Management Team

Tuan Ha-Ngoc has served as president and chief executive officer of AVEO and as a member of our board of directors since June 2002. From 1999 to 2002, he was co-founder, president and chief executive officer of deNovis, Inc., an enterprise-scale software development company for the automation of healthcare administrative functions. From 1998 to 1999, Mr. Ha-Ngoc was corporate vice president of strategic development for Wyeth, following Wyeth’s acquisition of Genetics Institute, where Mr. Ha-Ngoc served as executive vice president with responsibility for corporate development, commercial operations and European and Japanese operations. Mr. Ha-Ngoc serves on the Board of Directors of Human Genome Sciences, Inc. as well as on the boards of a number of academic and nonprofit organizations, including the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, the Tufts School of Medicine, the MIT Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and the International Institute of Boston. He holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD and an M.A. in pharmacy from the University of Paris, France.

Elan Ezickson has served as AVEO’s chief business officer since April 2003. From 1994 to 2003, he worked at Biogen in roles that included president of Biogen Canada, program executive and associate general counsel. Mr. Ezickson sits on the Board of Directors of the Greater Boston Food Bank. Mr. Ezickson holds a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University and a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law.

Michael Bailey brings more than 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry to AVEO and joins the company from Synta Pharmaceuticals, where he served as senior vice president, business development and chief commercial officer since 2008. Prior to joining Synta, Mr. Bailey led ImClone's Worldwide Commercial Organization, where he was responsible for commercial aspects for the planning and launch of Erbitux across multiple indications. In addition, Mr. Bailey was a key member of the strategic leadership committees for ImClone and its North American and worldwide partnerships. Prior to his role at ImClone, Mr. Bailey managed the cardiovascular development portfolio at Genentech, Inc. and was a key member of their global commercial partnership teams. Mr. Bailey started his career in the pharmaceutical industry as part of Smith-Kline Beecham's Executive Marketing Development Program, where he held a variety of commercial roles, including sales, strategic planning, and product management. Mr. Bailey received a B.S. in psychology from St. Lawrence University and an M.B.A. in international marketing from the University of Notre Dame Graduate School of Business.

David Johnston has served as AVEO’s chief financial officer since October 2007. From 1998 to 2007, he served as senior vice president of corporate finance at Genzyme Corporation. Mr. Johnston sits on the Board of Directors of Tissue Banks International. Mr. Johnston holds a B.S. from Washington and Lee University and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

William Slichenmyer has served as AVEO’s chief medical officer since September 2009. Prior to joining AVEO, Dr. Slichenmyer served as chief medical officer at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals from 2007 to September 2009. From 2000 to 2007, Dr. Slichenmyer worked at Pfizer Inc. in roles that included global head of oncology clinical development as well as positions in medical affairs and regulatory affairs. Dr. Slichenmyer holds a B.A. and M.D. from Case Western Reserve University and an Sc.M. in clinical investigation from Johns Hopkins Oncology Center.

Jeno Gyuris was named senior vice president, head of research in January 2010.  Dr. Gyuris joined our company in 2002 and served as our vice president, molecular technologies until January 2007 and as our senior vice president, drug discovery from January 2007 to January 2010.From 1993 to 2002, Dr. Gyuris worked at GPC Biotech AG, formerly Mitotix Inc., where he held positions of increasing responsibility, most recently vice president of molecular technologies. Dr. Gyuris has received several research fellowships in Europe and the United States, and is the author of numerous patents and publications. Dr. Gyuris received his Ph.D. from University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.

Nell Jones joined AVEO in 2011 and brings more than 30 years of human resources (HR) and operations experience to AVEO. Ms. Jones has been a successful HR leader in the multiple industries, and is experienced in establishing HR services for high growth companies with domestic and international locations.  Prior to AVEO, Ms. Jones served as senior vice president of HR at Verenium, a publically traded biotechnology firm that pioneered sustainable energy solutions and commercialized enzymes for use in industrial processes. Prior to Verenium, Ms. Jones was a human resources executive at several other energy research and technology companies in addition to many years of providing HR consulting services to client companies in a variety of industries.  Ms. Jones has extensive experience in recruiting and retention, compensation and management coaching.  She received a B.A. degree from the College of the Holy Cross.

Murray Robinson, Ph.D. joined AVEO in 2003 and led the development of the company’s core technology, AVEO’s proprietary Human Response Platform™ (HRP). Comprising libraries of genetically defined mouse models of human cancer, the HRP is designed to improve the probability of success in developing new cancer therapies. In his current role as senior vice president, translational medicine and chair of AVEO’s scientific advisory board, Dr. Robinson leads the strategic integration of AVEO’s HRP into its clinical development and drug discovery programs, with a focus on AVEO’s lead program tivozanib. He is a frequent speaker in oncology-related forums and an expert resource on predictive cancer biomarker research. Dr. Robinson joined AVEO from Amgen, Inc. where he held various roles over 12 years. While at Amgen, Dr. Robinson started and managed Amgen's internal cancer therapeutics program, which led to three internally generated clinical programs comprising both small molecule and antibody drug candidates. Dr. Robinson received his bachelor's degree at UC San Diego and his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.

Anna Berkenblit joined AVEO in 2011 and has six years experience in the industry. She was previously with Wyeth Research, where she joined the Torisel (temsirolimus, CCI-779) team and ultimately led the clinical development and global approval of Torisel for renal cell cancer, as well as the European approval of Torisel for mantle cell lymphoma.  She led clinical efforts in lifecycle planning and ran the compassionate use program for Torisel prior to moving to the Neratinib (HKI-272) program as the lead U.S. physician on the clinical team.  After the acquisition of Wyeth by Pfizer, she became the asset team leader for Neratinib, accountable for driving the development, implementation and delivery of the integrated asset plan strategy.  Prior to her career in industry, Dr. Berkenblit ran the Phase 1 oncology clinical trial program at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA, as part of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.  She received her B.S. from Yale College and her M.D. from Harvard Medical School.  She received her postgraduate training in internal medicine/primary care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, followed by subspeciality training in hematology/medical oncology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where she also earned a master’s degree in medical science through Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Isabel Chiu, Ph.D., joined AVEO in 2003. As vice president, translational research, she is responsible for applying AVEO’s preclinical insights to both inform the design of human clinical studies and to guide therapeutic approaches to the company’s cancer product development initiatives. Prior to joining AVEO, Dr. Chiu spent 10 years with GPC-Biotech, formerly Mitotix Inc., where she most recently served as director of target discovery. During her time there, Dr. Chiu established functional phenotypic screens for cancer drug discovery and played key roles in numerous multi-year alliances with external collaborators including Altana Pharma and Dupont-Merck. She completed her post-doctoral training at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and is the author of numerous publications and issued patents. Dr. Chiu received her B.A. in biochemistry from Brandeis University and her Ph.D. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA.

Gary Creason joined AVEO in 2004, and has more than 20 years of experience in intellectual property law. Prior to joining AVEO, Mr. Creason was an associate general counsel at Biogen Idec, in Cambridge, MA. There, he served as primary counsel for several biopharmaceutical R&D programs, managed and developed a large patent portfolio, handled numerous licensing and contract matters, conducted due diligence in connection with various business development opportunities, and frequently advised senior management regarding third party intellectual property rights. From 1994 through 2000, Mr. Creason was an attorney in the Boston office of the law firm Fish & Richardson, where his practice focused on patent prosecution in chemistry and biotechnology, opinion work, and litigation. From 1989 to 1994, Mr. Creason worked as a patent agent in the law firm Fish & Neave, in New York. From 1987 to 1989, Mr. Creason performed basic research in plant biochemistry, at EniChem, in Monmouth Junction, NJ, following postdoctoral training at E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co., in Wilmington, DE, and the Noble Foundation, in Ardmore, OK. Mr. Creason received a Ph.D. in plant physiology from Cornell University in 1984, and graduated from Fordham University School of Law in 1994.

Skip Dauray joined AVEO in 2011 with more than 25 years of experience in information technology support, design and management. For the past 10 years, Skip held a number of senior management roles with Genzyme Corporation in the corporate IT group including: technology lead on a major enterprise ERP deployment; senior director of enterprise business application services; corporate IT lead role in the Genzyme acquisitions of Sangstat Medical Corp. and Ilex Oncology; and, senior director of the IT Business Partner Group and of the Biosurgery IT organization. Prior to Genzyme, Mr. Dauray worked as a consultant in an ERP integrator and outsourcing services firm, and held IT manager/contributor roles for a small manufacturing organization, a museum and a computer systems service and networking integrator. Skip received an M.S. in computer information systems from Bentley University and a B.A. from Franklin Pierce College.

Suzanne Fleming joined AVEO in 2005, and has more than nineteen years of experience as a finance executive in the biotechnology industry.  Prior to joining AVEO, Ms. Fleming was the Senior Director, Finance at Transform Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2005.  Ms. Fleming has also held senior finance positions at Transkaryotic Therapies (TKT), Cytotherapeutics and Oculon Corporation.  Ms. Fleming holds a B.S. in Accounting from Stonehill College and is a Certified Public Accountant.

David Graham joined AVEO in 2005, and has more than 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience. Since joining AVEO, Mr. Graham has led the successful submission of three INDs and associated EU submissions, and managed global development and partner alliances for all AVEO development programs. Prior to joining AVEO, Mr. Graham was at Cubist Pharmaceuticals since 1999, where he created a program management department and was responsible for leading the successful NDA submission and approval of their first ethical pharmaceutical product. Prior to joining Cubist, Mr. Graham had a 10-year tenure at Genetics Institute (GI) where he held various positions of increasing responsibility. At GI, Mr. Graham was responsible for leading the first PLA submission and approval for GI and was instrumental in the building of the commercial operations team and subsequent successful product launches. He began his pharmaceutical career with Hoffmann LaRoche and held positions in sales, market research and project management. Throughout his career, Mr. Graham has been involved in more than 11 successful product approvals. He received a B.S. in microbiology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Donna Radzik joined AVEO in 2010 and has more than 25 years experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, contributing to the development, approval and commercial technical support of both small and large molecule therapies. Before joining AVEO, Dr. Radzik served as vice president of technical operations at Sanofi Pasteur Biologics (formerly Acambis) where she was responsible for bulk and drug product production of live viral vaccines. Prior to this tenure, Dr. Radzik was at UCB where she was a site director and accountable for the supply chain of numerous products. She previously held various senior level positions at Celltech and its predecessor, Medeva Inc.; Hoechst-Roussel; Marion Merrell Dow; and Lederle Laboratories/Medical Research Division of American Cyanamid. Dr. Radzik received her B.Sc. in chemistry from Grand Valley State University and her Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Purdue University.

Margaret Taleff joined AVEO in 2008 and has 17 years of experience in regulatory affairs, with particular focus on regulatory strategy and compliance.  Before joining AVEO, Ms. Taleff was the head of the Inflammation Worldwide Regulatory Affairs group at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Prior to this tenure, Ms. Taleff was at Centocor, Inc. where she was primarily responsible for establishing and leading the oncology regulatory organization. This position eventually expanded to include leadership and oversight of all Centocor regulatory submissions across oncology, immunology, pulmonary, dermatology, and cardiovascular programs. Ms. Taleff previously held regulatory affairs positions at Wyeth-Ayerst Research and MedImmune, Inc. (formerly US Bioscience). Ms. Taleff received her B.S. degree in psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and has an M.S. degree in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Carole joined AVEO in 2011 with more than 25 years experience in both virtual and fully integrated start-up, emerging and established pharmaceutical and diagnostic product companies, with primary responsibilities in Quality Assurance and Quality Control, preparation and review of regulatory filings, technology transfer and development, manufacturing and supply chain.  She has established QA/QC functions including quality systems, computer system validation, product disposition and stability testing, QC laboratories, analytical support, and GxP compliance and auditing programs.  Carole has been responsible for numerous successful pre-approval and routine regulatory audits, and has supported multiple commercial product launches.  Carole joins AVEO from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where she served as Vice President, Quality Assurance and Quality Control since 2007, supporting the full development pipeline and the development and commercial launch of INCIVEK.  Prior to joining Vertex, Carole was Vice President, Quality Assurance at Critical Therapeutics, Inc. where she was responsible for developing the company’s Quality Assurance function and successfully launched two commercial products.   Carole has held various Quality leadership roles at Muro Pharmaceuticals, a fully integrated pharmaceutical company; Diatide, Inc. (former division of Berlex [Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals]) where she supported the approval and commercial launch of two peptide-based radiopharmaceutical imaging agents; MVS Inc. (a division of IGI, Inc,) where she was Director of Development working on liposome-based vaccine adjuvants; and Cambridge Medical Technology, Inc., an immunodiagnostic product manufacturer.  Prior to entering the pharmaceutical arena, Carole held academic research positions at both the McClean Hospital and Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology.  Carole received a M.S. Degree from the University of Maine in Orono, and has authored numerous publications and patents.

Joseph Vittiglio joined AVEO in 2007 and has more than 15 years experience in corporate and securities law, with a particular focus in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Prior to joining AVEO, Mr. Vittiglio was the Director of Corporate Legal Affairs of Oscient Pharmaceuticals from 2005 through 2007. From 1998 through 2005, Mr. Vittiglio was a senior attorney at the Boston law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., where his practice focused principally in the life science and technology industries working on collaborative arrangements, corporate partnering, registered public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and venture financings.  Mr. Vittiglio sits on the Board of Directors of the Casa Monte Cassino in Boston and on the Board of Directors Lynnfield Youth Soccer.  Mr. Vittiglio holds a degree in International Relations from Tufts University and graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 1996.