Board of Directors
Samuel L. Barker, Ph.D. has been a director since March 2000 and became chairman of our board of directors in March 2005. In March 2001, Dr. Barker co-founded Clearview Projects, Inc., a provider of partnering and transaction services to biopharmaceutical companies, and served as its president and chief executive officer from July 2003 until November 2004. Dr. Barker served in a series of leadership positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company until his retirement in 1999. His positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb included service as executive vice president, Worldwide Franchise Management and Strategy during 1998; president, United States Pharmaceuticals from 1992 to 1997; and president, Bristol-Myers Squibb Intercontinental Commercial Operations from 1990 to 1992. Prior to 1990, Dr. Barker held executive positions in research and development, manufacturing, finance, business development and sales and marketing at Squibb Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Barker currently serves as a director of AtheroGenics, Inc. and Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Barker received his B.S. from Henderson State College, his M.S. from the University of Arkansas and his Ph.D. from Purdue University.Arthur T. Sands, M.D., Ph.D. co-founded our company and has been our president and chief executive officer and a director since September 1995. At Lexicon, Dr. Sands pioneered the development of large-scale gene knockout technology for use in drug discovery. Before founding Lexicon, Dr. Sands served as an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Sands serves as a director of the Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine. He received his B.A. in economics and political science from Yale University and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine.
Philippe J. Amouyal has been a director since August 2007. Mr. Amouyal has been a managing director of The Invus Group, LLC since 1999. Previously, Mr. Amouyal was a vice president and director of The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts, where he coordinated the global technology and electronics practice through most of the 1990s. He holds an M.S. in engineering and a DEA in management from Ecole Centrale de Paris and was a research fellow at the Center for Policy Alternatives of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Amouyal is a director of Weight Watchers International, Inc., as well as a number of private companies in which Invus has invested.
Raymond Debbane has been a director since August 2007. Mr. Debbane is president and chief executive officer of The Invus Group, LLC, which he founded in New York in 1985 as the exclusive investment advisor of Benelux-based Artal Group S.A. In 1999, Artal became the controlling shareholder of Weight Watchers International, Inc., for which Mr. Debbane serves as chairman of the board of directors. He also serves as chairman or director of a number of private companies in which Invus and Artal Group S.A. have invested. Before founding The Invus Group, Mr. Debbane was a manager in the Paris office of The Boston Consulting Group, Inc., where he did consulting work for a number of major European and international companies. Mr. Debbane holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University, an M.S. in food science and technology from the University of California at Davis, and a B.S in agricultural sciences and agricultural engineering from American University of Beirut.
Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D. has been a director since February 2001 and a consultant to our company since March 2003. Dr. Lefkowitz is the James B. Duke Professor of Medicine, professor of Biochemistry and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Duke University Medical Center, where he has served on the faculty since 1973. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Lefkowitz received his B.A. from Columbia University and his M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Alan S. Nies, M.D. has been a director since November 2003 and chairman of our medical advisory board since March 2003. From 1992 through September 2002, Dr. Nies served in a series of senior management positions at Merck & Co. Inc., most recently as senior vice president, clinical sciences from 1999 to 2002. Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Nies spent fifteen years as professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and head of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Dr. Nies received his B.S. from Stanford University and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School.
Frank P. Palantoni has been a director since November 2004. Mr. Palantoni served as chief executive officer of Prestige Brands Holding, Inc. from April to June 2006 and as a director from January to June 2006. From 1998 to 2004, Mr. Palantoni held a variety of senior management positions with Novartis AG, most recently as president and chief executive officer, worldwide of its Gerber Products Company, Novartis Infant and Baby Division. Mr. Palantoni also served as president and chief executive officer for North American operations of Novartis Consumer Health Division from 2000 to 2001. Prior to joining Novartis, he held a series of senior management positions with The Danone Group. He received his B.S. from Tufts University and his M.B.A. from Columbia University.
Christopher J. Sobecki has been a director since August 2007. Mr. Sobecki is a managing director of The Invus Group, LLC, which he joined in 1989. Mr. Sobecki has served on the board of directors of numerous companies in which Invus has invested and is currently on the boards of directors of Weight Watchers International, Inc. and NitroMed, Inc., as well as a number of private companies in which Invus has invested. He holds a B.S. in industrial engineering from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.
Judith L. Swain, M.D has been a director since September 2007. Dr. Swain is the executive director of the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences within A*STAR, and the Lien Chow Professor of Medicine at the National University of Singapore. Before going to Singapore, she was the dean for translational medicine at the University of California, San Diego, where she continues to maintain an appointment as an adjunct professor of medicine. Dr. Swain previously served as chair of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University, and on the medical faculties of the University of Pennsylvania and Duke University. Dr. Swain is currently a director of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a member of the Academic Research Council in Singapore and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. She has served in a number of national and international leadership roles and as a director or member of the scientific advisory boards for a number of biomedical technology companies and is co-founder of Synecor, LLC. Dr. Swain received her B.S. at the University of California, Los Angeles, and her M.D. at the University of California, San Diego.
Kathleen M. Wiltsey has been a director since February 2007. From 1984 through 1998, Ms. Wiltsey served in a series of senior marketing and business development positions at Amgen Inc., including as co-product development team leader and marketing director for EPOGEN® and as vice president with responsibility for Amgen’s product licensing function. From May to October 2006, Ms. Wiltsey served the X Prize Foundation as executive director for the development and launch of the Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, a global technology competition to dramatically reduce the cost of sequencing human genomes and accelerate personalized medicine. Ms. Wiltsey has served in a variety of business and corporate development advisory roles for numerous biotechnology companies and is currently vice president of the board of The Associates of the California Institute of Technology. She received her B.S. from the Colorado School of Mines and her M.B.A. from Harvard University.
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