Spero team members are pioneers and emerging leaders in the anti-infective field. Spero professionals share our company’s ambitious focus on addressing unmet needs in infectious disease helping to find solutions to treat patients who suffer from these infections. Get to know our team of experts in the treatment of infectious disease.
President and CEO
Ankit Mahadevia is the CEO of Spero Therapeutics and a member of the Board of Directors. 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.
Chief Development Officer
Tim Keutzer is the Chief Development Officer at Spero Therapeutics. Tim has over 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, spanning multiple functional and therapeutic areas. 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 lead 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.
Chief Financial Officer
Sath Shukla is Chief Financial Officer at Spero Therapeutics. He was most recently Chief Financial Officer at Ziopharm Oncology, Inc., where he directed all of Ziopharm’s financial aspects, including financial planning, analysis and reporting, treasury and tax functions, capital strategy and investor relations. Prior to Ziopharm,
Chief Legal Officer
Ms. Tamara Joseph is the Chief Legal Officer at Spero Therapeutics. She is a seasoned health care leader, having served on executive teams and advised Boards of Directors at multiple publicly and privately-held companies. She has led legal, compliance, human resources, public and government affairs, and risk management departments at life science companies in the US and in Europe for over 20 years. Prior to joining Spero in December 2020, she served as General Counsel at Millendo Therapeutics, Inc. Ms. Joseph previously served as General Counsel at Enzyvant Therapeutics Ltd., InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp., Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Mayne Pharma Ltd. (acquired by Hospira), and Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. (acquired by Shire). Earlier in her career, Ms. Joseph established and led Biogen Idec’s legal and public affairs departments outside the US. She began her legal career at the law firms of Morrison & Foerster and Fried Frank. She has a BA in Economics from Duke University, a JD from the University of Michigan Law School, and LLM degrees from the College of Europe in Belgium and the University of Paris.
Ms. Joseph is also a member of the Board of Directors of Heluna Health, a member of the Board’s Executive Committee and its Governance Committee. Heluna Health is a population health non-profit with a focus on child and maternal nutrition, HIV prevention and homelessness. Ms. Joseph is also an independent director on the Board of BINA Farm Center, a therapeutic horseback riding association.
Chief Human Resource Officer
Jamie Brady is Chief Human Resource Officer at Spero Therapeutics. Jamie comes to Spero Therapeutics from uniQure Therapeutics where he served as CHRO, and Intarcia Therapeutics, where he served as Vice President, Human Resources. In both roles, he was responsible for all aspects of human resources including talent acquisition, total rewards, and people technology and operations. Previously, he served in several organization development and effectiveness roles at Genzyme, a Sanofi Company, including Genzyme’s global biotechnology manufacturing and distribution operations. Jamie also held leadership and talent development roles at Thomson Financial, and educational positions focused on leadership and management-related topics. Jamie earned a bachelor’s degree from Marietta College and a master’s degree from Harvard University.
Senior Vice President of Clinical Development
Dr. Angela Talley is Senior Vice President of Clinical Development at Spero Therapeutics and clinical lead for the tebipenem HBr program. Dr. Talley is an Infectious Disease physician with over 15 years of experience in anti-infective clinical research and drug development in both academia and industry. Prior to joining Spero Therapeutics in 2018, Dr. Talley served as Executive Director of Clinical Development for Anti-Infectives at Allergan, plc, where she led clinical development activities for multiple anti-infective programs in Phase I-IV development since 2015 and prior to this held similar roles for related clinical development programs at Cerexa, Inc (a subsidiary of Forest Laboratories, later acquired by Actavis, plc). During her time in the industry, she has established a successful track record for clinical development and regulatory strategy, including multiple successful NDA/sNDA approvals. She received her M.D. from Mount Sinai School of Medicine with research honors, and subsequently completed internship and residency training in Internal Medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and Infectious Disease Fellowship training at the University of Washington. Early in her career she was appointed as a Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute Research Scholar and received a Fellowship award for her work in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, NIAID. She held clinical faculty appointments at Columbia University (HIV Vaccines Trial Unit) and later at the University of Washington, where her research focus was on novel malaria therapeutics and malaria vaccine development before transitioning to Industry.
Vice President of Clinical Microbiology
Ian A. Critchley, Ph.D. is Vice President of Clinical Microbiology at Spero Therapeutics. Prior to joining Spero Therapeutics, Dr. Critchley served as Vice President of Clinical Microbiology at Allergan plc since 2015, where he managed pre-clinical and clinical microbiology studies on anti-infective compounds. Prior to Allergan plc, Dr. Critchley served six years at Cerexa, Inc., a subsidiary of Forest Laboratories, Inc., as the Vice President of Clinical Microbiology overseeing microbiology studies for its anti-bacterial programs. Prior to Cerexa, Inc., Dr. Critchley served as the Executive Director of Microbiology at Replidyne, Inc. for six years and held earlier positions at Focus Technologies, Inc. and SmithKline Beecham plc. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
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