Leadership
Karen Brennan
Chief Operations Officer
Karen Brennan
Chief Operations Officer
Karen brings more than 25 years of extensive drug development experience to Checkmate. She has focused her career in the areas of development operations, program and alliance management, strategic partnerships and team development. Karen has worked across several therapeutic areas including oncology, neuroscience, immunology and infectious disease. Prior to joining Checkmate, Karen held development leadership positions with Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and most recently Forum Pharmaceuticals. Karen received her BS in Nursing at the University of Massachusetts and her MBA from Suffolk University.
Kleem Chaudhary, PhD
Chief Business Officer
Kleem Chaudhary, PhD
Chief Business Officer
Kleem brings to Checkmate more than 16 years of experience within the biotech/pharma industry with broad experience across business development & licensing, strategy and drug discovery. He has held leadership roles of increasing responsibility across multiple organizations including most recently as Head of Business Development & Licensing at Biogen and previously as a transaction leader in Business Development at Takeda. He began his business development career at Novartis, where he was a team leader and led deals across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to Novartis, he was a medicinal chemist at Gilead Sciences. Kleem holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BSc in chemistry from the University of Winnipeg.
Chris French
Vice President of Scientific Affairs
Chris French
Vice President of Scientific Affairs
Chris has over 20 years of experience across multiple functional areas of drug development with life sciences organizations ranging in size from small biotechs to mid-size and large pharmaceutical companies. She has a proven track record of success in research and across various senior level positions including regulatory affairs, medical affairs, scientific communications, program management and corporate compliance at Advaxis, Bristol Myers-Squibb Company, MGI Pharma, Atrix, Aesgen and the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. During her career, Chris was a member of the management team in two biotech start-ups and was instrumental in their successful growth. Chris received her B.Sc. from Mankato State University, was a doctoral student in Molecular Biology at Mayo Graduate School and she holds an MBA in Finance and Marketing from University of St. Thomas.
Art Krieg, MD
Founder, Chief Scientific Officer
Art Krieg, MD
Founder, Chief Scientific Officer
Art has worked in the oligonucleotide field since the 1980s. After discovering immune stimulatory CpG DNA in 1994, he co-founded Coley Pharmaceutical Group in 1997 to develop the technology, discovering and taking 4 novel CpG oligonucleotides into clinical development. In 2008, Pfizer acquired Coley and Art became Chief Scientific Officer of Pfizer’s Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Unit until they exited the field in 2011. Art subsequently co-founded RaNA Therapeutics, serving as its CEO through 2013, and served as CSO at Sarepta Therapeutics until July 2014. He co-founded the first antisense journal, Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, and the Oligonucleotide Therapeutic Society, for which he recently served as President. Art received an MD from Washington University and trained in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota and in rheumatology at the NIH before joining the faculty at the University of Iowa, becoming professor of internal medicine. He has published more than 250 scientific papers and is an inventor on >50 issued US patents covering oligonucleotide technologies.
Steven Hamburger, PhD
Vice President of Regulatory Affairs
Steven Hamburger, PhD
Vice President of Regulatory Affairs
Steve brings more than 25 years of global drug development experience leading to numerous marketing authorizations, primarily for patients with cancer and rare disease. He has focused on Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance strategy, led global cross-functional Product Teams and had key responsibilities for Strategic Partnerships, Business Development, Pharmacovigilance, and Clinical Operations. Prior to joining Checkmate, Steve was Vice President and Head, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Tarveda Therapeutics. He has also led global regulatory efforts for both biotech and large pharmaceutical companies including Castle Creek Pharmaceuticals, Baxalta, Immunomedics and Savient. Dr. Hamburger has also held senior regulatory positions at Millennium/Takeda, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, and Zeneca/ICI Pharmaceuticals. He has had significant involvement in the development and/or global registration of many drugs including Krystexxa, Onivyde, Oncaspar, Velcade, Alimta, Doxil and Accolate. Dr. Hamburger holds a PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from Indiana University School of Medicine, an MS from Butler University and a BS from the University of Iowa.
Barry Labinger
Chief Executive Officer
Barry Labinger
Chief Executive Officer
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.
Jon Lieber
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Jon Lieber
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Jon is a seasoned executive with 25 years of experience in financial and executive management at emerging life science companies and in investment banking. During his career, he has raised more than $325 million of equity and debt in public and private securities offerings, including a $110 million IPO at Altus Pharmaceuticals, and led strategic and business development transactions including the successful sale of Xcellerex to GE Healthcare. He currently serves as a Managing Director of Danforth Advisors and most recently served as CFO of Histogenics Corporation, a publicly-traded cell therapy company developing products for the orthopedics market. He additionally held the roles of CFO for Metamark Genetics, Inc. and CFO of Repligen Corporation. Previously, Jon was an investment banker for ten years, during which time he originated and executed on numerous corporate financings and merger and acquisition transactions at SG Cowen and Salomon Brothers Inc. He received a BS in Business Administration and Finance from Boston University and an MBA in Finance from New York University Stern School of Business.
Lisa White
Vice President of Operations
Lisa White
Vice President of Operations
Lisa has over 25 years of comprehensive knowledge in the start-up biotechnology arena with an overall focus on business operations. Her breadth of experience includes Human Resources, Information Technology, Contracts, Operations, Investor Relations, and Finance. She was one of the original employees of Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Takeda). Over the course of her career, Lisa has supported several mergers and acquisitions in both the legal and biotech industries that include the merger of Hale and Dorr with Wilmer Cutler Pickering to Wilmer Hale and the sale of Coley to Pfizer. Prior to joining Checkmate, she spent several years as the Vice President of Operations for MacDougall Biomedical Communications, a Life Sciences IR/PR firm. Lisa graduated from Fisher College with a degree in Business Management & Administration.
James Wooldridge, MD
Chief Medical Officer
James Wooldridge, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Jim has more than 20 years of drug development experience in academia, pharma, and biotech. He received an MD from Tulane University, and completed his post-graduate training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at the University of Iowa, after which he conducted clinical and translational cancer research on the faculties of the University of Missouri in Columbia and the University of Iowa. While at the University of Iowa, he performed some of the first pre-clinical cancer experiments in mice with CpG oligos and designed and conducted an early CpG oligo clinical trial. Prior to joining Checkmate, Dr. Wooldridge served as Chief Medical Officer at Aeglea BioTherapeutics, where he oversaw development programs in oncology and rare genetic diseases, including pegzilarginase, which recently received Breakthrough Designation for Arginase 1 Deficiency. He spent 11 years in cancer research at Eli Lilly and Company, where he led Oncology US Medical Affairs and more recently served as the Chief Scientific Officer for Immuno-oncology Clinical Development.
Chuck Yon
Co-Founder, General Counsel
Chuck Yon
General Counsel
Chuck is a transactional and licensing lawyer with extensive experience in funding and licensing technology for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He has negotiated and closed more than 50 major (>$1 million) licensing, distribution and collaboration agreements with pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and clean energy companies. Chuck has represented major research institutes and educational institutions and has licensed technology from leading research universities. He has served as outside General Counsel for several of his clients, providing licensing, regulatory and compliance advice, antitrust analysis, contract review and business strategies advice. As Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Coley Pharmaceutical Group from 2001 through 2008, Chuck was responsible for all legal and regulatory matters, including patent prosecution and litigation strategy. He was the co-leader of the team that negotiated and completed the sale of Coley to Pfizer in 2008. Prior to Coley, Chuck was the Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Astra Pharmaceutical Products from 1989-1998. Chuck graduated with honors from Harvard College and Georgetown Law School. He also received an Executive MBA degree from the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University.