About

Dr. Baum is President, CEO, and Board Member of Mirati Therapeutics, where he built a world-class precision oncology leadership team, taken the company public on Nasdaq, and focused the company on targeted development of receptor tyrosine kinase and histone deacetylase inhibitors in various cancers. Prior to joining Mirati in 2012, he was at Pfizer since 2003, serving in roles of increasing responsibility including as Senior Vice President for Biotherapeutic Clinical Research within Pfizer’s Worldwide Research and Development division; Vice President and Head of Oncology Development; and Chief Medical Officer for Pfizer’s Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center. At Pfizer, he was responsible for the development of the oncology portfolio, including axitinib (Inlyta®), crizotinib (Xalkori®) and the approval of sunitinib (Sutent®) for the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumor and renal cell carcinoma. Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr. Baum was responsible for the Phase I-IV development of several oncology compounds at Schering-Plough, including temozolomide (Temodar®) which was approved for the treatment of patients with advanced brain tumors.  Dr. Baum currently serves on the board of directors of Array BioPharma and Immunomedics. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. in immunology from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and completed his post-graduate training at Stanford University. Dr. Baum has published more than 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts and holds a number of patents and patent applications.

Steve Potts, PhD, MBA (Cofounder & CEO) leads OncoMyx. Steve has worked in the biopharma industry since 1999 and has had experience in a wide range of areas, including product development, sales, marketing, and general management. He has a proven track record of success, with his last three companies all with significant shareholder returns. He was Vice President of Medical Affairs at Ignyta, which was acquired by Roche for $1.7B, and he led the global operation of the testing of 30,000 patients in an oncology basket trial for entrectinib in 15 countries. The molecule was the first in industry to receive breakthrough designation equivalents in USA, Europe, and Japan. Prior to Ignyta, he bootstrapped his first company as founding CEO, Flagship Biosciences, to 75 employees and an exit for his investors. He was General Manager Life Sciences at Aperio, which exited to Danaher for $180M. He also built the Bioinformatics Department for a Fortune 500 Company, Quest Diagnostics, which subsequently delivered $1B of annual revenue. He earned a BS in Physics from Wheaton College, Illinois and PhD in Biological Engineering and MBA from the University of California Davis.

Grant McFadden, PhD (Founder, Research Advisor & Director) advises the company on the myxoma virus (MYXV) platform. Grant is one of the top global leaders in oncolytic viruses with a specialization in pox viruses, including myxoma. He was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2005, and the American Academy of Microbiology in 2007. Dr. McFadden is currently a Professor at Arizona State University and is the Director of the Biodesign Center for Immunotherapy, Vaccines, and Virotherapy (B-CIVV). He was until recently the co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal PLoS Pathogens, is currently a Senior Editor at Journal of Molecular Therapy – Oncolytics, and was the President of the American Society for Virology 2015-16. He is also a standing member of the Organizing Committee for the recurring International Oncolytic Virus Congress (IOVC) meetings. Grant’s lab studies how poxviruses that cause immunosuppression interact with the host immune system. The McFadden lab pioneered the field of viral immune subversion (also called “anti-immunology”) and is credited with the discovery of a wide spectrum of virus-derived inhibitors of the immune system. His lab also investigates host-virus tropism, and the deployment of poxviruses for oncolytic virotherapy for the treatment of cancer, particularly with a rabbit-specific poxvirus called myxoma virus (MYXV). Grant has published over 380 scientific papers and reviews. He earned a BSc and PhD in Biochemistry from McGill University.

Kanad Das, PhD joined the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund from Merck (MSD) where he was Director, Business Development and Licensing in their West Coast Innovation Hub. He led efforts in Immuno-Oncology, Cardiovascular, and Metabolic Diseases and Ophthalmology in the preclinical space up to human proof of concept. Kanad started his career at Genentech as a post-doctoral fellow, then going to KAI Pharmaceuticals as a medicinal chemist. There he was an inventor of Parsabiv, approved in 2017 for the treatment of Secondary Hyperparathyroidism. After KAI, Kanad worked at Stanford University’s SPARK program, an academic accelerator designed to take basic science discoveries and bring them to fundable assets. He earned a BS in Chemistry from University of California, Berkeley and PhD in Chemistry from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Jason Rushton is a Partner at Xeraya Capital, a global venture capital firm that invests in the life sciences sector. From 2011 to 2016, Jason was a director in the corporate finance advisory arm of Deloitte & Touche LLP. Prior to that, he was an independent strategy consultant, and an investment manager at Inventages Venture Capital Investment, Inc., an investment arm of Nestle S.A. specializing in the health care and life sciences sectors. Jason was an associate in Merlin Biosciences Fund, L.P., a venture capital firm specializing in life science companies, and a management consultant in PA Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm. Jason started his career at Eli Lilly and Company as a biologist. He earned a BS in Anatomy and MS in Immunology from the University of Birmingham.

Tim Xiao, CFA, FRM, is a Principal at Delos Capital since its inception in 2014 and has over 12 years’ experience in investment banking and life sciences investment. Tim started his career as an investment banker at China International Capital, and later joined Goldman Sachs where he completed a series of industry-defining transactions with total deal value over US $4 billion. Tim serves as a Board member for Liposeuticals, Curatia Medical, Luqa Pharmaceuticals, Thermalin Inc., and as a Board Observer for Allecra Therapeutics, Intrinsic Therapeutics, and Atia Vision. Tim is a CFA^® charterholder.