Elevian, an emerging biotech company developing medicines that restore youthful regenerative capacity, with the potential to treat and prevent the diseases of aging, announced the addition of Greg Curhan as consulting chief financial officer (CFO), Christopher Dale, Ph.D., as the head of protein manufacturing and chemistry, manufacturing and control (CMC) and Jason Kim, Ph.D., Mark Leslie, and Tony Robbins to its advisory board.
"The addition of Greg Curhan, Dr. Chris Dale, Dr. Jason Kim, Mark Leslie, and Tony Robbins reflect Elevian's dedication and vision to create a great company that contributes to humanity," said Mark Allen, MD, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Elevian. "Mr. Curhan's deep experience as CFO and investment banker provides Elevian with astute financial acumen. Dr. Dale's deep experience in protein manufacturing will help Elevian to scale production of GDF11 as we move toward clinical trials. Dr. Kim's leadership of in metabolic disease research will be invaluable for the development of Elevian's diabesity program. Mr. Leslie and Mr. Robbins will help us to create a valuable and enduring business as we pursue our mission to promote healthy aging and treat age-related diseases. We look forward to the guidance and contribution of each in advancing Elevian."
Greg Curhan has over 35 years of operational, financial, capital markets, and strategic advisory experience in various sectors including investment banking and life sciences. Greg is a partner at FLG Partners and Interim CFO at Angion. Prior, Greg was CFO and SVP of Providence Medical Technology and co-founder and President of Merriman Curhan Ford, an investment bank, which raised over $5B for public and private corporate clients.
Christopher Dale, Ph.D., is an established biopharmaceutical leader with more than 25 years' experience of the full biopharmaceutical lifecycle from discovery, pre-clinical development, clinical Phase I manufacturing, late-stage clinical manufacturing, regulatory submissions and commercial manufacturing. Prior to launching an independent consultancy, Dr. Dale was Head of Microbial Technology at Lonza and Vice President of Technology at Cambrex Bio Science.
Jason Kim, Ph.D. is Professor of Molecular Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Kim is also Program Director of National Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center (MMPC), funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). For over 25 years, Dr. Kim's research has focused on obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. Dr. Kim has also worked with many pharmaceutical industries for drug trial studies to identify novel therapeutic targets to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Mark Leslie is currently the Managing Director of Leslie Ventures and a Lecturer in Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Mr. Leslie was founder, chairman and CEO of Veritas Software, helping to build the company over his eleven-year tenure to 6,000 employees and annual revenues of $1.5 billion. Over the past 25 years, Leslie has served on over 50 boards of directors of publicly and privately held companies and currently serves on the board of Directors of Stanford Health Care and the NYU Board of Trustees. Mr. Leslie joined Elevian as an investor and board observer.
Tony Robbins is an entrepreneur, #1 New York Times bestselling author, philanthropist, and the nation's #1 life & business strategist. Mr. Robbins is a partner in more than 70 companies with combined sales exceeding $6 billion annually. Known for his live and virtual seminars, Robbins is recognized throughout the world as the leading authority on personal growth, business transformation and peak performance. He has served as an advisor to leaders worldwide for more than 40 years on the psychology of leadership, negotiations and organizational turnaround. Mr. Robbins joined Elevian as an investor and strategic advisor.
About Elevian, Inc.
Elevian is an emerging biotech company developing medicines that restore youthful regenerative capacity, with the potential to treat and prevent the diseases of aging. Elevian's scientific founders, working at the Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, discovered that replenishing the circulating factor GDF11 can regenerate the heart, brain, muscle and other tissues. Elevian has acquired exclusive, worldwide rights to Harvard's patent portfolio concerning circulating factors that regulate aging. The company is developing new medicines that target the GDF11 pathway. Elevian's lead drug candidate (recombinant human GDF11) has demonstrated efficacy in preclinical models of heart failure, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, and age-related muscle dysfunction. The company has also established additional programs focused on the discovery and development of novel proteins, antibodies and small molecule drugs that target the GDF11 pathway.