Dr. Baum is the President, Founder, Head of Research and Development, and a member of the board of Mirati Therapeutics. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mirati from 2012-2021. Prior to joining Mirati, Dr. Baum was Senior Vice President for Biotherapeutic Clinical Research within Pfizer’s Worldwide Research & Development division. He was at Pfizer from 2003 to 2012, serving in roles of increasing responsibility, including Vice President, Head of Oncology Development and Chief Medical Officer for Pfizer’s Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center. Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Baum was at Schering-Plough where he was responsible for the Phase I-IV development of several oncology compounds, including Temodar®. His career has also included academic and hospital positions at Stanford and Emory universities. Dr. Baum serves on the board of directors at PMV Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Odyssey Therapeutics and Poseida Therapeutics. He is also on the scientific advisory board at ALX Oncology. Dr. Baum received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Washington University School of Medicine and completed his post-graduate training at Stanford University. Additionally, he has received research support from the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society, published more than 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts and holds a number of patents and patent applications.
Michael Tomsicek, M.B.A., has served on our board of directors since October 2022. Mr. Tomsicek has served as a member of the board of directors of Milestone Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed biopharmaceutical company, since April 2019. Mr. Tomsicek served as the Chief Financial Officer of CRISPR Therapeutics AG, a Nasdaq-listed gene editing company, from November 2017 through October 2021. Prior to that, Mr. Tomsicek served as Chief Financial Officer of Abiomed, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed medical device company, from July 2015 to August 2017. Before that, he was Chief Financial Officer at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc., or Cubist, a Nasdaq-listed biopharmaceutical company. He was at Cubist from August 2010 to January 2015, through the company’s sale to Merck, and held a series of roles of increasing responsibility leading finance, investor relations and strategic sourcing. Prior to Cubist, Mr. Tomsicek spent nearly eight years at General Electric Healthcare, ultimately as Chief Financial Officer of the global ultrasound business. Mr. Tomsicek holds an M.B.A. and a B.S. in Engineering, both from the University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Shacham co-founded E44 Ventures in June 2022 and serves as Managing Director. Dr. Shacham co-founded Karyopharm in 2008 and served as their Chief Scientific Officer from October 2010 to May 2022. She was also President of Research and Development from December 2012 to May 2021. From 2010 to 2012, Dr. Shacham served as the Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Research and Development, and prior to that, as President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Shacham currently is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Karyopharm.
Prior to joining Karyopharm, Dr. Shacham served as Senior Vice President of Drug Development at Epix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Director, Algorithm and Software Development at Predix Pharmaceuticals Inc., which merged into Epix Pharmaceuticals in 2006, and where she led the company’s efforts in GPCR modeling, computational chemistry, lead optimization and development of clinical trials.
Dr. Shacham holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, a Doctor of Philosophy in Biophysical Chemistry, and a Master of Business of Administration from Tel Aviv University.
Derek DiRocco is a Partner at RA Capital Management. Derek works on both public and private investments and serves as a Board Director for 89Bio, iTeos Therapeutics, Connect Bio, CANbridge, and Werewolf Therapeutics. Previously, Derek covered solid tumor oncology landscapes.
Derek holds a BA in Biology from Holy Cross College and a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Washington. He conducted his postdoctoral research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where he researched the role of the Wnt signaling pathway in mouse models of kidney disease, and was part of a team that discovered a stem cell subtype responsible for solid organ fibrosis.
