MANAGEMENT TEAM

Dr. Arch was previously Head of Research at Elpiscience Biopharma, Ltd. from October 2019 to June 2021, and Head of the Liver Disease Department at China Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research from February 2017 to October 2019. Robert’s leadership roles have been focused on shaping strong teams and building diversified R&D pipelines with innovative assets, from ideas to late-stage clinical development programs. His career over 28 years extends from academia to the pharmaceutical industry, including positions at Novartis, Takeda, GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer. Robert’s expertise in basic research and drug development includes chronic liver disease, cancer, immuno-oncology, respiratory disease, and inflammatory disorders.  Dr. Arch earned his Ph.D. in Germany at the University of Wuerzburg and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg. After postdoctoral training at the DKFZ and the University of Chicago, he started his independent career as a faculty member in the Departments of Medicine and Pathology & Immunology at Washington University in Saint Louis. Robert is an author of more than 40 publications and book chapters, and he is a co-inventor of several patents for clinical-stage assets.

Mr. Chi joins the Company from THPlasma, where he served as Chief Executive Officer since July 2020 and helped found the company’s plasma collection business and establish regular commercial sales. Prior to joining THPlasma, Mr. Chi served as Chief Financial Officer of CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“CASI”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapeutics and pharmaceutical products, from September 2018 to February 2020. Prior to joining CASI, Mr. Chi was Vice President of Finance at Flavors Holdings, Inc., a packaged food company, where he led the global accounting function, including financial reporting, planning, treasury, investor relations, tax, and auditing with global sales in 90 countries. Prior to Flavor Holdings, Inc., he was Chief Financial Officer at BPL Plasma, a large third-party blood plasma collection business. Previously, he was finance director at Unilever PLC where he was responsible for leading the accounting function including financial reporting, annual budgeting, and strategic planning. Mr. Chi holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and an MBA in finance and operations from the Yale School of Management. He also holds certifications as a CPA and CFA.

Upon completion of his post-doctoral studies, Dr. Canton joined OncoSec as a Scientist in 2014.  Over the past 8 years, he has held leadership positions overseeing plasmid molecular design, immune monitoring and biomarker development, and OncoSec’s Discovery platform.

Dr. Canton received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Western University (Ontario Canada) and did his post-doctoral research at an HHMI laboratory.  He holds bachelor’s degrees in Science (Biochemistry) and Art (Music) from Bishop’s University.

Mr. DelAversano is a certified public account and has over fifteen years of experience in accounting including thirteen years in public accounting.

Prior to this appointment as OncoSec’s Principal Accounting Officer and Controller, Mr. DelAversano served as OncoSec’s Executive Director of Finance since 2018 where he had global responsibility for accounting, external financial reporting, and financial controls covering all aspects of OncoSec’s business. Prior to joining OncoSec, he was the Director of Financial Reporting and Taxation at Brio Financial Group (“Brio”), consulting with various public companies in financial reporting, internal control development and evaluation, budgeting and forecasting. Prior to joining Brio, Mr. DelAversano was a manager at Bartolomei Pucciarelli, LLC and oversaw their accounting and tax practice with industry focuses in manufacturing, wholesalers and medical devices services. In addition, he performed audit services, outsourced chief financial officer functions, and consulted clients through difficult Securities and Exchange Commission comment periods particularly through application of complex accounting principles for a large public company client base.

Mr. DelAversano holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Rider University.

Dr. O’Keeffe most recently served as Senior Director of Clinical Development for Nektar Therapeutics, where she built and trained an oncology clinical science team and provided clinical development leadership in the development of company processes and policy through interdepartmental, company-wide committees, working groups and initiatives. During her time with the company, Dr. O’Keeffe was also appointed Clinical Development Lead of the global Phase 3 randomized study for NKTR-214 (bempegaldesleukin) + OPDIVO^® (nivolumab) in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), for which she managed and led medical science strategy, Steering Committee and key opinion leader interactions, health authority/ethics committee responses, team training and clinical oversight of data collection and review.

Prior to Nektar, Dr. O’Keeffe held additional clinical development positions of increasing responsibility at Exelixis, Genentech, Clovis Oncology, Achaogen, and Calithera. In these roles, Dr. O’Keeffe served as medical monitor for multiple oncology studies in RCC, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC); provided scientific and medical expertise in the launch preparation for Rubraca^® (rucaparib); participated on the clinical filing team for the new drug application (NDA) for ZEMDRI (plazomicin); and contributed to the early development of CABOMETYX^® (cabozantinib). Dr. O’Keeffe earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley and her Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Asian Studies at Case Western Reserve University.

Mr. Silverman, an engineering management veteran, brings to OncoSec extensive global industry experience spanning more than 20 years, in the development, manufacturing and scale up of Medical Devices including electroporation and gene delivery equipment for the delivery of DNA drugs in support of cancer and vaccine research.

For more than five years, Mr. Silverman served as Vice President at Ichor Medical Systems, Inc., an industry leader focused on the development, manufacture and sale of electroporation devices for the intracellular delivery of nucleic acid-based drugs encoding therapeutic proteins.  While at Ichor, he was responsible for establishing and leading the engineering, operations and quality teams for the  company’s electroporation equipment for the delivery of DNA drugs in support of cancer and vaccine research.  Mr. Silverman was also responsible for engineering design execution and planning, supply chain, supplier audits, internal and external manufacturing and contract coordination.

Prior to joining Ichor Medical Systems, Mr. Silverman was the Managing Director at Varioscale, Inc.  Adding to his past experience, he held a variety of engineering and business manager roles, including his time at Abbott Laboratories and Guidant Corporation where he managed business alliance, program management, engineering/manufacturing process development and improvements.

“Jeff’s extensive clinical development experience with electroporation and intertumoral gene delivery technologies aligns perfectly with OncoSec’s mission of utilizing intratumoral electroporation to achieve targeted and sustained delivery of IL-12 for significantly underserved cancer patients.  He will be replacing John Rodriguez, former Vice President of Product Engineering and Manufacturing, who is retiring after five years at OncoSec,” said Daniel J. O’Connor, President and Chief Executive Officer of OncoSec.  “As we continue advancing our lead product candidate, TAVO™, through clinical trials, we believe Jeff’s prior experience in R&D and commercialization of electroporation and gene delivery devices will be crucial in our mission to deliver this treatment directly into patients’ tumors, thereby avoiding system toxicities while still having a whole-body anti-tumor effect, in the hopes of providing long-term benefits.”

Mr. Silverman added, “The preliminary data seen in OncoSec’s clinical trials evaluating TAVO™ in combination with KEYTRUDA^® for the treatment of anti-PD-1 checkpoint refractory metastatic melanoma and for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer present an encouraging path toward bringing this therapy to market.  I look forward to working with Dan and the leadership team to develop and execute OncoSec’s clinical trial strategy and lead manufacturing operations.”

Mr. Silverman earned his bachelor’s degree in biology with minors in chemistry and psychology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

Dr. Linda Shi is the deputy president and Chief Medical officer of Grand Pharma (China), as well as an Executive Director of Grand Pharmaceutical Group Limited, a publicly listed company in Hong Kong. Prior to joining Grand Pharma, Dr. Shi was the EU Regulatory Leader in the Global Regulatory Affairs for Neuroscience at Janssen R&D in Belgium.

Dr. Shi has over 30 years of clinical and research experience in academic settings and the pharmaceutical industry, with significant experience working with global multifunctional matrixed teams to drive forward complex projects. She led various applications for clinical trials and INDs across Europe and the United States.

Dr. Shi obtained her M.D. in China and a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She has been appointed as a guest professor and visiting fellow in various universities worldwide.

Dr. Herbert Kim Lyerly is the George Barth Geller Professor of Cancer Research, professor of surgery, immunology and pathology, and director of the surgical sciences applied therapeutics section at Duke University, and former director of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.  He is an internationally recognized expert in cancer therapy and immunotherapy, has published over 300 scientific articles and book chapters, and has edited ten textbooks on surgery, cancer immunotherapy and novel cancer therapies.  He serves on the editorial board of 12 scientific journals.

Dr. Lyerly was appointed in 2008 by President George Bush to serve on the National Cancer Advisory Board, which oversees the National Cancer Institute, where he served until 2014.  He has served as chair of the Cancer Centers Subcommittee and served on the Global Health Subcommittee of the National Cancer Advisory Board.  He has served on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Council of Councils, and on the board of the NIH Office of AIDS Research.  He has also been a member of the scientific advisory boards of Susan G. Komen and the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation.

He is a highly sought-after consultant and advisor and has served on the Cancer Center’s external advisory boards for the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, University of Michigan, University of Chicago, University of Alabama, University of Arizona, Boston University and Purdue University.  He has served as an advisor to the University of Washington and Case Western Reserve Clinical and Translational Science Institutes.

Chao Zhou is currently the Executive Deputy Officer of China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings Limited, a public company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange that develops, manufactures and distributes pharmaceutical products and medical devices to retailers and medical organizations with significant experience in R&D and product commercialization in China.

Since 2018, Mr. Zhou has served on the Board of Directors of Grand Pharma Sphere Pty Ltd, a Singapore based company that indirectly wholly-owns the Australian based global medical device company, Sirtex Medical Pty. Ltd. Prior to his role as Executive Deputy Officer, Mr. Zhou served as a Management Director in the Department of Legal Security for China Grand Enterprises, Inc., an investment company engaged in the operation and management of businesses covering pharmaceuticals and healthcare, commodity trading, real estate investment, financial service and other sectors. He earned his Bachelor in Law from Ocean University of China and a Master in International Law from the University of International Business and Economics.

Kevin R. Smith is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Sirtex Medical US Holdings, Inc. He combines more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the medical device industry with the keen instincts of an entrepreneur.

Prior to his appointment to CEO, Mr. Smith was Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Americas. Before joining Sirtex, Mr. Smith was Executive Vice President of Business Development at Gel-e, Inc., a company based at the University of Maryland specializing in advanced material hemostasis products. His previous positions include Chief Commercial Officer of Sensium Healthcare along with Global Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Teleflex, where he was the senior sales and marketing executive in the company’s cardiac business unit. Kevin holds a Master of Business Administration in Global Management from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from the University of Kentucky.

Joon Kim is a highly accomplished attorney and partner in Lee & Ko’s Corporate, International Litigation and Dispute Resolution, and White Collar Crime Practice Groups. Mr. Kim advises clients, both domestic and international, on a broad range of litigation, dispute-resolution and transactional matters.

With a particularly strong background in representing clients in court proceedings, Mr. Kim has a comprehensive understanding of every stage of the litigation process, including all aspects of initial investigatory/discovery proceedings, settlement negotiations, hearings, motions, trials, evidentiary issues and the handling of post-judgment challenges and appeals.

Prior to joining Lee & Ko, Mr. Kim worked for several years as a litigation lawyer and served from 2008 to 2017 as a public prosecutor in California. Mr. Kim has first-chaired both jury and non-jury trials, and has been trained in all aspects of litigation. During his time as a public prosecutor, Mr. Kim also had the experience of serving in 2016 as a research fellow in Korea at the Institute of Justice, under the auspices of the Korea Ministry of Justice, where he worked together with Korean public prosecutors. Joon received his J.D. from Berkeley School of Law and his B.S. from the Berkeley School of Business.

Stephany Foster joined QIAGEN in 2005 as Head of Global Internal Audit and was most recently Vice President, Head of Human Resources. Ms. Foster was also a member of the NAELT (North America Executive Leadership Team) and steers the Diversity and Inclusion program at QIAGEN. She was named to her current role in October 2019. Prior to joining QIAGEN, Stephany Foster worked in internal audit at Morgan Franklin and Independence Air. She started her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, specializing in Sarbanes Oxley Auditing. Ms. Foster has a master’s degree in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), a Certified Internal and Information Systems Auditor (CIA / CISA), and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).

Dr. Heller has over 25 years of experience in evaluating effects of electric pulses on biological systems. He is recognized as a pioneer on the use of electrotransfer for drug and gene delivery.

His research group has developed new protocols or devices that are being tested for potential therapies for cancer, wound healing and vascular diseases (peripheral or coronary ischemia) as well as vaccine and immunotherapy protocols. His work in this gene therapy approach was translated into the clinic and represents the first-in-human study utilizing in vivo gene electrotransfer of a plasmid. Richard Heller is currently Director of the Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics (CBE) and Professor in the School of Medical Diagnostics and Translational Sciences in the College of Health Sciences at Old Dominion University (ODU).

Dr. Mathiesen has a Ph.D. from University of Oslo, Norway. He was a co-founder of Inovio AS, Norway and inventor on numerous electroporation related patents covering devices and methods for gene based immune therapy.

After Inovio AS was acquired by Genetronics Biomedical in 2005 (now Inovio Pharmaceuticals), IM was director of gene delivery at Inovio in San Diego. Iacob has more than 10 years’ experience with IP, electroporation devices and methods and worked closely with University of Southampton to initiate the first human clinical trial using electroporation do delivery a gene based vaccine. Iacob is currently CEO of Otivio AS in Norway, a new startup developing methods and devices for wound healing and temperature management.

Dr. Ferrone leads a research program focused on the characterization of escape mechanisms deployed by tumor cells to avoid immune-mediated recognition and destruction.

He has also studied how combined immunotherapeutic strategies can counteract these tumor escape mechanisms. These studies are greatly facilitated by the large panel of HLA antigen- and human tumor antigen-specific monoclonal antibodies he has developed and shared with the scientific community over the years.

Dr. Ferrone received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in 1964 and in 1971, respectively, from the University of Milan, in Milan, Italy. He has held faculty positions at the University of Milan; Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, CA; Columbia University, New York, NY; New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY; Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY; and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA. He was recently appointed Professor in Residence of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in Boston, MA. For the last 30 years, he has been a member of many review committees including NIH Study Sections, and editorial boards of many scientific journals. Furthermore, he is a member of several external scientific advisory boards.

Dr. Ferrone has received numerous awards and honors. He has described the results of his studies in more than 600 papers published in peer-reviewed journals. Moreover, he has been the editor of 14 books and the guest editor of five special issues of oncology journals.