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James A. Schoeneck
Chairman of the Board
James A. Schoeneck was appointed Chairperson of our Board of Directors in January 2020 and has served on our board of directors since April 2010. Following the unexpected passing of Thomas B. Neff, FibroGen’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Schoeneck served as Interim Chief Executive Officer from August 2019 until January 2020. Mr. Schoeneck was Chief Executive Officer of Depomed, Inc., a commercial specialty pharmaceutical company, from 2011 until 2017, and joined the Board of Depomed in 2007. In addition, from 2015 to 2018, Mr. Schoeneck served on the board of directors of AnaptysBio, Inc., From 2005 until 2011 he was Chief Executive Officer of BrainCells Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company. Prior to joining BrainCells Inc., he served as Chief Executive Officer of ActivX BioSciences, Inc., a development-stage biotechnology company. Mr. Schoeneck’s pharmaceutical experience also includes three years as President and Chief Executive Officer of Prometheus Laboratories Inc., a pharmaceutical and diagnostics products company. Prior to joining Prometheus, Mr. Schoeneck spent three years as Vice President and General Manager, Immunology, at Centocor Inc. (now Janssen Biotech, Inc.), a biotechnology company, where he led the development of Centocor’s commercial capabilities. His group launched Remicade®, which became one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical brands. Earlier in his career, he spent 13 years at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc. (now Sanofi), a pharmaceutical company, serving in various sales and marketing positions of increasing responsibility. Mr. Schoeneck currently serves on the Board of Directors of Calidi Biotherapeutics, a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company. Mr. Schoeneck holds a B.S. in Education from Jacksonville State University.
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Enrique Conterno
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Enrique Conterno joined FibroGen, Inc. as our Chief Executive Office and member of our board of directors in January 2020. Before coming to FibroGen, Mr. Conterno was a Senior Vice President for Eli Lilly and Company, serving as President of Lilly USA from January 2017 and President of Lilly Diabetes from 2009 until his retirement from Lilly in December 2019. Prior to 2009, Mr. Conterno served in various other roles for Eli Lilly and Company, including President, U.S. Operations, Vice President for the U.S. Neuroscience Business Unit, President and General Manager, Mexico, and Executive Marketing Director, Intercontinental Operations and Japan. Mr. Conterno earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and an M.B.A. degree from Duke University. Mr. Conterno is a member of the Board of Governors at the American Red Cross, and the Board of Visitors at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
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Suzanne Blaug
Director
Suzanne Blaug has more than 30 years of strategic and commercial experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. She has successfully brought new drugs to market at the global, regional, and local country levels in multiple therapeutic areas including Oncology, Cardiovascular, Immunology, Nephrology, Infectious Diseases, Neurology, and Psychiatry. Ms. Blaug most recently served as Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Commercial Development at Amgen Inc. from 2012 to 2018. From 2004 until 2012, she was at Johnson & Johnson, where she held several positions including Head of Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy, Vice President Strategic Marketing and New Business Development at Janssen Europe, and Area Managing Director – UK, Italy, and Greece. Ms. Blaug started her career at Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1983, where she held numerous marketing, strategic, and general management positions in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Ms. Blaug is currently a senior advisor at McKinsey & Company, and she serves on the Healthcare at Kellogg Advisory Council at Northwestern University, as well as the Center for the Business of Healthcare Corporate Advisory Board at the University of North Carolina. Ms. Blaug received her B.S. degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
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Aoife Brennan, M.B., B.Ch.
Director
Aoife Brennan, M.B., B.Ch. was appointed to our board of directors in August 2020. Dr. Brennan is President and CEO of Synlogic Inc. She joined Synlogic as Chief Medical Officer in September 2016 and was promoted to CEO in October 2018. Prior to joining Synlogic, Dr. Brennan served as Vice President and Head of the Rare Disease Innovation Unit at Biogen where her responsibilities included the global marketing approvals of ALPROLIXTM, ELOCTATETM and SPINRAZATM as well as the advancement of several early-phase programs and external collaborations. She served as a Director of Ra Pharmaceuticals from Sept 2018 through their acquisition in April 2020 and has served as a Director of Cerevance since January 2020. Dr Brennan holds a medical degree from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and completed residency and fellowship training in general internal medicine and endocrinology. She has completed post-doctoral training in clinical research and metabolism at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and is a graduate of the Harvard Medical School Scholars in Clinical Science Program.
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Benjamin F. Cravatt, Ph.D.
Director
Benjamin F. Cravatt, Ph.D. was appointed to our board of directors in August 2020. Dr. Cravatt is a Professor and the Norton B. Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. His research group is interested in developing chemical proteomic technologies that enable protein and drug discovery on a global scale and applying these methods to characterize biochemical pathways that play important roles in human physiology and disease. Professor Cravatt joined the faculty at The Scripps Research Institute in 1997. Dr. Cravatt is an Associate Editor for Journal of the American Chemical Society and is a co-founder of Activx Biosciences, Abide Therapeutics, and Vividion Therapeutics. He serves on the Board of Directors of Vividion, Boundless Bio, and Autobahn Therapeutics. Dr. Cravatt’s honors include a Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Cope Scholar Award, the ASBMB Merck Award, the RSC Jeremy Knowles Award, the AACR Award for Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research, and memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Inventors, National Academy of Medicine, and National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Cravatt obtained his undergraduate education at Stanford University, receiving a B.S. in the Biological Sciences and a B.A. in History. He then received a Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute in 1996.
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Jeffrey L. Edwards
Director
Jeffrey L. Edwards was appointed to our board of directors in 2015 after Mr. Edwards retired from Allergan Inc., which he joined in 1993 and where he served as Executive Vice President, Finance and Business Development, Chief Financial Officer from September 2005 to August 2014. From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Edwards served as Allergan’s Corporate Vice President, Corporate Development, and previously served as Senior Vice President, Treasury, Tax, and Investor Relations. Prior to joining Allergan, Mr. Edwards was with Banque Paribas and Security Pacific National Bank, where he held various senior-level positions in the credit and business development functions. In addition to being on the board of directors, Mr. Edwards currently serves on the Audit Committee and Compensation Committee Chairman of Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., a publicly traded, life sciences research and clinical diagnostic products company. Mr. Edwards also serves on the board of directors, Audit Committee and Compensation Committee of Clearside Biomedical Inc., a publicly traded, clinical stage pharmaceutical company. Additionally, Mr. Edwards serves on the board of directors of BioTheryX, Inc., a privately owned, clinical stage biotechnology company. Mr. Edwards received a B.A. in Sociology from Muhlenberg College and completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.
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Jeffrey W. Henderson
Director
Jeffrey W. Henderson has served on our board of directors since August 2015. Mr. Henderson has more than 30 years of financial, commercial, and pharmaceutical industry experience. He most recently served as Chief Financial Officer for Cardinal Health Inc. from 2005 until 2014. His many responsibilities at Cardinal Health included oversight of the Company’s China commercial operations. Prior to Cardinal Health, Mr. Henderson was President and General Manager of Eli Lilly Canada Inc. and Vice President and Corporate Controller of Eli Lilly & Company. He joined Eli Lilly in 1998 as Vice President and Corporate Treasurer. His prior experience includes 10 years with General Motors, where he served in executive and managerial posts in Great Britain, Singapore, New York, and Canada. Mr. Henderson serves on the board of directors and as Chairman of the Audit Committee of Qualcomm Incorporated, and is a director of Becton, Dickinson and Company and Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. He was an Advisory Director to Berkshire Partners LLC, a private equity firm, from 2015 until January 2020. Mr. Henderson is also President of JWH Consulting LLC, a business advisory firm primarily focused on healthcare. Mr. Henderson holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Kettering University, Flint, Michigan, and his M.B.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
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Maykin Ho, Ph.D.
Director
Maykin Ho, Ph.D., joined our board of directors in December 2018. Dr. Ho has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare and finance industries. She serves on the boards of directors for Agios Pharmaceuticals, Grail Inc., Parexel International Corporation, the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, and the Institute for Protein Innovation. Dr. Ho is also a venture partner of Qiming Venture Partners and a member of the Biotech Advisory Panel of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. She is a retired partner of the Goldman Sachs Group where she served as senior biotechnology analyst, co-head of healthcare for global investment research and advisory director for healthcare investment banking. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Dr. Ho held various managerial positions in licensing, strategic planning, marketing and research at DuPont-Merck Pharmaceuticals and DuPont de Nemours & Company. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. Dr. Ho received a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology and a B.S. from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center.
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Thomas F. Kearns Jr.
Director
Thomas F. Kearns Jr. has served on our board of directors since November 1996, as lead independent director from June 2017 until August 2019, and as Chairperson of our board of directors from August 2019 until January 2020. Mr. Kearns is a retired Partner of The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., an investment banking firm, where he was an investment banker in the healthcare area from 1974 until 1987. Prior to his career at Bear Stearns, Mr. Kearns worked for Merrill Lynch, an investment banking firm, from January 1959 until August 1969. Mr. Kearns was Chairman of the National Advisory Board of Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina from 2008 until 2015. Mr. Kearns was a Trustee of the University of North Carolina Foundation and Endowment Fund for 16 years. He served on the board of directors of Biomet Inc. from January 1980 until May 2005 and he served on the board of directors of Franklin Street Partners from 2013 until 2018. He received his B.A. in History from the University of North Carolina.
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Kalevi Kurkijärvi, Ph.D.
Director
Kalevi Kurkijärvi, Ph.D., has served on our board of directors since November 1996. He has also served on the board of directors of our subsidiary, FibroGen Europe Oy, since November 1997, and as Managing Director (CEO) since January 2019. Dr. Kurkijärvi has been the Chairman and Founding Partner of Innomedica Oy, a business development company specialized in licensing, distributor search, and strategic planning for companies in the pharmaceutical, diagnostics, and biotechnology industries since March 2010, and from August 1997 to February 2010 he served as Director, with financial matters as his main responsibility. He was also the Founding Partner and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bio Fund Management Ltd., a Finnish-Danish venture capital company, from 1997 until 2010. He has also been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of his family’s import-export trading company, Biketex Ltd., since October 1993. Dr. Kurkijärvi has more than twenty years of experience in international life science business and over ten years in corporate finance. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Innomedica Oy (chair), Biketex Ltd. (chair), and Idea Development ID Oy (chair). He previously served on the boards of directors at other biotechnology companies such as Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc., Ark Therapeutics Plc, BioTie Therapies Plc (chair), Hytest Oy (chair), Stick Tech Oy (chair), Hormos Medical Oy (chair), Map Medical Oy (chair), Bio Orbit Oy (chair), and Juvantia Pharma Oy, among others. Prior to founding Bio Fund, Dr. Kurkijärvi worked as Executive Director of the venture capital group at the Finnish National Fund of Research and Development (SITRA). He has also served as Executive Vice President at Wallac Oy and as President and Chief Executive Officer of Pharmacia Diagnostics Production Oy. Dr. Kurkijärvi received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Turku in 1992, where he also worked for several years in research and teaching.
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Gerald Lema
Director
Gerald Lema has served on our board of directors since September 2017. Mr. Lema has more than 28 years of pharmaceutical, diagnostics, healthcare, and consumer experience in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the U.S., and Latin America. He currently serves as Partner and Representative Director of Cylon Capital, a private investment group based in Tokyo that creates value for brands and technologies in the Japanese and Asia Pacific markets. Prior to Cylon Capital, Mr. Lema served as President of Asia Pacific at Baxter International from 2005 until 2015. He has also served as President, Japan at Baxter International since April 2007. Before Baxter, Mr. Lema worked for 18 years at Abbott Laboratories where he held several positions of increasing responsibility in general management, strategy and business development. His last position with Abbott was Corporate Vice President, Asia Pacific and Chairman, Abbott Japan, in Tokyo. Mr. Lema currently serves as a Director of Catalyst, a global nonprofit organization. He is co-author of Foreign Investment through Debt-Equity Swaps, and published in the MIT Sloan Management Review. Mr. Lema is a graduate of the Stanford University Executive Program, earned an M.B.A. from the Freeman School of Business at Tulane University, and has a B.S. in Engineering from Universidad del Valle, Colombia.
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Rory B. Riggs
Director
Rory B. Riggs has served on our board of directors since October 1993. Since April 2010, Mr. Riggs has served as founder and Chief Executive Officer of Syntax, LLC and Locus Analytics, sister development-stage ventures focused on creating a new information technology platform for business and finance. Mr. Riggs is co-founder and Chairman of Royalty Pharma, the largest acquirer of drug royalties, and Cibus Global Ltd., the leading company in gene editing in agriculture. In addition, he sits on the following other boards of directors: Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc., Nuredis, Inc., GeneNews, Ltd. and eReceivables, LLC (Chair). Since June 2006, Mr. Riggs has also served as managing member of New Ventures, a series of venture funds focused on biotechnology and healthcare. Mr. Riggs served as the President of Biomatrix, Inc., a biomedical company, from 1996 until 2000. From 1991 to 1995, he was Chief Executive Officer of RF&P Corporation, an investment company owned by the Virginia Retirement System. He was also Managing Director of PaineWebber and Company in the mergers and acquisitions department. Mr. Riggs holds a B.A. from Middlebury College and holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University.
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