Genus leaders: experience and foresight

Steve Thompson leads Genus Oncology, LLC. Mr. Thompson brings over 30 years experience in health care with previous positions in multi-national companies and as President of several therapeutic and diagnostic start-up companies. Prior to Genus, Mr. Thompson was President, CEO, and Director of Immtech Pharmaceuticals (AMEX:IMM), a company which he founded to develop medicines for infectious diseases in the developing world. Mr. Thompson joined Immtech from Amersham International, where he served from 1985 to 1992. As Divisional Chief Executive Officer, reporting to the Chairman and CEO, he was responsible for Amersham Corporation’s Life Sciences, Radiopharmaceuticals, Diagnostics, Quality and Safety Products Divisions, and was a member of the Executive Committee of the company. In addition, he had direct responsibility for the Global Clinical Divisions in the United Kingdom. Prior to Amersham, he was a General Manager of the Hepatitis and Infectious Disease and the Immunology Business Units at Abbott Laboratories, Inc. In addition, from 1981 to 1985, he was Group Marketing Manager for the Hyland Division of Baxter International Inc. Mr. Thompson is currently a member of the Governance Counsel for the Consortium for Parasitic Drug Development (CPDD) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC. The CPDD is sponsored by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop new drugs for malaria, African sleeping sickness, and Leishmaniasis. He is also a founding Executive Board Member of the Illinois Bio-technology Industry Association (iBIO). Mr. Thompson holds a B.S. from the University of Cincinnati and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.

Dr. Kharbanda received his Ph.D in Cell Biology in 1985 from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences [AIIMS], New Delhi. Subsequently, in 1985, he joined Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, as a post-doctoral fellow and undertook extensive research work in the area of oncology/cancer biology. In 1991, he joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School and promoted to Assistant Professor in Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He worked at Harvard Medical School as a faculty member for many years. He has received prestigious fellowships during his tenure at Harvard and awarded many scientific grants from the National Institutes of Health [NIH] and other prestigious organizations. He is co-author in more than 160 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed reputed scientific journals and has written numerous scientific reviews/book chapters in the area of programmed cell death in tumor cells. He has been granted 8 patents in the area of Oncology Drug Discovery. He has given more than 50 invited lectures at multiple International Scientific meetings/conferences. In the year 2000, he joined Ilex Oncology Inc., an oncology-driven pharmaceutical company, as Vice-President [head of R&D] where his responsibilities include developing a robust oncology pipeline for the company. He was a member of the team who successfully advanced two oncology drug candidates to human clinical trials. Since 2007, he is the scientific founder and CSO of Genus Oncology and his focused goal is to develop novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of diverse types of carcinomas.

Mr. Schmitt brings more than 23 years of industry experience in new product development and business development, having held similar positions in both large pharmaceutical and small biotechnology companies. Most recently, Mr. Schmitt was Senior Vice President of Licensing and Commercial Development at Immtech Pharmaceuticals (AMEX: IMM). Prior to joining Immtech, Mr. Schmitt served as General Manager, Academic and Institutional Markets at First Genetic Trust (FGT). Previously, Daniel was Director, Global Oncology Franchise at Searle/Pharmacia, where he headed the commercial development teams for Searle’s anti-angiogenesis, immunotherapy, and cancer vaccine programs. During his career, Daniel has led and contributed to the successful development and launch of over 12 pharmaceutical products. Mr. Schmitt received his M.B.A and a B.S. in Chemistry from West Virginia University and has held research positions affiliated with the National Foundation for Cancer Research and at the University of North Carolina, School of Medicine.

Mr. Schmitt serves as Commercial Development Consultant for University of Chicago’s Innovation PEER (Panel of External Expert Reviewers) Program, and is a member of Chicago Innovation Mentors, a collaborative program between Chicago-based entrepreneurs and the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois, Chicago, and iBIO to accelerate the translation of basic research into innovative products and services.