Management Team

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.

Dr. Randhawa brings over 20 years of clinical practice and pharmaceutical industry experience to Dianthus. He most recently served as Senior Vice President of Clinical and Medical Affairs at Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, an autoimmune-focused company, where he supported the clinical development of voclosporin and investor relations. Dr. Randhawa has held a number of senior commercial and medical leadership roles in the autoimmune and rare disease spaces within large pharma and biotech companies such as Novartis and Biomarin. Previously, he supported business development opportunities and integration needs in the health care sector while at McKinsey Consulting. Dr. Randhawa completed his M.D. at Drexel University and received his M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Mr. Savitz brings over a decade of experience providing strategic and financial advice to life sciences companies. He most recently served as Managing Director in Citigroup’s Healthcare Investment Banking division, where he focused on advising biopharma companies on private and public capital raising, partnering, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to becoming Managing Director, he held positions of increasing responsibility all within the Healthcare Investment Banking division at Citigroup. Mr. Savitz received his Bachelor of Science in Finance from the Pennsylvania State University.

Joining Dianthus most recently from Cyteir Therapeutics, Mr. Veness spent much of his career as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Acceleron Pharma Inc. prior to the acquisition by Merck in November 2021. During his tenure at Acceleron, Mr. Veness gained experience in roles of increasing responsibility where he served on the Executive Committee responsible for company strategy, and he led all aspects of global legal and compliance, including capital markets and SEC reporting obligations, corporate governance, contracts, intellectual property, employment matters, and data privacy. Prior to moving in-house to the biotechnology industry, Mr. Veness was a corporate and securities attorney at the law firm Mintz Levin where he represented and counseled public and private companies in the biopharmaceutical, technology, and healthcare industries. Mr. Veness earned a B.A. in political science and philosophy from Tulane University, and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law.

Ms. Maximenko brings 15 years of human resources experience, having most recently served as the VP, Head of HR at Abeona Therapeutics where she was responsible for developing and executing people strategy and supporting the Company’s growth in a highly competitive gene therapy space. Prior to that she served as the Global HR Director and Head of HR for Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAAP), a Novartis company. Before the acquisition of AAAP by Novartis, she was responsible for more than 700 employees operating in a matrix environment within 11 International locations and in more than 20 US states.

Ms. Maximenko has hands-on experience setting up the HR function from the ground up in growing biotechs from pre-clinical to commercial stage and building out teams in various functional areas including R&D, Medical Affairs, Commercial, Quality, TechOps, and others. She’s got expertise in multiple HR disciplines, including talent acquisition, employee engagement, employee relations, organizational development and compensation.

Mr. Carr is a veteran financial leader with over 30 years of finance and public accounting experience including managing financial operations, financial reporting (including SEC reporting), technical accounting, internal controls, financial planning, treasury, and taxation. Prior to Dianthus, Mr. Carr served as Chief Financial Officer of Abeona Therapeutics, a publicly traded, clinical stage biotechnology company. Prior to Abeona, Mr. Carr served as Assistant Controller at Coty Inc., a multi-billion dollar, publicly traded manufacturing company and as Chief Accounting Officer at Foster Wheeler AG, a multi-billion dollar, publicly traded engineering and construction company. Mr. Carr, who is a Certified Public Accountant, began his career at Ernst & Young LLP. He received his Master of Professional Accountancy and Bachelor of Business Administration from West Virginia University.

Ms. Gluck brings to Dianthus an extensive track record in building and leading highly effective clinical operations functions within the autoimmune space. She most recently served as Senior Vice President, Global Clinical Operations at Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc., where she was responsible for creating a clinical organization and executing clinical programs to bring their lead candidate from early phase development through two successful pivotal trials and later to NDA submission and FDA approval. Prior to Aurinia, Ms. Gluck was Vice President of Clinical Operations at Qu Biologics Inc, a company focused on the development of immunotherapeutics. She also served as Vice President and Head of Global Clinical Operations at Vifor Pharmaceuticals following the acquisition of Aspreva Pharmaceuticals, a company collaborating with Roche to develop CellCept (myocophenolate mofetil) for a range of autoimmune diseases. Throughout her career, Ms. Gluck has served in increasingly senior positions at major pharmaceutical companies including Novartis, Organon, and GSK, and has acquired extensive experience with start-up companies.

Ms. Segal brings more than 20 years of experience leading the development and execution of global regulatory strategies across all phases of drug development for a range of therapeutic areas including oncology, hematology, inflammatory diseases, and neurology. She most recently served as Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality at Scholar Rock where she directed all global regulatory efforts, oversaw quality and compliance, and contributed to overall R&D pipeline strategy. Prior to that, Ms. Segal held positions of increasing responsibility at biopharmaceutical companies including Q32 Bio, Solid Biosciences. In addition, while at Biogen, she was responsible for leading the global regulatory team where they attained marketing approvals of ELOCTATE®️ and ALPROLIX®️, treatments for Hemophilia A and Hemophilia B respectively, including approvals in the US, EU, Japan, Australia, and Canada.

Ms. Hanff brings over two decades of expertise in global regulations and quality management systems in parenteral and solid oral finished drug manufacturing. Her expertise extends to organizational design and development, as well as risk-based strategy cultivation for quality. Ms. Hanff most recently served as Global Regulatory Affairs and Quality Director at Saint-Gobain Life Sciences, where she assured the quality of Single-Use Systems used in the pharmaceutical industry and medical components used in the medical device industry. In her role, Ms. Hanff built a central quality function from non-existent to a team of high performing quality professionals. She developed the strategy and led the implementing and overseeing of harmonized quality management systems at 30 manufacturing sites globally, including validation programs and quality control. Prior to Saint-Gobain, Ms. Hanff was the Associate Director of Quality Compliance for generic and branded parenteral drug manufacturing at Boehringer Ingelheim, with accountability for management of regulatory inspections and the supplier quality management and internal audit programs. There, Ms. Hanff led innumerable regulatory and compliance inspections from the company’s contracted customers and regulatory authorities. Earlier in her career, she served as a Regulatory Affairs Associate, Quality Compliance Associate, and Chemist at Pfizer. Ms. Hanff holds a B.S. from West Chester University of Pennsylvania in Forensic Chemistry and Toxicology.

Mr. Taylor brings over 20 years of experience in product supply and technical operations across the consumer products and life sciences industries. He most recently served as Vice President of Technical Operations at Radius Health, Inc., where he was responsible for supply chain and manufacturing operations of clinical and commercial programs supporting their lead molecule, abaloparatide. Prior to Radius, Mr. Taylor served as Vice President of Supply Chain at Synergy Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for creating supply chain organization and strategy to successfully launched their first FDA approved product, plecanatide. Earlier in his career, Mr. Taylor also held a number of increasingly complex supply chain planning and procurement roles for larger companies including Johnson & Johnson, Shire Pharmaceuticals, and AstraZeneca. He received an M.B.A from the Fox School of Business at Temple University and a B.S. from Pennsylvania State University in Operations and Information Systems.

Mr. Nogi brings over twenty years of operational and administrative management expertise across a wide range of organizations. Prior to Dianthus, he served as Vice President of Business Operations at Abeona Therapeutics where he led all Business Development activities, including the successful out-licensing of two of the company’s later stage assets and was responsible for all Information and Technology operations, including scaling and managing infrastructure and cyber security. At Abeona, Mr. Nogi also led Facilities & Property Management across the US and EU, owned the Corporate Risk Portfolio, and headed COVID-19 response efforts ensuring global operational continuity while protecting the safety of employees and patients. Prior to Abeona, he served as Vice President of Business Development at Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he developed partnerships for an oral mucoadhesive product in the oncology space. Previously, he was Vice President of Operations at SCO Capital Management, a biotech-focused value fund, where he managed all operations, audit, fund administration, IT systems, and human resources. Earlier in his career, Mr. Nogi served as Executive Director of non-profit organization, Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives where he led the business strategy and operations, finances, facilities, and staff. Mr. Nogi earned a M.B.A. in Management and Strategy from the Stern School of Business at New York University, where he also received his B.F.A.

Dr. McGarr is an expert in program management with over 25 years of experience leading drug development strategies and operations for many biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Prior to Dianthus, he served as Senior Director, Program and Portfolio Management, for ElevateBio, where he helped advance the development of cell and gene therapies of partners and portfolio companies. Previously, he was the Director, Program and Alliance Management, for Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a Nobel Prize-winning company specialized in RNAi (RNA interference).

Dr. McGarr’s depth of leadership and management experience continues into his early career, when served as the Director of Alliance Management, Therapeutics Project Program, at Fred Hutch before becoming their Senior Director, Immunotherapy Operations and Alliance Management. Before Fred Hutch, he was the Senior Program Manager at the Infectious Disease Research Institute.

Dr. Norton brings over 20 years of biologics drug development and leadership experience from large and small companies. Angela’s scientific focus has spanned multiple therapeutic areas with research focused on Rare Diseases, Oncology and Autoimmune Disorders. Prior to joining Dianthus, Dr. Norton served as Vice President of R&D and Head of Research at DynamiCure Biotechnology, an Immuno-oncology and Autoimmune focused company. In this role, Angela built a strong research team and drove the strategic focus of research as Chair of the Pipeline Steering Committee. Prior to DynamiCure, Angela held multiple positions of increasing levels of responsibility at Shire Pharmaceuticals/Takeda, culminating with the role of Sr. Director, Head of Protein and Antibody Engineering. In this role she and her team were responsible for all of the Biologics Research Programs globally for Shire. Prior to working at Shire Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Norton initiated her career at Transkaryotic Therapies which was eventually purchased by Shire. Angela earned her doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of New Hampshire.

Dr. Vadysirisack brings over a decade of industry experience leading drug discovery and translational sciences. He has experience working across all stages of drug development from concept through regulatory filings, with multiple modalities and therapeutic areas, including rare autoimmune diseases. He most recently served as Translational Biology Lead at UCB, where he supported the clinical development of zilucoplan, led complement-focused strategies, and drug discovery programs. Previously, he was at Ra Pharma prior to its acquisition by UCB, where he held several roles including Director of Biology. At Ra Pharma, he supported complement-focused drug discovery programs and led external scientific collaborations. He earned his doctorate in Biomedical Sciences from Ohio State University and was awarded an NIH NRSA F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship while at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Gokhale is a U.S Board Certified Neurologist and brings over 15 years of clinical practice and pharmaceutical industry experience to Dianthus. He has experience in all phases of clinical development (Phase 1-3) specifically, in the rare disease neurology indications. He most recently served as Senior Director of Clinical Development at Radius Health where he led the clinical development of oral CBD for multiple rare neuropsychiatric and epilepsy indications. Previously, he worked as Medical Director of Clinical Development at Alexion Pharmaceuticals where he led multiple phase 2 and 3 global clinical trials (pediatric and adult) for Eculizumab and Ravulizumab in Myasthenia Gravis, leading to successful U.S. FDA approval of Ravulizumab in Myasthenia Gravis. After attending medical school in Mumbai, India, Dr. Gokhale completed his Neurology Residency at Harvard and received his M.B.A. from the University of Arizona.