Board Members
Azaya’s board of Directors is lead by Chairman of the Board John C. Kerr, a co-founder and lead investor, Michael T. Dwyer, President& CEO, and a Board member, and Ze’ev Shaked, Ph.D.
The team shares several decades of biomedical R&D and biotechnology company management experience, including founding, growing and financing early stage biopharmaceutical ventures and successfully managing the clinical development and obtaining FDA approval of cancer therapeutics.
The Company is intentionally being managed with a small number of full time employees and it supplements its founders and internal management team by leveraging the expertise of various advisors and topic area experts on a recurring basis. As additional funding is obtained by the Company it will expand its internal workforce, as needed, to manage all of its development programs.
John C. Kerr, Chairman
Mr. Kerr, Chairman and a lead investor in Azaya, is a principal of Moorman Kerr Interests, engaged in private equity investing, oil and gas interests and cattle ranching. Since 1998, he has served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, the largest independent biomedical research institute in Texas, where he currently serves as interim president.
Mr. Kerr serves on the Board of Directors of Brava Therapeutics in Houston, Texas, which is engaged in developing cancer therapeutics in collaboration with the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Mr. Kerr assisted in founding BioNumerik Pharmaceuticals in 1992, providing seed capital and serving on the Board of Directors and as a financial advisor until 1995. From 1984 to 1990, Mr. Kerr served as Chairman and CEO of American Century Corporation, a New York Stock Exchange listed financial services company. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. Kerr was a corporate and securities lawyer and a partner at Andrews & Kurth in Houston, Texas and later at Cox & Smith in San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Kerr received his B.A. from Stanford University and his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law.
Mr. Dwyer joined Azaya from Ingenix Pharmaceutical Services (i3 Research), a global contract research subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, where he served as senior vice president and chief administrative officer. I3 Research has more than 1,200 employees in 20 countries with clinical trials being conducted in more than 45 countries. Prior to i3 Research, Mr. Dwyer held a number of executive management positions with ILEX Oncology, Inc. in San Antonio. Throughout his tenure, he served as the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Business Officer and as the President and COO of ILEX’s global oncology contract research business. Mr. Dwyer was instrumental in the development and approval of Campath© (alemtuzumab).
Ze’ev Shaked, Director
Dr. Shaked recently joined Azaya’s board of directors from Spherics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, where he served as President and CEO. Dr. Shaked has extensive managerial and pharmaceutical product development experience in commercializing new drug products. He most recently was President and CEO of Spherics, Inc., where he transformed the company into a product-driven company with an attractive product pipeline, and where he raised more than $25 million from the venture capital industry.
Prior to Spherics, Dr. Shaked was Chief Operating Officer of ILEX Oncology, Inc., in San Antonio, Texas. He was instrumental in ILEX obtaining ownership and FDA approval for CAMPATH and Clolar, two of its commercialized products. In addition, Dr. Shaked has held a number of senior research and development and corporate management positions at ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corporation, Berlex Biosciences, Inc., Triton Biosciences, Inc., CODON Corporation, and Chiron Corporation. He obtained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry and Applied Biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
