Esther Rajavelu is the Chief Executive Officer at Spero Therapeutics. She also serves in her previously held roles of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Business Officer (CBO).
Ms. Rajavelu has more than two decades of life sciences sector experience combining equities research, investment banking, and strategy consulting. Prior to joining Spero, she was the CFO at Fulcrum Therapeutics, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focused on rare genetic diseases. Ms. Rajavelu previously enjoyed a successful Wall Street career, serving as a senior equities research analyst, covering SMID-cap biotechnology companies at UBS, Oppenheimer, and Deutsche Bank. She was also a healthcare investment banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and EY Capital Advisors.
Ms. Rajavelu holds an MBA in Finance and Health Care Management from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from Wesleyan University.
Tim Keutzer is the Chief Operating Officer at Spero Therapeutics. Tim has over 30 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, spanning multiple functional and therapeutic areas. Tim was previously Spero’s Chief Development Officer. Prior to joining Spero, he was Vice President of Program and Portfolio Management at Cubist Pharmaceuticals. While there, he was the program leader for ceftolozane/tazobactam, which progressed rapidly from Phase 1 to Phase 3, and was approved in the US in December of 2014. Prior to that role, he also led several of Cubist’s in-licensed development programs, and also lead the commercial supply chain for Cubicin. His experience before Cubist spans the drug development continuum across multiple drug classes, and includes preclinical PK/PD and clinical operations at Genetics Institute, as well as global strategic marketing and program management at Wyeth. Tim began his career in contract toxicology labs. Tim studied English and microbiology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY.
John Raymond is the Senior Vice President of Finance and Business Operations at Spero Therapeutics. He has over 25 years of life science experience with a focus on financial management, strategic planning and analysis, and commercial/business operations.
Prior to joining Spero, John held roles of increasing responsibility at Abbott Laboratories, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Genzyme/Sanofi, and ImmunoGen. His unique background has helped drive effective financial leadership for biotech/pharmaceutical companies at various stages of development.
John holds an MBA in Finance from the McCallum School of Business at Bentley University and a BSBA in Finance and Management from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Sheila Finan is the Senior Vice President Controller at Spero Therapeutics, Inc., where she has been instrumental in driving financial strategy and operational excellence since 2015.
After beginning her career at Deloitte in both the audit and tax practices, she has helped multiple companies over various industries with achieving and maintaining operational excellence and public company readiness. She brings over 25 years of experience working on financial management, operations, technical accounting, reporting and planning. Prior to joining Spero, Sheila has previously held key financial roles at Brunswick School, Auto-Trol Technology and GelTex Pharmaceuticals. Sheila holds a BA in Accounting from Boston College and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the state of New York.
David Hong is Senior Vice President, Clinical Development at Spero Therapeutics. He is a board-certified Pediatric Infectious Diseases physician-scientist and has over 10 years of experience in clinical development across both diagnostics and therapeutics. Prior to joining Spero, he worked in respiratory virus therapeutics at Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Vir Biotechnology. He also previously led clinical development and medical affairs at Karius, an infectious diseases diagnostic company. Dr. Hong is currently an affiliate Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford School of Medicine.
Prior to joining industry, Dr. Hong was at Stanford University School of Medicine where his research interests included novel vaccine adjuvants against respiratory viruses such as influenza and RSV. Dr. Hong received his MD from Northwestern University and his clinical training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stanford University.
Frank Thomas serves as Chairman of the Spero Therapeutics Board of Directors. He also serves in his previously held role of Audit Committee Chair.
Mr. Thomas has served as a member of the Company’s Board of Directors since July 2017. He has been the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Orchard Therapeutics since January 2020, a biotechnology company acquired by Kyowa Kirin in January 2024 with the goal of accelerating the delivery of new gene therapies to patients around the globe. Mr. Thomas served as CFO and Chief Business Officer of Orchard from January 2018 to January 2020.
Prior to Orchard, Mr. Thomas served as the President and COO of AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded specialty pharmaceutical company, from April 2015 to April 2017, and previously served as AMAG’s Executive Vice President and COO from May 2012 through April 2015, and as Executive Vice President, CFO, and Treasurer from August 2011 through May 2012.
Prior to AMAG, he served in executive roles at Molecular Biometrics, Inc., a commercial-stage medical diagnostics company, from October 2008 to July 2011, Critical Therapeutics, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company, from April 2004 to March 2008, and Esperion Therapeutics, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company, from 2006 to 2008.
Mr. Thomas was a member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council from 2007 to 2015 and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Larimar Therapeutics, a public biopharmaceutical company, which he joined in June 2014.
Mr. Thomas holds a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Spero Therapeutics believes that Mr. Thomas’ extensive commercial and operational management experience at biopharmaceutical companies and with financial matters qualifies him to serve on our Board of Directors and as the Company’s Interim Chairman.
Ankit Mahadevia, MD, serves as member of the Spero Therapeutics Board of Directors. He previously served as Spero’s President and CEO. He was formerly a Venture Partner in the life sciences group at Atlas Venture, located in Cambridge, MA. In that capacity he supported the formation of eight companies focused on novel drug discovery platforms and therapeutic products including Nimbus Therapeutics, Arteaus Therapeutics (acquired by Lilly), and Translate Bio (Nasdaq: TBIO). He led three of these as Acting CEO, including Synlogic (Nasdaq: SYBX). Prior to joining Atlas in 2008, Ankit worked on product and business development with the founding team at Arcion Therapeutics. He has also held positions in business development both at Genentech and at Vanda Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he worked in the health care groups of McKinsey & Company and Monitor Group. Ankit began his career in health care policy, with roles in the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committees, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS). He has spoken widely on entrepreneurship, including at Harvard University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and the Berkeley Forum. Ankit has also been active in the policy of life science innovation, including service on the Advisory Council at the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Studies.
Cynthia Smith most recently served as Chief Commercial Officer and a member of the executive team of ZS Pharma, where she helped lead the company from development to commercialization through its acquisition by AstraZeneca in 2016. Prior to joining ZS Pharma, Ms. Smith served as Vice President, Market Access and Commercial Development at Affymax from 2008 to 2013. She also held various senior leadership positions in market access, corporate strategy, government relations, and external affairs at Merck from 2000 to 2008.
Before transitioning to the biopharmaceutical industry, Ms. Smith served as a healthcare policy analyst in the White House Office of Management and Budget from 1995 to 2000. Ms. Smith currently serves on the boards of Agios Pharmaceuticals, Protara Therapeutics, and Akebia Therapeutics, and previously served on the boards of Dicerna Therapeutics and Nivalis Therapeutics.
She earned her M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. in public policy from the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. Ms. Smith received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Patrick Vink, M.D., M.B.A., has been an advisor to the pharmaceutical industry since 2015 and a non-executive Board member or Chair of several public and privately held companies in the USA and Europe. Previously, Dr. Vink was employed at Cubist Pharmaceuticals. He served as Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, overseeing all worldwide commercial and technical operations as well as global alliance management, and managing the company’s P&L. He joined Cubist in 2012 as Senior Vice-President and Head of all International Business Operations, responsible for all business activities in international markets outside of the USA.
Prior to joining Cubist, Dr. Vink served as Senior Vice-President, Global Head of Hospital Business and Biologics for Mylan Inc. (now Viatris Inc.). In this role, Dr. Vink managed the global hospital business of the company. Before joining Mylan, Dr. Vink held several leadership positions across the industry, including Head of Global Business Franchise Biopharmaceuticals for Novartis Sandoz; Vice-President International Business for Biogen; and Head of Worldwide Marketing, Cardiovascular and Thrombosis for Sanofi-Synthelabo.
Dr. Vink served as a member of the Executive Committee of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) between 2013 and 2015. Dr. Vink graduated as a medical doctor from the University of Leiden, Netherlands, in 1988 and obtained his MBA in 1992 at the University of Rochester.
Milind Deshpande, PhD, is a member of the board of Spero Therapeutics. He served as The Chairman of Board from the inception of Spero in 2014 until October 2023 and was integral to building the company. Milind is an accomplished drug hunter and inventor of three FDA approved first-in-class therapies. Milind has over 30 years of experience in biotech and Pharma. He was a Group Leader at Bristol-Myers Squibb with the responsibility for advancing the early discovery portfolio in Infectious Diseases and Neuroscience. Following his tenure at BMS, Milind joined Achillion Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals) where he rose through the ranks to become the CEO and Board member. Currently, Milind is a Venture Partner at RA Capital. During his tenure at RA Capital, Milind co-founded and built four companies and served as founding CEO and Board member. Milind received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Ohio University, following his undergraduate education in India.
Mr. Jackson joined the Spero Therapeutics Board of Directors in April 2020. Mr. Jackson has more than thirty years of corporate leadership experience within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, most recently serving as the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Celator Pharmaceuticals, Inc. until it was acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc. Prior to joining Celator Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Jackson held positions of increasing responsibility in sales, marketing and commercial development at multiple companies, including Eli Lilly & Company, SmithKline Beecham plc, ImClone Systems Incorporated, Centocor, Inc., a division of Johnson & Johnson, Eximias Pharmaceutical Corporation and YM Biosciences Inc. Mr. Jackson presently serves on the Board of Directors of MacroGenics, Inc., GlycoMimetics, Inc. and Mural Oncology plc, all publicly held companies. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Philabundance, a non-profit organization addressing food insecurity in the Philadelphia region. He previously served on the Board of Trustees of the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society from March 2013 to June 2019. Mr. Jackson holds a B.S. in pharmacy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and an M.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.
John C. Pottage, Jr., M.D. served as Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific and Medical Officer of ViiV Healthcare from November 2009 to October 2019, where he oversaw research and development, regulatory, safety and medical affairs. Prior to joining ViiV Healthcare, Dr. Pottage served as Senior Vice President and Head of the Infectious Disease Medicine Development Center at GlaxoSmithKline from September 2008 to November 2009, and prior to that, from June 2007 to September 2008, as Vice President of Global Clinical Development of Antivirals at GlaxoSmithKline. From May 2002 to May 2007, Dr. Pottage served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Drug Development of Achillion Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Pottage served as Medical Director of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and in various positions at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Pottage presently serves as the Lead Scientific Consultant for the INTREPID Alliance and serves on the Global Safety Board of Medicines for Malaria venture, Geneva, Switzerland. He received his A.B. in biology from Colgate University and his M.D. from Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
Kathleen Tregoning is currently the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer and Head of Commercial Strategy at Cerevel Therapeutics and has more than two decades of experience in biotechnology and public policy. Prior to joining Cerevel Therapeutics, Ms. Tregoning served as Executive Vice President for External Affairs at Sanofi, where she led an integrated organization to develop external engagement strategies and optimize patient access to therapies. Prior to her time at Sanofi, Ms. Tregoning spent more than 10 years at Biogen, first as Vice President, Public Policy & Government Affairs and then as Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs. In the latter role, she was responsible for the development and execution of integrated corporate affairs strategies through effective deployment of communications, patient advocacy, public policy, and government affairs on a global basis. Earlier in her career, Ms. Tregoning was a professional staff member for multiple committees in the United States Congress, and also served as an Assistant Deputy Mayor for Policy & Budget in the office of the Mayor of Los Angeles. Ms. Tregoning graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in International Relations and holds an M.A. in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
