Corporate Governance

Mr. Burgess has more than 30 years of executive level experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He is currently a venture partner at SV Health Investors, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pulmocide, a private biopharmaceutical company, a position he has held since May 2021. Mr. Burgess served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Therini Bio, a private biotechnology company, on a part-time basis from May 2019 to December 2021, and now serves as a board member. In 2011, he was one of the founding members of Rempex, which was subsequently acquired by The Medicines Co. in 2013 for $140M upfront, with a total potential deal value of $474M. Prior to Rempex, Mr. Burgess was President and Chief Executive Officer of Mpex Pharmaceuticals, which he joined in 2007. During his tenure as Chief Executive Officer, Mpex advanced its lead product Aeroquin from Phase 1 into Phase 3 clinical trials, raised substantial venture capital funding and ultimately achieved a successful exit in 2011 with its acquisition by Aptalis. The transaction with Aptalis was named by Scrip magazine as a finalist for “Deal of the Year”. Before joining Mpex, Mr. Burgess was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded biotechnology company focused on biodefense, infectious disease and immune system disorders. Previously, he spent ten years at Gensia Sicor, which was acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, where he held a variety of executive level positions with responsibility for overall finance for the company as well as a number of different operating units. Mr. Burgess was a member of the Board of Directors of Santarus until its acquisition by Salix for $2.6B in 2013, served as Chairman of the board of Nabriva Therapeutics, a formerly publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company, from June 2017 until January 2025, and as a director of Arbutus Biopharma Corporation, a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company, from March 2017 to February 2025. He is also Chairman of the Joint Oversight Board of CARB-X, a global non-profit partnership accelerating antibacterial products to address drug-resistant bacteria, on the board of advisors for Life Science Cares San Diego, and a board member of Biocom, the California life sciences trade association. Mr. Burgess received his B.A. in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Bassler currently serves in several roles at Princeton University, including Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology since 2013, associated faculty member of the Department of Chemistry since 2010, Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2005, Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology since 1994, and associate faculty member of the Princeton Environmental Institute since 1996. Previously, Dr. Bassler served as the Director of the Council on Science and Technology at Princeton University from July 2008 to June 2013. Dr. Bassler has served as a board member of Royalty Pharma plc since June 2020, as a board member of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since 2016, and as a Trustee of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 2014, and previously served as a board member of Sanofi from November 2014 to September 2016. Dr. Bassler served as a board member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from January 2012 to December 2016. She was a member of the National Science Board from January 2010 until May 2016. Dr. Bassler has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the Royal Society, among other honorific organizations. She received a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of California-Davis and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the John Hopkins University.

Ms. Canale-Theakston currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Canale Communications Inc., a life sciences communications company that she founded in May 2010. Prior to founding Canale Communications, Ms. Canale-Theakston served as President of the life sciences division of Porter Novelli, an international public relations firm, from May 2005 until May 2010. Prior to Porter Novelli, Ms. Canale-Theakston was a Partner and Managing Director of Atkins + Associates, a life sciences communication firm, from February 2000 until it was acquired by Porter Novelli in May 2005. She has also served as a member of the CONNECT (previously San Diego Venture Group), board since January 2007, including Chair in 2011-2012. Since January 2007, Ms. Canale-Theakston has served as a member and vice chair of the board of directors of BIOCOM and is currently chair of the nominating-governance committee. Ms. Canale-Theakston also serves on the advisory board for Abintus Bio and Epitracker Inc. Ms. Canale-Theakston holds a B.A. in communications and marketing from the University of Tulsa.

Ms. Mineo led corporate development at Receptos, Inc., from 2009 to 2015, where strategic partnering efforts for Phase 3 immunology candidate ozanimod resulted in the company’s acquisition by Celgene for $7.2 billion. During her tenure,she played a key role in the Receptos initial public offering (IPO) and established product and technology collaborations with AbbVie, Ono, Lilly and Janssen. Prior to Receptos, Ms. Mineo held roles of increasing business development responsibilityat Neurocrine Biosciences from 1997 to 2009, where she led or played a primary role in negotiating and closing more than 25 transactions, including worldwide or regional product candidate collaborations from Phase 1 to registration and product in-licensing transactions. Prior to Neurocrine, Ms. Mineo served in various capacities in research, marketing and business development for such companies as Amgen, DNAX Research Institute, Schering Plough and Baxter Biotech. Ms. Mineo holds a B.S. in Zoology from theUniversity of California, Davis and received her MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Additionally, Ms. Mineo is a Co-Founder of Alume Biosciences, a member of the Director’s Council at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and a member of the Board of Directors of the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Mr. Schroeder served as Chief Executive Officer of Nabriva Therapeutics from 2018 to 2023 and as a director until March 2025, following the 2018 acquisition of Zavante Therapeutics, a company that he co-founded and served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to that, he was a co-founder of Cadence Pharmaceuticals and served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors since its inception in May 2004 until its acquisition by Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals for $1.4 billion in 2014. From August 2002 to February 2004, he served as Senior Vice President of North American Sales and Marketing of Elan Pharmaceuticals, a neuroscience-based pharmaceutical company. From February 2001 to August 2002, Mr. Schroeder served as General Manager of the Hospital Products Business Unit at Elan, a position he also held at Dura Pharmaceuticals, from May 1999 to November 2000 until its acquisition by Elan. Prior to joining Dura, Mr. Schroeder held a number of hospital-related sales and marketing positions with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, a global pharmaceutical company. Mr. Schroeder currently serves on the Board of Directors of Phathom Pharmaceuticals and has previously served on the boards of several public and private life sciences companies including Otonomy, Collegium Pharmaceutical, Incline Therapeutics, Hyperion Therapeutics and Trius Therapeutics. He is the former chairman the Antimicrobials Working Group, from May 2021 until the end of his term in December 2022. In 2014, Mr. Schroeder was recognized as the EY Life Science Entrepreneur of the Year for the San Diego Region and was subsequently recognized as a national finalist. He holds a B.S. in Management from Rutgers University.

Ryan Spencer is Chief Executive Officer of Dynavax, and a member of its board of directors, where he leads the vaccine company’s mission to help protect the world against infectious diseases. He first joined Dynavax in 2005 and, during his fourteen-year ascent to CEO, served in various positions with increasing responsibility across commercial, finance, investor relations, and corporate strategy. As Senior Vice President of the commercial organization, Mr. Spencer led the successful commercial launch of the industry’s first and only two-dose hepatitis B vaccine – HEPLISAV-B® – in 2018. In December 2019, he was appointed CEO and, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, led the supply of Dynavax’s CpG 1018® adjuvant for nearly 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to vaccine developers around the world. Under Mr. Spencer’s tenure as CEO, the company has established HEPLISAV-B® as the leader of the adult hepatitis B vaccine market in the U.S., secured product approvals in the European Union and Great Britain, advanced three novel vaccine clinical candidates, and grown its employee base by more than 75 percent.

Prior to joining Dynavax, he served as Assistant Controller at QRS Corporation and as a member of the audit practice at Ernst & Young. Mr. Spencer is an active member of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and serves as a member of the board of directors for Dynavax. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics from University of California, Santa Barbara.