Board of Directors

Dan Janney is the Managing Partner of Alta Partners. Mr. Janney joined Alta Partners at its founding in 1996. He has nearly 25 years of successful early-stage investing experience in life sciences. Mr. Janney’s focus on working with talented entrepreneurs to create companies around novel insights in biology and new approaches to drug discovery has led to the funding and development of 35 companies. Prior to Alta, he was a senior investment banker at Montgomery Securities. Mr. Janney is currently on the board of directors of several public and private companies, including Be Biopharma, Curasen Therapeutics, ImmuneID, Krystal Biotech, Lassen Therapeutics, Novome Biotechnologies, and Prolacta Bioscience. In addition, he led Alta’s investments in Astex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Supergen), Cellective (acquired by Medimmune), ChemGenex (acquired by Cephalon), CoTherix (acquired by Actelion), Definity Health (acquired by United Health), Dynavax, Endonetics (acquired by Medtronic), Esperion Therapeutics, Ilex Oncology (acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals), InterMune (acquired by Roche), LJL Biosystems (acquired by Molecular Devices), Mako Surgical (acquired by Stryker) and Triangle Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Gilead).

Mr. Janney is a member of The President’s Council of the J. David Gladstone Institutes and the chair of the Board of Directors of the California Academy of Sciences. He also serves on the Board of Regents of Georgetown University. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University and a MBA from the Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Alexander has been involved in the formation and leadership of numerous biotechnology companies. Dr. Alexander was CEO of ZS Pharma where he led the initial public offering and sale of ZS Pharma to AstraZeneca. Prior to ZS Pharma, Dr. Alexander was a Director at Alta Partners, a venture capital firm, and was also Executive Chairman and interim CEO of SARcode Bioscience. During his time at Alta Partners, he led investments in SARcode Bioscience (acquired by Shire), Lumena Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Shire), ZS Pharma (acquired by AstraZeneca), and Allakos. Prior to Alta Partners, Robert was a Principal in MPM Capital’s BioEquities Fund. Dr. Alexander joined MPM from Genentech, where he worked in the Business Development group.

Dr. Alexander holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor Science in Zoology from Miami University of Ohio.

Robert Andreatta has served as a member of our Board of Directors since June 2018, and has more than three decades of corporate finance and accounting experience. Mr. Andreatta has served as Vice President, Controller at Google since March 2016. Prior to Google, Mr. Andreatta was the Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at Genentech from 2008 to 2016. Andreatta joined Genentech in 2003 as Director, Collaborations Finance, and has held positions of increasing responsibility including Director, Corporate Accounting and Reporting, Senior Director, Corporate Finance and Assistant Controller, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer. Prior to joining Genentech, Mr. Andreatta held various officer positions at HopeLink Corporation, a healthcare information technology company, and was a member of the Board of Directors of HopeLink. Prior to joining HopeLink, Mr. Andreatta was an audit partner with KPMG. Mr. Andreatta earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Santa Clara University.

Steven James has over 30 years of biopharmaceutical experience and has been involved in building and leading numerous successful companies and the discovery and development of important approved drug products. Currently, Mr. James is president and Chief Executive Officer and director of Pionyr Immunotherapeutics. Previously, he was president and CEO of Labrys Biologics until it was acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Labrys, Steve was president and CEO of KAI Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Amgen. He has held leadership positions at Exelixis, Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, and began his career at Eli Lilly. He holds a Masters in Management from the Kellogg School of Northwestern University and an undergraduate degree in neuroscience from Brown University. Steve is currently chairman of Antiva Biosciences and Soteria Therapeutics and a director of Ventus Therapeutics. He was formerly a director of Ocera Inc. (acquired by Mallinkrodt) and Cascadian Therapeutics (acquired by Seattle Genetics).

Dr. Ladd has served as a member of our Board of Directors since July 2022 and has spent three decades practicing orthopaedic surgery at Stanford University. She currently serves as the Elsbach-Richards Professor of Surgery, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery as well as Professor of Medicine (Immunology & Rheumatology), by courtesy, at the Stanford Universal Medical Center. Dr. Ladd is also a member of the board of directors for Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and the Perry Initiative. Previously, she served as the chair of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Board of Specialties Society and is a past member of the AAOS board of directors.

Dr. Ladd received her M.D. from SUNY Upstate Medical University, completed her Orthopaedic Residency at the University of Rochester and completed the Harvard Combined Hand Surgery Fellowship. Prior to joining the Stanford University faculty, Dr. Ladd was a fellow at L’Institut de la Main in Paris, France. She earned her A.B. in History from Dartmouth College.

Dr. McKearn has served on Allakos’ board of directors since 2012, and has three decades of drug development and investing experience in life sciences. Dr. McKearn has been with RiverVest since 2008 and focuses primarily on early-stage biotechnology investments. Prior to RiverVest, Dr. McKearn was president and CEO of Kalypsys. From 1987 to 2003, Dr. McKearn held increasingly responsible positions at Searle/Pharmacia, including Senior VP of Research. He helped establish the groundwork for studies that led to the commercialization of several major products, including DayPro, Arthrotec, and Celebrex, one of the leading pharmaceuticals to treat arthritis. Prior to 1987, Dr. McKearn was a senior scientist at E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company, a member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland, and a research associate in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dr. McKearn is also on the boards of OncoResponse, Good Therapeutics, Arch Oncology and Adarza Biosystems. He previously served on the boards of IDM Pharma (acquired by Takeda), Epimmune, Kalypsys, Keel Pharmaceuticals, Lumena Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Shire), Otonomy and ZS Pharma (acquired by Astra Zeneca). Dr. McKearn he has co-authored more than 70 published, peer-reviewed scientific papers, and holds more than 50 patents and numerous patent applications, primarily in the areas of cancer treatment and inflammatory disease. Dr. McKearn holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Northern Illinois University.

Paul Walker has more than 20 years of life sciences investing experience. Mr. Walker has been a Partner at New Enterprise Associates, an investment firm focused on venture capital and growth equity investments, since 2008. He focuses on later-stage biotechnology and life sciences investments. In 2001, Mr. Walker joined MPM Capital and was a General Partner with the MPM BioEquities Fund, where he specialized in public, PIPE and mezzanine-stage life sciences investing. Previously, he was a portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton Investments. Mr. Walker received a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California at San Diego, and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.