Emily Arsenault, CPA, MBA, joined ImmPACT Bio in March 2022 and serves as Vice President of Finance. Emily has spent the majority of her career supporting early and growth stage life sciences companies, most recently as Executive Director, Head of Finance and Operations at Plexium in San Diego, CA. Previously she served as Director, Finance and Controller at Mirati Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MRTX), a publicly traded oncology company based in San Diego, CA. Emily received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Business degrees from San Diego State University and is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of California.

Jonathan Benjamin is a hematologist, oncologist, and immunologist. Prior to joining ImmPACT in September 2022 as CMO, Dr. Benjamin was Senior Vice President for Clinical Research at Atreca where he directed sample acquisition efforts to support drug discovery, built the clinical development organization, and led development of its first clinical-stage asset. Previously, he was Medical Director at Amgen to work on the development and global registration of the bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE®) Blincyto® for B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Before entering the biotechnology industry, he was assistant professor and attending physician in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Stanford University.

Dr. Benjamin received his bachelor degree from Harvard College and M.D and Ph.D degrees from New York University. He completed his postgraduate training at the University of California San Francisco.

Jenny Cui, M.D., Ph.D. joined ImmPACT Bio in April 2021 and serves as Principal Scientist in Research and Development. She holds a M.D. degree from Geisel School of Medicine and a Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Yale University. Prior to joining ImmPACT, she worked as a Scientist at A2 Biotherapeutics and PACT Pharma on T cell therapies.

Orit Foord, Ph.D joined ImmPACT Bio as Senior Director of Protein Science in January 2020. Orit brings over 20 years of experience in the biotech industry providing overall strategic, scientific, and technical leadership in antibody lead identification and optimization. Orit served as Sr. Director of Research at Adicet Bio working toward developing an allogeneic T cell platform of engineered immune-cell therapeutics for patients with solid tumors. Prior roles include VP of Antibody Discovery at Stemcentrx, and leading antibody discovery teams at Trellis Bioscience. Orit is an inventor on several dozen patents covering B cell technology and therapeutic antibodies. She received her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Carolyn Gabus joined ImmPACT Bio in September 2022 and serves as Senior Director of Clinical Operations.  She joins ImmPACT with over 20 years of global trial experience across several small to medium sized pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.  Her experience includes leadership roles in Phase I – III studies of small molecules in oncology, autologous neoepitope-specific TCR T cell therapy in solid tumors, patient-specific active idiotype immunotherapy in blood cancers, and several other indications and operationally complex programs.  She brings a strong background in clinical trial management, clinical compliance, and global regulatory inspection readiness leading to regulatory approvals.  

Shirin Ghavam, MS. OD., joined ImmPACT Bio in September 2022 and serves as Head of Program Management.    She brings with her 20 years of Biotech-Pharmaceutical experience spanning all phases of the product lifecycle, from pre-clinical through commercialization and post- marketed products, at both large pharmaceuticals as well as startups.   

Shirin has a proven track record of empowering cross-functional teams to develop and execute best-in-class innovative products that transform the lives of patients globally. She is a collaborative action-oriented leader who uses strategic planning, employee empowerment coupled with corporate values to drive collaboration and achieve long lasting results.

Jim was co-founder and CEO/CSO of Kalthera Inc, prior to the merger with ImmPACT Bio. He was most recently Vice President of Research at A2 Biotherapeutics, focused on T-cell and Treg bioengineering therapy.

Previously, Jim was Executive Director of Research, and Global Head of Inflammation at Amgen with responsibility for Inflammation and part of Immuno-Oncology (2011–2018), where his team was responsible for ten drug candidates that progressed to FIH, five of which are advancing through clinical trials and two now approved.

Prior to Amgen, Jim was Professor of Immunology at Queen’s University Belfast, from 2002 to 2011, and previously a Director at DNAX Research Institute. He made several key discoveries, including the identification and characterization of JAK3 and work that outlined its importance in IL-2 family signaling and in autosomal SCID patients, as well as many mechanisms controlling T-cell biology and cytokine signaling.

He has been awarded the Most Valuable Scientist award at the BRMP, NIH (1996), the Hajime Award at DNAX Research Institute (1999), and the Irish Society of Immunology RDS Public Lecture Award (2010). He founded and was Chief Scientist at Fusion Antibodies Ltd, which develops humanized antibody therapeutics (www.fusionantibodies.com).

Jim has a PhD from the University of Manchester and was a Postdoctoral fellow, and later a Sr. Staff Fellow with Dr. John O’Shea at NIAMS, at the NIH. He has 16 patents and has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed manuscripts.

Jolie Keough joined ImmPACT Bio in May of 2022 and serves as the Head of Human Resources. Jolie is an accomplished Talent leader who has built her career creating high-performing teams. She brings 20+ years of experience to ImmPACT Bio.

Before joining ImmPACT Bio, Jolie helped industry leaders such as Mirati Therapeutics, Kite Pharma, Turnstone Biologics, Amgen, and Baxter Healthcare follow their journeys from various phases of clinical development through successful approval and commercialization. Jolie earned her degree in International Business at San Diego State University.

Deepthi Kolli, Ph.D joined ImmPACT Bio in June 2022 and serves as Executive Director of Process Sciences. Prior to joining ImmPACT Bio, she was a Senior Director (process sciences) at SonomaBio, and Director (Assay Development and Quality control) at Atara Bio, cell therapy companies focusing on autologous and allogeneic T cell products. Deepthi holds a Ph.D and M.S in Immunology from the National Dairy Research Institute, and a B.Sc in Biochemistry and Microbiology from Nagarjuna University in India.

Vikram Lamba is a seasoned healthcare executive with more than 26 years of executive experience in the industry. He joins ImmPACT Bio from ChromaCode, Inc., where he was the Chief Financial Officer. Previously, from December 2018 to April 2021, Mr. Lamba served as Chief Financial Officer at Civica, Inc., a not-for-profit generic drug and pharmaceutical company founded to combat life-saving drug shortages and affordability. From 2016 to 2018, he served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for Fortuna Fix, a cell-therapy company in the field of regenerative medicine focused on neurodegeneration and neurotrauma. From 2011 to 2016, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Zosano Pharma Corporation and as a member of its Board of Directors. Before that, he served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of Predictive Biosciences, Inc. from July 2008 until he joined Zosano in 2011. Prior to that, he served as Vice President of Corporate Development at Advanced Medical Optics, Inc. (acquired by Abbott), where he was responsible for many significant merger and acquisition transactions and strategic alliances, and as Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer of GeneOhm Sciences, Inc. (acquired by Becton Dickinson). He also has over 16 years of global experience in various positions with Burmah Castrol PLC and Bayer AG. During his eight years with Bayer in Canada, Germany and the U.S., he held positions in areas of general management, mergers and acquisitions and finance.

Mr. Lamba received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from India and a Master of Business Administration from the Asian Institute of Management where he spent his final year as an exchange student at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Nursella has over 15 years of broad experience in senior financial and operational positions within public and private biotechnology companies supporting fund raising, licensing, partnerships and M&A transactions with total value exceeding billion USD with global companies.

She has a deep expertise with building and leading finance functions in addition to overseeing and collaborating with other critical business groups to enable growth and realization of value.

Prior to joining ImmPACT Bio, she served as a CFO of Adicet Bio, a biotechnology company discovering and developing allogeneic gamma delta T cell therapies for cancer and other diseases (NASDAQ: ACET) and General Manager of Adicet Israel.

Ms. Nursella is a former CFO of cCam Biotherapeutics Ltd (acquired by Merck), Keystone Heart Ltd (acquired by Venus Medtech) , RDD Pharma Ltd , OticPharma Ltd, NasVax Ltd (TASE:NSVX), Elutex Ltd (TASE: ELTX).

Ms. Nursella holds the MA Law degree from Bar-Ilan University and BA, Finance and Economics degree from the University of Haifa and she is a Certified Public Accountant.

Beth joined ImmPACT Bio in March 2023 as Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs. Previously, she was Director of Regulatory Affairs at Neogene Therapeutics where she built out the regulatory team and led the submissions of Neogene’s first CTA and IND for their personalized and shared neoantigen TCR T cell therapy programs in solid tumors.  Prior to Neogene, Beth held increasing positions of responsibility at Kite Pharma where she supported the initial BLA/MAAs for Yescarta in large B cell lymphoma and led the sBLA filing for Yescarta’s second approved indication in follicular lymphoma. Beth earned her Ph.D in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Southern California and her bachelor’s degree from New York University.

Sylvain is an accomplished technical operations global leader with more than 22 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience and a proven track record of enabling and accelerating patients’ access to life-saving therapies.

Over the past two decades, Sylvain has held senior leadership positions at Baxter International, Baxalta, Shire Pharmaceuticals, and NantKwest, and most recently ImmunityBio, with a focus on manufacturing and process development. During his tenure at ImmunityBio, he contributed to successful investigational new drug (IND) submissions for five cell therapy products (natural killer cell and mesenchymal stem cell therapies), as well as led technology transfers, process scale up, and operations scale out on both autologous and allogeneic process platforms.

With wide-ranging operational and technical expertise in recombinant protein, cell and gene therapy, and vaccines, from early phases to large-scale commercial manufacturing, Sylvain has provided instrumental contributions to the success of multi-billion-dollar biologics and decisive progress in pipeline clinical programs.

Sylvain has a master’s degree in biochemistry and biotechnology engineering from INSA Lyon (France), and has spent a large part of his career in Europe (France, Switzerland), with experience in Asia (Singapore).

Dan St. Peter, MBA, PMP joined ImmPACT Bio in July 2022 and serves as Head of Manufacturing and Site Head for West Hills. Prior to joining ImmPACT Bio, Dan was Site Director for Baxter in Ontario, Canada, leading a team of 600 in the manufacture of IV and dialysis fluids. Over his career, Dan has held roles of increasing responsibility in a variety of functions (Engineering, Project Management, Global Marketing, and Operations) and is known as a servant leader who uses employee empowerment, leadership development, and team dynamics to achieve results. Dan holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Akron and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.

Todd Stallings-Schmitt joined ImmPACT in July 2022, and serves as Vice President, Clinical Development Operations. He brings with him more than 20 years of experience in clinical research and development operations, overseeing all phases of drug development.

Before joining ImmPACT, Todd was Vice President, Clinical Operations at PACT Pharma where he was responsible for the first-in-human trials of an autologous neoepitope-specific TCR T cell therapy for solid tumors. Prior to that he was Senior Director of Clinical Operations at Puma Biotechnology where he was responsible for multiple global clinical programs leading to an NDA and MAA filing resulting in approval of Nerlynx® (neratinib) for the treatment of HER2+ breast cancer in the extended adjuvant setting. Earlier in his career, Todd worked for BiPar Sciences (a Sanofi-Aventis company) and Genentech, overseeing clinical trials in orthopedics, cardiology, and oncology.

He received his Master Public Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Science from Auburn University.

Edgar Sur joined ImmPACT Bio in June 2022 and serves as the Head of Supply Chain. He brings a history of operational excellence experience in Supply Chain, External Manufacturing and Quality. Prior to joining ImmPACT Bio, he has held numerous leadership roles as Head of Supply Chain for Center for Breakthrough Medicines, Head of Technical Operations for L-Nutra, Head of External Manufacturing for Kite and Global Head of Operational Excellence for Bayer. Edgar holds a MS in Supply Chain Management from University of San Diego as well as an MBA from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

Venkat brings more than 30 years’ experience working in biotech and healthcare provider fields to ImmPACT. He was most recently vice president, global business solutions and chief procurement officer at Amgen. Over 20 years at Amgen, Venkat had multiple roles with increasing responsibility in functions including business development, corporate transformation, information systems, and strategic sourcing/sustainability. Prior to Amgen, Venkat co-founded a physician group purchasing company in the U.S., and with a Healthcare Association of Southern California spin-off, ran the technology consulting program for clients such as Kaiser Permanente. In addition, he established subsidiaries in India and Malaysia focused on medical equipment sales and services.

He holds a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication from Delhi University.

Adi Sharbi Yunger, Ph.D joined ImmPACT Bio in July 2018 and serves as Director of Research and IL site head. Prior to joining ImmPACT-Bio, she was a Senior Scientist at BARcure, a FutuRx portfolio company focused on developing biologics for B-cell malignancies. Adi holds a Ph.D in Immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and a B.Sc in Biotechnology Engineering from Ben-Gurion University in the Negev.