Allan Cochrane

Co-Founder | President | Chair

Mr. Cochrane has 40 years of experience as a diagnostic, biotechnology and pharmaceutical development professional. The majority of his time has been spent in senior leadership roles as CEO, President and Board of Directors roles in both public and private companies. He has extensive experience in early stage growth companies and in particular has participated directly or advised a number of companies on financing strategies from seed stage rounds to public offerings on NASDAQ. As Co-founder and President of Cascade Prodrug, he is focused on all aspects of the business strategy as it relates to strategic planning, finance, corporate partnering, and administration. In this regard, Al has previous experience in both the research and development of drug candidates and the preclinical and clinical drug development pathway for these candidates. He is well known for fostering entrepreneurship in Oregon and currently sits on four boards and mentors early stage entrepreneurs by providing leadership training, strategic planning and financial strategy for companies.

August J. Sick

Co-Founder | Secretary

Mr. Sick is co-founder and managing director of Cascade Prodrug, Inc. Previously, Mr. Sick was a senior executive for Invitrogen Corporation, a career that started in 1990 as the 20th employee and covered more than 18 years. From 2003 to 2009, Mr. Sick was the President of Molecular Probes, Inc. after being acquired for $365M by Invitrogen in August 2003 and General Manager of the Cellular Analysis Business Unit managing its growth from $64M to $225M in less than 6 years. Previously, he held positions as Vice President Corporate Development and Strategy and Vice President Business Development. He was instrumental in the acquisition of 18 companies and was responsible for over 100 licensing deals. Mr. Sick began his biotechnology career in 1986 as a research associate for Mycogen Corporation, a San Diego startup where he developed many novel molecular biology methods. He is the key inventor on 35 issued US Patents.

Mr. Sick received a B.A. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California San Diego.

Manny Litchman, MD

Capital Strategy

Since April 2017, Dr. Litchman has served as President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Mustang Bio, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on translating today’s medical breakthroughs in cell therapies into potential cures for difficult-to-treat cancers. Previously he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Arvinas, Inc., and earlier he held senior leadership positions at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, including Senior Vice President and Executive Global Program Head for CTL019 (now Kymriah) and Vice President and Head of Oncology Business Development & Licensing. He brings more than three decades of biopharmaceutical leadership experience spanning preclinical and clinical drug development, business development, and corporate financing.

Dr. Litchman earned his M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency and hematology-oncology fellowship at New York-Presbyterian Hospital /Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Andres Gutierrez, MD, PHD

Scientific and medical Strategy

Dr. Gutierrez is an executive clinical scientist with deep oncology expertise, known for driving global and U.S. clinical development and cross-functional execution for more than 20 years. He has built agile, high-performing teams across clinical development and operations, regulatory affairs, biometrics, marketing, strategy and fundraising activities to deliver integrated brand success. His work spans from small molecules (e.g., GSIs, carfilzomib, talazoparib, etc) to antibodies (e.g., anti-PD-1, LAG-3, CXCR4, bispecifics) and biologic agents (e.g., oncolytic viruses, neoantigen immunotherapies) in phase 1-4 trials. For the past 10 years, he has served as Chief Medical Officer at Ayala, Advaxis, Oncolytics Biotech and Sellas Life Sciences.

Dr. Gutierrez earned his M.D. and Ph.D. and completed his internal medicine residency at National University of Mexico-IMSS and completed a fellowship in Clinical Oncology Research at Hammersmith Hospital, London UK.

Eric Malek

COrporate Development

Mr. Malek brings 20 years of biotech corporate development experience to Cascade. Previously Mr. Malek was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at Threshold Pharmaceuticals where he led negotiations for their $550M co-development/co-promotion partnership with Merck KgAa for the hypoxia activated prodrug Evofosfamide. Before Threshold, Mr. Malek held corporate development positions at Allos Therapeutics, BiPar Sciences, Gilead Sciences, NeXstar Pharmaceuticals and Ilex Oncology as well as research positions at Janssen Pharmaceutica, the University of Arizona and University of Michigan.

Mr. Malek received a B.A. in Biochemistry from the University of Arizona and an M.B.A in Finance & Corporate Strategy from University of Michigan.

John Nepute

FinancE

Mr. Nepute comes to Cascade Prodrug with significant experience in financial and business development roles. Most notably, Mr. Nepute was the President of Monaco Coach Corporation where he led investor relations, M&A, operations, and ultimately grew the company from sales of $17 million and 75 employees to peak of $1.4 billion in sales and 6800 employees. Most recently, he has been a fractional CFO to companies seeking financial and accounting expertise. Mr. Nepute sits on the Advisory Board for Bit Cork, an artisan wine distributer, and on the Board of Directors for Oakshire Brewing, a community-inspired, small batch brewing company.

Mr. Nepute received his Bachelors Degree from Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Oregon.