AltruBio

Our Leadership

AltruBio’s senior management is built on a team of individuals possessing strong academic knowledge, high-level managerial experience and scientific expertise in a range of fields including life science, pharmacology, healthcare and immunology.

Board Of Directors Senior Management Scientific and Clinical Advisors

Stephen G. Juelsgaard, D.V.M., J.D. Chairperson of the Board: Stephen (“Steve”) Juelsgaard, is a former executive vice president, secretary and chief compliance officer of Genentech, Inc. He reported to Genentech’s CEO and was responsible for Genentech’s Corporate Law, Intellectual Property, Government Affairs (Federal and State), Human Resources, and Healthcare Compliance groups, as well as the Business Services group, which included Strategic Facilities Planning, Corporate Security, Business Continuity, and Environment, Health & Safety. He also chaired Genentech’s Capital Governance Committee, which oversaw major capital expenditures at the company and was a member of Genentech’s Executive Committee, the most senior management committee at the company. He served as secretary to Genentech’s Board of Directors and each of the Board’s Committees from 1997 to 2009. Dr. Juelsgaard’s career at Genentech spanned 24 years. He joined Genentech in 1985 as corporate counsel and became senior corporate counsel in 1989. In 1992 he became vice president, Corporate Law and in 1994 was named general counsel, a role he served in through 2007. He was named a senior vice president in 1998. In 2002, he was appointed executive vice president and in 2005 was named chief compliance officer. He was the company’s representative on the board of directors of the California Healthcare Institute from 2005 until 2009. He left Genentech in 2009 when it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Roche. Prior to joining Genentech, he was an associate for three years with the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California. Prior to attending law school, he was engaged for three years in a private veterinary medical (equine) practice in Southern California. He is a member of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee (board of directors) of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine where he also is the chairman of the ICOC’s Intellectual Property and Industry Subcommittee and serves on the Application Review, Finance and Governance Subcommittees. He is also on the board of directors of Juvena Therapeutics and of the African Wildlife Foundation. Dr. Juelsgaard received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Iowa State University in 1972 and a Masters of Science degree in Veterinary Clinical Sciences in 1975 from Iowa State University where his research was focused on immunology. In 1982 he received a law degree from Stanford Law School.

Sean P. Bohen, M.D., Ph.D.: Dr. Sean Bohen is Preseident and Chief Executive Officer of Olema Oncology. Prior to joining Olema in 2021, he was executive vice president of global medicines development and chief medical officer at AstraZeneca from 2015 to 2019. He was responsible for AstraZeneca’s worldwide product development and clinical programs to address unmet medical needs and renew AstraZeneca's product pipeline. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, he was Senior Vice President of Genentech Early Development from January, 2011. Dr. Bohen’s career at Genentech spanned 12 years. He joined Genentech in 2003 as Assistant Medical Director, Rituxan Heme/Onc. He was Associate Medical Director of Oncology Exploratory Clinical Development in 2004 and became Medical Director in 2005, then Associate Director in April, 2006. In October, 2006, he was Director of ITGR Exploratory Clinical Development and was promoted to Senior Director in October, 2007, then to Vice President of Immunology Development in August, 2008. In addition, Dr. Bohen also was an Adjunct Clinical Instructor in Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine from 2002 to 2011. He received his Bachelor of Science (Bacteriology) from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and M.D. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of California, San Francisco.

Judy Chou, Ph.D. President and Chief Executive Officer, Chairperson of AltruBio Taiwan Inc.: Dr. Judy Chou is the CEO, President and Board member of AltruBio, Inc. which is a clinical stage biotech company in San Francisco, CA, and the Chairperson of AltruBio Taiwan, Inc. Before taking on her current roles, she headed the global Biotech organization at Bayer Pharmaceuticals overseeing the development, manufacturing and distribution of Bayer’s biotechnology product portfolio & 2000+ employees and leading the drug development and launch activities for biologics pipeline. In addition, she served as the site head for Bayer’s facility in Berkeley, CA. She is well recognized by the biomedical industry for her leadership and has received the Most Influential Women in Business Award in 2018 by San Francisco Business Times. Before Bayer, Dr. Chou held the role of Vice President of Pharmaceutical Operations at Pfizer, Inc. where she led the Development and Manufacturing organizations for both biologics and small molecule products. She was also Vice President of R&D and Manufacturing at Tanvex Biopharma and has enabled the success of the company’s IPO. Throughout Dr. Chou’s career, she has achieved significant milestones in biologics development and multiple filings of BLAs, NDAs, and INDs of novel products and is broadly recognized for her work at Genentech, Pfizer (Wyeth) and Abbvie (Abbott) especially in the development of breakthrough technologies and accelerated product development. Currently, Dr. Chou also serves as the Board of Directors of Akero Therapeutics, Inc. and California Institute of Regenerative Medicines (CIRM); and Advisory Board members of UC, Berkeley Engineering School, Silicon Valley Women in Engineering, AIxMED, Inc., Bio Taiwan Committee (BTC), and Translational Research Center of Academia Sinica. Before joining the industry, Dr. Chou was a research faculty member at Harvard University Medical School. Dr. Chou obtained her Ph.D. from Yale University and completed her post-doctoral training at Max-Planck Institute in Germany.

John Doyle: John Doyle is chief financial officer of Aledade, Inc., a privately-held, health care technology business that sustains physician independence through value-based care. Previously, John was chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors at Castlight Health, a publicly-held healthcare technology company, which he joined in 2012 as its chief financial officer. Prior to Castlight, John spent more than 20 years primarily in the biotechnology industry where he had most recently been the chief operating officer and then a member of the board of directors at Achaogen, a publicly-held firm focused on the development of life-saving antibiotics. Prior to Achaogen, John was vice president of business finance and corporate planning at Genentech. John holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, and received his undergraduate degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He is a member of the 2012 Class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute.

Gur Roshwalb, M.D.: Dr. Gur Roshwalb is a Partner at aMoon, where he leads sourcing efforts, leads deals, manages the due diligence process, and sits on the board of MiNA Therapeutics, AltruBio and Viracta Therapeutics, aMoon Growth portfolio companies. Beginning his career as a practicing physician, Gur understands the urgency driving the innovation in the healthcare industry. He moved to Israel in 2019 to work with aMoon to accelerate HealthTech advances into clinical practice. Gur has over 20 years of healthcare industry and finance experience. Prior to joining aMoon, he was CEO at several private and public biotech companies. Earlier, Gur was a Vice President at Venrock, where he was an investment professional on the healthcare team investing in both private and public companies. Gur started his finance career at Piper Jaffray, where he worked as a vice president and equity analyst, publishing research on specialty pharmaceutical companies. Prior to Piper, Gur was in private practice in New York following residency training in internal medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he also served as Chief Resident. Gur obtained his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, his MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business, and a B.A. from Columbia University.

Corsee Sanders, Ph.D.: Corsee D. Sanders, Ph.D., was most recently the Strategic Advisor to the Celgene Office of the Chief Medical Officer. She was on the Executive Committee of Juno Therapeutics from January 2017 up to its acquisition by Celgene in 2018, reporting to the CEO and accountable for Quantitative Sciences, Project Leadership, Development Operations, and CAR T Patient Operations. Prior to Juno, Dr. Sanders spent 7 years with Roche Pharmaceuticals in various roles, including Global Head of Biometrics, Global Head of Clinical Operations, and Global Head of Industry Collaborations. She was a member of the Late Stage Portfolio Committee, Co-chair of the Roche-Chugai Joint Portfolio Management Committee, and Vice-chair of the Board of Directors of TransCelerate Inc., on behalf of Roche. She spent 15 years with Genentech, Inc., prior to its acquisition by Roche, leading functions including Clinical and Nonclinical Biostatistics, Health Economics, Epidemiology, Real World Evidence, Business and Data Operations. Prior to that, she was a Biostatistics leader with Schering-Plough in NJ, and Centocor, Inc. in Malvern, PA. She started her career as a statistician with the Technical Board for Agricultural Credit, an arm of the Presidential Committee on Agricultural Credit in the Philippines. Dr. Sanders holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in statistics from the University of the Philippines and a Ph.D. in Statistics from the Wharton Doctoral Programs of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Sanders is a member of the Board of Trustees at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a board director of Molecular Templates, Legend Biotech, BeiGene and Ultragenyx.

Patrick Y. Yang, Ph.D.: Dr. Pat Yang is the executive vice chairman of National Resilience, Inc., a privately held biotech manufacturing technology company. Most recently, Dr. Yang worked at Juno Therapeutics in Seattle as Executive Vice President from September 2017 to January 2019. Previously, Dr. Yang was Roche’s Global Head of Technical Operations in Switzerland from 2009 to 2013. In this role, he was responsible for Roche’s biopharmaceutical process development, engineering, quality, technical regulatory, supply chain and manufacturing. Before that, he was executive vice president, Product Operations of Genentech, Inc. from 2003 to 2013. Prior to joining Genentech, Dr. Yang served for 11 years at Merck & Company in New Jersey in various leadership positions including vice president of Asia Pacific Operations and vice president of Global Supply Chain Management. Prior to joining Merck in 1992, Dr. Yang spent 12 years at General Electric, serving in several research, engineering, technology, and manufacturing leadership roles with increasing scope of responsibilities. Before GE, Dr. Yang spent five years in aerospace control systems research and development with Life Systems, Inc. Dr. Yang holds a Bachelor of Science from the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, a Master of Science from the University of Cincinnati, and a doctorate in engineering from Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Yang is a member of Board of Directors for three public companies: Codexis, Sana Biotech, and PharmaEssentia. He also serves on the corporate boards of several private companies including Acepodia, Archigen Biotech, and Antheia. He previously served on the boards of two other public companies: Tesoro/Andeaver (2010-2018) and Celladon (2014-2016).

Judy Chou, Ph.D. President and Chief Executive Officer, Chairperson of AltruBio Taiwan Inc.: Dr. Judy Chou is the CEO, President and Board member of AltruBio, Inc. which is a clinical stage biotech company in San Francisco, CA, and the Chairperson of AltruBio Taiwan, Inc. Before taking on her current roles, she headed the global Biotech organization at Bayer Pharmaceuticals overseeing the development, manufacturing and distribution of Bayer’s biotechnology product portfolio & 2000+ employees and leading the drug development and launch activities for biologics pipeline. In addition, she served as the site head for Bayer’s facility in Berkeley, CA. She is well recognized by the biomedical industry for her leadership and has received the Most Influential Women in Business Award in 2018 by San Francisco Business Times. Before Bayer, Dr. Chou held the role of Vice President of Pharmaceutical Operations at Pfizer, Inc. where she led the Development and Manufacturing organizations for both biologics and small molecule products. She was also Vice President of R&D and Manufacturing at Tanvex Biopharma and has enabled the success of the company’s IPO. Throughout Dr. Chou’s career, she has achieved significant milestones in biologics development and multiple filings of BLAs, NDAs, and INDs of novel products and is broadly recognized for her work at Genentech, Pfizer (Wyeth) and Abbvie (Abbott) especially in the development of breakthrough technologies and accelerated product development. Currently, Dr. Chou also serves as the Board of Directors of Akero Therapeutics, Inc. and California Institute of Regenerative Medicines (CIRM); and Advisory Board members of UC, Berkeley Engineering School, Silicon Valley Women in Engineering, AIxMED, Inc., Bio Taiwan Committee (BTC), and Translational Research Center of Academia Sinica. Before joining the industry, Dr. Chou was a research faculty member at Harvard University Medical School. Dr. Chou obtained her Ph.D. from Yale University and completed her post-doctoral training at Max-Planck Institute in Germany.

Jeroen Grasman Chief Financial Officer: Jeroen Grasman brings over 25 years of finance and operations experience to AltruBio. Before joining the company, he headed the financial operations at T-cell therapy company PACT Pharma, where he oversaw the finance, accounting, treasury and procurement functions as the organization grew from 25 to over 200 people, and supported the raise of a $90M series C as well as significant collaboration agreements. Before PACT Pharma, he held the role of vice president of finance at Intarcia Therapeutics, where he led the effort to build the commercialization capabilities of the organization in anticipation of the launch of their lead asset. Prior to that, he spent 11 years with Genentech and Roche, holding finance leadership and executive positions across the research, development, manufacturing, business development, and corporate finance functions. Mr. Grasman obtained his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and completed his B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics at Groningen University.

Jesse W. Hall, MD Chief Medical Officer: Dr. Hall is currently the Chief Medical Officer of AltruBio, Inc. Prior to joining AltruBio, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Sublimity Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company from 2018 to 2021. From 2013 to 2018, Dr. Hall served as an Executive Medical Director of Ardea Biosciences Inc., a biotechnology company. From 2009 to 2013, Dr. Hall held the position of Medical Director for Amgen Inc., a biopharmaceutical company. From 2004 to 2009, Dr. Hall held multiple positions of increasing responsibilities at Abbott Laboratories, a multinational medical devices and health care company. Dr. Hall completed his B.A. in Ocean Studies and Economics from the University of San Diego and his M.D. from the College of Medicine at the University of Oklahoma.

Ping-Yang, Yeh, Ph.D. President of AltruBio Taiwan Inc.: Dr. Yeh is currently the President of AltruBio Taiwan. He brings over 26 years of biopharmaceutical experiences to AltruBio. Prior to joining AltruBio, he was Chief Technology Officer and Vice President at EirGenix, Inc., Taiwan, from 2019-2021. From 2011-2019, Dr. Yeh held the position of Executive Director, Process Development, Amgen, based at Thousand Oaks, CA, USA. Prior to Amgen, he held increased responsibility in managerial and technical leadership in biopharmaceutical development and operation at Biogen (2006-2011), Cambridge, MA, USA, and GlaxoSmithKline (1995-2006), Upper Merion, PA, USA. During his industrial tenure, Dr. Yeh has engaged and involved with the discovery, development and commercialization of a diverse set of therapeutic modalities (both biologics and synthetics) in molecular design, molecule assessment, process and product development and manufacturing, technology platform, and product life cycle management. He has contributed to the launch of 17 commercial products and engaged with 45+ IND/INDa filings. Dr. Yeh received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry under Professor Jindrich Kopecek, a pioneer in polymeric drug delivery system, and M.S. in Material Sciences and Engineering under Professor Joseph Andrade, a pioneer in biomedical polymers, both from The University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT, USA. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tamkang University in Taiwan.

Gene Lee, Ph.D. Chief Technical Officer: Gene Lee joined AltruBio in April 2021 as Vice President of Technical Development and was appointed Chief Technical Officer in April 2022. Prior to joining AltruBio, Gene served as Senior Director of Protein and Cell Sciences at EMD Serono, where he helped build an organization focused on the discovery and development of biologics and the transition of the pipeline to manufacturing. He also served as the US site head for the Discovery and Development Technologies function at EMD Serono. He previously served as the Director of Cell Line Development at Percivia, and worked at Wyeth BioPharma/Genetics Institute, where he contributed to a number of INDs and helped advance the state of cell line technology and early process development. Gene received his B.S. in Biology from Carnegie-Mellon University, and his Ph.D. in Microbiology from NYU School of Medicine. He completed his post-doctoral training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.

Shih-Yao Lin, MD., Ph.D. Vice President of Research: Prior to joining AltruBio, Dr. Lin was a research fellow (1998-2004) at Laboratory of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Experimental Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, USA. Dr. Lin received his MD degree from School of Medicine, National Taiwan University, and completed the resident training at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital. He also received the PhD degree (Immunology) from Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, University of Aix-Marseille II in Marseille, France.

Leewen Lin, Ph.D., LL.M. Vice President of Legal Affairs: Prior to AltruBio, Dr. Lin had been Senior Staff Fellow in Center of Biologics Evaluation and Research, US Food and Drug Administration, Director of Biotechnology Development Program of Yung-Shin Pharmaceutical, and Vice President of BioTrust International Corporation. Dr. Lin had been a member of the Intellectual Property Committee of Academia Sinica, and served as an advisor to the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Promotion Group, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan, on legal and regulatory affairs. Dr. Lin received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from North Carolina State University, and obtained her postdoctoral training in Genetics and Molecular Biology in Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition, she received her L.L.M at Soochow University Law School, Taipei, Taiwan.

Simona Reed, Ph.D. Vice President of Clinical Operations: Prior to joining AltruBio Dr. Reed was a senior consultant at Genentech’s Pharma Technical Regulatory with the responsibilities in the global regulatory affairs of the marketed products lifecycle and portfolio management. Before that, Dr. Reed lead the Corporate Project Management and clinical operations at Tanvex BioPharma, and successfully directed several preclinical and clinical programs of the biosimilar product . Prior to that she was the regional commercial product launch manager at Teva/Allergan where she was responsible for the global product launch portfolio of over 100 generic products. Dr. Reed has commenced her career in the industry as a consultant at Washington Group International (London UK / Princeton NJ) where she managed number of projects for several global pharmaceutical companies, e.g. Grifols Los Angeles, CA, CSL Behring, Kankakee, IL, Bayer, Raleigh, NC, Gedeon Richter, Budapest, Hungary, Pfizer, Ringaskidy Ireland, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bracknell, UK. Dr. Reed received her PhD degree in Enzyme Histochemistry from the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Czech Academy of Science in Prague, Czechia.

David T. Rubin, MD, AGAF, FACG, FASGE, FACP Joseph B. Kirsner Professor of Medicine at University of Chicago: Professor Rubin is a renowned gastroenterologist who specializes in the treatment and assessment of digestive diseases. He is the Joseph B. Kirsner Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, where he is also Chief of the Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, and co-director of the Digestive Diseases Center. His clinical expertise includes inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) and high-risk cancer syndromes. Dr. Rubin received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the Pritzker School of Medicine, and did his residency and fellowship work at the University of Chicago. He also completed a fellowship at the University of Chicago MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics.

Bernard Malissen, PhD Founder and Director of the immunophenomics Center (CIPHE), CIML.: Bernard Malissen is the former Director of Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille Luminy (CIML, Marseille, France) where he leads the team ‘Integrative Biology of T cells and Dendritic cells’. He pioneered the use of transgenic technologies to dissect the molecules involved in T cell development and function. His team is presently combining system level approaches and genetic screens designed to further the understanding of T cell receptor signal transduction network and of its tuning by costimulatory and coinhibitory receptors. He published over 400 papers and ranked among the most highly cited researchers in Immunology. He has been awarded the Grand Prix INSERM and elected to the French Academy of Sciences (2003). Bernard Malissen is also the Founding Director of Center for Immunophenomics (CIPHE) at CIML, a research institute dedicated to customized preclinical mouse model generation and high-content standardized multiparametric immunophenotyping analysis of the mouse immune system under normal and pathological conditions.

Philip J. Mease, M.D. Director of the Rheumatology Research Division at Swedish Medical Center/ Providence St. Joseph Health and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.: Philip J. Mease, MD, is Director of the Rheumatology Research Division at Swedish Medical Center/ Providence St. Joseph Health and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. He received his medical degree from Stanford University in California before completing a residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Rheumatology at the University of Washington. Dr. Mease’s major research interests include psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA). His work includes research on disease state, development of outcome measures, and determining the efficacy and safety of emerging therapies for these conditions. Dr. Mease has authored more than 450 journal articles, numerous abstracts, and book chapters. He is Past President, Founding Organizer, and current Treasurer of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis, and he is member of its Collaborative Research Network Steering Committee. Dr. Mease is a member of the Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society and the Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network. He is active in the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials organization as Co-Chair of the PsA and Chronic Pain Working Groups and is a steering committee member. Dr. Mease is the Scientific Director of the PsA and SpA arms of the Consortium of Rheumatology Researchers of North America registry.

Walter Reinisch, M.D. Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group, Medical University of Vienna: Dr Walter Reinisch is the Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group at the Medical University of Vienna in Vienna, Austria. He is a founding member of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) and was assigned as honorary member after having contributed in various positions. He was an active member in the Scientific and Public Affairs Committee of the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) and has headed the Austrian Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group. Dr. Reinisch is also a member of the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD) and an appointed chair of the endpoint cluster. Previously, he held the Audrey Campbell Chair in UC Research at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada from 2013 to 2016. Dr. Reinisch has >420 publications on IBD.