
Praveen Tyle, PhD
Chairman of the Board

Kenneth Gayron
Director
Ken currently serves as Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President at Avid Technology, where he is responsible for driving strategic growth initiatives, capital allocation, and repositioning the company with the investment community. Previously, he served as Chief Financial Officer and interim Chief Executive Officer for Numerex, where he played a significant role in the company’s acquisition by Sierra Wireless and was Chief Financial Officer for Osmotica Pharmaceutical Inc. Ken has also had senior finance and investment banking roles with UBS Investment Bank and CIBC World Markets. He earned his MBA from Cornell University and his B.S. in finance from Boston College.

David Hollander, MD, MBA
Director
Dr. Hollander currently serves as Chief Research & Development Officer of Aerie Pharmaceuticals where he is responsible for overseeing clinical, preclinical and development groups, as well as medical and professional affairs. Previously he served as the Chief Medical Officer, Senior Vice President at Ora, Inc, an ophthalmic-specific contract research organization. Prior to this, he spent a decade at Allergan with increasing leadership roles, including Head of EyeCare for Global Medical Affairs, as well as VP and Therapeutic Area Head of Anterior Segment Clinical Development.

Erin Parsons
Director
Erin was appointed as an independent Director for Kiora Pharmaceuticals in early 2022. She brings extensive knowledge and experience of the eyecare industry, and a broad clinical understanding of major ophthalmic diseases. During her career, she participated in the commercialization of XIIDRA®, OXERVATE®, LUCENTIS®, BEOVU®, DUREZOL®, and ZIRGAN®, among others.
In 2010, she founded Parsons Medical Communications where she currently serves as President. This leading agency provides scientific and strategic consulting to small and large companies in the ophthalmic space. Prior to PMC, she was a founding member of Sirion Therapeutics where she led the Medical Communications department. Erin is involved with various associations in the eyecare space including Ophthalmic World Leaders, Ophthalmic Innovation Summit and The Holland Foundation for Sight. Erin holds a BS in Biology from Wake Forest University.

Aron Shapiro
Director
Aron is currently Senior Vice President and Partner in the Asset Development & Partnering group at Ora, Inc. He is responsible for Ora’s strategic partnering activities, where he evaluates and performs diligence on new investment opportunities. Previously, Aron was responsible for establishing and leading clinical regulatory strategy and clinical operations across a number of anterior and posterior segment indications for Ora’s service business in ophthalmology and was responsible for Ora’s business development and international growth strategy. He earned his B.S. in biological chemistry from Bates College.

Carmine Stengone
Director
Stengone has served as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a director of Pipeline Therapeutics since 2018. In his role as CEO of Pipeline Therapeutics, he has completed three private rounds of financing totaling >$180 million and executed a >$1 billion collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. He also served as Senior Vice President, Business Development for COI Pharmaceuticals (now Avalon BioVentures Accelerator), and a member of its investment committee, where he helped co-found six new biopharmaceutical companies. While with Avalon Ventures, Carmine served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Avelas Biosciences, Inc. He also served as Vice President of Corporate Development for Afraxis Holdings, Inc. and co-founder and CEO of Afraxis, Inc., a spin-out company from Afraxis Holdings. Earlier in his career, he held positions of increasing responsibility with Phenomix Corporation, Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Johnson & Johnson. Carmine received his MBA from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and his M.S. and B.S degrees in chemistry from Duke University and Wake Forest University, respectively.

Brian M. Strem, PhD
President & Chief Executive Officer
Brian was a co-founder and Director of Bayon Therapeutics, Inc., and Okogen, Inc. Prior to founding Okogen, Brian worked at Sound Pharmaceuticals, Allergan and Shire, where he was responsible for business development and corporate strategy in ophthalmology, otology and regenerative medicine. Brian began his career at Cytori Therapeutics with elevating roles within the commercial and R&D departments. Brian received his BS in Bioengineering from Cornell University and his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from UCLA.