Board of Directors
Peter Colabuono
Director
Peter Colabuono
Director
Peter works at Decheng Capital, a global healthcare fund, and is based in Menlo Park.
Keith Flaherty, MD
Director
Keith Flaherty, MD
Director
Dr. Flaherty is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Associate Physician of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Director of Clinical Research, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Cancer Research. He co-founded and served on the Board of Directors of Loxo Oncology, Inc. until its acquisition by Eli Lilly and Company and he currently serves on the Board of Directors of Clovis Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLVS). Dr. Flaherty has a Bachelor of Science from Yale University and medical degree from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Flaherty trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and completed a medical oncology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Alan Fuhrman
Director
Alan Fuhrman
Director
Mr. Fuhrman is an experienced financial operations leader with a focus on guiding the growth of innovative pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He is currently the CFO of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, a position he has held since December 2017. Mr. Fuhrman is a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Audit Committee for SpringWorks Therapeutics. He also served on the Board of Directors, as Chair of the Audit Committee and as a member of the Compensation Committee for Loxo Oncology until its sale to Eli Lilly in February 2019. Prior to joining Amplyx, he served as CFO of Mirna Therapeutics, a publicly-traded, clinical-stage microRNA company that merged with Synlogic in August 2017. Prior to his role at Mirna, Mr. Fuhrman was CFO of Ambit Biosciences, where he helped lead the company through its initial public offering and oversaw financial, investor and administrative operations until its sale to Daiichi Sankyo in 2014. He has also served as the CFO at Naviscan, a privately held medical imaging company, and Sonus Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-traded oncology-focused biotechnology company. Earlier in his career, Mr. Fuhrman practiced as a certified public accountant with Coopers & Lybrand. Mr. Fuhrman received a BS in both Business Administration and Agricultural Economics from Montana State University.
Oren K. Isacoff, MD
Director
Oren K. Isacoff, MD
Director
Dr. Isacoff is a Principal at Longitude Capital. Prior to joining Longitude Capital in 2015, Dr. Isacoff was a Senior Associate on the Healthcare Team of TPG Special Situations Partners. Dr. Isacoff completed his internship at Massachusetts General Hospital and maintains an active medical license. Dr. Isacoff is a board observer at Inozyme, KaNDy Therapeutics and Velicept Therapeutics, and has been actively involved with Longitude Capital’s investments in Cydan Development, Poseida Therapeutics and Tricida (TCDA). He previously served as a board observer at Zavante Therapeutics (acquired by Nabriva).
Dr. Isacoff holds an MD and an MBE from the Perelman School of Medicine, an MBA from the Wharton School, and a BA in Political Science and a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Nilesh Kumar, PhD
Director
Nilesh Kumar, PhD
Director | Partner, Novo Ventures
Nilesh Kumar is a Partner at Novo Ventures and is responsible for investments in Morphic Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MORF), Milestone Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MIST), Tarveda Therapeutics, Anokion, Cirius Therapeutics, Rgenix Therapeutics, and Disc Medicine. Prior to joining Novo, Nilesh was Senior Director at Merck Ventures where he invested in early stage life science companies. He led the initial investments and served on the Boards of Padlock Therapeutics (acquired by BMS), f-star, RaNA Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TBIO), and Auxogyn (NASDAQ: PGNY).
Nilesh received his PhD from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University and holds an MBA from Harvard University. He completed his undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, UK.
Barry Labinger
President, Chief Executive Officer,
and Director
Barry Labinger
President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director
Barry brings to Checkmate nearly three decades of pharmaceutical and biotech industry experience, most recently serving as President, CEO, and Director of Biothera Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage cancer immunotherapy company focused on innate immune activation. Prior to Biothera, he was Executive Vice President and President, Biosciences Division, at Emergent BioSolutions Inc., where he led the development and commercialization of oncology, immunology and hematology products and product candidates. He previously held leadership roles at Human Genome Sciences, 3M Pharmaceuticals and Immunex. He received a BA in Economics from Northwestern University and MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Mike Powell
Chairman
Mike Powell
Chairman | General Partner, Sofinnova Investments
Mike has more than 25 years of pharmaceutical development experience and has focused on clinical-stage product companies, particularly in the oncology and neurology areas. He joined Sofinnova Investments as a General Partner in 1997. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Mike worked on 20 clinical products and authored almost 100 papers and books, including an 1,000–page treatise on vaccine design. Mike was the initial investor in: Actelion (SWX: ATLN), InterMune (Nasdaq: ITMN), Anesiva (Nasdaq: ANSV), Orexigen Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OREX), Seattle Genetics (Nasdaq: SGEN), Threshold Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: THLD) and Trius Therapeutics (Nasdaq: TSRX), as well as several private companies such as: Alvine, Ascenta and Intellikine (acquired by Millennium/Takeda). He most recently led Sofinnova’s investments in Mirna Therapeutics (Chairman) and invested in Labrys Biologics (acquired by Teva). Mike is on the Board of Trustees of Washington University in St. Louis, is past Board President of AVAC (AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition) in NYC, a past Advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a past Strategic Advisor to One World Health and a Founding Venture Advisory Board member of the IAVI (International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) Innovation Fund. He also serves on the University of Kansas board of IAMI (Institute for the Advancement of Medical Innovation). Mike had senior level operation roles at Genentech, Cytel, and Syntex Research and was the first scientist from the biotechnology industry to be elected a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. He received his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Toronto, and a postdoc at the University of California, where he was a faculty member before moving into biotech.