Board of Directors
Frederic Chereau
Earl M. Collier, Jr.
Elazer Edelman, M.D., Ph.D.
Robert F. Higgins
Peter Barton Hutt
Edwin M. Kania
Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.
Frank Litvack, M.D.
Amir H. Nashat, Ph.D.
Yoram Richter, Ph.D.
Frederic Chereau
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Chereau assumed the role of President and Chief Executive Officer at Pervasis Therapeutics in September 2008. Prior to Pervasis, Mr. Chereau was the Vice President and General Manager of Genzyme Cardiovascular, a business unit of Genzyme Corporation. As VP and General Manager, Mr. Chereau led teams focusing on commercialization of a hypercholesterolemia product (Cholestagel®), development of a late clinical stage gene therapy program in peripheral arterial disease, and a broad range of business development activities. In addition, Mr. Chereau served as the Chief Operating Officer of MG Biotherapeutics LLC, a Genzyme and Medtronic joint-venture formed to develop cellular therapies for cardiac repair.
From 1999 to 2005, Mr. Chereau held various marketing and business development positions within Genzyme with growing responsibilities in France and Europe. During this time, he was appointed as CEO of Myosix SA, a cell therapy company based in France with an ongoing close relationship with Genzyme Cardiovascular’s cell therapy programs. He relocated to the United States in 2005 and was promoted to Vice President and General Manager of Cardiovascular Business Unit in November 2006. Prior to Genzyme, Mr. Chereau started his career in sales and product management for a French medical device retail company in the hemodialysis and blood transfusion field.
In addition to Pervasis, Mr. Chereau also serves as a member of the board of directors of the French-American Chamber of Commerce New England Chapter (FACCNE) and is a member of the Comite Strategique d'Orientation at La Rochelle Business School.
Mr. Chereau holds a B.S. in Physics from Paris University, completed graduate studies at the La Rochelle Business School and received an M.B.A. from INSEAD.
Earl M. Collier, Jr.
Chief Executive Officer, Arsenal Medical
Mr. Collier is CEO of Arsenal Medical and a Senior Advisor to Polaris Venture Partners. For many years, Mr. Collier was Executive Vice President at Genzyme Corporation. He has also served as President of Vitas Healthcare, a partner at the Washington, DC-based law firm of Hogan and Hartson, and as Deputy Administrator of the Health Care Finance Administration (now CMS) in the Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. Collier sits on the boards of Arsenal Medical, Pervasis Therapeutics, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and the Boston Athenaeum. He earned a B.A. at Yale University and a J.D. at the University of Virginia Law School.
Elazer Edelman, M.D., Ph.D.
Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Edelman is the Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at MIT, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a coronary care unit cardiologist at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Dr. Edelman also directs the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center (BMEC), dedicated to applying the rigors of the physical sciences to elucidate fundamental biologic processes and mechanisms of disease. Dr. Edelman and his laboratory have pioneered basic findings in vascular biology. Work with antisense oligonucleotides, HDL receptor biology and tissue engineered endothelial implants are a few examples of novel directions taken by his laboratory. Many of his findings are now in clinical trial validation. Dr. Edelman is a fellow of, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
Robert F. Higgins
General Partner, Highland Capital Partners
Mr. Higgins is a General Partner at Highland Capital Partners. He has more than 25 years of experience in venture capital and has served as a director of many public and private companies. He is a former director of the National Venture Capital Association and President of the New England Venture Capital Association. Mr. Higgins has been recognized by the prestigious Forbes Midas List and AlwaysOn Venture Capital 100 as one of the top venture capitalists in the industry. In addition, he received the 2008 HBS Healthcare Alumni Achievement Award. Mr. Higgins has been an investor in many successful healthcare service, medical device and biotechnology companies. Before co-founding Highland, he was a general partner at a Boston-based venture capital partnership. Immediately prior to entering venture capital, he spent four years as the Executive Director of the John A. Hartford Foundation. Mr. Higgins also was the Chief Executive of the Clark Foundation and the Burden Foundation. He is a former Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and an Assistant to the head of the international division of the U.S. Treasury. Mr. Higgins graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in History, and received his MBA from Harvard Business School. He has also been a faculty member at the Harvard Business School since 2001. At HBS, he teaches a second year course called Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital in Healthcare. From time to time, he also teaches a course at the Kennedy School of Government called Entrepreneurship in the Private, Public, and Social Sectors. Additionally, Mr. Higgins is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Peter Barton Hutt
Senior Partner, Covington and Burling
Mr. Hutt is a senior counsel in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling where he specializes in food and drug law. Mr. Hutt served as Chief Counsel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration during 1971-1975. He is the co-author of the casebook used to teach food and drug law throughout the country. Mr. Hutt has been a member of the Institute of Medicine since its founding in 1971, and he currently serves on the Panel on the Administrative Restructuring of the National Institutes of Health. He also serves on academic and venture capital advisory boards, as well as the boards of numerous startup biotechnology companies. He was named by the Washingtonian Magazine as one of Washington’s 50 best lawyers (out of more than 40,000) and as one of Washington’s 100 most influential people; by the National Law Journal as one of the 40 best health care lawyers in the U.S.; and by European Counsel as the best FDA regulatory specialist in Washington, D.C.
Edwin M. Kania
Managing Partner and Chairman, Flagship Ventures
Ed Kania is the Managing Partner and Chairman of Flagship Ventures. Prior to co-founding Flagship Ventures in 1999, he spent 15 years as Managing General Partner of OneLiberty Ventures and as General Partner at its predecessor firm, Morgan Holland Ventures. His direct investment experience covers over 100 companies. In addition, he has been intimately involved in the launch and development of more than one dozen companies as the founding and lead investor. Mr. Kania is currently a director of Aspect Medical Systems (Nasdaq: ASPM), EXACT Sciences (Nasdaq: EXAS), AblaTx, Acceleron Pharma, Epitome Biosciences, TransMedics, and VisEn Medical.
Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.
Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Langer is one of 14 Institute Professors (the highest honor awarded to a faculty member) at MIT. Dr. Langer has written over 840 articles, and has over 500 issued or pending patents worldwide. Dr. Langer has served as a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s SCIENCE Board, the FDA’s highest advisory board, from 1995 - 2002 and as its Chairman from 1999 - 2002. In 1989, Dr. Langer was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1992 he was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering and to the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Langer has received over 130 major awards, including the Charles Stark Draper Prize, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, and the Lemelson-MIT prize. During his career, Dr. Langer has served on 15 Boards of Directors and 30 Scientific Advisory Boards of various companies, including Wyeth, Mitsubishi Pharmaceuticals, Warner-Lambert, and Momenta Pharmaceuticals.
Frank Litvack, M.D.
Professor, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Litvack is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine and is board certified in three specialties: Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases and Interventional Cardiology. In addition, he maintains a small consultative medical practice in Los Angeles. From 1986 until 2000, he was Co-Director at the Cardiovascular Intervention Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. During his academic medical career, he published extensively and is the author of more than 100 research articles. In addition to being an inductee in the NASA Space Technology Hall of Fame, Dr. Litvack has been an entrepreneur involved with the founding, development, or sale of several medical technology companies. These companies include Progressive Angioplasty Systems, which was sold to United States Surgical in 1997; Savacor, which was sold to St. Jude Medical in 2005; and Conor Medsystems, which was sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2007.
Amir H. Nashat, Ph.D.
Principal, Polaris Venture Partners
Dr. Nashat is a principal at Polaris Venture Partners, where he has focused on investments in the life sciences since joining the firm in 2002. Dr. Nashat currently represents Polaris as a Director of Athenix Corporation, eNOS Pharmeceuticals, Hydra Biosciences, Medio Pharmaceuticals, and WaveRX. He is also a Board Observer to GI Dynamics and supports Polaris’ investments in Advion and Saegis. In addition, Dr. Nashat serves on the Board of the New England Venture Capital Association, on the Advisory Board of the Simmons School of Management Entrepreneurship Initiative, and is a Catalyst for the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT.
Yoram Richter, Ph.D.
Vice President, Research and Development, BIOrest Ltd.
Dr. Yoram Richter is currently Vice President, Research and Development, at BIOrest Ltd., a company which focuses on developing therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. In this role, he is responsible for leading the company’s discovery and development programs. Since 2005, Dr. Richter has also served as an advisor to Medinol Ltd.
Dr. Richter holds a Ph.D. in Medical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.