Management
Gerry Proehl
Chairman, President, and CEO
Mr. Proehl is a Founder, Chairman, President, and CEO of Dermata Therapeutics, Inc. From January 2002 until January 2014 he was President and CEO of Santarus, Inc., where he led the sale of Santarus to Salix Pharmaceuticals for $2.6 billion. Prior to Santarus, Mr. Proehl was with Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc. for 14 years, where he served in various capacities, including VP of Global Marketing. While at Hoechst, he was responsible for marketing products in multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiology, allergy/respiratory, immunology, and neurology. Mr. Proehl holds a B.S. in Education from State University of New York at Cortland, an M.A. in Exercise Physiology from Wake Forest University, and an M.B.A. from Rockhurst College. Mr. Proehl currently serves on the board of one public company, Tenax Therapeutics, Inc.
Maria Bedoya Toro Munera, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance
Maria Bedoya Toro Munera, PhD, MBA, has held this position since she joined Dermata in January 2016 after serving as Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Receptos Inc. She previously served as Senior Director Regulatory Affairs at Eisai Medical Research Inc., from November 2006 to May 2007, moving to Eisai from Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc. when Ligand divested their oncology products to Eisai in November 2006. Dr. Bedoya Toro Munera worked as Senior Director Global Regulatory Affairs and Compliance at Ligand from 2003 to 2006. From 2000 to 2003 she served as Director Global Regulatory Affairs at Baxter Hyland Immuno. From 1998 to 2000 Dr. Bedoya Toro Munera worked at BASF Bioresearch Corporation as Director, Regulatory Affairs/Quality, and from 1996 to 1998 she worked as Director, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Compliance at Amylin Pharmaceuticals. From 1988 to 1996 Dr. Bedoya Toro Munera worked at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer in a number of increasingly responsible positions in regulatory compliance, quality assurance, quality control and compliance. Dr. Bedoya Toro Munera holds an M.B.A from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in bio-analytical chemistry from Ohio University. In addition, she has a M.A. in bio-analytical chemistry and a B.S. in chemistry from Western Michigan University.
Kyri Van Hoose
Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Kyri Van Hoose is a seasoned and collaborative finance and accounting professional with over 20 years of experience, including more than 15 years of experience in the life science industry. Ms. Van Hoose joined Dermata Therapeutics, Inc. as the Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer in September 2021. Prior to Dermata, Ms. Van Hoose served as Chief Financial Officer of TEGA Therapeutics, Inc., a private biotechnology company, the head of finance for Curzion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a private, rare disease company, until its acquisition by Horizon Therapeutics plc, as well as at Avelas Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company. For over a decade, Ms. Van Hoose held leadership positions of increasing responsibilities at Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (NASDAQ: ACAD) including Senior Director of Finance and Corporate Controller. Ms. Van Hoose began her career at Deloitte and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (California active). Ms. Van Hoose earned her B.S. in Accounting at the University of Southern California and M.B.A. in Finance at University of California, Irvine.
Chris Nardo, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Chief Development Officer
Dr. Nardo served as our Vice President of Development since June 2015 and was promoted to Senior Vice President of Development in July 2017. Dr. Nardo has more than 25 years' experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and has successfully filed more than a dozen marketing applications in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan. His experience spans pre-clinical work through Phase 4 drug development of both small molecules and biologics for a broad range of therapeutic ares including: dermatology, ophthalmology, oncology, antiviral, urology, auto-immune and cardiology. From 2010 to 2015, Dr. Nardo was Senior Director of Clinical Development at Allergan where he had responsibility for the conduct, submission, and approval of several global drug development programs, involving multiple dermatology assets, which included several new indications for BOTOX®. From 2005 to 2010, Dr. Nardo served as Vice President of Clinical Operations at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals where he worked on developing new therapeutic opportunities in oncology and urology, including Fusilev® and Zevalin®. Prior to joining Spectrum, Dr. Nardo held several clinical development positions with increasing responsibility at CancerVax Corporation, The Immune Response Corporation, and Procter and Gamble. Dr. Nardo earned a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.P.H. from San Diego State University, and a B.S. (Biology) from Loyola Marymount University.
Board of Directors
David Hale
Lead Director
Mr. Hale is a Founder and Managing Director of Dermata Therpeutics, Inc. He is Chairman and CEO of Hale BioPharma Ventures, LLC, a private company focused on the formation and development of biotechnology, specialty pharma, diagnostic and medical device companies. He was involved in the formation and development of SkinMedica and served as Executive Chairman and Chairman until the company’s sale to Allergan.
Mr. Hale served as Chairman of Santarus, Inc. prior to its sale to Salix Pharmaceuticals, Micromet prior to its sale to Amgen and Somaxon Pharmaceuticals prior to its sale to Pernix.
Mr. Hale is a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in the formation and/or development of a number of life sciences companies. In addition to the companies above, these include Hybritech, Viagene, Gensia Sicor, CancerVax, Neurelis, MDRejuvena, Clarify Medical, Adigica Health, Oncternal and Neurana. He serves on the board of three public companies, Conatus, BIOCEPT and Cassiopea.
Kathleen Scott
Director
Ms. Scott is currently the Chief Financial Officer of ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a public biotech company. Prior to ARS, Ms. Scott was the Chief Financial Officer of Neurana Pharmaceuticals, Recros Medica, Adigica Health, Clarify Medical, Oncternal Therapeutics, MDRejuvena, and BioSurplus. Prior to BioSurplus, Ms. Scott was a Partner at RA Capital Advisors, a San Diego private investment bank providing financial advisory services. Ms. Scott spent over 15 years with RA Capital Advisors, completing billions of dollars of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and restructurings for a broad range of corporate clients. Ms. Scott started her career as an auditor in Arthur Andersen’s San Diego office, focusing on both public and private clients. Ms. Scott is board chair of the YMCA of San Diego County and is a CPA and CFA charter holder. Ms. Scott graduated magna cum laude from UCLA with a B.S. in economics/ business. Ms. Scott was selected as a director due to her extensive industry and financial experience.
Brittany Bradrick
Director
Brittany Bradrick has served as the Chief Financial Officer of Neurelis, Inc. since October 2021. Prior to joining Neurelis, Ms. Bradrick was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at ViaCyte. She previously served in strategy and corporate development positions for 10 years at Insulet Corporation as Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development and at Abbott Diabetes Care as the Head of Corporate Development. Prior to these positions, Ms. Bradrick was an investment banker for the life science industry at Piper Jaffray, Credit Suisse, and Chase Securities for 10 years. Ms. Bradrick began her career as a Federal Reserve Bank Examiner. Ms. Bradrick holds an M.B.A. from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Missouri. Ms. Bradrick is also on the Board of Directors at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, where she is the Audit Chairperson.
Gerry Proehl
Chairman, President, and CEO
Mr. Proehl is a Founder, President, CEO and Director of Dermata Therapeutics, Inc. Formerly he was President and CEO of Santarus, Inc., where he led the sale of Santarus to Salix Pharmaceuticals for $2.6 billion. Prior to Santarus, Mr. Proehl was with Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc. for 14 years, where he served in various capacities, including VP of Global Marketing. While at Hoechst, he was responsible for marketing products in multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiology, allergy/respiratory, immunology, and neurology. Mr. Proehl holds a B.S. in Education from State University of New York at Cortland, an M.A. in Exercise Physiology from Wake Forest University, and an M.B.A. from Rockhurst College. Mr. Proehl currently serves on the board of one public company, Tenax Therapeutics, Inc.
Mary Fisher
Director
Ms. Fisher currently serves as Chair and Chief Executive Officer, at Colorescience Inc., a science-based skincare company and former division of SkinMedica, Inc. While at SkinMedica, Ms. Fisher served as Chief Executive Officer, where she led the successful sale of the company to Allergan, Inc. for $350 million. Prior to joining SkinMedica, Ms. Fisher served as the Chief Operating Officer of Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACOR). She previously held management and leadership positions at Cephalon, Inc., Immunex Corp. from November 1990 to March 1994, and Boehringer Ingelheim. She previously served on the Board of Directors at ZELTIQ Aesthetics, Inc., and Ovascience. Ms. Fisher currently sits on the Board of Sientra. Ms. Fisher was selected as a director due to her extensive business and professional experience.
Andrew Sandler M.D.
Director
Andrew Sandler, M.D. currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer of Alpine Immune Sciences. Prior to joining Alpine Immune Sciences, he was Chief Medical Officer at Kiadis Pharma prior to its acquisition by Sanofi, providing strategic oversight of the company’s clinical development, clinical operations, regulatory affairs, medical affairs, safety/pharmacovigilance, scientific communication, and life -cycle management. Before that, he served as Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs at Medivation (Pfizer) where he provided strategic leadership direction in building and maintaining a Medical Affairs team for the development of their investigational agents in late-stage development while leading the life cycle management of their marketed products. Prior to Medivation, Dr. Sandler held various roles including Chief Medical Officer, Executive Vice President, R&D, Seattle Site Head and Senior Vice President, Clinical and Medial Affairs at Dendreon. Earlier in his career, Dr. Sandler was Chief Medical Officer at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Vice President and Head of Global Medical Affairs for Oncology at Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, and held various positions at Berlex Oncology/Schering AG and Seattle Genetics, Inc.
Dr. Sandler holds a M.D. degree from Mount Sinai Medical Center and a B.S. degree in Neuroscience from the University of Rochester. Dr. Sandler completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Sandler also holds a Certificate in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and was a Fellow in Hematology/Medical Oncology in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Wendell Wierenga, Ph.D.
Director
Dr. Wierenga joined the Dermata Board of Directors in September 2016. Dr. Wierenga previously served as Executive Vice President, Research and Development at Santarus, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. Prior to Santarus, Dr. Wierenga served as Executive Vice President, Research and Development at Ambit Biosciences Corporation and Neurocrine Biosciences. Prior to Neurocrine, he served as the Chief Executive Officer for Syrrx, Inc. where he built an early stage biotech company which was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals in 2005. Dr. Wierenga earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University and his B.A. from Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Cytokinetics, Ocera Therapeutics, and SRI Int’l and most recently was on the Board of Directors for Anacor Pharmaceuticals and XenoPort, Inc. prior to their sales to Pfizer and Arbor Pharmaceuticals, respectively. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Concert Pharmaceuticals, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and aTyr Pharma, Inc.
Steve Mento Ph.D.
Director
Dr. Mento currently serves as the Excecutve Chairperson and interim President and CEO at Histogen. Dr. Mento previously served as a director on the board of directors of Conatus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and, Dr. Mento served as chairman of Conatus’ board of directors. Dr. Mento was a co-founder of Conatus and served as its President and Chief Executive Officer until its merger with Histogen Inc. (NASDAQ: HSTO). Dr. Mento has over 30 years of combined experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Mento was President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Idun Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Mento guided Idun during its transition from a discovery focused organization to a drug development company with multiple products in or near human clinical testing. Idun was sold to Pfizer Inc. Previously, Dr. Mento served as President of Chiron Viagene, Inc. (subsequently Chiron Technologies, Center for Gene Therapy), and Vice President of Chiron Corporation. Dr. Mento was Vice President of research and development at Viagene. Prior to Viagene, Dr. Mento held various positions at American Cyanamid Company, including as Director of Viral Vaccine Research and Development at Lederle-Praxis Biologicals, a business unit of American Cyanamid. Dr. Mento currently serves on the board of directors of Histogen, BIOCOM California and various academic and charitable organizations. He previously served on the boards of Biotechnology Innovation Organization, BIO Emerging Companies Section Governing Board, BIO Health Section Governing Board, and Sangamo Biosciences, Inc. Dr. Mento holds a Ph.D. and M.S., both in Microbiology, from Rutgers University, and a B.A. in Microbiology from Rutgers College. Dr. Mento was selected as a director due to his experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including executive leadership experience at several pharmaceutical companies.