About

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 the 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.

Leslie Sharp, PhD (CSO) leads scientific activities and development of IND candidates. Trained as an immunologist, Leslie joined the immuno-oncology team at Pfizer, where she spent five years in progressively expanding areas of responsibility in the design and development of IO biologics. She has worked on multiple discovery oncology drug programs in pharmaceutical and biotech settings including GNF (Novartis), BioAtla, and CYBIOS. She is an accomplished scientific and strategic leader with extensive experience in drug discovery and development. She has a strong track record of building high performing teams and delivering results and is a highly motivated leader capable of effectively working in dynamic multi-disciplinary teams. She earned a BS from University of Utah and PhD in Biology from University of California, San Diego.

Mr. Williamson has more than two decades of experience in building, financing, and leading private and public biotechnology companies through critical phases of growth. Prior to joining OncoMyx, he was the Chief Executive Officer of BioTheryX, a protein degradation therapeutics company, where he raised a $100 million crossover round and positioned the company for an initial public offering. Prior to joining BioTheryX, Mr. Williamson served as Chief Executive Officer of both PharmAkea (acquired by Galecto) and ATXCo (acquired by Blade Therapeutics), oncology and fibrosis drug development companies financed through a partnership with Celgene. Prior to those companies, Mr. Williamson was Chief Executive Officer of Arriva Pharmaceuticals, President and Chief Operating Officer of Eos Biotechnology (acquired by Protein Design Labs), and Chief Operating Officer of DoubleTwist (acquired in part by Merck and Hitachi). Notably, Mr. Williamson served as an early Director of Pharmasset, where he helped finance, grow, and advance the company into the public markets and through its acquisition by Gilead in 2011 for $11 billion. Prior to his management roles in industry, Mr. Williamson was a partner with The Boston Consulting Group and was a research assistant for the Federal Reserve Board.  He received a BA in economics from Pomona College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Jamie Doran, M.Sc., DABT, ERT, leads cross-functional program management and operations at OncoMyx. Jamie has nearly 20 years experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, with progress responsibility and proven track-record of successful cross-functional leadership and management of global product registrations. She has managed more than a hundred projects and has been responsible for cross-functional team management and monitoring of multi-million-dollar budgets and multi-year programs. Jamie has a unique background in preclinical program management and very strong scientific expertise that she gained in her roles in the biotechnology industry as well as in consulting to clients in pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industries. She has been accountable for the full scope of drug development programs (including regulatory strategy, R&D, and clinical testing) for small molecules and advanced therapeutics and is thus thoroughly versed in all aspects of lifecycle management for pharmaceutics and products of biotechnology. As a consultant to the industry for several years, Jamie provided expert advice in drug development, including strategic advice, gap analyses, program planning, and program management for novel compounds as well as second-generation products. She has extensive experience with designing, implementing, and critically evaluating IND-enabling programs as well as review and preparation of regulatory packages for new drug and biologic submissions. Her most recent tenure was a founding member of the Executive team (VP, Drug Development) at Appili Therapeutics Inc. (XTSE: APLI), a development company focused on treatment and prevention of infectious disease. Jamie holds a Bachelor’s of Science from University of Western Ontario in Pharmacology and Toxicology and a Master’s of Science from Purdue University in Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. Ms. Doran is a Diplomat of the American Board of Toxicology and is a European Registered Toxicologist with the Institute of Biology & British Toxicology Society (London, United Kingdom).

Danya Norton leads the People & Culture function for OncoMyx. Danya has spent her career working in the field organization effectiveness to unleash the potential of individuals and drug discovery teams. She has more than 17 years of experience of partnering with drug discovery teams in both the global pharmaceutical and biotech startup environments to drive innovative cultures where science and strategy thrive. Prior to joining OncoMyx, Danya was a co-founder of Agate Partners where she partnered with early biotech start-ups to define and align their strategy, culture and leadership development programs.  She held the role of Vice President of People & Culture at Human Longevity as well as at the Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research (NIBR), and Novartis Institute for Functional Genomics (GNF).