Leadership

Executive Team

Gordon C. McCauley
President & Chief Executive Officer

Gordon McCauley was appointed President of Allon in 2004. Mr. McCauley is an accomplished business executive with successful leadership experience with an institutionally-based biotech venture capital fund, two Canadian healthcare companies, and a multinational energy company. Mr. McCauley served in a staff capacity to two Prime Ministers and former Ontario Premier David Peterson. Mr. McCauley serves on the Boards of Hallmark Insurance (Chair), DRM Ventures, AceTECH (Chair), BIOTECanada, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), Washington, D.C., and LifeSciences British Columbia (Vice-Chair).

Matthew J. Carlyle, CFA
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Carlyle is the former Director of Finance at Neuro Discovery Inc., which he helped to found in 2001. Previously, Mr. Carlyle has served in Corporate Finance and Development roles for a number of public and private early-stage life-science and technology companies and has been involved in a number of successful financings.

Mr. Carlyle holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the Association for Investment Management and Research, and the Vancouver Society of Financial Analysts.

Dr. Michael Gold, M.S., M.D.
Vice President, Clinical Development & Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Gold is Vice President, Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer of Allon. Dr. Gold received his M.D. from the University of Miami Medical School and is board certified in neurology and psychiatry. Gold joins Allon directly from GlaxoSmithKline Inc. (GSK) where he most recently served as Vice-President, Neuroscience Medicines.

He has been an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of South Florida (USF) Medical School and Director of the USF Memory Disorders Clinic. In 1998, Gold joined Bristol-Myers Squibb in pharmacology and experimental medicine. He subsequently moved to Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in 2001 where he made significant contributions to the FDA approval of several compounds as well as being responsible for strategic development within the company’s analgesia and neurodegeneration franchises.

Bruce H. Morimoto, Ph.D.
VP, Drug Development

Dr. Morimoto is the Vice President of Drug Development at Allon Therapeutics. His responsibilities include management of the clinical research, nonclinical and manufacturing activities for the davunetide drug development program in frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer disease and schizophrenia.

Prior to joining Allon Therapeutics, Dr. Morimoto worked for MDS Pharma Services in their consulting group. Dr. Morimoto formerly directed the chronic/neuropathic pain program at NeuroMed Technologies (now Zalicus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ZLCS) ). He also held positions at AMUR Pharmaceuticals and Phoenix International Life Sciences.

Dr. Morimoto received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and after a post-doctoral fellowship at U.C. Berkeley, he joined the faculty in the Chemistry Department at Purdue University. Dr. Morimoto is a member of the Safety Pharmacology Society Board of Directors and part of the Orasi Medical Executive Advisory Board.

Alistair Stewart, Ph.D.
VP, Commercial Research

Dr. Stewart has held a number of successful positions since entering biotech R&D over 14 years ago. Much of his work has focused on lead optimization and early development of novel small molecules and biologics at Xenova Ltd. (UK), QLT Inc. (Canada) and Engene Inc. (Canada). Having trained in biochemistry at the University of Glasgow he completed his doctoral research in mechanisms of cancer cell proliferation at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Board of Directors

James J. Miller, Ph.D.
Chairman and Director

Dr. Miller is the Managing Partner of NDI Capital Inc., which manages the Neuro Discovery Limited Partnership, an institutional-backed venture capital fund. Originally a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Miller was the founding President and CEO of QLT Inc. (1981 to 1991) and Inex Pharmaceuticals (1992 to 1999).

Dr. Miller has been a director of a numerous other private and public biotechnology companies.

Illana Gozes, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer and Director

Dr. Gozes is a co-founder Allon Therapeutics and a Professor of Clinical Biochemistry, the Lily and Avraham Gildor Chair for the Investigation of Growth factors at Tel Aviv University (TAU) Sackler Faculty of Medicine, where she heads a research lab, and serves or has served as chair of a number of departments and committees.

Dr. Gozes has received a number of scientific awards and prizes for her work, and has published extensively in the fields of molecular neuroscience, neuropeptides and neuroprotection. She is co-inventor of more than 15 patents and patent applications, including the composition of matter patent on davunetide, Allon’s lead compound.

Professor Gozes received a Ph. D. from The Weizmann Institute of Science, and a postdoctoral fellow from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was a research associate and visiting scientist at the Salk Institute and the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation and a Fogarty-Scholar-in-Residence at the National Institutes of Health, USA.

Gordon C. McCauley
President & Chief Executive Officer

Gordon McCauley was appointed President of Allon in 2004. Mr. McCauley is an accomplished business executive with successful leadership experience with an institutionally-based biotech venture capital fund, two Canadian healthcare companies, and a multinational energy company. Mr. McCauley served in a staff capacity to two Prime Ministers and former Ontario Premier David Peterson. Mr. McCauley serves on the Boards of Hallmark Insurance (Chair), AceTECH (Chair), BIOTECanada, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), Washington, D.C., and LifeSciences British Columbia (Vice-Chair).

Anthony G. Phillips, Ph.D.
Director

Dr. Phillips is a co-founder of NDI Capital and is widely recognized as one of Canada’s pre-eminent neuroscientists in the area of mental health and addictions research. A behavioral neuroscientist and neuropsychopharmacologist by training, Dr. Phillips holds an appointment in the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He is currently Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addictions. In addition to a lifelong interest in brain research, Dr. Phillips has had a longstanding association with the development of biotechnology in North America. He is a Founder and from 1982-92 served as a Director and Secretary/Treasurer of QLT Inc. Currently he is a councilor of the Society for Neuroscience and is President-Elect of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychophamacologia, a leading scientific organization related to biological psychiatry.

Michael Aldridge, BSc (Hons), MAppFin
Director

Mr. Aldridge is currently an Executive Director of Xenome, a biopharmaceutical company developing a novel therapeutic product for the management of moderate to severe pain.  He has an extensive background in the global biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries having held leadership, strategic, consulting and financing roles in North American, European and Australian companies. As CEO, Board Director and Consultant with Peplin, Inc. from October 2003, Michael led the growth of a global, dermatology-focused company developing a new approach to the treatment of skin cancer. Peplin was sold to LEO Pharma A/S, a European dermatology company, for US$287.5 million in cash in September 2009. From September 2002 to September 2003, Mr. Aldridge served as a Director of Wilson HTM, an investment bank, in Brisbane, Australia. From 2000 to 2002, he served as an Associate Director of Bear, Stearns & Co.’s Healthcare Investment Banking Group. Prior to that, Mr. Aldridge held similar positions with Volpe Brown Whelan & Company in San Francisco and with the SG Warburg Group in Sydney and London.

Mr. Aldridge received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with honours from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and a Masters in Applied Finance from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

Frank A. Holler
Director

Mr. Holler is currently the CEO of Lions Capital Corp., fund manager for the BC Advantage Funds and Lions Funds. BC Advantage is a Vancouver-based venture capital fund that invests in emerging life science and technology companies. Mr. Holler previously served as President & CEO of Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc., a private genomics-based drug development company, from 1999 to 2003; as President & CEO of ID Biomedical Corporation, a vaccine development company sold to GlaxoSmithKline plc in 2005, from 1991 to 1998; and as a founding director of Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a TSX/ NASDAQ listed specialty pharma and medical device company, from 1992 to 1997.

In addition to Allon, Mr. Holler presently serves on the board of directors of BC Advantage Funds (Chairman), Protox Therapeutics Inc., Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc., Genome British Columbia, the Prevention of Organ Failure Centre of Excellence (PROOF); Providence Healthcare and Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. He was previously a Director of the British Columbia Biotechnology Association from 1992 to 1998 and, in 2003, received the BC Biotech Award for Vision and Leadership.

Prior to working in biotechnology and healthcare, Mr. Holler was an Investment Banker with Merrill Lynch Canada and Wood Gundy Inc. (now CIBC World Markets).

Mr. Holler holds a Masters of Business Administration degree and Bachelor of Arts (Economics) degree from the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Martin Barkin, MD, BSc, MA, FRCSC
Director

Dr. Barkin is the former President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of DRAXIS Health Inc., a public pharmaceutical company based in Mississauga, Ontario. He is currently a director of Northwest Healthcare Properties REIT (TSX: NWH.UN). He is a former director of Viventia Biotech Inc., Bone Care International Inc. and former Chairman of the Board of Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences Centre and, Centric Health (TSX:CHH). Prior to joining DRAXIS in 1992, Dr. Barkin was the Head of Health Care Consulting for KPMG Canada. In the 1980’s, Dr. Barkin was President and CEO of The Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, one of Canada’s largest healthcare facilities, Chairman of the Ontario Council of Teaching Hospitals, and Vice-Chair of the Ontario Hospital Association. From 1987-1991, the Premier of Ontario appointed him Deputy Minister of Health for Ontario. Dr. Barkin is a surgical specialist in Urology, Head of the Surgical Alumni Association and Honoree of the Martin Barkin Chair in Urologic Research at the University of Toronto. He is a former Research Scientist at University of Toronto and Division Chief at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Scientific Advisory Board

Illana Gozes, Ph.D.
Chair

Dr. Gozes is a co-founder Allon Therapeutics and a Professor of Clinical Biochemistry, the Lily and Avraham Gildor Chair for the Investigation of Growth factors at Tel Aviv University (TAU) Sackler Faculty of Medicine, where she heads a research lab, and serves or has served as chair of a number of departments and committees.

Dr. Gozes has received a number of scientific awards and prizes for her work, and has published extensively in the fields of molecular neuroscience, neuropeptides and neuroprotection. She is co-inventor of more than 15 patents and patent applications, including the composition of matter patent on davunetide, Allon’s lead compound.

Professor Gozes received a Ph. D. from The Weizmann Institute of Science, and a postdoctoral fellow from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was a research associate and visiting scientist at the Salk Institute and the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation and a Fogarty-Scholar-in-Residence at the National Institutes of Health, USA.

Dr. Howard Fillit

Founding Executive Director, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, Clinical Professor, geriatrics, medicine and neurobiology, The Mount Sinai-NYU Medical Center in New York. Dr. Fillit has received numerous awards and honors, including the Rita Hayworth Award for achievement in research and practice in Alzheimer’s Disease from the Alzheimer’s Association in 1999. He is the author or co-author of more than 200 scientific and clinical articles, bstracts, and books, including Drug Discovery and Development for Alzheimer’s Disease (2000).

Anthony G. Phillips, Ph.D.

Dr. Phillips is a co-founder of NDI Capital and is widely recognized as one of Canada’s pre-eminent neuroscientists in the area of mental health and addictions research. A behavioral neuroscientist and neuropsychopharmacologist by training, Dr. Phillips holds an appointment in the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He is currently Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addictions. In addition to a lifelong interest in brain research, Dr. Phillips has had a longstanding association with the development of biotechnology in North America. He is a Founder and from 1982-92 served as a Director and Secretary/Treasurer of QLT Inc. Currently he is a councilor of the Society for Neuroscience and is President-Elect of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychophamacologia, a leading scientific organization related to biological psychiatry.

Dr. Keith L. Black

Dr. Black is Professor and Chair in the Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California; a Director at the Irvine Medical Center, and Director at the Cedars-Sinai Neurological Institute. He is internationally renowned for his research on ways to cross the blood-brain barrier and the delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs directly into tumours.

Dr. Michael E. Charness

Dr. Charness is Chief of Staff and Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Associate Dean at Harvard Medical School. He is a world leader in alcohol intoxication research.

Mati Fridkin, Ph.D.

Dr. Fridkin is the Lester B. Pearson Professorial Chair of Protein Research, Department of Organic Chemistry at The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Professor Fridkin is a leading figure in peptide synthesis and has been collaborating with Professor Gozes on synthetic peptides structure and function and development of peptide-related drugs for over 20 years leading to more than 50 publications and several patents.

Dr. Michael A. Moskowitz

Dr. Moskowitz is the Professor of Neurology at the Harvard Medical School and Associate Editor of Stroke. He is an expert in stroke and migraine headaches with numerous publications in both areas.

Esther Shohami, Ph.D.

Dr. Shohami is Professor of Pharmacology at the School of Pharmacy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Shohami is an internationally renowned expert in head trauma. She is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Neurotrauma, an elected member of the executive committee of the International Society for Neurotrauma, and a member of the Advisory Editorial Board of Drug Discovery Today: Therapeutic Strategies.

Trevor Robbins, Ph.D.

Dr. Robbins is the Director of the Cambridge MRC Centre in Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience focused on such conditions as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, frontal lobe injury, schizophrenia, depression and other developmental syndromes such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Dr. Robbins currently holds the Chair of Experimental Psychology and where his main work concentrates on the functions of the frontal lobes of the brain and their connections with other regions that are relevant to neurological disorders and psychiatric conditions.