Management Team - Dianthus Therapeutics

Mr. Garcia has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since November 2021. Prior to joining Dianthus, Mr. Garcia served as Senior Vice President, Corporate and Business Development at Zealand Pharma A/S, a biotechnology company, from October 2018 to October 2021. Mr. Garcia previously served as Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer at Synergy Pharmaceuticals from 2014 to 2018. Prior to Synergy, Mr. Garcia served as Head of Business Development for Aptalis Pharma when it was acquired by Forest Laboratories (now Allergan, an AbbVie Company) in 2014. Previously he served as Vice President, US Commercial Operations and Global New Product Development at Aspreva Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Vifor Pharma in 2007. Aspreva was developing CellCept (myocophenolate mofetil) for a range of autoimmune diseases, including Lupus Nephritis, Myasthenia Gravis, and Pemphigus Vulgaris. Mr. Garcia started his career in various commercial and strategic roles at large, multinational biopharmaceutical companies, including Merck & Co., Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co. Mr. Garcia 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.

Dr. Hashmonay brings over 20 years of international experience in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries to Dianthus. He most recently served as Global Head of Business Transformation for Novartis. In his prior role as Chief Digital Officer at Novartis United States, he spearheaded digital transformation and strategic corporate health tech partnerships. As a member of the Novartis U.S. Executive Committee, Dr. Hashmonay has led multiple teams as Head of Business Innovation, Head of Business Development and Licensing, and Head of Launch Excellence. Prior to joining the U.S. division, he served as Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Medical Affairs for Novartis Latin America & Canada. Dr. Hashmonay previously held a number of senior executive roles in Medical Affairs and Clinical Development at Novartis and Johnson & Johnson. He earned his M.D. and graduated Cum Laude from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.

Mr. King started his biotech career at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals working on Enbrel® before he joined Alexion Pharmaceuticals, where he was Vice President, U.S. Neurology Business Unit responsible for building and leading the commercial team and strategy that launched Soliris®(eculizumab) into the generalized Myasthenia Gravis market as the first approved biologic and complement inhibitor. At Alexion, he also served as Vice President, Head of Global Hematology Franchise, among other leadership roles. He then joined Ra Pharma as the Chief Commercial Officer where he played a crucial role as part of the executive team in developing the commercial strategy for its C5 complement inhibitor in gMG and in its acquisition by UCB for $2.5 billion. Most recently, Mr. King was the Chief Commercial Officer at Vor Bio where he led commercial planning and business development for engineered cell therapies for patients with blood cancer. He began his career at Ernst & Young LLP and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Logistics and a Master of Business Administration from 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.

Sue has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, with broad global expertise across regulatory affairs and program management. Most recently, Sue worked as an independent regulatory consultant, providing fractional head-of-department support and strategic advice to clients at various stages of development. Prior to consulting, Sue was at Aurinia Pharmaceuticals for 10 years until 2024, where she served as Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs and built and led a regulatory team responsible for overseeing all global regulatory support and strategy for nonclinical, clinical, NDA / MAA submissions, CMC development, and post-approval changes, and MLR/AdPromo. Whilst at Aurinia, Sue led the global submission team to successfully secure FDA, EMA, UK, and Japanese approvals for LUPKYNIS™ for Lupus Nephritis (a rare autoimmune disease).

Earlier in her career, whilst living in the UK, Sue held various positions of increasing responsibility at 3M Drug Delivery Systems, working with large pharmaceutical clients including Sanofi, Novartis, and Schering-Plough. She also worked at Vectura (a UK Specialty Pharma company) as a regulatory specialist, where she gained further experience in branded generics, respiratory products, and EU & U.S. regulatory affairs. Sue holds an MBA from Vancouver Island University, a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Loughborough University, and is Regulatory Affairs Certified (RAC).

Jennifer Davis Ruff has more than 20 years of experience in investor relations and corporate communications in the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Ms. Ruff most recently served as Vice President, Investor Relations at Pyxis Oncology, where she led communications with investors and analysts. Previously, she held the roles of Vice President, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations at TESARO, Director, Investor Relations at Pfizer, and Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at MGI Pharma. She earned a master’s degree in biotechnology from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Iowa.

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.

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.

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. 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.

Jennifer Cross brings more than 15 years of experience in research and early-stage pipeline development in the biotechnology industry. Dr. Cross most recently served as Vice President, Research at Aurinia Pharmaceuticals where she played a key role in the in-licensing and leading the development of early-stage pipeline assets in addition continuing research and supporting life-cycle management activities for its commercial drug. Prior to Aurinia, Dr. Cross has served in increasingly senior positions in biotechnology companies, including Aquinox Pharmaceuticals and Tekmira Pharmaceuticals leading and supporting research and development activities in the areas of autoimmunity, allergic inflammation, fibrosis, and inflammatory pain. She earned a doctoral degree in Immunology from the University of British Columbia.