schultz is currently the Scripps Professor of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute and Director of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF). Dr. Schultz has made a number of major contributions to science including the discovery of catalytic antibodies, methodology that for the first time expands the genetic codes of living organisms, and the development and application of combinatorial methods in chemistry and biology including the first generation of combinatorial materials libraries. Dr. Schultz is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is active on many editorial and scientific advisory boards and is a founding scientist of Affymax Research Institute and co-founder of Symyx Technologies, Syrrx, Kalypsys, Phenomix, Ilypsa, and Ambrx.
David B. Singer
David B. Singer, Limited Partner, Maverick Capital – Mr. Singer is responsible for Maverick’s Private Investments. He joined Maverick in 2004 from Oscient Pharmaceutical Corporation, where he was Chairman of the Board. Mr. Singer is a founder and former CEO of three biotech companies: Affymetrix, Inc., Corcept Therapeutics, Inc., and Genesoft Pharmaceuticals, Oscient’s predecessor. He began his career at Baxter International and worked at Goldman Sachs & Co. Mr. Singer currently serves on the boards of several private companies.
Mr. Singer received his B.A. from Yale University and his M.B.A. from Stanford University. He was a Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and is currently a Sterling Fellow of Yale University, on the Rand Corporation’s Health Advisory Board and a director of College Track.
