Wayne F. Pisano joined VaxInnate as interim Chief Executive Officer in January 2012 and as permanent CEO in April 2012. Wayne is the former President and CEO of sanofi pasteur, the largest company entirely dedicated to vaccines. Wayne joined sanofi pasteur as Vice President, U.S. Marketing in 1997 and held positions of increasing responsibility including Head of Global Commercial Operations and Corporate Strategy. Wayne is credited with sanofi pasteur’s leading worldwide role in the influenza vaccine market with approximately 50 percent of global sales. Following Wayne’s entry into the company, sanofi pasteur strengthened its position as the world leader in the vaccine industry, offering a broad range of vaccines that protect against 20 infectious diseases. Along with leading the development and implementation of sanofi pasteur’s commercial strategy, Wayne focused sanofi pasteur’s R&D strategy and pipeline on identifying and furthering vaccines to protect against diseases that impact both developed and developing nations equally. Wayne holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from St. John Fisher College, Rochester, New York, and an MBA from the University of Dayton, Ohio.

 

Andrew Drechsler joined VaxInnate in June 2007, from Valera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he served as Chief Financial Officer. During his tenure at Valera, he was responsible for the company's initial public offering and the sale of the company to Indevus Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Drechsler served as Controller for a variety of tech companies, including i-STAT Corporation, HydraWEB Technologies, and BioMatrix. Prior to his corporate biotechnology experience, Mr. Drechsler worked for the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand LLP. Mr. Drechsler graduated magna cum laude from Villanova University with a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy. Mr. Drechsler also obtained his qualification as a certified pubic accountant in the state of New Jersey.

 

Dr. Taylor Chief Medical Officer, joined VaxInnate in March 2007 from Salix Pharmaceuticals, where he served as Chief Medical Officer and VP, Medical Affairs. Prior to his role at Salix Pharmaceuticals, he served as Research Professor in the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr. Taylor also brings to VaxInnate extensive vaccine research and infectious disease expertise gained through his 22 years of distinguished service with the U.S. military. During his career with the U.S. Public Health Service and U.S. Army, he served in a number of positions in the Division of Communicable Diseases and Immunology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), including acting Division Director, Clinical Director, Department of Enteric Infections, as well as founder and first Chief of the Department of Clinical Trials. Dr. Taylor also served at the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Bangkok, Thailand, and was Director of the Cholera Vaccine Project at the Naval Medical Research Institute detachment in Lima, Peru. He currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Preventative Medicine/Biometrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Adjunct Professor in International Health at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. He is a Diplomat of the National Board of Medical Examiners and American Board of Internal Medicine, a Fellow with the American College of Physicians and Infectious Diseases Society of America, and a member of the American Society of Microbiology. Dr. Taylor has authored more than 200 publications and received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School.

 

Dr. Tussey joined VaxInnate in 2004 from Purdue Pharma where, as Program Leader of Immunotherapeutics , she led the overall development of Purdue Pharma's cancer vaccine program. Prior to Purdue, Dr. Tussey was a Senior Research Fellow in Viral Vaccines at Merck Research Labs where she oversaw the development of novel immune based assays for assessing T cell function and was responsible for the evaluation of human T cell responses to Merck's HIV-1 vaccines. Prior to Merck, Dr. Tussey served as Program Leader at GlaxoWellcome, where she designed and executed the overall strategy for immunotherapeutic approaches to the treatment of chronic HCV infection. Dr. Tussey received her B.S. from the University of North Carolina, and her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley. Her awards and honors include a GlaxoWellcome QRCC Award for Collaborative Research, a Wellcome Trust Hitchings-Elion Foundation Fellowship for study at the University of Oxford and a NRSA Individual Research Fellow Award for study at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Dr. Tussey has authored over 25 publications in the fields of Genetics and Immunology.