Dr. Lian serves as our President and Chief Executive Officer, and as a director. Prior to founding Viking Therapeutics, he was a Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, where he was responsible for coverage of small and mid-cap biotechnology companies with an emphasis on the diabetes, oncology, infectious disease, and neurology spaces. Prior to SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, he was an Executive Director and Senior Biotechnology Analyst at CIBC World Markets, responsible for coverage of mid and small-cap biopharmaceutical companies. Prior to his career in equity research, he was a research scientist in small molecule drug discovery at Amgen, focused on cancer and endocrine diseases. Prior to Amgen, he was a research scientist at Microcide Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Lian holds an MBA in accounting and finance from Indiana University, an M.S. and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from The University of Michigan, and a BA in chemistry from Whitman College.
Marianne Mancini serves as our Chief Operating Officer. Ms. Mancini has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry focusing on the management and oversight of clinical trials from early-stage to late-stage drug development and most recently served as the company’s senior vice president of clinical operations. Prior to joining Viking, she was Senior Director of Clinical Operations at Ambit Biosciences Corporation, a company focused primarily on the development of oncology therapies for the treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Previously, Ms. Mancini was the Senior Director of Clinical Operations at Aires Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company focused on developing therapies for pulmonary vascular disorders. At Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc, she served as Senior Director of Project Management and Clinical Operations and was also the Project Team Leader for the company’s lead obesity compound, BELVIQ®. Ms. Mancini held management positions at Baxter BioSciences a division of Baxter Healthcare Corporation where she was the Global Director of Clinical Operations overseeing the company’s global clinical trials involving coagulation disorders, biosurgery, and critical care. She has also previously held positions at Genentech and Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Mancini holds a MA in Bioethics from Loyola Marymount University, a MBA from the University of Phoenix, and a BS in Nutritional Sciences from McGill University.
Greg Zante serves as our Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Zante possesses over 25 years of financial management experience at public and private companies in the biotechnology and accounting industries and most recently served as Viking’s senior vice president of finance. Prior to joining Viking, Mr. Zante was Chief Financial Officer at Dance Biopharm, a diabetes-focused biopharmaceutical company, where he managed the company’s private financing strategy and positioned it for initial public offering activities. Mr. Zante has also previously held senior positions at several biopharmaceutical companies including Sangamo Therapeutics, Calyx Therapeutics and Matrix Pharmaceuticals. He is a certified public accountant in the state of California and has previously served as a senior staff accountant at Ernst & Young. Mr. Zante received his bachelor’s degree in business-economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Geoffrey Barker, Ph.D. serves as our Chief Development Officer. Dr. Barker has 30 years of pharmaceutical and nonclinical development experience. Before being appointed as Chief Development Officer, Dr. Barker served as Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development at Viking Therapeutics. Prior to joining Viking, he was Project Director at Pyramid Laboratories, a fill/finish aseptic manufacturing facility. Before joining Pyramid, Dr. Barker was senior director of Product Development at Aires Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company focused on developing therapies for pulmonary vascular disorders. Dr. Barker has also previously served as associate director of pharmaceutical development at TargeGen, Inc., where he oversaw the development of two Phase 2 candidates and one Phase 1 candidate for the treatment of hematological malignancies and certain other disorders and as a scientist at Merck and Company (previously SIBIA Neurosciences), a biotech company focused on central nervous system disorders. Dr. Barker earned a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the State University of New York at Binghamton.
Mr. Aubuchon serves as our Chief Commercial Officer and brings more than two decades of biopharmaceutical industry experience spanning leadership roles across global commercial and marketing functions including focus within the cardiometabolic space. Prior to joining Viking, Mr. Aubuchon was the chief commercial officer at AbCellera, where he was responsible for developing the company’s commercial strategy. Prior to AbCellera, he was the global marketing lead for Amgen’s general medicine early portfolio, where he developed the integrated strategy for the company’s non-oncology therapeutic areas and led commercial strategy for more than ten programs, including its cardiometabolic portfolio. Before his time at Amgen, Mr. Aubuchon spent nearly 17 years at Eli Lilly in various commercial roles including, chief marketing officer in Australia, chief marketing officer in Japan, head of strategy and operations for Lilly Bio-Medicines globally, and vice president of Lilly Bio-Medicines in Japan.
Nils U. Olsson serves as our Senior Vice President, Technical Operations. Dr. Olsson has over 30 years of commercial and development Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC), Quality and Regulatory Affairs experience from the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries. Prior to joining Viking Dr. Olsson held Vice President of CMC and Quality positions at various biotech companies in California, most recently at Cerus Corporation, a company focusing on securing safe blood, plasma, and platelet supplies for transfusion medicine, globally. Dr. Olsson has also been leading Regulatory Affairs CMC strategy for commercial and early-stage products at Gilead Sciences. Dr. Olsson earned a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, and received postdoctoral training under a National Research Council (NRC) fellowship at The National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland.
Kenneth J. Herman, MBA serves as our Senior Vice President, Commercial with over 30 years of experience leading the commercialization, launch, and lifecycle management of blockbuster and market-leading pharmaceutical brands. Prior to this role, Mr. Herman held senior commercial leadership positions at Orexigen Therapeutics, Arena Pharmaceuticals, Ligand Pharmaceuticals, and Boehringer Ingelheim, where he led the commercialization of multiple market-leading brands. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated expertise and success in building high-performing commercial organizations across diverse therapeutic areas. Mr. Herman holds an MBA from Wake Forest University
Michael Morneau serves as our Vice President of Finance and Administration. Mr. Morneau has over 20 years of accounting and financial experience at public and private companies in the biotechnology and accounting industries. Prior to Viking, he was VP of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer at Trius Therapeutics, Inc., a subsidiary of Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, following Cubist’s acquisition of Trius. Prior to Trius, he was Director of Lilly Research Labs Finance at Eli Lilly and Company, a pharmaceutical company. Prior to Eli Lilly, he was Director of Finance and Accounting at SGX Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company, which was acquired by Eli Lilly. Prior to SGX, he was Controller at Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company. Mr. Morneau earned his MBA and Master of Arts in accounting from New Hampshire College, and a BA in mathematics from the University of New Hampshire.
Karen Chung serves as our Vice President, Health Economics & Market Access. Dr. Chung has over 25 years in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Prior to joining Viking, Dr. Chung was Head of Health Economics and Outcomes Research at GRAIL, Inc. and Juno Therapeutics (acquired by Celgene). Experience also includes both launching products as well as product lifecycle management across therapeutic areas, including Jazz Pharmaceuticals (Vyxeos), Gilead Sciences (antiretrovirals), Amgen (oncology), Baxter BioSciences (plasma-based products), and Bayer Pharmaceuticals (cardiovascular and oncology). Dr. Chung earned her PharmD from the University of Southern California and her Master’s Degree in Health Economics at The University of Arizona.
Dr. Modesto serves as our VP of Clinical Development. She is Board-certified in Cardiology and Echocardiography with over 25 years of clinical research experience. Prior to joining Viking, Dr. Modesto worked for 6 years in academic settings including the Mayo Clinic, Mount Sinai Hospital and Yale School of Medicine. For 13 years, Dr Modesto has worked as a senior medical director for Contract Research Organizations (CROs) such as Worldwide Clinical Trials, ICON and IQVIA overseeing the medical and safety aspects of clinical trials, ensuring participant safety and data integrity in accordance with clinical protocols, SOPs, GCP, regulatory requirements and Sponsor directives. For the past 6 years, she has worked as a senior and executive medical director in Clinical Development in biotechnology companies including Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals with focus in Metabolic disorders, designing, planning and providing medical oversight of clinical studies across all phases of development, overseeing the interpretation and dissemination of study results, including clinical study reports and publications, ensuring alignment with corporate objectives and portfolio priorities. With a broad range of therapeutic indication experience, Dr. Modesto main area of research focus is cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, including diabetes, hyperlipidemia and obesity. Dr Modesto holds an M.D from Universidade Gama Filho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Scott Stubbe serves as the Vice President of Clinical Operations. Mr. Stubbe has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry primarily managing large operational teams for clinical trials ranging from early-stage to late-stage drug development. Prior to joining Viking, he was Executive Director of Clinical Operations at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. At Acadia, Mr. Stubbe oversaw the conduct of two large global pivotal trials from initiation through NDA submission. Previously, Mr. Stubbe was the Senior Director of Clinical Operations at Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. At Arena he served as Senior Director of Clinical Operations. During his tenure he oversaw the clinical operations of the company’s lead obesity compound, BELVIQ® from Phase III initiation through NDA submission to its approval. He has also previously held positions at Biogen and Iqvia. Mr. Stubbe holds a BA in Psychology from San Diego State University, and an MBA from National University.
Dr. Srinivasan heads Viking’s Discovery and Preclinical Sciences group and brings over 25 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry experience. He has advanced numerous therapies to IND and contributed to several late-stage or marketed products, including Augtyro™ (NSCLC), Rebyota® (C. difficile infection/GI), Apraglutide (SBS/GI), Firmagon® (prostate cancer), OCE-205 (ESLD/hepatology), NVI-100 (migraine/CNS), and Korsura™ (CKD-pruritus). Prior to joining Viking, he served as Senior Vice President at Atomwise Inc. (now Numerion Labs) and as Vice President at Turning Point Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb) and Ferring Pharmaceuticals, leading teams in discovery and early clinical development. Earlier in his career, he held scientific leadership roles at Pfizer and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. Dr. Srinivasan also serves as a research advisor and consultant at the Broad Institute’s Center for the Development of Therapeutics. He holds a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Georgia and a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy (honors) from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), India.
