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.
Nick Mordwinkin, PhD
Chief Business Officer, Head of Strategy
Dr. Mordwinkin joins Kezar with over a decade of experience in the healthcare industry. Most recently, he served as Head of Corporate Development, Inflammation and Fibrosis, at Gilead Sciences, where he led a variety of transactions including partnerships and out-licensing, as well as a range of corporate development activities across the entirety of Gilead’s inflammation franchise. Prior to that, Dr. Mordwinkin served as Senior Director and Head of Corporate Strategy at Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, where he was instrumental in crafting a partnership with GeneTx Biotherapeutics in 2020 and the acquisition of Dimension Therapeutics in 2017. Dr. Mordwinkin previously co-founded and served as the President of Curium Inc., a consulting firm focused on biotech and pharmaceutical strategy. Before that, he was an equity research associate at BMO Capital Markets covering SMID-cap biotechnology companies
Dr. Mordwinkin holds a B.S. in Biology and Pharm.D. from Nova Southeastern University and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Southern California. Dr. Mordwinkin completed his postdoctoral training at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Mark Schiller
SVP, Legal Affairs
Mark Schiller has served as our Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs since April 2019. 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, D. Phil. (Ph.D.) joined the team at Kezar in January 2022 to lead discovery of first-in-class therapeutics leveraging Kezar’s expertise in protein secretion via the Sec61 translocon. He brings over 20 years of research experience contributing to the discovery of novel clinical candidates with the objective of addressing critical unmet needs of patients.
Prior to joining Kezar, Dr. Anand served at Nektar Therapeutics in positions of increasing responsibility and was most recently Executive Director, Head of Discovery Chemistry, where his team discovered NKTR-262, a PEG-conjugated TLR7/8 agonist. Earlier in his career, Dr. Anand developed his skills as a medicinal chemist at Exelixis, where he contributed to the discovery of six investigational new drugs (INDs). Notably, he is a co-inventor of cobimetinib (COTELLICTM), a once-daily oral allosteric MEK inhibitor which is approved for use in the treatment of metastatic melanoma, having served as the chemistry lead on the research project team and led the technical transfer which established the basis for the CMC route.
Dr. Anand 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 Operations
Zung To is Senior Vice President of Clinical Development Operations and joined Kezar in 2023. He brings 35 years of industry experience, with 20 years in senior leadership roles, ranging from basic research to early- and late-stage clinical development, and medical affairs.
Before joining Kezar, Mr. To served as Vice President of Clinical Development Operations and Hematology Franchise Leader of Kronos Bio. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Global Clinical Operations, Data Management, Contracting and Strategic Outsourcing. During his tenure at Jazz, he rapidly expanded capabilities to execute on a growing oncology and neuroscience portfolio. Previously, Mr. To spent 14 years at Genentech in roles of increasing responsibility, including operational oversight of Avastin development in solid tumors and early development of the oncology portfolio. Earlier in his career, Mr. To was a clinical project manager at Abgenix and Syntex Pharmaceuticals.
He received a B.S in Biological Sciences from University of California, Davis.
Gitanjali Jain
VP, Investor Relations and External Affairs
Gitanjali Jain joins Kezar with over 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry. She most recently served as Managing Director at Solebury Trout where she advised small and mid-cap biopharmaceutical companies on investor relations strategies, messaging/communications, and capital market transactions. Ms. Jain previously served as a research associate at Medarex and StemCells, Inc. where she worked on the development of neural markers as they related to monoclonal antibody 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.
Rafael Sarabia, PhD
VP, Pharmaceutical Development
Rafael Sarabia joins Kezar as Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development. He brings 30 years of pharmaceutical experience in the development of drug product with emphasis on the formulation and process development supporting all phases of clinical development. He has led teams responsible for technology transfer and for completion of the technical regulatory submission requirements leading to approval and commercialization of products.
Prior to joining Kezar, Dr. Sarabia had served in positions of increasing responsibility in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently as Executive Director of Pharmaceutical Development at ChemoCentryx where he was responsible for drug substance and product development in support of the manufacturing and registration of products supporting all phases of the clinical programs. Dr Sarabia led internal and external teams in the planning and execution of all the CMC technical development activities leading to Tavneos regulatory global submissions and approvals.
Early in his career, Dr. Sarabia contributed to product development, scale-up and commercialization of products such as Tysabri, Humira, Harvoni, Stribild, Amevive, Sovaldi and supported routine manufacturing of well-established commercial products such as Avonex, Atripla, Rifater, Synthroid, Dilaudid, Cayston, Truvada amongst others.
Dr. Sarabia graduated from Universidad Central de Venezuela with a BS in Pharmacy and from the University of Iowa where he obtained a MS and PhD degrees in Pharmaceutics.
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
VP, Corporate Controller
Pattie Chiang is our 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.