Management
Sanj K. Patel
President & Chief Executive Officer
Sanj Patel was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer and to the Company’s Board
of Directors in June 2008. Sanj brings 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and
biotech industries. He joins Synageva from Genzyme Corporation (1999 to 2008), where
most recently, he was Head of US Sales, Marketing and Commercial Operations for Genzyme
Therapeutics and led the commercial US launch for Myozyme®. Previously, Sanj held several
cross-functional senior leadership roles at Genzyme including Vice President, Clinical
Research and Head of the Global Clinical Research Operations Council. He was responsible
for clinical operations and development for all cross-business Genzyme products and was
instrumental in the path to commercialization for several treatments. Notably, Sanj led
the Fabrazyme® clinical operations team and development program to FDA approval in April
2003. Prior to Genzyme, Sanj held roles in clinical research and commercial development
with increasing levels of responsibility at Burroughs Wellcome, Hoescht Marrion Roussel and Fujisawa Pharmaceuticals. Sanj obtained
his B.Sc. with Honors in Pure and Applied Biotechnology from South Bank University, London.
He attained his post-graduate management and business degree from Ealing College, London,
and completed his Doctorate program in Clinical Pharmacology from King’s College and
The Wellcome Foundation.
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Marc Corrado
Chief Business Officer
Marc Corrado joined Synageva in January 2008 as Chief Business Officer. Prior to joining
Synageva, he held various positions of increasing responsibility in Global Business Development,
Global Marketing and Mergers & Acquisitions at Rhône-Poulenc Rorer in Paris, France,
and at Aventis in Bridgewater, New Jersey. In 2005, following Aventis’ merger with Sanofi,
Mr. Corrado became a corporate officer and VP, Corporate Development of EntreMed, a publicly-traded
biotechnology company based in Rockville, Maryland. Mr. Corrado earned his J.D. degree
from the American University in Washington, D.C., and his M.B.A. from INSEAD in Fontainebleau,
France.
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Mark C. Leavitt, Ph.D.
Vice President, Research and Product Development
Mark Leavitt joined Synageva in 2001 and is responsible for Synageva’s R&D and Product
Development programs. In this role, Dr. Leavitt oversees candidate protein evaluation,
regulatory affairs, clinical production and quality control. Dr. Leavitt has over fifteen
years of research and industrial experience in the areas of gene therapy, molecular biology,
and development of therapeutic products at Immusol Inc. and Agouron Pharmaceuticals (a
subsidiary of Pfizer Corporation). Dr. Leavitt holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology
from the University of Arizona and has extensive post-doctoral training in Molecular
Virology at the University of California - San Diego.
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Leandro Christmann, DVM, Ph.D.
Director, Technology and Toxicology
Dr. Christmann joined Synageva in 1998 and is responsible for the Company’s overall pre-clinical/toxicology
program. He has over fifteen years experience in transgenic and other technologies, including microinjection
technology, embryonic stem cell development, and nuclear transplantation from PPL Therapeutics
and academic institutions. Dr. Christmann holds DVM and MS degrees from the Federal University
(Brazil) and a Ph.D. in developmental biology from Cambridge University (U.K.).
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Kyle D. Yesland, Ph.D., Esq.
Intellectual Property Counsel
Dr. Yesland joined Synageva in 2004. He is responsible for managing Synageva’s patent portfolio and is involved in the Company’s strategic planning. Prior to joining Synageva, Dr. Yesland was in law firm practice where he serviced companies and public institutions such as Allergan, Inc. and the University of California. Dr. Yesland has also held positions as a senior scientist at Beckman Coulter, Inc. and as a post-doctoral fellow at Rice University. Dr. Yesland earned his JD from Baylor Law School and holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Wyoming.
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James E. Early
Senior Vice-President, Finance and Administration
James Early joined Synageva in 2006 and is responsible for Synageva’s Finance, Treasury, Audit, Investor Relations, Licensing and Administrative functions. Prior to joining Synageva, Mr. Early served as Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Anesthesiologists Associated, Inc. Mr. Early has over ten years experience in the pharmaceutical industry and previously held multiple management positions with Zila Pharmaceuticals, where he led several acquisitions, and Schein Pharmaceutical (now Watson), where he performed product portfolio valuations and capacity planning. Mr. Early holds a B.B.A. in accounting from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from the UCLA-Anderson School of Management. Mr. Early is also a Certified Public Accountant.
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Alex Harvey, Ph.D.
Director, Molecular Biology
Alex Harvey joined Synageva in 1996 as the first employee and is responsible for the introduction of new products into the AES pipeline, design of biopharmaceutical expression vectors, generation and characterization of production flocks, preclinical analysis of egg white-derived products and implementation of novel R&D programs. He has acquired a National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Technology Program grant, two NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grants and one NIH SBIR Phase II grant. Dr. Harvey obtained a B.A. in biology from The Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. from the Department of Molecular Biology at Vanderbilt University. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Genetics at the University of Georgia.
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Chris Oliver
Director, Operations
Chris Oliver joined Synageva in 2002 and is responsible for Synageva’s manufacturing and facilities. Prior to joining Synageva, Mr. Oliver was employed with Cobb-Vantress, Inc, for eight years in various leadership positions, most recently as South Eastern Complex Manager. Before joining Cobb he spent 5 years serving at Con Agra in various management positions. Mr. Oliver has 25 years experience in production operations with expertise in project management, facilities operation and design. Mr. Oliver holds a B.S. in agriculture from the University of Georgia.
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Kristin Mauri
Director, Global Clinical Operations
Kristin Mauri joined Synageva in 2007 and is responsible for overseeing Global Clinical Operations. Ms. Mauri brings 14 years of clinical research experience in the pharmaceutical, biotech and CRO industry to Synageva. Previous positions at GlaxoSmithKline, Transkaryotic Therapies and Abbott Laboratories include a number of roles of increasing responsibility in the area of clinical operations. Ms. Mauri was most recently responsible for managing large scale global clinical trials on behalf of Covance Inc’s clients. She has worked in the areas of infectious diseases, rare genetic diseases and vaccines and has been involved in clinical trial registration work leading to the approval of such products as Replagal™, Augmentin XR®, LYMERix™, Kaletra®(800/200 mg QD) and others. Ms. Mauri received a B.S. in business management from the Pennsylvania State University and completed graduate level coursework at the Institute of Health Professions at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and at Lake Forrest Graduate School of Business Management in Chicago.
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