Dianthus Therapeutics Highlights Recent Business Achievements and Reports Q3 Financial Results
Board of Directors
Alison Lawton
Board Member, ProQR and X4, Prior Chair of Board, Magenta
Alison Lawton is an executive leader with more than 30 years of experience in biopharma. She served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Kaleido Biosciences, Inc. from August 2018 to June 2020, and served as President and Chief Operating Officer from December 2017 to August 2018. Prior to joining Kaleido Biosciences, Inc., Ms. Lawton served as Chief Operating Officer at Aura Biosciences, Inc., an oncology therapeutics company, from January 2015 until December 2017, and, prior to joining Aura, served as a consultant to Aura from March 2014 to December 2014. From January 2013 to January 2014, Ms. Lawton served as Chief Operating Officer at OvaScience Inc., a life sciences company. From 2014 to 2017, Ms. Lawton served as a biotech consultant for various companies, including as Chief Operating Officer consultant at X4 Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, Ms. Lawton spent more than 20 years in various positions of increasing responsibility including Senior VP and General Manager of Biosurgery and prior, Senior VP of Global Regulatory Affairs & Market Access at Genzyme Corporation, and subsequently at Sanofi S.A. following the acquisition of Genzyme by Sanofi in 2011. Additionally, Ms. Lawton previously served two terms as the industry representative on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s Cell & Gene Therapy Advisory Committee and as Chairman of the Board of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society. Ms. Lawton currently serves on the board of directors of ProQR Therapeutics N.V., X4 Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Aeglea Biotherapeutics Inc. and the private companies SwanBio Therapeutics, Inc. and AgBiome, LLC. Ms. Lawton holds a B.Sc. in pharmacology from Kings College, University of London.
Chairman of the Board
Lonnie Moulder
Managing Member, Tellus BioVentures, Founder, CEO & Chairman, Zenas BioPharma
Prior to establishing Tellus BioVentures, a lifesciences investment fund, Mr. Moulder co-founded TESARO and served as Chief Executive Officer and Director until its acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Abraxis BioScience. Prior to Abraxis, he served as Vice Chairman of Eisai Corporation of North America following Eisai’s acquisition of MGI PHARMA, where he served as President and Chief Executive Officer. This followed him serving as a member of the founding management team of a venture-stage biotech company. Mr. Moulder began his career as a clinical pharmacist followed by a 17-year career at predecessor companies of Sanofi, beginning with Marion Laboratories.
Mr. Moulder is a Temple University Trustee and a Council Member for both the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He serves on the Board of Directors for Zai Lab, Helsinn Group and Trevena, and for the Tellus BioVentures portfolio companies: Aegle Therapeutics, Interius BioTherapeutics, Navrogen, Praeventix, TamuroBio, Vittoria and Zenas BioPharma (as Executive Chairman). Mr. Moulder received a Pharmacy degree from Temple University and an M.B.A from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Anne McGeorge
Board Member, The Oncology Institute, Board Member, Be the Match
Anne McGeorge has almost 40 years of experience providing strategic guidance and operational oversight to health care organizations. Ms. McGeorge is a director at The Oncology Institute, Inc. (NASDAQ: TOI), CitiusTech, a private healthcare technology company, Nimbus Therapeutics, LLC, a private biotech company, and the National Marrow Donor Program (aka Be The Match), a 501(c)(3) organization, and is on the advisory board at FCA Healthcare Innovations, a healthcare venture capital firm. Ms. McGeorge is also on the adjunct faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to her retirement in July 2017, Ms. McGeorge worked at Grant Thornton LLP where she routinely advised clients on audit, tax, and financial matters relating to the healthcare industry. During her time at Grant Thornton LLP, Ms. McGeorge was Managing Partner of Grant Thornton LLP’s Health Care Industry Practice from January 2006 to July 2017 as well as Global Managing Partner for Grant Thornton International’s Health Care Industry Practice from August 2015 to July 2017. Ms. McGeorge was formerly a partner at Deloitte LLP from 2002 to 2005 and at Arthur Andersen LLP from 1997 to 2002. Ms. McGeorge received a B.B.A., Business, Accounting from the College of William and Mary, and an M.S., Accounting/Taxation from the University of Virginia.
Jonathan Violin, Ph.D.
Venture Partner, Fairmount, Co-founder of Dianthus, Board member, Astria Therapeutics, and former President/CEO of Viridian Therapeutics
Dr. Violin co-founded Dianthus in July 2019 and has served on the Board of Directors since. He was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRDN), which he also co-founded, and is an accomplished scientist and experienced leader in drug discovery and development, and in scientific platform development. He previously served as founding Chief Executive Officer of Quellis Biosciences. Prior to that, Dr. Violin co-founded and helped lead Trevena Inc. from discovery research through clinical development and NDA submission, including multiple rounds of venture and public financing.
Dr. Violin holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego, an M.B.A. with a concentration in Health Sector Management from the Fuqua School of Business, and a B.S. in Chemical Pharmacology from Duke University. He also serves on the boards of directors of Astria Therapeutics.
Paula Soteropoulos
Venture Partner, 5AM Ventures
Ms. Soteropoulos has more than 30 years of biopharma industry experience in strategic and operational leadership areas including drug development, global commercialization, manufacturing, new company formation and company building. In addition to a strong focus on rare disease, her career spans a broad range of therapeutic areas including cardiovascular and metabolism, neurology, infectious disease, renal, and transplant and oncology. She currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Ensoma, where she played an instrumental role in launching the company from its venture seed stage. Ms. Soteropoulos also serves on the Board of Directors for uniQure, Rallybio, and Kyowa Kirin North America and is a strategic advisor to 5AM Ventures and Chiesi Rare Disease. Previously, she served as founding CEO and member of the Board of Directors at Akcea Therapeutics, where she led the company through its IPO and commercial launch of two rare disease medicines. Prior to Akcea, she was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cardiometabolic and Rare Disease Businesses and Strategic Alliances at Moderna, Inc. Before Moderna, Ms. Soteropoulos spent more than 20 years at Genzyme Corporation where she held positions of increasing responsibility including Vice President and General Manager, Cardiovascular, Rare Diseases. In this role, Ms. Soteropoulos led all aspects of the cardiovascular business from early portfolio prioritization of science and new business development opportunities through commercialization. Ms. Soteropoulos earned an executive management certificate from the University of Virginia – Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and both Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Tufts University.
Tomas Kiselak
Managing Member, Fairmount Funds Management
Mr. Kiselak is a Managing Member at Fairmount Funds Management LLC, a healthcare investment firm he co-founded in April 2016. Prior to Fairmount, Mr. Kiselak was a managing director at RA Capital Management, LLC. Mr. Kiselak serves as chairman of the board of directors of Viridian Therapeutics and is a director for Apogee Therapeutics, Spyre Therapeutics, Zenas BioPharma, and several private companies. He received his Bachelors in Neuroscience and Economics from Amherst College.
Steven Romano, M.D.
EVP, Chief Research and Development Officer, Silence Therapeutics
Dr. Romano has served as the EVP, Chief Research and Development Officer of Silence Therapeutics, Inc. since June 2024, and prior to that at Silence Therapeutics he was the Head of Research and Development from April 2023 to June 2024, and a Non-Executive Director from July 2019 to April 2023. Dr. Romano is a pharmaceutical executive and board-certified psychiatrist and pharmaceutical executive with over 28 years of drug development experience across a wide range of therapeutic and disease areas. Dr. Romano served as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, where he had responsibility for research and development, regulatory, safety sciences and medical affairs from May 2015 to December 2022. Prior to joining Mallinckrodt, Dr. Romano spent 16 years at Pfizer, Inc. where he held a series of senior research and development and medical roles, culminating in his final position as SVP, Head, Global Medicines Development, Global Innovative Pharmaceuticals Business. He has recently served as Chairman of the Board of the National Pharmaceutical Council, a non-profit health policy research organization, and is a past president of the International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology, an independent organization focused on enhancing therapeutic development of central nervous system therapeutics. Dr. Romano received his M.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelor’s degree in biology and English literature.
Marino Garcia
President & CEO, Dianthus Therapeutics
Mr. Garcia joined Dianthus in November of 2021 with a successful 27-year track record of building and transforming organizations in operational, strategic, commercial, and business developmental leadership roles with various small, mid-cap and large biopharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Aspreva (acquired by Vifor Pharma), Aptalis (acquired by Forest Labs), and Synergy. Prior to joining Dianthus, he served as Senior Vice President, Corporate and Business Development at Zealand Pharma. In this role, he sourced, negotiated, and executed various strategic transactions, including an exclusive discovery and development collaboration with Alexion Pharmaceuticals focused on peptide therapies for complement-mediated diseases. After beginning his career in large multinational biopharmaceutical companies, Marino shifted course to work with biotechnology start-ups, starting with Aspreva, a company collaborating with Roche to develop CellCept (myocophenolate mofetil) for a range of autoimmune diseases, including Lupus Nephritis, Myasthenia Gravis, and Pemphigus Vulgaris. Marino received his M.B.A from the Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ontario and his Bachelor of Commerce from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.