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.

Dr. Brenner brings more than 25 years of experience as a respected nephrologist and a successful biotechnology executive. Dr. Brenner has previously served in executive roles in several clinical-stage biotech companies, including Chief Medical Officer at Orionis Biosciences and SVP of Medical Affairs at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, contributing to the company’s first therapeutic approval and launch for iron deficiency anemia (Feraheme).

Previously, Dr. Brenner held several positions of expanding responsibility in the nephrology franchise at Amgen. During this time, he led kidney related global development programs, and supported two product approvals (Aranesp and Sensipar) and oversaw the establishment of the nephrology medical affairs organization. Dr. Brenner received his BA from Johns Hopkins University and his MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his medical residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his nephrology fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center.

Lauren Frenz, MBA, has 15 years of experience in the biotech industry. As Chief Business Officer of Vera Therapeutics, she oversees a broad range of responsibilities, including Business Development, Commercial, Public Relations, and Business Operations. Prior to her current role, Ms. Frenz was Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Finance at Vera.

Previously, Ms. Frenz spent over five years at Gilead Sciences, where she served in positions of increasing responsibility across Global and US Commercial and Operations teams. Frenz led the launch and market development for several HIV medicines, all of which reached over $1B in annual sales. At Gilead, she also led the development of market insights, long-range forecasting, product positioning, payer value strategies, and global branding across multiple therapeutic areas.

Earlier in her career, Frenz worked at Leerink, a healthcare investment bank, where she advised biotech companies on corporate strategy, business development, commercial planning, and portfolio management.

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

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. Johnson brings more than 30 years of commercialization and operational experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Vera, he served as the Chief Commercial Officer at Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT) until it was acquired by Pfizer in 2022, during which time he established the company’s global commercial functions and led the launch of Oxbryta.

Prior to GBT, Mr. Johnson spent 15 years at Gilead Sciences, Inc., in roles of increasing responsibility. His most recent position was as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Gilead’s Liver Disease Business Unit, where he was responsible for building and leading the company’s liver disease franchises, including commercially launching four industry leading medicines to treat hepatitis. Prior to that position, he was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Gilead’s Antiviral Business Unit, where he helped launch and oversee the HIV franchise.

Mr. Johnson previously had an 11-year tenure at GSK plc, where he held various positions in sales, product marketing, business development, global commercial strategy and portfolio development. Mr. Johnson currently serves on the board of directors of Caribou Biosciences, a public gene therapy company. He received a BA in business marketing from the University of Puget Sound and an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina.

Mr. Turner has nearly 30 years of drug development and commercialization experience, leading multiple organizations through all phases of product development including the development of the final commercial drug process, method, facility, and process validations, all phases of clinical programs, numerous drug application filings and the transition and establishment of several critical commercialization processes. Prior to joining Vera, Turner served as the Chief Regulatory and Technical Operations Officer at Sierra Oncology, Inc. (acquired by GSK), overseeing regulatory affairs, quality assurance, technical operations, analytical development/quality control, and technical/medical writing. During this time, he prepared these functional areas for the expected commercial launch, as well as directed the compilation, review and filing of the U.S. New Drug Application (NDA) and European Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for Ojjaara (momelotinib).

Prior to Sierra Oncology, Turner was Senior Vice President of Technical Operations and Regulatory Science at Aimmune Therapeutics (acquired by Nestlé) for several years culminating in the commercial launch of Palforzia, the first product approved to treat peanut allergy. Prior to his time at Aimmune, he served as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Global Quality at Dynavax Technologies Corporation as well as several years in a leadership position at MedImmune (now AstraZeneca). He has significant experience in both small molecule and biologic development and has led teams in multiple therapeutic areas including vaccinology, oncology, hematology, allergy and respiratory. Turner received his B.S. in Medical Microbiology with a minor in Chemistry from California State University at Long Beach.

Ms. Rauber brings more than 18 years of in-depth HR experience developing and implementing people programs in multiple HR disciplines from various industries including biotech/pharma, high-tech and financial services.

Prior to joining Vera Therapeutics, Ms. Rauber served as the Vice President, Human Resources at both CytomX Therapeutics and ORIC Pharmaceuticals, where she focused on developing and implementing people programs such as leadership development and talent management.  Responsible for optimizing talent and leading teams in rapidly growing and evolving organizations, prior to ORIC Pharmaceuticals Ms. Rauber held senior HR roles at Orchard Therapeutics, Dermira Inc. (acquired by Lilly) and Jazz Pharmaceuticals.  At Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Ms. Rauber also acted in the capacity of Chief of Staff to the EVP, Global Head of R&D, partnering with global leaders on strategy, operations, change management and employee engagement after the acquisition of Celator Pharmaceuticals.  Ms. Rauber began her HR career working at E*TRADE and eHealth, Inc.  She received her B.S. in Organizational Analysis and Management from Santa Clara University.

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).

Matt Skelton is a seasoned biotech leader with extensive experience in driving global commercialization processes from development stages to successful launches. At Seagen, he scaled the commercial organization from a team of 9 to over 100, leading three successful product launches. His expertise spans global marketing, sales operations, market research, and forecasting, with a proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and develop strategic commercial plans. Prior to Seagen, Mr. Skelton held senior roles at Amgen, overseeing marketing and sales teams, and leading major product launches. He started his career at Eli Lilly as a sales representative. Matt holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from DePauw University.

Gary Barrera has over 25 years of experience in global Commercial and Clinical Quality and Regulatory Affairs with increasing levels of responsibility at large pharma (Bayer, Genentech, Boehringer Ingelheim) and mid/small (Theravance Biopharma, Allakos, Kinevant) most recently serving as a Senior Vice President. Mr. Barrera’s professional interests are learning the biotech and pharma business and improving execution on a corporate level. He is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley and holds an MBA from Saint Mary’s College of California.

Julien E. Capers serves as Vera Therapeutics’ Senior Vice President, Legal. He brings nearly 15 years of experience in healthcare and legal services to this role, where he oversees Vera’s global legal function, including corporate governance, strategic transactions, compliance, development, and management of Vera’s intellectual property portfolio.

Prior to joining Vera Therapeutics, Mr. Capers served as Assistant General Counsel at Zogenix, Inc., where he was responsible for all of commercial and corporate legal in the United States and Japan, and actively contributed to the transaction selling Zogenix to UCB Biosciences in 2022.  Prior to his time at Zogenix, Mr. Capers served as Associate General Counsel for Establishment Labs Holdings, Inc., a multi-national medical device company. Mr. Capers began his in-house legal career as corporate counsel at CareDx. Previously, he practiced law at the international firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, focusing on intellectual property and technology transactions in the life sciences industry, and at Bryan Cave, focusing on commercial litigation.

Prior to law school, Mr. Capers worked at the industry-leading consulting firms, The Zitter Group (acquired by Managed Markets Insight & Technology) and Defined Health (now part of Lumanity), providing managed markets and business development strategy services to life sciences clients.

Mr. Capers received his BS from Stanford University and JD from UC Davis School of Law.

Dr. Cooper brings nearly 40 years of experience in nephrology across a variety of senior positions within industry, clinical practice and academia. He has led medical affairs strategies for drug development programs in chronic kidney disease (CKD), hyperparathyroidism, hyperkalemia and other renal conditions. Over twelve years, he served in leadership roles in medical affairs at several leading pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca and Amgen, where he served as Global Medical Affairs Leader for Nephrology. He joins Vera from ProKidney, where he led the development of the medical affairs function.

Dr. Cooper received his medical degree from Yale University and completed his residency and fellowship in nephrology at Yale’s New Haven Hospital. He previously served as an Associate Professor of Medicine at Yale University earlier in his career before transitioning to clinical practice and later industry roles. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and has presented at national and international conferences.

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. Pakala brings to Vera more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical development, strategic sourcing, global supply chain management, and regulatory submissions / negotiations leading to commercial launch of innovative medicinal products in the US and international markets.

Prior to Joining Vera, Dr. Pakala served as the VP of Product Development and Manufacturing at Aimmune Therapeutics (a Nestle Health Science Company) where he led the development of their diversified portfolio including recombinant biologics, natural biologics, and peptide-based microbiome products.  During his 7-year tenure at Aimmune, Dr. Pakala played a critical role in developing the CMC / Technical Operations team, establishing supply chains, and process scale-up / validation resulting in successful launch of Palforzia^TM in the US and European markets.

Prior to Aimmune, Dr. Pakala spent 6 years at Alexza Pharmaceuticals culminating as their Executive Director of Manufacturing and Engineering. Responsibilities at Alexza included manufacturing (internal operations and CMO sites), capacity expansions, supplier sourcing, supply chain management, regulatory submissions, and early-stage product development.  During this time, Dr. Pakala has played a substantial role in resolving supply and scale-up issues enabling US and international approval of Adasuve^TM product.

Dr. Pakala’s earlier career included process/product development roles at Nanogram, Nektar Therapeutics, Aclara Biosciences, Aradigm Corporation and Roche Diagnostic.  He received his PhD in Engineering Science from The University of Toledo, OH, and an MBA from San Jose State University, CA.

Dr. Zhong brings more than 25 years of experience as a clinical trial biostatistician. As Senior Vice President and Head of Biometrics, he builds a fully functioning biometrics team to support Vera’s drug development programs.

Prior to joining Vera, Dr. Zhong served as the Vice President and Head of Biometrics at Brii Biosciences, where he established the company’s biometrics team operating in both the US and China.

Prior to Brii, Dr. Zhong spent 20 years at Gilead Sciences, where he most recently served as an Executive Director, Biostatistics Head of the Antiviral Therapeutic Area overseeing biostatistics activities in HBV, HCV, HDV, HIV, and COVID-19 clinical trials. Dr. Zhong contributed to the commercialization of more than 20 anti-viral drugs at Gilead. Dr. Zhong holds a PhD in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from McGill University, an MBA from Golden Gate University and received a Bachelor of Medicine degree from Shanghai Fudan University.

Raffaella Faggioni, PhD, is an executive leader and scientist with extensive experience in drug discovery and development. Dr. Faggioni comes to us from a stealth bio startup where she served as VP, Clinical Pharmacology and Bioanalytics, and Interim Head of Research. Previously, Dr. Faggioni was at Exelixis in the position of VP responsible for the Clinical Translational Pharmacology and Bioanalytics groups. She had overall scientific responsibility for clinical pharmacology, DMPK, pharmacometrics, translational pharmacology and bioanalysis. Her team authored the clinical pharmacology package for the successful approvals of CABOMETYX® (cabozantinib) for Differentiated Thyroid Cancer and of CABOMETYX® in combination with OPVIDIO® (nivolumab) as first line treatment for patients with advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Prior to joining Exelixis, Dr. Faggioni was the AstraZeneca Site Lead for the South San Francisco site and Senior Director responsible for AstraZeneca’s US Clinical Pharmacology and Bioanalytics (biologics) group. Her team authored the clinical pharmacology package for successful approvals by the FDA and the European regulatory agency of FASENRA® (benralizumab), IMFINZI® (durvalumab) and LUMOXITI® (moxetumomab pasudotox-tdfk). Dr. Faggioni’s team also contributed to 30+ successful IND submissions.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Faggioni was a pharmacologist in inflammation and immunology research at Amgen and Abgenix, conducting preclinical research on biologic therapeutics. She has authored more than 30 original manuscripts, ten reviews and book chapters, and is co-inventor of five patents. Dr. Faggioni earned her PhD in Pharmacology from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milano, Italy, where she studied the role of cytokines in infection and inflammation. She earned an MS in biological sciences from the University of Pisa. Dr. Faggioni completed her post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, in the Metabolism section of the VA Medical Center, where she conducted research on the role of cytokines and the immune system on regulation of leptin. Dr. Faggioni received the 2016 MedImmune Inspirational Leadership award and the 2016 Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) Rising Star recognition.

Reginald Gay, MD, brings to Vera approximately 23 years of industry experience in Global Drug Safety, Pharmacovigilance and Risk Management, having held Strategic Senior Leadership roles in both Pharma and Biotech, and spending the majority of his career in the Oncology and Hematology space. During his career he has had the opportunity to work on various clinical development compounds, including large and small molecules. Over the past 6 years his primary interest has been in novel therapeutic modalities including immuno-therapy, CAR-T cell therapy, CAR-T/CAR-NK, antibodies, antibody/drug conjugates, developing and helping to bring safer more tolerable compounds to market that carry a much more positive benefit-risk profile. Dr. Gay has a passion for building out best Practice PV systems and teams, setting up vital PV infrastructure and sustainable processes that are robust, flexible and scalable. He joins Vera after serving as VP of Global Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance at Invivyd Therapeutics, where he obtained accelerated EUA approval for Pemgarda. Prior to that position he served as VP of Global Patient Safety and Safety Risk Management at Fate Therapeutics. Overall, in his past career he has held key Senior leadership positions with responsibilities that included managing medical teams within Safety as well as leading the PV function on various product development teams at companies such as Genmab, Novartis Oncology, Takeda, Lundbeck and Incyte.

Zeeshan Khawaja, MD, FASN, is an accomplished executive leader and scientist with a wealth of experience in clinical development and translational sciences. Dr. Khawaja has over a decade of research experience in industry and academia spanning multiple therapeutic areas. He has led several cross-functional teams to successful NDA/MAA and BLA filings. He was most recently Executive Director of Clinical Development and Translational Sciences at Chinook Therapeutics. Prior to Chinook, he led clinical development programs at Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Akebia Therapeutics. A transplant nephrologist by training, Dr. Khawaja completed his fellowships at Mass General and is an alumnus of Harvard Medical School.

Mr. Lin has over 17 years of industry experience, and in his career, he has launched multiple innovative medicines and new indications into US and ex-US markets including into Europe, Japan, and China. His roles have included global lifecycle leader, new product planning & commercial assessments, marketing, market access, market research & analytics, as well as within specialty field sales.

Before Vera he was Head of Lifecycle Management and Strategic Marketing at Portola (acquired by Alexion where he re-joined Alexion for a second time) and led a similar role at Zai Lab.  He was also formerly the Head of US Leukemia Marketing for Imbruvica (ibrutinib) at Pharmacyclics (acquired by AbbVie). Prior to Pharmacyclics, he led commercialization for Soliris (eculizumab) at Alexion as PNH US marketing leader. He also held multiple commercial roles of increasing responsibility at Merck & Co within the Vaccines, Immunology, and Infectious Diseases franchise. After graduate school he started his professional career managing new biotechnology inventions and IP for the MIT Technology Licensing Office.

Mr. Lin has degrees from Cornell (MBA), MIT (SB), and the Tufts School of Medicine.

Donald Mallet, PharmD, is an accomplished senior medical affairs professional with more than 20 years in roles of increasing responsibility across multiple therapeutic areas. Most recently, he served as the Head of Field Medical Affairs at Chinook Therapeutics. Dr. Mallet has over 15 years of management experience at both regional and corporate levels. Additionally, he has supported multiple launches in the nephrology space.  He is known in the industry as a strategic thinker, skilled at developing and implementing programs to support medical affairs and corporate level objectives.

Dr. Mallet graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans, LA with his doctorate in Pharmacy. He earned his MBA from the University of North Alabama/CSU.

Dmitriy Ter-Martirosov brings more than 10 years of experience in healthcare and consulting. Dmitriy joins us from KPMG, where he was a leader in their Life Sciences Transaction Strategy team. During his tenure, he spearheaded multiple R&D integrations into large Pharma companies as well as managed operational due diligences for Life Sciences clients. Prior to joining KPMG, Dmitriy worked at West Monroe Partners where he led commercial analytics engagements for a Pharma company, designing interactive dashboards to aid sales and marketing teams. Previous to West Monroe Partners, he held healthcare project management roles at HealthScape Advisors, Capgemini and Sg2. Dmitriy has an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a BA in Biological Sciences and Economics from Northwestern University.

Amy Wang, MPH, brings over 10 years of business development, strategy and investment experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. In her current role at Vera, Amy oversees business development, strategic partnering and alliance management activities.

Previously, Amy served as a key member of the Business Development team at Horizon Therapeutics (acquired by Amgen), where she was instrumental to Horizon’s BD process and governance forum development, search strategy and technical due diligence efforts in immunology and rare diseases, as well as international expansion strategy in Asia. During her tenure at Horizon, Amy was heavily involved in multiple major transactions totaling up to $6.5 billion dollars in deal value, including Horizon’s acquisition of Viela Bio ($3.1 billion), clinical and research stage license agreements with Alpine Immune Sciences, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, HemoShear Therapeutics, Q32 Bio and academic research partnership with Johns Hopkins University.

Prior to Horizon, Amy worked on Wall Street as a biotech equity research analyst at JMP Securities, where she managed a coverage book of 20 small to mid-cap biotech companies with a combined market cap of $80+ billion dollars. Her coverage universe spanned multiple therapeutic areas and drug modalities, including rare diseases, autoimmune, nephrology, and oncology.

Earlier in her career, Amy was as a management consultant at Deallus Consulting where she advised a wide range of biopharmaceutical companies on commercial strategy, competitive intelligence, product launch, disease landscape and market opportunity assessments.

Ms. Wang received an MPH in Healthcare Management from Yale University School of Public Health, an MS in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Weill Cornell Medicine and a BA in Biology from Sichuan University.