Dr Zaccardelli has served as President and Chief Executive Officer and joined our board of directors in February 2020.
From December 2018 until its acquisition by Swedish Orphan Biovitrum for up to $915 million in November 2019, Dr Zaccardelli served as President and CEO of Dova Pharmaceuticals, a US company developing therapeutics for rare diseases. Previously, he was Acting CEO of Cempra, from 2016 until the company’s merger with Melinta Therapeutics in 2017. From 2004 until 2016, Dr Zaccardelli served in several senior management roles at United Therapeutics Corporation, including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Manufacturing Officer and Executive Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development and Operations. Prior to United Therapeutics, he founded and led a start-up company focused on contract research and held a variety of clinical research positions at Burroughs Wellcome & Co, Glaxo Wellcome, and Bausch & Lomb Pharmaceutical. Dr Zaccardelli received a Pharm.D. from the University of Michigan.
Dr Rickard has served as our Chief Medical Officer since February 2019.
Dr Rickard has more than 25 years of experience in clinical research in respiratory medicine, industry, and management. Prior to joining Verona Pharma, Dr Rickard served in multiple roles at Aerocrine and subsequently Circassia, where she was instrumental in directing clinical and regulatory strategies for NIOX VERO, an airway inflammation test for managing asthma, across key markets such as the US, China, and Japan, as well as the rest of the world. Previously, Dr Rickard was Vice President Clinical Development and Medical Affairs of GlaxoSmithKline’s Respiratory Medicines Development Centre and, over a period of 15 years, held a number of other leadership positions in clinical development across GlaxoSmithKline’s global respiratory franchise. Dr Rickard received an MD from Hahnemann University Hospital, Philadelphia.
Mr Hahn has served as Chief Financial Officer since March 2020.
From January 2018 until its acquisition by Swedish Orphan Biovitrum for up to $915 million in November 2019, Mr Hahn served as CFO of Dova Pharmaceuticals, a US company developing therapeutics for rare diseases, where he was instrumental in raising capital and in the launch of Dova’s first commercial product. From 2010 until its acquisition by Melinta Therapeutics in 2017, Mr Hahn was CFO of Cempra where he led the company’s IPO and several subsequent follow-on offerings. Prior to Cempra, Mr Hahn was the CFO of several other public and private companies. Mr Hahn began his career at Ernst & Young. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is a certified public accountant in Maryland and North Carolina.
Mr Fisher joined in March 2024 as General Counsel.
Mr. Fisher is an accomplished lawyer with more than 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry. He has a wealth of legal and strategic expertise supporting global, pre-clinical and clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization including launching four pulmonary therapies. Prior to joining Verona Pharma, Mr. Fisher founded and led a consulting practice, Andrew Fisher LLC, where he focused on providing strategic advice to start-up companies since September 2019. Previously, from 2001 until 2018, he held various roles at United Therapeutics Corporation, including Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer and Deputy General Counsel, where he oversaw a variety of intellectual property, litigation, compliance, risk management, and investor and media relations matters, among other things. Mr. Fisher received a B.A. from University of Michigan and J.D. from George Washington University.
Dr Rheault joined Verona in January 2019 and is our Chief Development Officer.
Dr Rheault started her career over 20 years ago as a medicinal chemist at GlaxoSmithKline, leading successful cross-functional teams in drug discovery. She then moved on to global project leadership for early development projects, including portfolio and governance management, before transitioning into a leadership role in late-stage clinical development for inhaled respiratory products. Prior to joining Verona Pharma, Dr Rheault helped numerous small biopharma companies develop integrated R&D and commercial strategies to achieve meaningful value-building milestones as a strategic drug development leader at IQVIA. Dr Rheault received a PhD in organic chemistry from North Dakota State University and a Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina.
Mr Martin joined Verona in 2020 and is our Chief Commercial Officer.
Mr Martin has almost 20 years of commercial expertise spanning sales, marketing and business development. From March 2018 until May 2020, he served as Executive Director of Marketing at SK Life Science, a subsidiary of SK Biopharmaceutical, which is focused on developing novel therapeutics for CNS conditions. Mr Martin was instrumental in developing the commercial and marketing strategy and the framework for launching SK Life Science’s first commercial product, XCOPRI® (cenobamate tablets). In addition to his responsibilities in marketing, he served on the pre-IPO team. From 2016 until its acquisition by Melinta Therapeutics in 2017, Mr Martin was Head of Marketing at Cempra where he led the development and launch strategy for the company’s first product. Prior to Cempra, he was at Salix Pharmaceuticals for 10 years in roles of increasing responsibility and led the Xifaxan® marketing team during the company’s acquisition by Valeant Pharmaceuticals. Mr Martin received a Bachelor of Science in Financial Management from Clemson University.
Ms Diaz has served as Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, since October 2021
Ms Diaz has more than 18 years of experience in both large and small pharmaceutical companies across key regions. Prior to joining Verona Pharma, she served at ReViral as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, where she led global regulatory strategy for the development of sisunatovir for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus. Previously, Ms Diaz was Vice President, Regulatory and Quality at Dova Pharmaceuticals where she built the regulatory function from the ground up and led regulatory strategy development and implementation efforts for Doptelet® (avatrombopag), resulting in marketing approvals in the US, EU and China – the first marketing approvals for the company.
Ms Diaz has also held various roles in regulatory affairs and regulatory operations at UCB, Chimerix, and GlaxoSmithKline, and has worked across multiple therapeutic areas including hematology, antivirals, and immunology.
Ms Diaz holds a BS in chemistry from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and an MA in organic chemistry from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Ms Jewell has served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources, since September 2022.
Ms Jewell has more than 25 years of HR experience. Prior to joining Verona Pharma, she served as Vice President, Human Resources at G1 Therapeutics where she built the human resources infrastructure to successfully support the company’s first commercial launch. Ms Jewell held a similar position at Dova Pharmaceuticals, where she also served through the company’s first commercial launch. In addition to her HR experience in small pharma, Ms Jewell brings biopharmaceutical experience from her time working at Gilead Sciences.
Ms Jewell received her BA from Indiana University Bloomington with a double major in Psychology and Criminal Justice, and her MBA from George Mason University, with a concentration in HR and International Management.
Dr Aggarwal joined in January 2023 as Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs.
Dr Aggarwal brings more than 20 years of experience spanning large pharma with multiple commercial products to small pharma with a single asset. Over her career, she has led medical affairs support of clinical development, pre-launch and launch planning as well as life cycle management. Prior to Verona Pharma, Dr Aggarwal built a new Medical Affairs organization at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals to launch the company’s first commercialized product and most recently served as VP, Global Commercial Pipeline Strategy, where she led commercialization strategy for all pipeline assets. Previously, Dr Aggarwal was Vice President, Medical Affairs at Dova Pharmaceuticals where she built and led the medical affairs function through two product launches.
Dr Aggawal has also held roles of increasing responsibility in medical affairs at Stealth BioTherapeutics, Cempra Pharmaeuticals, BPL, Salix Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKine.
Dr Aggawal holds a BS in biochemistry from North Carolina State University and a PharmD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
