Our Team
Our Executive Team
Dr. Russo is an accomplished biotechnology CEO with over 20 years of experience leading R&D and commercialization in the biopharmaceutical industry. As an executive leader, Dr. Russo has held positions of increasing responsibility ranging from early preclinical research through all phases of clinical development, registration, and commercialization of many successful therapies in the US and EU. She is currently the CEO of Xilio Therapeutics, a privately held immuno-oncology company focused on the development of tumor-selective, potent IO therapeutics. Prior to Xilio, Dr. Russo was the President and CEO of Arsanis (NASDAQ: ASNS), a company developing monoclonal antibodies to prevent and treat serious infectious diseases, merged with X4 Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: XFOR) in 2018. Prior to Arsanis, Dr. Russo spent 12 years at Cubist Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CBST), a leading global anti-infective company (acquired by Merck for $9.6B). At Cubist, she contributed to the successful launch and commercialization of Cubicin (reaching over $1B in sales annually worldwide) and played a key role in the successful integration of two public companies, Optimer Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: OPTR) and Trius Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TSRX). Prior to Cubist, Dr. Russo held R&D roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) contributing to the successful development and global commercialization of several therapies including Reyataz and Baraclude. Dr. Russo serves on the boards of Xilio Therapeutics, X4 Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: XFOR), Celsius Therapeutics, Adagio Therapeutics and Life Science Cares. Dr. Russo holds a B.S. in pharmacy and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Rutgers University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in infectious diseases with Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Dr. Bialucha is Senior Vice President of Research at Xilio. He is a passionate life science leader with broad experience in oncology/immuno-oncology drug discovery and preclinical development. Prior to joining Xilio, Dr. Bialucha served as Vice President of Drug Discovery at Immunitas Therapeutics, developing a single cell genomics-based discovery platform and immuno-oncology focused therapeutic pipeline. Prior to joining Immunitas Therapeutics, Dr. Bialucha held positions of increasing responsibility at the Novartis (NYSE: NVS) Institutes for Biomedical Research, most recently leading the oncology biotherapeutics group, and directed multiple programs towards successful entry into clinical development across a variety of modalities. Dr. Bialucha received his B.S. in Molecular Genetics from University of Sussex and his Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology from the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, University College London. He completed his postdoctoral training in Professor Scott Lowe’s laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, studying tumor suppressor gene networks using genetic mouse models of cancer.
Dr. Clackson is President of Xilio and Chief Technology Officer. Prior to Xilio, he was President of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, an integrated oncology company acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals in 2017. During his 22-year tenure at ARIAD, he led the multi-disciplinary R&D team that internally discovered and developed five product candidates, including Iclusig (ponatinib), approved for the treatment of resistant CML/Ph+ALL, and Alunbrig (brigatinib), approved for ALK+ NSCLC. Earlier in his career, Dr. Clackson was a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. James A. Wells in the Department of Protein Engineering at Genentech, where his studies on growth hormone receptor defined the now-established “hot spot” paradigm for how proteins interact. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from Cambridge University for research conducted under Dr. Greg Winter at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology into antibody engineering and the development of antibody phage display technology, subsequently commercialized by Cambridge Antibody Technology. He received his B.A. degree in Biochemistry from Oxford University. Dr. Clackson serves as a member of the boards of directors of Forma Therapeutics, Elevation Oncology, and the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio).
Dr. Huber has over 20 years of academic, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical drug development experience, most recently serving as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Tesaro, Inc. before its acquisition by GSK. While at Tesaro, he drove the expansion of the niraparib program and advanced the company’s immuno-oncology agents into the clinic. Prior to that, he was Vice President, Oncology Clinical Research at Merck Research Laboratories where he was instrumental in the advancement of Merck’s oncology programs, serving as program lead for pembrolizumab in non-small cell lung cancer. Prior to Merck, he served in roles of increasing responsibility at Schering-Plough, Hoffmann-La Roche and Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, where he led teams in the areas of oncology clinical development, drug safety and pharmacovigilance. He previously served as an Assistant Professor of Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Huber holds an M.D. from the Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Malmberg is an accomplished leader with more than 25 years of product development and manufacturing experience. Prior to joining Xilio, Dr. Malmberg was the Senior Vice President of CMC at Magenta Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MGTA) and established the CMC technical operations and drove the strategy for product development. Prior to joining Magenta, Dr. Malmberg served as Vice President of Biologics Development and Manufacturing at Celgene (NYSE: BMY) where she built an organization of over 150 scientists and engineers and was responsible for developing and supporting manufacturing of clinical and commercial biologics products globally. During her tenure at Celgene, she led the CMC development for 15 biologics clinical programs and launched one commercial product. Previously, Dr. Malmberg was Director, Head of Process Sciences at AbbVie, Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) where she built and led an organization of more than 80 scientists and engineers responsible for biologics drug development from preclinical to commercial launch. Previous roles include various leadership roles in R&D at Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT). She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.
Dr. O’Hagan is Senior Vice President, Research and Translational Sciences at Xilio. Prior to Xilio, he led the oncology discovery program at Merck with a particular emphasis on approaches to enable and enhance immune-modulatory therapies in cancer. Earlier at Merck Dr. O’Hagan led target identification and validation for oncology and generated an early-discovery pipeline including both biologics and small-molecule programs. Prior to Merck, he held positions of increasing responsibility in biotech companies, working on early target discovery, small-molecule and biologics drug discovery, and translational research. He has helped to bring multiple small-molecule and biologics programs into clinical development during his time in industry. Dr. O’Hagan’s academic career included undergraduate and graduate work in Canada followed by post-doctoral work at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. In Dr. Ron DePinho’s laboratory at DFCI, he focused on genetically engineered mouse models of cancer and novel approaches to target discovery.
Mr. Frankenfield is an accomplished biotechnology professional with approximately 15 years of experience supporting and counselling companies on complex legal issues, transactions, and corporate matters. Prior to Xilio, Mr. Frankenfield served as vice president of corporate legal affairs at Blueprint Medicines Corporation (NASDAQ: BPMC). At Blueprint Medicines, he served on the company’s management team and led public company reporting activities, advised on capital markets strategies, supported multiple successful equity offerings, and executed collaborations and partnerships with Roche (OTCMKTS: RHHBY), CStone Pharmaceuticals (HKG: 2616), and Clementia Pharmaceuticals, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ipsen S.A. (OTCMKTS: IPSEY). Prior to Blueprint Medicines, Mr. Frankenfield was a senior associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, with a focus on strategic transactions, securities regulations and compliance, and corporate governance. Mr. Frankenfield began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP where he advised clients on complex commercial disputes and investigations. He received his B.A. in Economics from The College of William & Mary and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Mr. Giovine is a highly experienced finance leader who has spent approximately 20 years in diverse healthcare and biopharma settings. He has led successful finance teams across strategy and execution, business and corporate development, R&D, and commercialization. He joined Xilio from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), where he spent 15 years, most recently with Janssen Biotech, Inc. leading finance for the $5 billion NTS U.S. Oncology business. Over the course of three years, Mr. Giovine led all commercial finance aspects of DARZALEX®, IMBRUVICA®, ERLEADA®, ZYTIGA®, and BALVERSA®, which collectively grew by more than 30% and more than $1 billion annually. Preceding this role, Mr. Giovine spent four years leading finance for Johnson & Johnson’s Corporate Venture Capital Group. In this capacity, he led financial aspects of over 200 equity capital investments in over 75 companies leading to various licensing and M&A transactions. Prior to Johnson & Johnson, he was an associate at Deloitte LLP. Mr. Giovine holds a B.S. in Accounting and an MBA in Corporate Finance, both from Fordham University in New York.
Our Board
Daniel S. Lynch is the Chair of the Board of Directors at Xilio Therapeutics and a strategic advisor at Third Rock Ventures. He brings more than 25 years of experience in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and has active board roles in several companies including chairman at bluebird bio, Blueprint Medicines, and Translate Bio (formerly RaNA Therapeutics). Mr. Lynch served as chief executive and chief financial officer of ImClone Systems Corp. While at ImClone, he negotiated a major partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb and helped secure FDA approval of its novel cancer treatment, ERBITUX. He has served as executive chair or board member for a number of private biopharmaceutical companies, including Stromedix, until its acquisition by Biogen Idec in February 2012, and Avila Therapeutics Inc., until its acquisition by Celgene in February 2012. Earlier in his career, Mr. Lynch served in various financial positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb over a 15-year tenure. He served on the board of directors and the audit committee of U.S. Oncology Inc., for five years until December 2010 when it was acquired by McKesson. Mr. Lynch received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Wesleyan University and his master’s degree in business administration from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.
Mr. Clancy has more than 30 years of experience in corporate and financial leadership and strategic business planning. He currently serves on the boards of Agios Pharmaceuticals and Incyte Corporation. Mr. Clancy was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Alexion Pharmaceuticals from July 2017 to October 2019. Prior to that, Mr. Clancy was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Biogen. While at Biogen, he successfully led the financial strategy of the company over a ten-year period of growth. Mr. Clancy joined Biogen in 2001, where he also served in several other senior executive positions, including Senior Vice President of Finance, Vice President of Business Planning, Vice President of Portfolio Management, and Vice President of Marketing. Prior to Biogen, he spent thirteen years at PepsiCo in a range of finance, strategy, and general management positions. Mr. Clancy received his B.S. in Finance from Babson College and M.B.A. from Columbia University.
Dr. Daniel Curran is the Head of the Rare Genetics and Hematology Therapeutic Area Unit (TAU) at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. In this role, he leads Takeda’s strategy, research and development efforts to unlock innovation and deliver transformative medicines in the areas of rare genetic and hematologic diseases.
Previously, Dr. Curran served as Head of Takeda’s Center for External Innovation (CEI). In this role, he and his team diversified and transformed Takeda’s research and development pipeline, focusing on partnerships to access cutting-edge technologies and innovation. Over a four-year period, the team completed more than 200 transactions and invested more than $1.5 billion in capital in external relationships and investments.
Prior to his role as Head, CEI, Dr. Curran led the corporate development group at Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company and was a member of the executive management team. In that role, he oversaw the development and execution of corporate strategic business development initiatives, including licensing arrangements, acquisitions and a range of other transactions.
He has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical experience in strategy, business development, project leadership and development roles.
Prior to Millennium, previous professional experiences include a business development role in the Product Planning and Acquisition group at DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Curran received an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in chemistry from King’s College.
Dave Gardner, CFA, is a senior member of the investment team at Rock Spring Capital Management LP. Rock Springs invests in both publicly held and private companies across multiple subsectors within healthcare, including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, life sciences and health care services. Mr. Gardner’s primary research focus is on therapeutics companies with material programs in oncology, neuroscience, and rare diseases. Mr. Gardner has been responsible for the oversight of investments in private companies where Rock Springs has served as the lead investor for a syndicate of other healthcare-focused investors. From 2005 until his departure to join Rock Springs in May of 2015, Mr. Gardner was a Vice President and research analyst at BlackRock (and its predecessor company Merrill Lynch Investment Managers) on the Fundamental Equity large cap team, with primary coverage of all US health care investments. Mr. Gardner is a former director of the New York-based non-profit Change for Kids. He holds a B.S. in Commerce with a minor in Economics from the University of Virginia, and an MBA from Columbia University.
David is a partner at Atlas Venture and focuses on investments in novel therapeutics, often those that are near to first in human clinical testing. Since joining Atlas in 2010, David has co-founded and served as chief executive officer of numerous companies including Arteaus Therapeutics acquired by Eli Lilly in 2014, Annovation Biopharma acquired by The Medicines Company in 2015, and was a founding board member of Delinia acquired by Celgene in 2017. David is a co-founder, founding chairmen, and board member of Surface Oncology (NASDAQ: SURF), Cadent Therapeutics, and Q32 Bio. David also sits on the boards of Xilio Therapeutics and Affinia Therapeutics, and is a board observer at Day One Biopharmaceuticals. David serves as an advisor to several organizations including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s (MSKCC) Technology Development Fund, the American Heart Association’s One Brave Idea, and is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Tri-TDI that includes Rockefeller University, MSKCC, and Cornell. He earned his B.A. from Stanford University, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed his internship and residency training in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He also serves on the board of Acera: The Massachusetts School for Science, Creativity, and Leadership, a STEM focused K-8 school, which his wife Courtney founded in 2009.
Andrew Hack is a Managing Director of Bain Capital Life Sciences. Before joining Bain Capital, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Editas Medicine from July 2015 through March 2019. Prior to that, Dr. Hack served as a portfolio manager at Millennium Management, where he ran a healthcare hedge fund focused on biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies. Prior to Millennium, Dr. Hack was an analyst at HealthCor Management, an analyst at Carlyle-Blue Wave Partners, and a principal of the MPM BioEquities Fund. He started his investment career as an equity research analyst covering the biotechnology sector at Banc of America Securities after serving as Director of Life Sciences at Reify Corporation. In addition, Dr. Hack is a member of the Board of Directors of Affinivax, Allena Pharmaceuticals, Atea Pharmaceuticals, BCLS Acquisition Corp, Dynavax Technologies, Imperative Care, JenaValve Technology, and Mersana Therapeutics. Dr. Hack received his B.A. in biology with special honors from the University of Chicago, where he also received his M.D. and Ph.D., was named the inaugural Frank Family Scholar, and received awards from the American Heart Association and the American Society for Cell Biology.
Rachel Humphrey is a medical oncologist, who most recently served as the Chief Medical Officer of CytomX, a biotech company based in South San Francisco where she supervised the clinical development of ProbodyTM Therapeutics for the development of cancer. Prior to this, she held various senior level roles in cancer drug development including at Cytomx (Board of Directors), AstraZeneca (SVP, Head of the Immuno-oncology department), and Bristol Myers Squibb (VP, Clinical Development). Dr. Humphrey’s career is notable for, among other things, overall supervision of the (early and late-stage) clinical development of ipilimumab (Yervoy) at BMS and sorafenib (Nexavar) at Bayer. She is also the lead singer and one of the co-founders of the band, The Checkpoints, a blues band made up of luminaries in immuno-oncology, including the Nobel Laureate, Jim Allison, and is featured in the movie Jim Allison: Breakthrough, which was released in 2019.
Mike joined SV Health Investors as a Venture Partner in 2001 and became Managing Partner in 2002. He is responsible for biotech investments and activities in the US and serves on the boards of companies in the US and UK. His career spans over 19 years in venture capital, which followed 21 years in senior operating executive roles for leading biotechnology companies. At SV, Mike has been involved from the beginning with the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) and serves on the DDF Investment Committee. He has been the seed investor in a number of startup biotech companies and has invested in platform companies, small molecule, antibody and cell therapy therapeutic companies. Prior to joining SV, Mike was the tenth employee at Genentech, where he worked for 13 years. He served as Genentech team leader for Humulin® (human insulin-Lilly), Roferon® (Interferon alpha-Roche), Protropin® (hGH), Vice President of Development during the development of Activase®, Nutropin® and Pulmozyme®. He then started Genentech’s protein engineering and small molecule discovery effort as Vice President of Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry. Mike was also the Founding CEO of Arris Pharmaceutical, MetaXen, ExSAR and CyThera (now Viacyte). Outside of SV, Mike serves on the Board of the Thayer School of Engineering (Dartmouth College). Academic credentials: AB, Dartmouth College; PhD, Chemistry, Caltech; NIH Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Molecular Biology, Harvard.
Dr. Russo has more than 20 years of experience leading all aspects of R&D and commercialization in the biopharmaceutical industry. She is currently the CEO of Xilio Therapeutics, a privately held immuno-oncology company focused on tumor-selective activation of potent IO therapeutics. Prior to Xilio, Dr. Russo was the President and CEO of Arsanis (NASDAQ: ASNS), a company developing monoclonal antibodies to prevent and treat serious infectious diseases, which merged with X4 Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: XFOR) in 2018. Prior to Arsanis, Dr. Russo spent 12 years at Cubist Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CBST), a leading global anti-infective company (acquired by Merck for $9.6B). Prior to Cubist, Dr. Russo held R&D roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) contributing to the development and global commercialization of several successful products, including Reyataz and Baraclude. Dr. Russo is also Chair of the Board of Adagio Therapeutics and serves on the boards of Xilio Therapeutics, X4 Pharmaceuticals, Celsius Therapeutics, and Life Science Cares. Dr. Russo holds a B.S. in pharmacy and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Rutgers University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in infectious diseases with Bristol-Myers Squibb.