K. Peter Hirth, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Hirth co-founded Plexxikon in December 2000, and has 25 years of biotechnology and pharmaceutical discovery and development experience. Dr. Hirth was instrumental in the discovery and development of Zelboraf®, Plexxikon’s first oncology drug now approved in the U.S. and many other countries, along with its companion diagnostic. Previously, he was president of Sugen, Inc. until the sale of the company to Pharmacia Corporation in 1999. At Sugen, he helped build the company from its inception and advanced several kinase inhibitors through clinical trials for the treatment of oncology. This includes the drug Sutent, now owned by Pfizer through its acquisition of Pharmacia. Prior to Sugen, Dr. Hirth was a vice president in research with Boehringer Mannheim where, among other responsibilities, he successfully led the company's erythropoietin program. Previously, he also was a research scientist with the Max Planck Institute, following the completion of his post doctoral work at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Hirth received his Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Heidelberg University, Germany.
Kathleen Sereda Glaub
President
Ms. Glaub joined Plexxikon in November 2001 and is responsible for corporate development, including business development, corporate communications, finance, and operations. She has more than 25 years of corporate development and financing experience, including several billion dollars in financing, merger and acquisition, and restructuring transactions. Since joining Plexxikon, she has led and completed deals with Genentech, Wyeth, Servier and Roche, and most recently, the acquisition of Plexxikon by Daiichi Sankyo in 2011. Ms. Glaub was instrumental in the development of Zelboraf®, Plexxikon’s first oncology drug now approved in the U.S. and many other countries, along with its companion diagnostic. Prior to Plexxikon, Ms. Glaub served as an independent advisor to private companies for corporate development and financing. Previously, as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Cell Genesys, Ms. Glaub led a number of financings and strategic transactions, including the spin off and financing of Abgenix and the acquisition of Somatix Therapy Corporation. Prior to Cell Genesys, as treasurer of Genentech, Ms. Glaub led a number of financings, including R & D limited partnerships, a buyout of existing partnerships, and the biotech industry's first convertible offering. Prior to Genentech, Ms. Glaub held various finance and treasury positions with Intel Corporation. Ms. Glaub received her M.B.A. in finance from Northwestern University.
Keith B. Nolop, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Senior Vice President, Development
Dr. Nolop joined Plexxikon in October 2004. He has 15 years of biotechnology and pharmaceutical clinical development experience, including the filing of multiple IND’s, the successful filing of three new drug applications, and the approval of several labeling supplements. Dr. Nolop was instrumental in the clinical development of Zelboraf®, Plexxikon’s first oncology drug now approved in the U.S. and many other countries, along with its companion diagnostic. Prior to Plexxikon, he served as vice president of clinical research at CoTherix, Inc., where he was responsible for the clinical development of iloprost, a drug that has been accepted by the FDA for priority review. Prior to CoTherix, he was a senior director with Schering-Plough Corporation, where he successfully initiated early to late clinical programs in multiple disease indications including allergic rhinitis, asthma, COPD, and hypercholesterolemia. Dr. Nolop received his M.D. from Vanderbilt University and is board-certified in pulmonary diseases.
Gideon E. Bollag, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Research
Dr. Bollag has served as senior vice president of research since June 2008, and has more than 17 years of biotechnology drug discovery experience. More recently, he served as vice president of discovery biology since November 2004. He joined Plexxikon as senior director of drug discovery in June 2002. Dr. Bollag was instrumental in the discovery and development of Zelboraf®, Plexxikon’s first oncology drug now approved in the U.S. and many other countries, along with its companion diagnostic. Prior to Plexxikon, he helped build drug discovery capabilities at Syrrx, Inc., where he was the director of cellular pharmacology. Before Syrrx, he held escalating positions at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, initially as one of the founding scientists and eventually senior director of small molecule therapeutics. While there, Dr. Bollag was involved in the Onyx collaboration with Bayer to discover BAY 43-9006 (Nexavar), now an approved cancer treatment. Prior to Onyx, Dr. Bollag held various scientific positions at Cetus, Inc. Dr. Bollag earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Prabha N. Ibrahim, Ph.D.
Vice President, Non-Clinical Development
Dr. Ibrahim was named vice president of chemistry at Plexxikon in 2009, bringing over 15 years of experience to her position. As head of chemistry since 2002, she has played a key role in the company’s scaffold-based drug discovery efforts for a variety of protein family targets, leading to the identification of Plexxikon’s novel drug candidates now in the clinic and in preclinical research. Dr. Ibrahim was instrumental in the discovery and development of Zelboraf®, Plexxikon’s first oncology drug now approved in the U.S. and many other countries. Prior to Plexxikon, Dr. Ibrahim was a senior scientist at CV Therapeutics, where she was responsible for the identification and development of preclinical candidates for cardiovascular indications. She previously worked at Amgen, where she played an integral role in small molecule drug discovery in inflammation. Dr. Ibrahim earned her Ph.D. at the University of Victoria, Canada, and was a Welch Foundation Fellow at Rice University in Houston.
Gary C. Visor, Ph.D.
Vice President, Pharmaceutics
Dr. Visor joined Plexxikon in April 2007, responsible for managing pharmaceutical drug substance scale-up and manufacturing as well as dosage form design and development. He has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturing experience in process development, pharmaceutical operations, formulation and quality assurance. Prior to Plexxikon, he served as vice president, pharmaceutical research and process development and vice president of technical operations for OSI Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for bulk API and drug product operations supporting oncology, metabolic and ophthalmology businesses. Previously, Dr. Visor held a variety of senior operations and development positions at leading biopharmaceutical companies including Cardinal Health, CellGate, Intermune, Roche Bioscience, Gilead Sciences, and Syntex Research. Dr. Visor received his Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Florida.