Praveen Tyle, PhD

Praveen Tyle, PhD

Chairman of the Board

Praveen has served as a Director since June 2008. He is currently founder of Potens Pharmaceuticals. Until April 2023, Dr. Tyle was the President & CEO of Invectys, Inc, an immuno-oncology company spun out of the world-renowned Pasteur Institute, Paris. Prior to joining Invectys, Inc, he was Executive Vice President of Research & Development at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals. Until February 2016, Dr. Tyle was President, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors of Osmotica Pharmaceutical Corp. He led the merger of Osmotica with two other companies in 2016. He previously served as global Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer and Managing Director of Osmotica Pharmaceutical Corp.’s Marietta, Georgia site. Prior to joining Osmotica, Dr. Tyle served as Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer for the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). Prior to joining USP, Dr. Tyle served as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Business Development and Licensing at Novartis OTC, as well as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Research and Development. He also is an independent member of the board of Orient EuroPharma Co., Ltd. of Taiwan and a member of the Board of Directors of SKYE Biosciences, San Diego, CA and Maxwell Biosciences, Austin Texas. Dr. Tyle holds a doctorate in pharmaceutics and pharmaceutical chemistry from the Ohio State University and a Bachelor in Pharmacy (honors) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University in India.
David Hollander, MD, MBA

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

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

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

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

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.

Lisa Walters-Hoffert

Lisa Walters-Hoffert

Director

Ms. Walters-Hoffert was a co-founder of Daré Bioscience, Inc. and following the company's merger with Cerulean Pharma, Inc. in July of 2017, became Chief Financial Officer of the resulting public company (NASDAQ: DARE).

For more than 25 years, Ms. Walters-Hoffert served as an investment banker focused on small-cap public companies in the life science and technology sectors. From 2003 to 2015, Ms. Walters-Hoffert worked at Roth Capital Partners as Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division. Ms. Walters-Hoffert has also held various positions in the corporate finance and investment banking divisions of Citicorp Securities and Oppenheimer & Co, Inc.

Ms. Walters-Hoffert currently serves as a director for Flux Power Holdings, Inc. and is a member of the Board of Directors of The Elementary Institute of Science. Additionally, she has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the San Diego Venture Group, as Past Chair of the UCSD Librarian's Advisory Board, and as the Past Chair of the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest. Ms. Walters-Hoffert graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a B.S. in Management Sciences.