Management Team

Tuan Ha-Ngoc, President and CEO
David Johnston, Chief Financial Officer
John L. Ryan, Ph.D. M.D., Chief Medical Officer
Elan Ezickson, Chief Business Officer
Gary Creason, Vice President, Intellectual Properties
Murray Robinson, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Oncology
Jeno Gyuris, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery
Pankaj Bhargava, M.D., Vice President, Clinical Research
M. Isabel Chiu, Ph.D., Vice President, Translational Research

 

Tuan Ha-Ngoc
President and CEO

Tuan Ha-Ngoc is a leader with more than 30 years’ experience in senior management positions in pharmaceuticals and healthcare.

Since the start of the Company more than five years ago, Mr. Ha-Ngoc has served as President and CEO of AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company leveraging breakthrough discoveries in cancer biology to discover, develop and commercialize targeted oncology therapies.

Before starting AVEO in 2002, Mr. Ha-Ngoc co-founded deNovis, Inc., an enterprise-scale software development company focused on automating administrative functions in healthcare. Mr. Ha-Ngoc led deNovis as President and CEO from 1999 until 2002.

From 1998 to 1999, Mr. Ha-Ngoc was Wyeth’s Corporate Vice President of Strategic Development. His tenure there followed Wyeth’s acquisition of Genetics Institute, where Mr. Ha-Ngoc was Executive Vice President with responsibility for Corporate Development, Commercial Operations, as well as European and Japanese Operations and in addition at various times Legal Affairs, Regulatory, a major R&D program and Program Management. Prior to joining Genetics Institute in 1984, he held various marketing and business positions at Baxter Healthcare, Inc.

Mr. Ha-Ngoc earned an MBA from INSEAD and a Master's in Pharmacy from the University of Paris, France. He serves on the Board of Directors of Human Genome Sciences, Inc. and on the boards of a number of academic and nonprofit organizations, including the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, the Tufts School of Medicine, the Belmont Hill School, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and the International Institute of Boston.

Mr. Ha-Ngoc is the recipient of the 2007 Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year.

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David Johnston
Chief Financial Officer

David Johnston joins AVEO after a nine-year tenure with Genzyme Corporation, having served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance for Genzyme. Prior to Genzyme, Mr. Johnston was Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Operations at McCue Corporation in Salem, MA. Mr. Johnston previously held various positions of increasing responsibility within the finance organizations at both Lotus Development Corporation and Ford Motor Company. Mr. Johnston sits on the board of directors of RAW Art Works, a nonprofit youth arts organization, as well as Tissue Banks International, one of the largest eye and tissue bank non-profits in the United States. He is also a member of the board of trustees of Old North Church in Marblehead, MA. Mr. Johnston earned a BS at Washington and Lee University and an MBA at the University of Michigan.

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John L. Ryan, Ph.D., M.D.
Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Ryan brings almost 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development to AVEO, including expertise in translational medicine and cancer biology. He joins the company after 11 years at Wyeth where he most recently held the position of Senior Vice President of Translational Research. In 2001, he was appointed head of the new Department of Experimental Medicine, which was created to explore new technologies such as pharmacogenomics in exploratory clinical trials, to work closely with FDA on clinical pharmacogenomics, and to bridge Discovery and Development with the creation of new biomarkers. In 1998, he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Clinical Research & Development and assumed leadership of the Oncology and Infectious Disease therapeutic areas as well as the CR&D group. Dr. Ryan joined Genetics Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1995 as Vice President of Clinical Development and guided clinical programs that led to the licensure of products including Benefix, Neumega, and InductOs. Prior to joining Genetics Institute, Dr. Ryan was an Executive Director of Clinical Research at Merck Research Laboratories.

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Elan Ezickson
Chief Business Officer

Mr. Ezickson joined AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. after 9 years at Biogen, where he served most recently as President of Biogen Canada. From 1996-2001, Mr. Ezickson served in Biogen's research and development organization in the capacity of Program Executive. From 1994-1996, Mr. Ezickson served as Associate General Counsel in Biogen's Legal Department, where he was responsible for technology licensing, development collaborations and regulatory affairs. Prior to joining Biogen, Mr. Ezickson was an attorney at the Boston law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., where his practice focused principally in the area of technology and product licensing, corporate partnering and private and public equity financings. Mr. Ezickson is a graduate of Yale University and the Columbia University School of Law.

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Gary Creason
Vice President, Intellectual Property

Mr. Creason joined AVEO in April 2004, and has nearly 18 years of experience in intellectual property law. Prior to joining AVEO, Mr. Creason was an Associate General Counsel at Biogen Idec Inc., 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.

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Murray Robinson, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Oncology

Dr. Robinson joined AVEO from Amgen, Inc. (AMGN) where he worked for the last 12 years (1991-2003). While at Amgen, Dr. Robinson started and managed Amgen's internal cancer research program, which led to three internally generated clinical programs comprising both small molecule and antibody drug candidates. Dr. Robinson also maintained a laboratory studying the biology of telomerase, a tumor-specific reverse transcriptase. At Amgen, Dr. Robinson also held positions in genomics discovery as well as primary responsibility for the establishment of Amgen's transgenic facility. Dr. Robinson received his bachelor's degree at UC San Diego and his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.

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Jeno Gyuris, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery

Dr. Gyuris joined AVEO Pharmaceuticals from GPC Biotech, formerly Mitotix Inc., where he spent close to 10 years. While at Mitotix and GPC Biotech, Dr. Gyuris held positions of increasing responsibility, most recently Vice President of Molecular Technologies. During his tenure he initiated several target and drug discovery programs, invented a number of technology platforms and played a key role in the commercialization of those technologies. He completed his postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Gyuris has received several research fellowships in Europe and the United States, and is author of numerous patents and publications. He received his Ph.D. from Attila Jozsef University, Szeged, Hungary.

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Pankaj Bhargava, M.D.
Vice President, Clinical Research

Dr. Bhargava is a Medical Oncologist and Clinical Pharmacologist, who joined AVEO from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Previous to that, he was Assistant Professor of Medicine and co-Director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology program at University of Massachusetts Medical Center. He has over 9 years of experience in drug development and translational research. Dr. Bhargava is board certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and Clinical Pharmacology, and did an advanced fellowship in Developmental Therapeutics at the Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University, during which he assisted in the review of drug applications at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He has conducted several early-phase clinical trials, and has published over fifty papers, abstracts and book chapters. Dr. Bhargava holds an M.B., B.S degree from the University of Delhi, India. He is currently an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an Attending Physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

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M. Isabel Chiu, Ph.D.
Vice President, Translational Research

Dr. Chiu, Ph.D., joined AVEO in 2003.  As Vice President of 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 ten 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 BA in Biochemistry from Brandeis University and her Ph.D. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA.

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