bannerhome
 
 

ABOUT

Leadership Team

Frank Bedu Addo PDS

Frank Bedu-Addo, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer, Director

Dr. Bedu-Addo has served as a director, president and CEO of PDS Biotech since its inception in 2005. Dr. Bedu-Addo is a veteran biotech executive with experience successfully starting and growing biotechnology organizations. He has been responsible for the development and implementation of both operational and drug development strategies, supervising and managing both large organizations and emerging biotechnology companies. Dr. Bedu-Addo was a founding and senior executive at KBI BioPharma, Inc. As Vice President of Drug Development, he oversaw all business and drug development operations. Before his tenure at KBI, he successfully started and managed Cardinal Health’s East Coast biotechnology drug development operations. Prior to Cardinal Health, Dr. Bedu-Addo was an Associate Director at Akzo-Nobel, Senior Scientist at Elan (The Liposome Co.), and Principal Scientist at Schering-Plough. In these positions, he contributed to the development of numerous drugs, including antiviral and anticancer products. Dr. Bedu-Addo obtained his M.S. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Pittsburgh.
Lauren V. Wood

STEPHAN TOUTAIN
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Stephan Toutain, MS, MBA, joined PDS Biotech in May 2024 as Chief Operating Officer (COO). He brings over 30 years of operational experience in the life sciences industry from drug development, general management, operations, commercial development, market access and sales and marketing leadership with prior expertise in oncology and orphan drugs markets globally. Before joining PDS Biotech, Mr. Toutain served as COO at Anavex Life Sciences and Chief Commercial Officer at Interleukin Genetics. He also worked with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to build its early access program. In addition, Mr. Toutain led Global Commercial Development for Sarepta Therapeutics and served as General Manager for Alexion Pharmaceuticals in Europe. He has also held various U.S. commercial, marketing and product management positions with Celgene Corporation and Johnson & Johnson. Mr. Toutain received a Master of Business Administration from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, and a Master of Engineering in Biotechnology from the University of Nancy II in France.
Matthew Hill

Lars Boesgaard
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Boesgaard joined PDS Biotech in December 2023 as its Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Boesgaard has had a career spanning more than 25 years in healthcare and has deep capital markets and investor relations experience with global clinical and commercial-stage pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.He has prepared and executed corporate transactions and built financial frameworks for rapidly growing organizations. Prior to joining PDS Biotech, he served as CFO of AM-Pharma B.V. from September 2021 to August 2023. Mr. Boesgaard also served as CFO of Columbia Care from August 2018 to August 2021, where he completed key transactions, including an IPO / reverse merger resulting in a $120 million capital infusion and raising $200 million in public equity and debt offerings. Mr. Boesgaard was also previously the Vice President, CFO of Roka Bioscience from November 2015 to July 2018 and held several other senior finance positions with publicly traded companies, including Insulet Corporation, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, and Novo Nordisk A/S. Mr. Boesgaard holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the Copenhagen Business School and a Master of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business, Western University, Ontario, Canada.
Gregory Conn

Gregory Conn, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Conn has more than 35 years of drug-development expertise, including development of antiviral and anticancer drugs through to commercialization. He is a graduate of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he obtained both his M.S. and Ph.D., discovering novel angiogenic molecules in the human brain. Dr. Conn started his pharmaceutical career at Merck, Sharpe, and Dohme, where he continued his work on novel angiogenic factors, discovering and characterizing the VEGF family of growth factors, work which led to the development and commercialization of the anti-cancer drug Avastin. He was later a leading scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, where he established and headed various groups in the Cell and Molecular Biology and Drug Discovery departments. Dr. Conn subsequently became a Director in the Process Development department at Covance Biotechnology Services Inc., a contract research and development and drug manufacturing organization, where he supervised the analytical development teams responsible for drug characterization, method development and drug stability studies, and program teams responsible for developing drug manufacturing processes. Dr. Conn has expertise across all phases of the drug development process, including FDA and regulatory requirements, is the co-inventor of eight drug patents, and was a founding member of the PDS team as CSO.
Lauren V. Wood

Kirk Shepard, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Shepard is a US board-certified medical oncologist and hematologist with more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to PDS Biotechnology, Dr. Shepard was Chief Medical Officer, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Medical Affairs Oncology at Eisai Inc. Dr. Shepard has served in leadership positions at companies that have included Takeda, Boehringer Ingelheim, Baxter, and Baxalta. Dr. Shepard’s experience in multiple therapeutic areas includes operational and strategic product development from Phases 1 through 4 and the diverse disciplines of commercialization, clinical development, and medical affairs, such as real world evidence (RWE), health economics outcomes research (HEOR) & patient access, Investigator-Initiated Research, field-based medical teams (MSLs), leading compliance and SOP/policy efforts, PV/safety, medical communication, publications, digital strategy & initiatives, patient advocacy, and public relations. Dr. Shepard received his fellowship Oncology and Hematology training at the University of Chicago Medical Center and then was on the Hematology-Oncology staff at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation before transitioning to the pharmaceutical industry. In 2015, he was selected as one of the 100 Most Inspiring People in the Pharmaceutical Industry (PharmaVOICE). He is a co-founder of the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS), and in 2016-17 he was President of MAPS. He received his BA from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, where he was on the varsity football team.
Matthew Hill

Spencer Brown
Senior Vice-President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Compliance Officer

Spencer D. Brown joined PDS Biotechnology as Senior Vice-President, General Counsel on June 1, 2022. He was appointed as Compliance Officer in October 2023. Prior to joining PDS Biotech, Mr. Brown worked most recently at Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. in Wayne, Pennsylvania where he served as Senior Vice-President, Legal Affairs and Compliance Officer.Before that, he worked nearly eight years at GE Healthcare as Senior Commercial Counsel for the Life Sciences Core Imaging business in Princeton, New Jersey. Prior to that, Mr. Brown spent almost ten years at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals in Wilmington, Delaware where he provided legal support for most of the company's therapeutic areas at some point during his tenure. Mr. Brown has over two decades of in-house legal experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He began his legal career as an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Mr. Brown earned his bachelor's degree at Princeton University and obtained his juris doctorate degree from the University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law.
Rory Cullinane

Rory Cullinane
Vice President of Quality

Rory Cullinane joined PDS Biotech as Vice President of Quality bringing more than 25 years of industry experience across multiple therapeutic areas. He has grown and matured Quality organizations in both large global pharmaceutical and small biotechnology companies. Rory started his career at the Schering-Plough (Merck & co., Inc.) in Ireland and the US where he held various positions of increasing responsibility. Mr. Cullinane subsequently joined Genzyme (a Sanofi Company) where he oversaw various aspects of Quality operations. More recently, he headed up the Quality organization at Advaxis Immunotherapies, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, and BioCentriq, a cell and gene-based Contract Development Manufacturing Organization. Mr. Cullinane received his degree in Applied Science (Chemistry and Physics) from Dublin Institute of Technology and a Masters Degree in Industrial Engineering from University College Dublin.
Joe Dervan

Joe Dervan, Ph.D.
Vice President of Research and Development

Dr. Dervan has more than 20 years of biopharmaceutical drug-development expertise, from bench to commercialization, including development of a broad range of immuno-oncology therapeutics. He is a graduate of Sheffield University Medical School, UK, where he obtained his Ph.D., in Molecular Medicine, researching protein-DNA interactions, and publishing his work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA and Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. He went on to undertake postdoctoral work within the department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry at Yale University and completed an MBA at Warwick University Business School, UK. Dr. Dervan started his pharmaceutical career at Pfizer, UK where he performed bioanalysis of a range of corticosteroids and related prodrugs. He also worked within the field of proteomics utilizing the world’s first genome sequences at F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, Switzerland. Following his postdoc, he worked at Protalex, Inc, as Director of Protein Chemistry and Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing where he oversaw laboratory operations, drug substance and drug product development, and manufacturing operations. Following his time at Protalex, Inc, Dr. Dervan worked as a senior consultant for several biotech companies. Prior to joining PDS Biotech, he held leadership roles at GSK where he lead multiple analytical lifecycle management project teams, supporting global development of a broad range of mid-late phase biopharmaceutical assets.

David Schaaf

David Schaaf, M.D.
Vice President of Medical Affairs

Dr. Schaaf joined PDS Biotech as Vice President of Medical Affairs in September 2022. Dr. Schaaf has over 20 years of industry experience at large global pharmaceutical and small biotechnology companies across multiple therapeutic areas. His focus is on establishing medical strategies to enhance product value with core expertise in clinical development, regulatory submissions, product launch, medical communications, and KOL development. Most recently, Dr. Schaaf was Vice President, Medical Affairs at Zogenix where he oversaw the US launch of fenfluramine for Dravet Syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome. Prior to Zogenix, he built and lead the Medical Affairs functions at two small biotech companies. Dr. Schaaf started his industry career at Pfizer where he spent 12 years across multiple medical affairs groups including the managed markets and pain teams.
Dr. Schaaf completed an internship in internal medicine at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. He received his M.D. from Columbia University and received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Stanford University.

Receive Email Alerts

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.

Sign up

pdf

This website use cookies to facilitate the use of the website, improve its performance and security, personalize the proposed content.

Accept