Christopher Kirk, PhD
Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder
Christopher Kirk, Ph.D. is our Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors. He previously served as our President and Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to founding Kezar, he was the Vice President of Research at Onyx Pharmaceuticals where he played a key leadership role in the discovery and development of 2 proteasome inhibitors, including carfilzomib (KYPROLIS™), currently approved for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Dr. Kirk is an immunologist and tumor biologist by training, and has authored multiple publications in several select journals including Cell, Nature Medicine, and Nature Reviews and is listed as an inventor on over 40 patents. He sits on the scientific advisory board at C4 Therapeutics, Avidity Biosciences, Rain Therapeutics, the Institute of Applied Clinical Science at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center as well as the leadership council of the Life Sciences Institute of the University of Michigan.
Dr. Kirk received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Davis, and his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan.
Marc Belsky
Chief Financial Officer
Marc L. Belsky has served as our Chief Financial Officer and secretary since April 2018. Prior to joining us, from October 2009 to April 2018, Mr. Belsky held several roles at Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly held biopharmaceutical company, including most recently as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before that, Mr. Belsky served in various roles at Cell Genesys, Inc., a biotechnology company acquired by BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Active Aero Group, Inc., DataWave Systems Inc., and Michigan National Corporation, a holding company for Michigan National Bank, which was acquired by BANA Holding Corporation. Mr. Belsky started his career as an auditor with Coopers & Lybrand.
Mr. Belsky received a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Wayne State University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Michigan. He is also a certified public accountant.
Mark Schiller
Chief Operating Officer
Mark Schiller is our Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining us, Mr. Schiller was the Executive Director, Legal Affairs at Immune Design, a public biotechnology company, from October 2014 until Immune Design was acquired by Merck in March 2019. Immune Design was a clinical-stage immunotherapy company focused on oncology with offices in South San Francisco and Seattle. Before that, he led the legal function at 3-V Biosciences, a privately held biotechnology company in Menlo Park. Mr. Schiller began his legal career at Gunderson Dettmer LLP, a venture-capital firm in Menlo Park, CA, and subsequently worked as a corporate associate at Cooley, LLP, a life sciences and technology law firm in Palo Alto, CA.
Mr. Schiller received his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings and B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park.