Peter Thompson, M.D.
Peter is a General Partner of OrbiMed, with over 30 years of industry experience. He held executive positions at Becton-Dickinson and Chiron, co-founded and was CEO of Trubion Pharmaceuticals, co-founded Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Cleave Biosciences, Silverback Therapeutics, Edgewise Therapeutics, Terremoto BioSciences and serves as a Director on several public and private company boards.
Peter is an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awardee, an Affiliate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Washington, an inventor on numerous patents and a board-certified internist and oncologist. He was on staff at the National Cancer Institute following his internal medicine training at Yale University.
Drew Spaventa
Drew Spaventa is a serial healthcare founder, operator, and investor. Mr. Spaventa serves on the board of Singular Genomics, a company he founded and led as CEO through 2024, Inflection Medicine, a NICU genetics diagnostics company, and ClicBio, a next-generation weight-loss therapeutics company. He is a Managing Partner at Axon Ventures and a founder of Truvian Sciences. Additionally, Mr. Spaventa was a seed investor and led Corporate Development and Strategy at Edico Genome, which was acquired by Illumina in 2018. He was also a seed investor and part of the founding team for ecoATM, which was acquired by Outerwall (Coinstar) in 2012. Mr. Spaventa received his Master’s degree in Business Administration and Finance from the University of California, San Diego Rady School of Management. He also attended the University of California San Diego, where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations.
Caryn Peterson
Caryn Peterson has served as Gossamer’s Executive Vice President, Regulatory Affairs since April 2021 and as Senior Vice President, Regulatory & Quality since April 2018. Previously, from 2004 to 2018, Ms. Peterson served as Managing Partner of Development & Strategic Consulting (“DSC”) Associates, LLC, focusing on the development, integration, and implementation of global clinical and regulatory strategy across a broad range of therapeutic areas. From 2008 to 2018, Ms. Peterson also served as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs at Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. From 1997 to 2004, she served as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at FeRx Incorporated, and from 1989 to 1997, Ms. Peterson held managerial positions in both Pharmaceutical Development and Regulatory Affairs at Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Amylin, Ms. Peterson was a staff scientist at Hybritech Incorporated from 1981 to 1989. Ms. Peterson has coauthored several research publications and is a co-inventor on multiple patent applications.
Cindy Perettie
Cindy Perettie serves as Executive Vice President and Global Head of Kite, a Gilead Company, and is responsible for overseeing the cell therapy business.
Cindy joined Kite in 2023 with more than 20 years of scientific and commercial leadership experience in global biopharmaceutical organizations. Most recently, she served as Head of Roche Molecular Lab Solutions where she oversaw the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and Sequencing Business. Prior to that, she was Chief Executive Officer at Foundation Medicine. Before joining Foundation Medicine, Cindy was Head of Global Oncology Strategy at Roche’s Oncology Unit. In 2012, Cindy joined Sarah Cannon Research Institute as President of Global Development Innovations where she gained invaluable insights into the day-to-day care of people living with cancer. She started her career at Johns Hopkins University as a senior research associate.
She holds an MBA from Saint Mary’s College of California and a B.S. in Biology with a minor in chemistry from The State University of New York at Potsdam.
Damien McDevitt, Ph.D.
A distinguished leader in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry sectors, Damien is recognized for his vision, strategic planning, and corporate leadership. With a career spanning more than 30 years, he has served in multiple executive leadership and board roles. Prior to Aspen, Damien was CEO of rare diseases company Akcea Therapeutics, Inc., acquired by Ionis Pharmaceuticals in 2020. He has also served in senior executive roles at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Acadia Pharmaceuticals, and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals. Damien earned his B.A. and Ph.D. at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M.
Faheem Hasnain
Mr. Hasnain is the Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Gossamer Bio. Prior to co-founding Gossamer Bio,
Mr. Hasnain served as President, CEO and as a Director of Receptos, Inc. from November 2010 to August 2015. Receptos was a public company formed in 2009 focused on developing treatments in immunology and metabolic disorders and was purchased by Celgene Corporation in August 2015. Previously, Mr. Hasnain was the President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of Facet Biotech Corporation, a biology-driven antibody company with a focus in multiple sclerosis and oncology. He held that position from December 2008 until the company’s acquisition by Abbott Laboratories in April 2010. Previously, Mr. Hasnain was President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of PDL BioPharma, Inc. from October 2008 until Facet Biotech was spun off from PDL BioPharma in December 2008. From October 2004 to September 2008, Mr. Hasnain served at Biogen Idec Inc., a biotechnology company specializing in neurological disorders, autoimmune disorders and cancer, most recently as Executive Vice President in charge of the oncology/rheumatology strategic business unit. Prior to Biogen Idec, Mr. Hasnain held roles with Bristol Myers Squibb, where he was President of the Oncology Therapeutics Network, and for 14 years at GlaxoSmithKline and its predecessor organizations. He has been Chairman of the Board of Sente, Inc. since 2008, Chairman of the Board of Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. since February 2019 and a member of the Board of Overseers of Scripps Research Institute since 2018. He previously served as Chairman of the Board of Ambit Biosciences Corporation and Tocagen Inc. and served as a member of the Board of Directors of Tercica, Inc., Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Vital Therapies, Inc. Mr. Hasnain received a B.H.K. and B.Ed. from the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Doug Fisher, M.D.
Doug received an A.B. in economics with honors and distinction, and a B.S. in biology with distinction, from Stanford, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He has an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an MBA from Wharton, where he graduated with honors as a Siebel Scholar and Palmer Scholar.
Tom Daniel, M.D.
Tom Daniel has more than 20 years of experience leading and building research and development organizations and leading investments in new companies at the forefront of innovative application of science to healthcare. Recently he served as a Venture Partner at ARCH Venture Partners for five years following a decade as President of Global Research and Early Development at Celgene Corporation. He previously served in senior leadership roles at AmbRx, Amgen and Immunex. Tom was formerly a director at Juno, Epizyme, Sana, Larimar and Vir. He currently serves as board chair at Gate Bioscience and Trotana, and is director at Vividion, Gossamer Bio, Aspen Neuroscience and Mozart Therapeutics. He chairs the Board of Managers of Life Science Cares-San Diego, is a Trustee of Reed College, is a director at Scripps Research and Chair of the Board of Overseers. He also serves as senior advisor to several private biotechnology companies. A nephrologist and former academic investigator, he was previously C.M. Hakim Professor of Medicine and Cell Biology at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Daniel received his M.D. from the University of Texas, Southwestern, trained in molecular genetics at UTSW, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Andrés Bratt-Leal, Ph.D.
Andrés is the Co-Founder and leads the research and development at Aspen Neuroscience. He served as a post-doctoral fellow in Jeanne Loring’s lab where he helped develop the core technology producing dopaminergic neurons from iPSCs that formed the basis for the creation of Aspen. Andrés also served as Senior Science Advisor and Director of Research and Development at Summit for Stem Cell Foundation during which he led a team on the pre-clinical development of an autologous cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Andrés obtained his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of Washington.