purpose takes flight

Amy joined as our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board of Directors in February 2024, bringing more than 25 years of leadership experience. Most recently, Amy served as CEO at Cleave Therapeutics, where she led the company through financings, spearheaded licensing and collaboration deals, and oversaw the clinical development of its investigational therapy, CB-5339, for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Previously, she served as Executive in Residence at 5AM Ventures and, in parallel, as Senior Advisor to one of its portfolio companies, Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, during its initial public offering. Earlier in her career, Amy held roles of increasing responsibility in commercial and strategy at Genentech, commercial and business development at other high growth therapeutics companies, talent and governance at Egon Zehnder International, and brand management at Procter & Gamble. Amy earned her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she graduated as a Baker Scholar, and her BA in computer science with a minor in economics from Dartmouth College. She is currently a member of the board and audit committees at Tenaya Therapeutics.

Andrew is a seasoned finance and corporate strategy executive with 25 years of experience, successfully leading teams in the life sciences and biotechnology industry. Most recently, Andrew served as the Chief Financial Officer of Athira Pharma, Inc. Prior to that, Andrew was Chief Business Officer at Cyteir Therapeutics, where he led the finance team that took the company public. In addition, Andrew held Chief Executive Officer roles at ImmunoCellular Therapeutics and Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals, where he provided strategic and financial leadership across multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology and neurodegenerative disease. Earlier, Andrew was Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Amgen for eight years. Andrew started his career at Morgan Stanley before moving on to McKinsey & Co., where he advanced from Associate to Senior Engagement Manager. Andrew holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a BS in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Scott has more than 25 years of broad cross-functional experience across a range of therapeutics areas and modalities, including directing all aspects of drug development from pre-clinical to post-marketing activities. Most recently, Scott was Chief Operating Officer of Cleave Therapeutics, a clinical stage hematology oncology company, where he oversaw all research and development activities including the clinical advancement of its investigational therapy for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. His biopharmaceutical career has included positions of increasing responsibility at companies such as BridgeBio, Corthera, Inc., BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Angstrom Pharmaceutical, Attenuon, LLC, and Adynxx, Inc. Scott started his career as a bench scientist at Biosite Inc. He earned an MS in regulatory affairs from San Diego State University (SDSU) and a BS in biochemistry and cell biology from University of California San Diego. He also holds an academic appointment at SDSU where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in healthcare product regulation.

Melita joins Terns with more than 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry, leading corporate strategy and business development, commercial planning and execution, financings, and investment management. Most recently, Melita served as Chief Business Officer at Structure Therapeutics, where she was responsible for the company’s business strategy, partnering initiatives, commercial planning, corporate branding, and communications. She was part of the executive team that completed Structure’s initial public offering (IPO) of approximately $185 million, the first sizeable biotech IPO of 2023. Previously, Melita served as Senior Vice President and Head of Business Development at Sangamo Therapeutics, a genomic medicines company. There she led collaboration and licensing deals with a combined potential value exceeding $6 billion and upfront payments of more than $500 million from broad strategic partnerships with Pfizer, Kite (a Gilead company), Biogen, and Novartis. Her prior experiences include corporate development and commercial roles at Adamas Pharmaceuticals and Ipsen, where she led marketing strategy and contributed to multiple product launches. She started her career in biotechnology venture capital and fund management at Bay City Capital and Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch. Melita earned a BA in biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Emil has served as our Chief Medical Officer since May 2023. Emil joins Terns with more than a decade of biopharmaceutical industry experience, leading clinical development strategy and execution of therapeutics across multiple indications. In his most recent role as Chief Medical Officer at Calithera Biosciences, Inc. Emil led the transition of two mid-stage clinical programs with subsequent rapid initiation of two Phase 2 studies. Previously, Emil served as Global Clinical Program Lead at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), where he was the global head of early development for MDM2 inhibitor (targeted therapy) and adenosine inhibitor programs in solid and hematologic malignancies. In this role, he was responsible for the development and execution of the clinical development for new oncology agents from the candidate selection process to clinical proof-of-concept stage and integrated development plan including design and execution of Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials of novel compounds in the oncology and immuno-oncology portfolio. Before that, he served as Medical Director at Novartis Oncology, where he led a cross-functional team in the design and execution of trials exploring novel immune-oncology and targeted therapy combinations and oversaw late-stage clinical development, strategy, and medical affairs program for farydak (HDACi), sonidegib (Hh inhibitor), and afuresertib (AKTi) in the United States. Earlier in his career, Emil served as a Hematology/Oncology Fellow at Weill Cornell Medical College and as a Research Fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Caryn is a seasoned legal executive with nearly 30 years of experience across both public and private life sciences companies. She has held senior leadership roles spanning a wide range of therapeutic areas, shaping corporate legal strategy, compliance, governance, and organizational leadership through all stages of drug development and commercialization. Her leadership experience includes serving as Chief Legal and Administrative Officer at Quince Therapeutics (formerly Cortexyme), where she oversaw legal, human resources, and administrative functions during a period of strategic transformation in neurology and rare disease. She has also held General Counsel and Corporate Secretary roles at Revance Therapeutics and Cytokinetics. Earlier in her career, Caryn held senior legal positions at Genentech, InterMune, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Affymax, and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. She began her career in public service with enforcement roles at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the US Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General. Caryn currently serves on the board of California Life Sciences and is a founding limited partner of How Women Invest. She holds a JD from Boston University School of Law and a BA in political science and Judaic studies from the University of Michigan.

Robin is a seasoned human capital and operations strategy executive with over 25 years of experience within the biotechnology, technology and venture capital industries. She specializes in building high performance teams and scaling companies through significant growth. Most recently, she was the Chief People Officer at Sana Biotechnology, Inc. and was the Head of People for Juno Therapeutics. Prior to joining the biotechnology industry, Robin also held several key, senior leadership and talent roles within the technology and venture capital industries, including leadership roles at Amazon.com during its infancy. A graduate of the University of Connecticut, with a BS in Communications Science, Robin also attended Barnard College and earned a master’s degree in Human Rights Studies at Columbia University.

Jeff has served as Head of Research at Terns since December 2021. He brings more than three decades of biopharmaceutical industry experience across a range of therapeutic areas. Jeff was most recently Vice President of Research at Rubedo Life Sciences where he oversaw discovery research and nonclinical development targeting underlying biological drivers of chronic diseases. He has held roles at Roche, Theravance, Cytokinetics, and Merck and was co-founder of Altos Therapeutics (acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals) directed toward gastrointestinal disorders. His experience includes work on discovery teams that have delivered over 20 clinical candidates to IND submission and five programs that yielded FDA-approved medicines. Jeff’s professional activities include 20 years as member of the Editorial Board for the American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology, 12 years instructing “Molecular Pharmacology” for the University of California, Berkeley Extension, and he has published over 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles. He completed his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, his PhD in pharmacology in the School of Medicine at UC San Diego, and his postdoctoral training at Stanford University.

James brings over 30 years of CMC experience in the development and commercialization of small molecule, peptide, natural product, and ADC conjugate compounds covering a range of therapeutic areas including oncology, cardiovascular, pain, antiviral, antibiotic, immunologic, diagnostic, and orphan/rare diseases. James has held scientific and management roles at various biotech companies, including COR Therapeutics/Millenium, Exelixis, Gilead Sciences, Portola Therapeutics, Ardelyx, and most recently BridgeBio where he was VP of CMC/Pharmaceutical Development. In this role, James managed the CMC portfolios, which include drug substance development and manufacturing, formulation development and drug product manufacturing, analytics to support DS and DP, labeling, packaging and kitting, and supply chain and logistics from early development through commercialization. This included regulatory/CMC strategy and the drafting and review of CMC regulatory documents including BBs, INDs, IMPDs, NDAs, and CTAs, as well as interactions with relevant regulatory agencies worldwide (FDA, EMA, MHRA, KFDA, NMPA, PMDA, ANVISA, AIFA, Health Canada, and Swiss Medic). He has contributed to more than 60 NCE INDs/IMPDs, as well as six successful NDA/EMA submissions and subsequent drug approvals resulting in multiple commercial launches.

Yasameen has over 20 years of global regulatory affairs and quality leadership experience across all stages of biopharmaceutical development. She most recently served as SVP of Regulatory Affairs and Quality at IconOVir Bio and was previously VP of Regulatory Affairs, Quality, and Medical Writing at FortySeven Inc., where she played a key role in its acquisition by Gilead. She has contributed to the successful development of therapies across multiple modalities and therapeutic areas, including oncolytic viruses, small molecules, and biologics. Yasameen has led numerous IND submissions and major marketing application filings, including the NDA approval of Calquence® (acalabrutinib) for mantle cell lymphoma at Acerta Pharma. Her global regulatory expertise spans interactions with health authorities in the US, EU, and Asia through roles at Genentech, Gilead, Astex, and Acerta. Yasameen earned her BS in biochemistry from Rutgers University and PharmD from the University of the Pacific. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in global drug development with Roche and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Pharmaceutics at the Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy.

Debra brings 20 years of industry expertise in medical and clinical affairs in multiple therapeutic areas including hepatology and infectious diseases, as well as hematologic malignancies and a variety of solid tumors. Before joining Terns, Debra was the Head of US Medical Affairs at Stemline Therapeutics, a Menarini Group company, where she was responsible for leading the development and execution of the US medical affairs strategy and launch readiness for ELZONRIS® (tagraxofusp) and ORSERDU® (elacestrant). She previously held leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Idenix, Vertex, and Intercept Pharmaceuticals. Debra earned a bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University and master’s degrees from the University of Maryland and Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Rebecca brings 20 years of biotech experience across a range of fields and therapeutic areas. Before joining Terns, Rebecca was Director of Clinical Pharmacology at Gilead Sciences where she oversaw clinical pharmacology programs in the long-acting HIV and HIV cure portfolio. She has held roles in research, clinical pharmacology, and project management, supporting programs from early research through to NDA. Rebecca completed her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Barnard College, Columbia University, and her PhD in molecular pharmacology from Stanford University.

Will brings over 15 years of experience in life sciences IP, including nearly a decade at Illumina directing worldwide litigation efforts to protect the company’s core DNA sequencing technologies. Before joining Terns, Will held a senior IP leadership role at Seer and began his career as a patent attorney at Knobbe Martens. He holds a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Rice University, a J.D. with High Honors from the University of Iowa, and a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT.

David brings more than 10 years of relevant strategic, finance, and accounting experience. David joined Terns in 2021 where he led the expansion of the finance and accounting department during the transition from a private to public biotech company. During that time, he participated in the initial public offering and multiple follow-on offerings that raised over $300 million in proceeds. Before that, David held various controller and assistant controller roles at public companies, where he led the accounting and finance team through operational and system transformations. He began his career in 2011 at PricewaterhouseCoopers. David holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from San Jose State University and is a certified public accountant inactive in California.