Calvin A. Wallen, III is the Chairman of the Board of Venturis Therapeutics and has served in that capacity since June 2013. Mr. Wallen became an investor in the company in 2009 and since that time has supported a considerable amount of financial needs. Mr. Wallen has over 35 years of experience in the upstream oil and gas industry working as a drilling and petroleum engineer while also serving in high level management and as a director with several companies. He has been an active investor in several sectors of business and industry for over 15 years in the US. Mr. Wallen is an active member of several professional associations and attended Texas A&M University.
Robert Schleizer has served on the Board of Venturis Therapeutics since June 2013. Mr. Schleizer has over thirty years of financial and operational experience serving private and public companies in financial and organizational restructuring, crisis management, acquisitions and divestitures, and equity and debt financings. Mr. Schleizer is a co-founder and Managing Director of BlackBriar Advisors LLC, a financial and operational advisory firm. Prior to the founding of BlackBriar in December 2010, Mr. Schleizer served as Managing Director of BBK, Ltd. an international financial advisory firm, from June 2009 until December 2010. Prior to BBK, Mr. Schleizer was a partner from 1999 to 2009 in Tatum LLC, a national consulting firm providing CFO Services where served as Restructuring Practice Leader in the Southwest region. Mr. Schleizer holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Arizona State University.
Ms. Elvia Gustavson was appointed Head of Regulatory Affairs in July 2017. Ms. Gustavson has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry working on injectables, solid oral dosage forms, small molecule and biological drugs. She has held senior management positions at mid-size and small pharmaceutical companies. Additionally, she has provided regulatory support to pharmaceutical companies as a Regulatory Affairs Consultant with Jeff Yuen & Associates, Inc.
As a Regulatory Affairs professional, she has been instrumental in providing regulatory strategies and solutions throughout the life cycle of drug product development including R&D development, clinical studies, drug application, commercialization, and post marketing. These endeavors have led to the filings of numerous applications (i.e., BLAs, ANDAs & INDs). Ms. Gustavson received her B.S. from the San Diego State University in Microbiology.
Dr. Sherman earned his Bachelor of Science from MIT and Doctorate in Medicine from SUNY Upstate Medical Center in 1977. Following an internal medicine residency in Rochester, NY and cardiovascular fellowship at Oregon Health Sciences University, he joined the faculty of Mount Sinai in NY in 1983 and, with deepening interests in regenerative cardiology, of Columbia University Medical Center in 2005. As Associate Professor and Director of Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine in the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapies, his research focused on delivery methods of biotherapeutics for chronic CAD, STEMI and HF, including several first-in-human studies. He was Director of the annual International Conference on Cell Therapy for Cardiovascular Diseases (IC3D) and consultant to NIH, CIRM, Canada Foundation for Innovation (Networks of Centres of Excellence, NCE) European Society of Cardiology and biotechnology companies, specializing in the discovery and development of regenerative, protective and reconstructive therapies.
In 2014 he transitioned to industry and has been Chief Medical Officer of Celyad, LoneStar Heart and Black Beret Life Sciences before joining Venturis Therapeutics.
Dr. Travis Mickle, PhD, is an accomplished chemist and drug developer of over 25 years. He received a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Iowa. While a director at New River Pharmaceuticals, he was instrumental in the development of Vyvanse. During his tenure as president of KemPharm (now Zevra Therapeutics), he led the development of and the approval of three orphan-drug indications with more indications in the pipeline. Dr. Mickle now uses his wealth of experience in both chemistry and drug development to consult pharma and biotech companies pushing needed treatments past their last clinical and regulation hurdles to obtain approval.
Our management team is aided and supported by an outstanding group of employees, consultants, advisors, associates clinical personnel, all of whom play a vital role in overall success.
Venturis Therapeutics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing protein drug candidates to address diseases such as diabetic wounds, severe coronary heart disease, and peripheral artery disease.
Contact Information
Amy Gordon
(714) 280-6028