Rethinking treatment for nervous system disorders
Empowering patients to live on their own terms

Bob most recently served as the President and CEO of Alder BioPharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by H. Lundbeck for $2.3 billion in 2019. Previously, he was Juno Therapeutics’ Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, participating in the management of all aspects of Juno’s operations and accountable for leading and developing Juno’s commercial capabilities. Juno was acquired by Celgene for $9 billion in 2018. Prior to Juno, Bob was the Vice President and General Manager of Amgen’s US Oncology Business Unit, responsible for $6.5 billion annual net revenue. Over his 15-year career with Amgen, Bob held numerous sales and marketing positions, including Vice President of US Oncology Sales, Vice President of North American Commercial Operations, General Manager for Amgen Netherlands and Senior Marketing Director. He is currently a member of the Clovis Oncology Board of Directors and was formerly on the Immunomedics and Cascadian Therapeutics Board of Directors. Bob received his undergraduate degrees in economics and religious studies from the University of Virginia and his master of business administration from Harvard University.

Valerie is Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Eliem Therapeutics. Valerie has more than 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with positions of increasing responsibility at Novartis, GSK, Convergence and Biogen. Prior to joining Eliem, Valerie was a founding venture partner at Bridge Valley Ventures. She co-founded Convergence Pharmaceuticals, where she established and led the Biology and Translational Medicine team, and she was instrumental in the sale of Convergence to Biogen for $675M in 2015. Valerie subsequently joined Biogen in a senior leadership role. She has worked extensively in the field of drug development for pain and across a number of other therapeutic areas including neurology, psychiatry, gastrointestinal disorders and sensory biology. Valerie trained as an electrophysiologist and completed her doctorate at the University of Bordeaux.

Erin has more than 20 years of cross-functional experience leading strategic and operational initiatives in the biopharmaceutical industry. Erin was Chief Operating Officer of Alder BioPharmaceuticals, leading the company’s readiness for launch of its first therapy, including enterprise planning around supply chain, compliance and information technology. She led the company’s $2.3 billion sale to H. Lundbeck in 2019. Prior to Alder, Erin worked at Amgen for 15 years in a variety of roles in the corporate development, finance and commercial organizations. Her most recent role was General Manager of Amgen Taiwan, where she managed a portfolio of six commercialized products. Erin worked in Hong Kong as an Executive Director for the Japan Asia-Pacific region during its initial build. She began her career as an investment banker focused on biotech M&A and financing in the healthcare group at Merrill Lynch & Co. Erin is currently a member of the Neoleukin Therapeutics Board of Directors and serves as President of the Seattle chapter of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA). She holds a bachelor of arts in economics from Yale University.

Jim served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Alder BioPharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by H. Lundbeck for $2.3 billion in 2019. Jim was a standing member of Alder’s Executive Team, participating in the management of all aspects of Alder’s strategy and operations, with direct responsibility for the company’s legal affairs, intellectual property, risk management, and compliance. Prior to joining Alder, Jim was Vice President of Corporate Legal Affairs and Secretary as well as the Corporate Compliance Officer of Exelixis, a NASDAQ-listed biopharmaceutical company. He was a partner at the international law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP, serving with the firm for 16 years. Jim has significant experience with capital raising, including execution of six equity and convertible debt financings generating over $900 million in capital for Alder and eight equity and debt financings generating over $1 billion in capital for Exelixis. Jim holds a juris doctorate with distinction from Emory University School of Law and a bachelor of arts in biology from Colgate University.

Dr. Versavel joined Eliem as SVP, Clinical Development in March 2021 and was appointed Interim Chief Medical Officer in January 2022.  Mark has over 30 years of clinical development experience in neuropathic pain and multiple neurology and psychiatry indications across the areas of clinical pharmacology, early and late phase clinical trials and support of marketed products. Mark is the founder and President of the life science consulting firm vZenium LLC, and prior to joining Eliem served as Chief Medical Officer at Alzheon, Inc., Neurobo Pharmaceuticals, and Cavion Pharma. Earlier in his career, Mark held positions of increasing responsibility in clinical research at Bayer AG, Schering AG, Parke Davis / Pfizer, Sepracor / Sunovion and Zalicus. During his career Mark has led late stage development and medical affairs activities for pregabalin (Lyrica) in neuropathic pain and epilepsy, ziprasidone (Geodon) in schizophrenia and bipolar depression, eszopiclone (Lunesta) in sleep disorders, and eslicarbazepine acetate (Aptiom) in epilepsy.
Mark received his M.D. from University of Antwerp, Belgium, Ph.D. (Dr. Med.) in clinical pharmacology from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany and MBA from University of Michigan.

Jo is a neuropsychologist with over 18 years’ experience working in clinical development in the pharmaceutical industry with a focus on pain and migraine. She has held positions in both clinical operations and clinical strategy including leading multidisciplinary clinical teams at Roche, GSK, Convergence Pharmaceuticals and Biogen. Jo was a founding member of Convergence Pharmaceuticals Ltd and a member of the leadership team. As the Head of Clinical Operations at Convergence, she was responsible for designing and managing the full-service outsourcing of phase 1 and 2 clinical studies in pain. She was also responsible for establishing and maintaining the Quality System.

Susan brings over 30 years of experience in regulatory affairs, with a focus on pain and CNS therapies Prior to joining Eliem, she most recently served as the Senior Vice President and Head of Regulatory Affairs at Braeburn Inc., where she was responsible for managing the regulatory team across all CMC, clinical, and non-clinical operations and promotional functions with a focus on its opioid use disorder (OUD) and pain pipeline. Previously, she managed global regulatory affairs at Teva Pharmaceuticals, Cephalon, Premier Research Group, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Over the course of her career, Susan led the successful registration of Exalgo® (hydromorphone extended release) and Vantrela® ER (hydrocodone), the tentative approval for Brixadi™ (buprenorphine extended-release) as well as leading several successful FDA Advisory Committees. Susan holds a BS in Chemistry from Clarkson University and an MS in Chemistry from Lehigh University.