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 Legal Officer
Mark Schiller has served as our Chief Legal Officer since January 2024. 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.
Neel K. Anand, DPhil
SVP, Research and Drug Discovery
Neel K. Anand brings over 20 years of research experience and has served as our SVP Research and Drug Discovery since April 2023, where he leads teams responsible for translational science, clinical pharmacology and non-clinical safety activities supporting development of Kezar’s clinical assets.
He joined the team at Kezar in January 2022 as VP Medicinal Chemistry and Head of Drug Discovery and led discovery activities resulting in the Development Candidate nomination of the first oral selective Sec61 inhibitor, a PD-1 down-regulator, KZR-540.
Prior to joining Kezar, Dr Anand served at Nektar Therapeutics for over 10 years in positions of increasing responsibility up to Executive Director, Head of Discovery Chemistry, where his team discovered NKTR-262, a PEG-conjugated TLR7/8 agonist. From 2001 to 2010, Dr Anand served at Exelixis, Inc in positions of increasing responsibility up to Senior Scientist II, where he contributed to the discovery of six investigational new drugs (INDs) and is a co-inventor of cobimetinib (COTELLICTM).
He has authored multiple scientific publications and is a co-inventor on over 20 issued U.S. patents. He received his B.Sc. (Honors, First Class) in Chemistry from the University of Bristol, U.K. and his D. Phil. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford, U.K.
Zung To
SVP, Clinical Development
Zung To is Senior Vice President of Clinical Development. He brings 35 years of industry experience, with more than 20 years in senior leadership roles in early- and late-stage clinical development. His therapeutic expertise spans from immunology to oncology, transplantation, and neuroscience.
Before joining Kezar, Mr. To served as Vice President of Clinical Development Operations, Biometrics, Project Management, and Quality at Kronos Bio. He was also the Hematology Life Cycle Franchise Leader responsible for its franchise long term strategy. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Global Clinical Operations, Data Management, and Strategic Sourcing at Jazz Pharmaceutical. During his tenure at Jazz, he transformed its clinical development infrastructure to accelerate a growing oncology and neuroscience portfolio. Previously, Mr. To spent 14 years at Genentech/Roche in roles of increasing responsibility, including North America Regional Head of Late Stage Oncology Development Operations, and Therapeutic Head of Early Clinical Development . Earlier in his career, Mr. To was a clinical project manager at Abgenix (bought by Amgen) and Syntex Pharmaceuticals (bought by Roche).
He received a B.S in Biological Sciences from University of California, Davis.
Gitanjali Jain
SVP, Investor Relations and External Affairs
Gitanjali Jain is the Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and External Affairs at Kezar. With over 15 years in the life science industry, Ms. Jain’s experience spans various roles within investor relations and capital markets. Prior to joining us, she served as Managing Director at Solebury Trout, an investor relations and communications agency, where she strategically advised numerous small and mid-cap biopharmaceutical companies. Ms. Jain was also a research associate at Medarex and StemCells, Inc. where she worked on the development of neural markers as they related to monoclonal antibodies and protein fragments. She also co-authored a publication in the Journal of Neuroscience Research while in that role.
Ms. Jain holds a B.A. in Economics from Brown University and a M.A. in Biology from New York University. She also holds Series 7, 79 and 63 securities licenses.
Michelle Greenman
VP, Global Regulatory Affairs
Michelle Greenman is Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs. She is responsible for leading the regulatory affairs team, managing regulatory operations and medical writing resources, and strategic regulatory planning for Kezar’s assets. Prior to joining Kezar in June 2020, Ms. Greenman served as Global Regulatory Lead for Retrophin (now, Travere Therapeutics). Ms. Greenman has held positions of increasing responsibility at Vital Therapies, Shire Regenerative Medicine, and Advanced BioHealing and gained experience with small molecule drug development, combination products (biologics and medical devices), advertising and promotional reviews, post-marketing commercial support and application maintenance. Most of her career in regulatory affairs has been spent working in the rare disease space.
Ms. Greenman earned her bachelor’s degree in Biology from Gustavus Adolphus College and her Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Northwestern Health Sciences University.
Jim Kirchner, PhD
VP, CMC and Supply Chain
Jim Kirchner, Ph.D. joined the team at Kezar in April 2024 as Vice President of CMC and Supply Chain. Prior to joining us he held leadership positions in organizations focused on CMC development. He has built technical operations teams from Phase 1 through commercial launch, encompassing analytical, process and formulation development as well as drug substance and drug product manufacturing. Additionally, Jim’s career has included developing duplex oligonucleotide therapeutics at Corgentech, Capsaicin at Anesiva, ergot alkaloids at MAP Pharmaceuticals, aminogycoside at Achaogen, and most recently proteins at Alladapt.
Jim received his B.S in Chemistry from Kent State University and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Washington.
Andrew Basham
VP, Legal Affairs
Andrew Basham is our Vice President of Legal Affairs and joined Kezar in 2021. Prior to Kezar, Mr. Basham practiced corporate law in Silicon Valley and New York, including with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Allen & Overy LLP (now A&O Shearman).
Mr. Basham holds a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis and a J.D. from The George Washington University.
Dave Braggs
VP, Quality Assurance
Dave Braggs is Vice President of Quality Assurance and joined Kezar in 2021. He brings over 25+ years of experience in quality assurance and quality control in early through late phase development in multiple therapeutic areas.
Before joining Kezar, Mr. Braggs served as the Director of Quality System Improvements at ViaCyte, Inc., where he led Phase Appropriate GxP Quality System development activities. Prior to that, he was the Director of Quality at Tanvex BioPharma, where he was responsible for quality operations, systems and compliance as well as led the organization’s PAI preparation activities. Earlier in his career, Mr. Braggs held senior positions in quality assurance, serving as the Executive Director, Quality at Vital Therapies, Inc and as the Associate Director, Quality Assurance/Compliance at Ionis Pharmaceuticals.
He holds M.A. and M.B.A. degrees from Webster University and a B.S. in Biology from the University of New Mexico.
Pattie Chiang
SVP, Corporate Controller
Pattie Chiang is our Senior Vice President Corporate Controller. Prior to joining Kezar in May 2018, Ms. Chiang served as Corporate Controller for Achaogen, a publicly traded commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company from 2011 to 2018. In her span of career, Ms. Chiang held multiple finance leadership positions at venture-backed companies in the life science and high-tech industries. Ms. Chiang started her career in public accounting at Price Waterhouse.
Ms. Chiang received a BS degree in accounting from National Taiwan University. She is also a certified public accountant.
Tony Muchamuel
VP, Pharmacology & Toxicology
Tony Muchamuel serves as Vice President, Toxicology and Pharmacology at Kezar Life Sciences, and has led nonclinical drug development efforts in immunology and oncology since 2016. Tony has performed research in the biopharmaceutical industry for more than 20 years including at Amgen, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Proteolix, Corgentech Inc., and DNAX Research Institute. He has authored/coauthored 22 scientific publications and 8 US patent applications.
Tony attended San Francisco State University where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Physiology and Master of Science degree in Clinical Science.
Kiruthi Palaniswamy, PharmD
VP, Medical Affairs
Kiruthi is our Vice President of Medical Affairs. She brings 20+ years of scientific leadership and medical affairs experience across large-market and rare diseases. She heads the development of our medical strategy and plan, integrating the voice of the medical community and the patient across Kezar’s development platforms. Kiruthi also oversees collaborations with key patient advocacy organizations working in rare diseases. She has developed and implemented integrated medical plans in support of pipeline, pre-launch, and marketed products to advance evidence-based care and ultimately impact patient outcomes. Prior to joining Kezar, Kiruthi held positions of increasing responsibility at Sanofi-Aventis, Galderma Laboratories, and Corcept Therapeutics.
She graduated with a Doctor of Pharmacy from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and completed a Post-doctoral Fellowship in Medical Communications.
Rachel Peterson, MD, FACR
Head of Clinical Immunology
Rachel joined Kezar in May 2024 as the Head of Clinical Immunology. She has nearly a decade of clinical development experience, with roles across several industries.
Prior to joining Kezar, she served in clinical development leadership roles at Alpine Immune Sciences and Anaptys Bio, where she worked in various rheumatology, immunology and dermatology indications. Before that she was Medical Director at a global CRO (PRA Health Sciences, now ICON) and also served as a Principal Investigator at a CRU, ProSciento. She holds a certificate in Clinical Trials Design and Management from UCSD.
Rachel practiced clinical rheumatology for several years post-fellowship and subsequently worked in the continuing medical education field prior to embarking on her career in drug development.
Rachel received her MD from Rosalind Franklin University/The Chicago Medical School. She completed Internal Medicine residency at Rush University, a Rheumatology fellowship at Scripps Clinic and is a board-certified rheumatologist.
Mary Rogers
VP, Financial Planning & Analysis
Mary Rogers is our Vice President Financial Planning & Analysis. She has more than 30 years of financial expertise in leading and building strong financial functions, both privately held and public biotech companies. She has worked with companies as they evolved from discovery and development to the commercial stage.
Prior to joining Kezar in March 2023, Ms. Rogers served as the Executive Director of Financial Planning & Analysis at Atreca, a publicly traded clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company from 2019 to 2023. In her span of career, Ms. Rogers held multiple finance leadership roles with Genentech, Cytokinetics, Gilead, Astellas and Achaogen.
Ms. Rogers received a BS degree in finance and accounting from Notre Dame de Namur University.
Joe Tedrick
VP, Human Resources
Joe serves as Vice President of Human Resources, bringing over 20 years of HR leadership experience within the biopharma industry, from early-stage to commercial-stage companies. Though primarily focused on the US, Joe has also collaborated with HR colleagues in the UK, India, Japan, and China. He is dedicated to transforming business strategies into people-centric initiatives that enhance engagement and cultivate an inclusive and accountable culture. Before joining Kezar Life Sciences, Joe held significant roles at Assembly Biosciences, AbbVie, Amgen, and Genentech. He earned his Bachelor’s in Interpersonal & Organizational Communication from The Ohio State University and a Master’s in Organization Development from the University of San Francisco. Joe holds a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) Certification, underscoring his expertise in the HR field.
Jinhai Wang, PhD
VP, Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics
Jinhai Wang, Ph.D., has over 20 years of industry experience covering organic chemistry, analytical and bioanalytical fields, managing preclinical ADME and clinical pharmacology studies, and developing small molecule drugs across a range of therapeutic areas including autoimmune and oncology diseases. Prior to joining Kezar, Jinhai worked at Cleave Biosciences as a Senior Scientist and was responsible for analytical, bioanalytical, and formulation strategy and assay development to support early and late-stage drug discovery programs.
Jinhai received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from West Virginia University and holds M.S in analytical chemistry from Chinese Academy of Sciences.