Management Team

Joan Lau, PhD, MBA, President

Joan Lau has worked in the pharmaceuticals and device industry for over 10 years. Prior to joining Ansaris, Dr. Lau was at Merck & Co. where she held roles of increasing responsibility in R&D Project Management, Portfolio Management, and Business Development. During this period, she played significant roles in leading preclinical and early clinical programs and managing the neuroscience drug development portfolio. Later, she managed global business development activities for the Merck Vaccines and Infectious Diseases division. Most recently, she had responsibilities related to scientific integration in the Office of the President, Merck Research Laboratories. Dr. Lau previously worked in medical device development at Zimmer, Inc.

Dr. Lau received her MBA from the Wharton School of Business. She also holds a PhD in Medical Neuroscience and a BS degree in Bioengineering and maintains a teaching appointment at the University of Pennsylvania.

Martha Kelly, PhD, Vice President, Chemistry

Dr. Kelly joined Ansaris in 2001. She has been involved with a number of projects, including leading the chemistry effort on the company's tubulin inhibitor from the initiation of the project through IND filing and manufacture of API and clinical supplies. She is the PI on an SBIR grant. Prior to joining Ansaris, Dr. Kelly was at Rohm and Haas where she worked in both the process chemistry and discovery areas. Dr. Kelly received a BA in Chemistry from the College of the Holy Cross and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Geneva.

Charles Reynolds, PhD, Senior Director, Head of Discovery Technologies

Chuck Reynolds is widely recognized for his expertise in computational chemistry and structure-based design.  Prior to joining Ansaris in 2010, he led modeling groups at the Springhouse, PA and La Jolla, CA research sites of Johnson & Johnson, where he and his team made significant contributions to discovery programs in neuroscience, oncology, pain, and cardiovascular disease.  He currently holds an appointment at the Pennsylvania Center for Drug Discovery, is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Keystone Symposia, sits on the Industrial Advisory Board for Quantum Bio, and holds several leadership positions in the ACS.  Chuck began his career at Rohm and Haas where his scientific contributions were recognized with the company’s highest science award, the Otto Haas Award.

Chuck received his BA from Austin College and PhD from the University of Texas at Austin.  He was an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania and supervised joint graduate and postdoctoral students at the Pennsylvania State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has published 80 papers, patents, and book chapters, and is a co-editor of two books.

Marina Bukhtiyarova, PhD, Director, in vitro Biology

Marina has 13 years of experience in drug discovery within large and small pharmaceutical companies.  She joined Ansaris in 2002, where she has worked in positions of increasing responsibilities on projects encompassing inflammation, viral diseases and cancer.  As head of the Biology department she leads the Ansaris team in support of multiple drug programs in conducting functional, biophysical and cellular assays development; protein expression/purification and preclinical development and safety assessment of new compounds.  Prior to joining Locus, Dr. Bukhtiyarova was at Bristol-Myers Squibb and DuPont Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Bukhtiyarova received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and BS in chemistry from M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University and continued her postdoctoral studies at the University of Florida, College of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Gainesville.  She has authored over 20 papers and is on 1 patent.

 

David Whitwell, MBA, CPA, Chief Financial Officer

David is a B2B CFO® partner and is employed part-time at Ansaris. He has twenty years of broad financial, accounting and management experience helping companies grow and improve profitability. David has been the CFO for small public entrepreneurial companies as well as a divisional CFO and controller for large multi-billion entities. He has also had operational and administrative responsibilities. He was a manager of finance with Schering-Plough and started his career with Ernst & Young in public accounting. David has a diversified and wide range industry experience which includes pharmaceutical, alternative energy, technology, media/publishing, consumer products, distribution and manufacturing.

Lisa Paborsky, PhD, Vice President, Corporate Development

Lisa Paborsky is an independent consultant who is serving as Vice President, Corporate Development at Ansaris. She has a broad scientific background and twenty years experience in the biotechnology industry. Prior to consulting, Lisa was Senior Director, Corporate Development at Ensemble Discovery, a venture-backed start-up chemical discovery company. Lisa previously worked in the business development group at Biogen Idec. She played a central role in M & A, licensing and R&D collaborations and completed numerous deals including the oncology partnership that subsequently led to the merger between Biogen and Idec. Lisa also spent several years at Gilead Sciences, initially as a Group Leader in discovery research and later transitioned into business development where she focused on both in-licensing and out-licensing opportunities.

Lisa received her PhD in Cancer Biology from Stanford University and performed post-doctoral research in the cardiovascular group at Genentech.

Susan Little, SPHR, Senior Director

Susan Little has more than 15 years of progressive HR management experience in the life sciences industry. She is responsible for aligning the Company's human resources with overall business strategy through the design and delivery of creative human resources initiatives. This encompasses the implementation and management of all employee related matters, including talent management, compliance, total compensation, benefits design and administration, and workforce planning and development.

Prior to joining Ansaris in 2006, Ms. Little started the human resources functions at Discovery Laboratories and Cell Pathways. Ms. Little has a BA in Psychology from the Rutgers University and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). She is integrally involved in promoting growth of the biotechnology industry in the Delaware Valley Region. She is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). She is a founding member of the BioScience Industry Partnership and serves on the Advisory Committee for the Delaware Valley Innovation Network. Ms. Little serves on the National BIO HR Conference Chair Committee representing the East Coast.

Linda Kristekas, Controller

Linda is responsible for execution of the company's internal and external reporting as well as ensuring that these documents comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Prior to joining Ansaris in August 2006, Linda was the Director of Finance at Biosyn, Inc. where she was responsible for reporting, accounting and financial analysis, as well as pre and post-award grant management. Linda holds a Business Administration degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in both Accounting and Management.