Our Company

Dr. Fordyce brings more than 15 years’ experience leading teams in drug discovery, development, clinical translation, and commercialization of new treatments.

Before founding Vera, Fordyce was the founder and CEO of gene-editing company Trucode Gene Repair, Inc., having previously served as an entrepreneur in residence at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.

Earlier in his career, Fordyce served as Senior Director of clinical research at Gilead Sciences, Inc., where he contributed to seven new drug approvals and served as project lead for Gilead’s TAF/GENVOYA development program.

With subspecialty training in infectious disease from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Fordyce was previously Chief Resident at NYU Bellevue and spent two years as a translational research fellow at Rockefeller University.

Fordyce currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. He received his BA from Harvard University and his MD from Harvard Medical School.

Prior to joining Vera, Dr. Lin was Senior Medical Director at Genentech where she was responsible for Phase III global study execution and regulatory filing in an orphan disease. She also served as Global Development lead for a small molecule program in multiple sclerosis and led other clinical development programs for monoclonal antibodies, bispecifics, and complement inhibitors in various therapeutic areas including respiratory, allergy, nephrology, infectious disease, and inflammation. Previously, she was a Medical Director in Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at Amgen where she led teams related to the approval and commercialization of two osteoporosis therapies.

Dr. Lin is board certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. Prior to joining industry, she was on faculty at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), seeing patients at the San Francisco VA Health Care System.  She received her MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and a BS from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She trained in Internal Medicine at Boston Medical Center and in Rheumatology at UCLA and Washington University in St. Louis where she also was a post-doctoral fellow.

Previously, Ms. Frenz was Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Finance at Trucode Gene Repair, Inc., after having served in positions of increasing responsibility at Gilead Sciences, Inc., where she led U.S. healthcare provider marketing for GENVOYA, which became the number one prescribed HIV regimen within in its first year of launch.

Frenz also led launch planning, brand strategy, messaging, and tactic development for several other HIV regimens.

Previously, Frenz served in the Commercial Planning group at Gilead leading the development of market insights, long-range forecasting, product positioning, payer value strategies, and global branding in various therapeutic areas.

Earlier in her career, Frenz worked at Leerink, a healthcare investment bank, in their Strategic Advisory Group, devising business development, commercial, and portfolio management strategies for biopharma companies.

She received her AB from Princeton University and MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Curley brings more than twenty-five years of experience in the development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products, including R&D governance.

Dr. Curley joined Vera from Gilead Sciences, Inc., where she led Project and Portfolio Management with oversight for the development pipeline across four therapeutic areas. During her 15-year tenure at Gilead the anti-viral portfolio grew from four to 15 commercial products.

Prior to Gilead, Curley worked as a formulation scientist and subsequently as a project leader at Nektar Therapeutics.

She received a BSc in Physics/Chemistry from Trinity College, Ireland, a PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and did a post-doctorate at MIT and Harvard Medical School, focused on long-acting biodegradable formulations.

Sean Grant, MBA brings nearly 15 years of multi-disciplinary experience in healthcare and financial services. Mr. Grant joins Vera from CareDx, where he was Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development. During his tenure, he led M&A, venture investments and partnerships across diagnostics, therapeutics, and digital platforms.

Prior to joining CareDx, Mr. Grant served as Vice President in the Investment Banking Healthcare Division at Citigroup. While at Citigroup, he specialized in public and private capital raising as well as M&A, and executed a broad range of transactions for many of the world’s leading life sciences companies including Gilead, Kite Pharma, and CRISPR Therapeutics. Previous to CitiGroup, he held finance, strategy and business development roles at Piper Jaffray, Grant Consulting, and ESI Group.

Mr. Grant holds an MBA from the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business and a BA in Government and International Politics from George Mason University.

Mr. Doan joins Vera from Gilead Sciences, Inc., where he most recently served as Executive Director, Clinical Operations Head of the Inflammation/Respiratory Therapeutic Area providing oversight to a pipeline of eight molecules in development from proof-of-concept to pivotal trial programs.

During his 13-year tenure at Gilead, Doan worked across three therapeutic areas, assuming lead roles in clinical development programs including several that led to successful global market filings for Stribild, Complera, Sovaldi, Epclusa and filgotinib.

Before Gilead, Doan led development and post-marketing solid tumor clinical studies at Genentech for Avastin.

Early in his career, he worked at CROs where he developed a strong knowledge of the clinical trial services industry.

Dr. Thomas brings more than 25 years of experience in Research, Process Development and Manufacturing of biologics at all stages of development from pre-clinical to commercial.

Dr. Thomas joined Vera Therapeutics from Codexis, Inc., where he served as Associate Vice President, Technical Operations, overseeing preclinical development for biotherapeutic products and management of external contract manufacturing partnerships. Previously, Dr. Thomas worked as a research and process development scientist, managed clinical manufacturing, manufacturing site transfers, and contract manufacturing partnerships and led the drafting of the Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) sections for marketing applications at Alexion, Coulter Pharmaceuticals, InterMune, Ipsen, and Bayer.

Dr. Thomas holds a PhD in biochemistry and biophysics from UC Davis, and received a BA in biochemistry from UC Berkeley. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital focused on GTP-binding protein-mediated transmembrane signal transduction.

Before joining Vera, Mr. Young was Senior Vice President of Finance at Plexxikon Inc., where he served in positions of increasing responsibility during a 14-year tenure and led the accounting and finance operations supporting the company’s sale to Daiichi Sankyo for nearly $1 billion in 2011. Post-merger, he continued to oversee accounting and finance, as well as other business functions for Plexxikon, and was a member of the management team during a period in which two of the company’s drugs were approved and launched in oncology indications. Prior to Plexxikon, Mr. Young was a member of the finance teams at Cerus Corporation (Nasdaq: CERS) and VaxGen, Inc. Mr. Young began his career as an auditor for Ernst & Young LLP.

He received an MBA from UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business, and a BA from UCLA. He is a certified public accountant (inactive status).