Board of Directors

Marco Boorsma, Ph.D.

Forbion Capital Partners

Marco is a Partner at Forbion Capital Partners investing in Life Science companies. He serves on the Board of RSPR Pharma and is an observer to the Board of Exosome Diagnostics and Oxyrane. He previously served on the Board of Dezima Pharma (sold to Amgen). Before joining Forbion, Marco was Business Development Director at DSM Pharmaceutical Products. Prior to DSM, Marco was a project manager and scientist at vaccine company Cytos Biotechnology (Switzerland). After obtaining a Master’s degree in molecular biology from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, Marco received his Ph.D. in biotechnology from the ETH Institute for Technology in Zürich, Switzerland, and worked at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK.

Jason Hong, Ph.D.

Third Point Ventures

Jason is a Principal at Third Point Ventures LLC, an event-driven hedge fund based in New York City. At Third Point, Jason is responsible for public and private investments across all healthcare subsectors. Before joining Third Point, he worked previously at Goldman Sachs, Polygon Investment Partners and Sanford C. Bernstein. Prior to Bernstein, Jason spent four years at McKinsey & Company, working with global healthcare companies in the areas of business development, post-merger integration and clinical program development. Jason holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University and a B.S. with Honors in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology.

Somu Subramaniam, MBA

New Science Ventures

Somu is the Managing Partner and co-founder of New Science Ventures. Somu serves on the Board of Directors of Alexar Therapeutics, Achronix Semiconductor Corporation, Vascular Therapies, Dali Wireless, Cambridge Epigenetics, Oxyrane, Resolve Therapeutics, Svelte Medical Systems and iCAD. Somu has previously served on the Boards of Dezima Pharma (sold to Amgen), Ception (sold to Cephalon), BioVex (sold to Amgen), Lightwire (sold to Cisco) and K2M (sold to Welsh Carson). Prior to founding NSV, Somu was a Director of McKinsey & Co. and at various times led their Strategy practice, Technology practice and HealthCare practice. He was also a member of McKinsey’s Investment Committee. Somu received his undergraduate degree (B.Tech.) from the Indian Institute of Technology and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Raju Mohan, Ph.D.

Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Raju is a co-founder of Akarna and has served as our Chief Executive Officer since January 2016 and a member of our board of directors since November 2014. Prior to Akarna, Raju co-founded Alexar Therapeutics in 2014, a dermatology-focused specialty pharmaceutical company. From 2006 to 2011, he served as Vice President and head of the San Diego site for Exelixis and Vice President of Chemistry at X-Ceptor Therapeutics (acquired by Exelixis). Raju started his pharmaceutical career at Berlex Biosciences, a subsidiary of Bayer/Schering AG where he held positions of increasing responsibility. Raju is responsible for the discovery of multiple small-molecule candidates that have entered clinical trials, including a FXR agonist and other nuclear receptor drugs. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and is an inventor on 50 issued US patents. Raju received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois and his Master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology.