Executive Officers

Andrew McDonald, Ph.D., 46
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Board Member

Andrew McDonald is an experienced healthcare investment professional with expertise in identifying transformative products and technologies in all stages of development. Andrew has been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LifeSci Acquisition II Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, since June 2019. Mr. McDonald served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of LifeSci Acquisition Corp. from June 2019 until it closed its business combination with Vincera Pharma, Inc. in December 2020. Andrew has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Attune Pharmaceuticals since March 2015 and is a Founding Partner of LifeSci Advisors and LifeSci Capital. Prior to founding LifeSci in March 2010, Andrew served as senior biotechnology analyst at Great Point Partners, a dedicated life science hedge fund, from 2006 to 2008. From 2004 to 2006, Andrew was Head of Healthcare Research and a Biotechnology Analyst at ThinkEquity Partners, a boutique investment bank. Prior to entering the financial services industry, Andrew was a medicinal chemist at Cytokinetics from 2001 to 2004, where he discovered and developed a promising anti-cancer agent now in clinical trials. Andrew began his pharmaceutical career as a medicinal chemist at Pfizer. Andrew received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from UC Irvine and completed his B.S. in chemistry at UC Berkeley. Andrew holds the Series 7, 24, 63, 79, 86, and 87 licenses.

Michael Rice, 55
Chief Operating Officer and Board Member

Michael Rice has experience in portfolio management, corporate management, investment banking and capital markets. Prior to co-founding LifeSci Advisors and LifeSci Capital in March 2010, Michael was the co-head of health care investment banking at Canaccord Adams from April 2007 to November 2008, where he was involved in debt and equity financing. Michael was also was a Managing Director at ThinkEquity Partners from April 2005 to April 2007, where he was responsible for managing Healthcare Capital Markets, which included structuring and executing numerous transactions, many of which were firsts at ThinkEquity. Prior to that, from August 2003 to March 2005, Michael served as a Managing Director at Banc of America, serving large hedge funds and private equity healthcare funds. Previously, he was a Managing Director at JPMorgan/Hambrecht & Quist. Michael has been a director of RDD Pharma Ltd. since January 2016 and Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Inc. since May 2016. Michael has been the Chief Operating Officer and a director of LifeSci Acquisition II Corp.,a special purpose acquisition company, since June 2019. Mr. Rice served as Chief Operating Officer and Board Member of LifeSci Acquisition Corp. from June 2019 until it closed its business combination with Vincera Pharma, Inc. in December 2020. Michael received his BA from the University of Maryland. Michael holds the Series 7, 24, 63, and 79 licenses.

David Dobkin, 41
Chief Financial Officer and Board Member

David Dobkin is an experienced healthcare capital markets investment banker with a career focused on helping high-growth life science, medical device, and healthcare IT companies achieve their financial and strategic goals. David has been the Chief Financial Officer and a director of LifeSci Acquisition II Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, since June 2019. Mr. Dobkin served as Chief Financial Officer and Board Member of LifeSci Acquisition Corp. from June 2019 until it closed its business combination with Vincera Pharma, Inc. in December 2020. David has worked with companies developing a wide range of technologies and brings extensive strategic advisory and execution capability to his clients. David has experience with both traditional and non-traditional forms of equity and debt offerings in both the U.S. and abroad. He is a regular speaker on growth capital formation at conferences across the United States and Canada. Prior to joining LifeSci Capital, David was a Managing Director at Boustead Securities. Prior to that, in 2015, David founded Dobkin & Company, an investment bank tailored for entrepreneur-led companies focused on seed and growth equity and capital, in 2015. Previously, from 2010 to 2015, David worked in various capacities with the New Zealand Government facilitating capital formation on behalf of regional companies and government agencies with a focus on securing strategic foreign direct investment. David has tremendous experience conducting cross-border transactions. Prior to October 2010, David worked for Lazard Frères, one of the world’s preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms, where he facilitated and advised on cross-border mergers and acquisitions transactions in excess of $2.5 billion. Prior to joining for Lazard Frères, David began his career in in the Healthcare investment banking group for Wasserstein Perella based in New York. At Wasserstein Perella, David advised healthcare companies on capital formation as well as strategic alternatives. David conducted graduate research in stem cell bioengineering and received a Master of Science, Biomedical Engineering, from the University of Southern California. David also received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, from Columbia University. David holds the Series 63, 79, and 82 licenses.

Board of Directors

Thomas Wynn, 51
Board Member Nominee

Thomas Wynn has been a portfolio manager at Monashee Investment Management since 2011. From 1995 to 2011, he co-founded and served as the Managing Director of Leerink Swann LLC, a Boston based healthcare investment bank. From 1991 to 1995, he worked at Lehman Brothers. Thomas received his B.A from Fairfield University and J.D. from Suffolk University

Raquel Izumi, PhD, —
Board Member Nominee

Raquel Izumi, PhD is the Chief Operations Officer and President of Vincerx Pharma, Inc., and a member of the Vincerx board of directors. Dr Izumi has served as Vincerx’s Chief Operations Officer and as a member Vincerx’s board of directors since March 2019. Before that, Dr Izumi co-founded Acerta Pharma and served as its executive vice president of clinical development from February 2013 to May 2020. Dr Izumi also co-founded Aspire Therapeutics LLC and served as its chief scientific officer from June 2011 to February 2013. Before founding Aspire Therapeutics, Dr Izumi served as senior director of clinical development at Pharmacyclics LLC, a biopharmaceutical company, from February 2010 to May 2011, where she worked on designing and implementing seven clinical studies across various hematologic malignancies (including three studies that garnered breakthrough therapy designation) for the first BTK inhibitor (IMBRUVICA^®) to enter clinical trials. Dr Izumi began her research career at Amgen, where she held positions of increasing responsibility and participated in a successful BLA filing and approval for ARANESP^®. Dr Izumi was a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles where she obtained a PhD in microbiology and immunology. She received honors and distinction for her BA in biological sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Adam Tomasi, PhD, —
Board Member Nominee

Adam Tomasi, PhD is the Chief Operations Officer and President of Allakos, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company developing its wholly owned monoclonal antibody for the treatment of various mast cell and eosinophil related diseases. Prior to joining Allakos, Dr. Tomasi was Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Corporate Development at ZS Pharma where he led scientific, business development, and investor relation functions through the company’s initial public offering and sale to AstraZeneca. Before joining ZS Pharma, Dr. Tomasi was a Principal at Alta Partners where he contributed to investments in ZS Pharma (acquired by AstraZeneca), Lumena Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Shire), Excaliard (acquired by Pfizer), ChemGenex (acquired by Cephalon), Achaogen, Immune Design and Allakos. Dr. Tomasi served as a drug discovery scientist with Gilead Sciences and Cytokinetics. Dr. Tomasi holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, an MBA from MIT and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine.

Nassim Usman, PhD, 60
Board Member Nominee

Nassim Usman, PhD has been Catalyst Biosciences, Inc.’s President and Chief Executive Officer and as a director since August 2015. Catalyst Biosciences, Inc. is a fully integrated research and clinical development biopharmaceutical company with expertise in protease engineering, discovery and translational research, clinical development and manufacturing. From February 2006 until August 2015, Dr. Usman served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Catalyst Bio. Dr. Usman is currently a Venture Partner at Morgenthaler Ventures. Prior to joining Morgenthaler in 2005, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Sirna Therapeutics Inc., which was subsequently acquired by Merck, from 2004 to 2005, and held various R&D positions at both Sirna and Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, including Vice President of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer, from 1992 to 2004. During his industrial career, Dr. Usman has overseen the entry of several drugs into clinical development, completion of multiple licensing deals with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and raised capital in both private and public financings. Prior to moving into the private sector in 1992, Dr. Usman was an NIH Fogarty and NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow and Scientist in the Departments of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1987 to 1992. He has authored more than 70 scientific articles and is the named inventor in 130 issued patents and patent applications. Dr. Usman serves on the board of directors of Mosaic Biosciences, is a past director of Principia Biopharma, Osprey Pharmaceuticals, Archemix Corporation and atugen AG (now Silence Therapeutics) and served on the science advisory boards of RXi Pharmaceuticals and Noxxon Pharma AG. He received his B.Sc. (Honours) and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from McGill University. In his doctoral dissertation, he developed a method for the solid-phase synthesis of RNA that is widely used in science and in two marketed RNA products (Macugen^™ & Onpattro^™).