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Cellia Habita, MD, PhD
CEO, ARIANNE www.ariannecorp.com

Cellia Habita, MD, PhD, is the CEO and Co-founder of ARIANNE, a San Diego-based clinical Contract Research Organization (CRO). She has over fifteen years experience in research and development of human therapeutics. She brings her broad scientific and clinical expertise in various therapeutic areas such as oncology, dermatology, ophthalmology, endocrinology and infectious diseases. She has advanced multiple compounds through drug development from early pre-clinical to full clinical development. Dr. Habita has completed her general residency in Paris, France; she has a Masters of Science in Biology and Genetics of Aging; and, a PhD in Genetics of Type I Diabetes. She completed her graduate research at the Welcome Trust Center at Oxford University. After completing her post-graduate training at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and holding the academic position of Assistant Project Scientist in the Department of Pediatrics, she moved into local biotech where she headed Drug Development and Clinical and Regulatory teams as Director and Senior Vice President, respectively.

Michael R. Hodges, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Altair Therapeutics www.altairtherapeutics.com

Michael has 17 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry and began his career at Pfizer where he worked in the UK and USA development headquarters (New London, CT., and La Jolla, CA.). While at Pfizer, he worked in multiple therapeutic areas including Infectious Disease, Respiratory, Oncology and Urogential working on the successful development programs of Zithromax^TM, Fluconazole^TM, Tarceva^TM, and Viagra^TM as a clinician/global clinical lead and Voriconazole^TM as team leader responsible for global development and regulatory submissions. Latterly he worked in Pfizer, La Jolla, USA as development team leader for an HIV development candidate and most recently, anti-angiogenesis inhibitor development portfolio.

Prior to joining Altair, Michael was Chief Medical Officer at Kemia, Inc., San Diego, USA, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in anti-inflammatory small molecule development. He has experience in early and late stage drug development, has played an instrumental role in five drug approvals, been team leader for drug candidates that have successfully transitioned to IND, phase 2 Proof of Concept, phase 3, regulatory submission and approval (including NDA, sNDA, JNDA, sNDA and CTD) and global launch. Michael has also been co-author on numerous research publications.

Michael received his BSc. in Pharmacology and medical doctor degree (MB BS) from the University of London, England. After successful practice in the UK National Health System where he was certified in internal medicine (MRCP) he started specializing in STD/HIV medicine.

Standish Fleming
Managing Member, Forward Ventures www.forwardventures.com

A 22-year veteran of early-stage venture capital investing, Mr. Fleming has helped raise and manage six venture funds totaling more than $500 million and has served on the boards of 19 venture-backed companies. In 1993 Mr. Fleming co-founded Forward Ventures. In his capacity as a founding Managing Member he served as the initial president and CEO of Triangle Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Gilead Sciences, Inc. [NASDAQ:GILD]), Actigen (now part of Corixa/GlaxoSmithKline [NYSE:GSK]), GenQuest (now part of Corixa/GlaxoSmithKline [NYSE:GSK]) and CombiChem (acquired by DuPont (NYSE:[DD]), and now part of Deltagen (Pink Sheets:DGEN). Mr. Fleming was a founding board member of Arizeke Pharmaceuticals, Ciphergen Biosystems [NASDAQ:CIPH] and Gryphon Therapeutics, and formerly served on the boards of Acorda Therapeutics [NASDAQ: ACOR], Converge Medical, Doctors on Line, EndiCOR (acquired by ev3 [NASDAQ:EVVV], First Dental Health, IntensiCare, MitoKor, and Tandem Medical. He currently serves as a director of Ambit Biosciences, Sanarus Medical, and Kémia, and is a founding director of Nereus Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Fleming serves as a director of CONNECT, San Diego's support organization for the academic-to-early-stage community, and is a past president of the Biotechnology Venture Investors Group.

Venture funds Mr. Fleming has managed have made investments in more than 70 private and public companies, a number of which have gone public and/or been acquired by pharmaceutical companies. He has helped start more than 15 companies, and served at founding CEO of eight. At Forward Mr. Fleming has invested in almost every segment of the health-care industry, including pharmaceuticals, biologics, diagnostics, devices, services and software. He has managed both platform and product companies/investments in the portfolio and led or participated in financings at all levels from pre-start-up to PIPES in public companies, in both debt and equity.

Before establishing Forward Ventures, Mr. Fleming served as the chairman, president and CEO of GeneSys Therapeutics (merged with Somatix and acquired by Cell GeneSys [NASDAQ:CEGE]). He began his venture career with Ventana Growth Funds in San Diego in 1986. He earned his B.A. from Amherst College and his M.B.A. from the UCLA Graduate School of Management.

Joseph Djan, MBA
Head of Clinical Operations, Helicon Therapeutics www.helicontherapeutics.com

Joseph Djan, MBA is the Head of Clinical Operations at Helicon Therapeutics, Inc., A San Diego based biopharmaceutical firm specializing in the treatment of disorders of cognition and memory impairment. Joseph has over 15 years industry experience in pharma/biotech and CRO, and has managed clinical development programs across a diverse range of therapeutic areas including oncology, CNS and endocrine disorders.

Prior to joining Helicon, Joseph held the position of Sr. Director, Clinical Operations at Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals and Vice President, Clinical Operations at Balboa Biosciences. He also served as Clinical Study Operations Manager at Pfizer Inc, where he was responsible for the operational component of two Phase III pivotal trials leading to the January 2006 FDA approval of Sutent® (sunitinib malate) for Gastro-Intestinal Stromal Tumor and Kidney Cancer.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Joseph held positions of increasing responsibility at Covance Inc, a leading global CRO based in Princeton, New Jersey, where he was responsible for the project management and operations of multiple phase I-III clinical programs for two of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies.