Board of Directors
Executive Chairman of Cantex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Former Vice Chairman and President of IVAX Corporation
Mr. Flanzraich brings to Alzheon more than 30 years of executive leadership, operations and legal experience with pharmaceutical and life sciences companies. Mr. Flanzraich was an early investor in Alzheon and served in the role of Chief Business Officer of Alzheon as a consultant to the company from February to May 2018.
Mr. Flanzraich is the Executive Chairman of Cantex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately-owned biotech company, which is developing drugs for cancer. Previously, he was Cantex’s Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Flanzraich served as Vice Chairman and President of IVAX Corporation, an international pharmaceutical company, for over seven years, prior to its sale in 2006 to TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. for an enterprise value of $10 billion. Prior to his tenure at IVAX, Mr. Flanzraich served as Chairman of the Life Sciences Legal Practice Group of Heller Ehrman LLP, a law firm. Previously Mr. Flanzraich worked at Syntex Corporation, an international pharmaceutical company, where, as the Senior Vice President, and a member of both the Corporate Operating and Corporate Executive Committees, he made major contributions to the value of the company, which was acquired by Roche in 1994 for $5.3 billion.
Mr. Flanzraich was an early investor, a former Lead Independent Director and former member of the board of directors of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG). Mr. Flanzraich was the lead independent director of Equity One, Inc. (NYSE: EQY), prior to its acquisition by Regency Centers Corporation in 2017. He was an independent director of Continucare Corporation (NYSE: CNU), a company with primary care centers, from 2002 to its sale in 2011. Mr. Flanzraich received an AB from Harvard College and a JD from Harvard Law School.
We believe that Mr. Flanzraich is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his business expertise and extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Executive Chairman and Director, ERO Copper
Mr. Dunn serves as the Executive Chairman and as a director of ERO Copper. Mr. Dunn has 25 years’ experience in the investment banking industry, primarily with Goldman Sachs managing a capital underwriting business in London. In later years he worked with Bear Stearns and JP Morgan as a leader of their respective investment banking practices in mining and metals. Mr Dunn is a former director of Pan American Silver and Pretivm Resources. Prior to forming Ero Resource Partners LLC, he was a Managing Director of Liberty Mining & Metals LLC, a subsidiary of Liberty Mutual Investments. Mr. Dunn holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Edinburgh and a Master of Science degree from the University of Durham.
We believe that Mr. Dunn is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his business expertise and extensive experience in financial industry.
Managing Director and Partner, Beacon Pointe Advisors
Jordan Heller CFA, CFP®, CPA is a Managing Director and Partner of Beacon Pointe Advisors having founded Heller Wealth Advisors prior to merging with Beacon Pointe. Prior to his spin-off, Mr. Heller was a partner of The Schonbraun McCann Group (SMG), currently FTI Consulting, as well as managing partner of SMG’s wealth management subsidiary.
Prior to entering the wealth management industry in 2000, Mr. Heller spent 15 years on Wall Street heading the Real Estate and Real Estate Finance Securities Research group at some of the country’s leading investment houses, including Merrill Lynch, Salomon Brothers and CIBC. During Mr. Heller’s time on Wall Street, he played a leading role in the rebirth of the modern day REIT & real estate finance industries. This included 35 IPOs, most of which were lead managed, along with many add-on financings, mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, and strategic advisory roles. For a detailed listing of Mr. Heller’s transactions, see https://beaconpointe.com/contact-us/tri-state/jordan-heller/. Mr. Heller began his career in public accounting, joining Price Waterhouse in 1982, and moved to Wall Street in 1985.
Mr. Heller obtained his undergraduate degree from Bentley University in Waltham, MA, with a B.S. in Accountancy. He also attended The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business where he obtained his MBA. Mr. Heller serves on the Board of Directors of The New York College of Podiatric Medicine where he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in 2015. In addition, Mr. Heller serves on the board of NYCPM’s captive insurance company, PODIA. He has also served on the boards of Equity One, a national shopping center company, until its sale to Regency Centers in 2017, and Bed Bath and Beyond from 2004 through March 2019. He is a member of the Investment Management Consultants Association, Association for Investment Management and Research, and the New York Society of Security Analysts. He is a noted speaker and has been featured as an industry expert by such media as CNN, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, The New York Times and Real Estate Portfolio.
We believe that Mr. Heller is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his business expertise and extensive capital markets experience.
Expert Consultant, NDA Partners
Diane K. Jorkasky, MD FACP is a highly regarded medical scientist with a broad background across research and all phases of clinical development in multiple therapeutic areas. Dr. Jorkasky currently serves as an Expert Consultant at NDA Partners – a life sciences management consulting and contract development organization.
Most recently Dr. Jorkasky was Chief Medical Officer, Head of Development and Executive Vice President of Complexa Inc. (Berwyn, PA) whose nitrofatty acid signaling technology is being developed for rare diseases of the kidney and cardiopulmonary systems. Additionally, Dr. Jorkasky served as Chief Medical Officer at Endo Pharmaceuticals (Chadds Ford, PA), and Aileron Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA) where she guided the development of stapled peptides in oncology.
At Pfizer Global R&D (New London, CT), she served as Vice President of Global Clinical Research Operations, responsible for all exploratory development, clinical pharmacology (phase 1-4), and translational medicine. Dr. Jorkasky led the Pfizer International Clinical Research Units which received certification by American Accreditation for Human Rights Protection Policies for their clinical research process, the first in industry or academia to achieve such a recognition. Previously, she was Vice President of Clinical Research at SmithKline Beecham, and Chief of Nephrology at Presbyterian-Penn Medical Center in Philadelphia.
Dr. Jorkasky is a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Technology and has been recognized by the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame for her scientific leadership and mentoring of young women. Dr. Jorkasky is board certified in internal medicine, nephrology and clinical pharmacology, having received her medical degree from University of Pennsylvania. She has been on the faculties of UCSF, Yale, Penn and Uniformed Service of Health Sciences Medical Schools, has published over 100 peer review articles, and is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow.
We believe that Dr. Jorkasky is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of her extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Board Director of Collegium Pharmaceuticals, Artax Biopharma, Enalare Therapeutics and AlfaSigma
Former Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development Eli Lilly & Co
Gino Santini has over a decade of board leadership and governance expertise in both public and private global corporations. He has served as an advisor and board director to European and US venture capital, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies since 2011, post his retirement from Eli Lilly & Company
During his director tenure across more than ten boards, Mr. Santini has honed his governance experience as Chairman, Lead Independent Director, and in multiple Committee chair roles. He has played a leading role in several M&A transactions and has significant expertise in advising on commercial partnerships. He is a strong relationship builder across board colleagues, CEOs, senior management, and investors.
Mr. Santini currently serves as a board director for Collegium Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: COLL), Artax Biopharma, Enalare Therapeutics and AlfaSigma. He previously served on the boards of Horizon Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: HZNP – acquired by Amgen), Intercept Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ICPT – acquired by AlfaSigma), AMAG Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AMAG – acquired by Covis), SORIN SpA (SRN.MI – merged into Livanova), Vitae Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VTAE – acquired by Allergan)), Allena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALNA), and Intarcia Therapeutics.
Mr. Santini retired from Eli Lilly & Co. in 2011, as Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development, after a successful 27-year career. In this capacity, he was responsible for the acquisitions of Imclone (2009) for $6.5 Billion, Icos (2008) for $2.1 Billion, and several other pipeline projects. He served as a member of the Executive Committee from 2004 to his retirement, reporting to the CEO.
He was President, U.S. Operations from 1999 to 2004, responsible for all operational and commercial activities of Eli Lilly in the United States, the launch of 7 new molecules (Actos, Xigris, Strattera, Alimta, Forteo, Cialis, and Symbyax) and several line extensions. He led the doubling of the field salesforce and revenue growth to over $7 Billion. He began his career in Eli Lilly as a Financial Planning Associate in 1983 and he had various roles in finance and marketing across Europe, Latin America, and the United States.
Mr. Santini was born in Cesena, Italy, and holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bologna and a Master of Business Administration from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester.
Mr. Santini is a past Chairman of the Board of the National Pharmaceutical Council and of Noble of Indiana, a nonprofit agency serving individuals with developmental disabilities. He also served on the Board of Directors for United Way of Central Indiana and the Executive Committee and Board of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce. He has dual US and Italian citizenship and lives in the United States and Italy with his family.
We believe that Mr. Santini is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his business expertise and extensive experience in pharmaceutical industry.
Founder and Chairman, Satter Investment Management (SIM)
Muneer A. Satter manages Satter Investment Management (SIM), a private investment firm and family office. SIM has significant investments in healthcare companies. He also manages the Satter Foundation, a private family foundation (which has made $65 million dollars of grants since its inception).
Mr. Satter is a retired partner at Goldman Sachs, where he was a partner of the firm for sixteen years. He spent his career in the Merchant Banking Division which manages the firm’s private investments. When he joined the Merchant Bank in 1988, it had $250 million under management. When he retired twenty-four years later, it had $130 billion of assets under management. Mr. Satter started up and co-headed the firm’s Merchant Banking Group in Europe. He later returned to New York and was the global head of the Mezzanine Group, which he built, raising and managing over $30 billion of assets. The mezzanine fund had a compound annual return of 12.9% for the sixteen years until Mr. Satter retired in 2012. This compares to 5.6% for the S&P 500 and 7.4% for the high yield index. He was also a senior member of the Merchant Banking Investment Committee which made investment decisions involving companies with a total enterprise value of several hundred billion dollars. He was chairman of the Risk Committee for the Merchant Banking Division, which at the time had over $80 billion of assets under management.
Mr. Satter is vice chairman of the Board of the Goldman Sachs Foundation and GS Gives, where he is also chairman of the Investment Committee overseeing $1.2 billion of assets. He is a member of the Board of Northwestern University where he was previously chairman of the Finance Committee. He is also a member and on the Executive Committee of the Board of the Navy SEAL Foundation. He is a member of the Board of the Northwestern Medical Group (over 1,000 doctors and over $1 billion of revenue). He is on the Board of Advisors of Accelerate Institute (which provides leadership training for school principals) and on the Board of Trustees of the US Olympic and Paralympic Foundation. He was formerly on the Board of World Business Chicago (chaired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a former co-chairman of Room to Read (which builds 2,000 libraries and schools per year in developing countries). He is a former member of the Board of the Nature Conservancy where he was chairman of the Finance Committee overseeing a $1.8 billion endowment. He is a former member of the Advisory Council of The Elders founded by Richard Branson, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Mr. Satter is a director of Annexon which is a complement cascade pathway company focused on autoimmune and neurologic diseases.
Mr. Satter received a B.A. from Northwestern University, and a JD/MBA from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. He lives in Chicago, IL with his wife, Kristen, and their five daughters.
We believe that Mr. Satter is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his business expertise and extensive experience investing in healthcare companies.
Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer, Alzheon, Inc.
Dr. Tolar serves as Founder, President & CEO of Alzheon. Prior to founding Alzheon in June 2013, Dr. Tolar held executive positions in several life sciences companies, where he has successfully established and grew new companies, business areas and product opportunities. Dr. Tolar served as President & CEO of Knome, Inc., where he led the development of human genome interpretation systems and services for academic, pharmaceutical and clinical clients, as President & CEO at NormOxys, Inc., where he built the business for novel cancer therapeutics, and as Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Business Officer at CoMentis, Inc., where he developed the first clinical-stage beta secretase inhibitor platform for Alzheimer’s disease and negotiated a collaboration with a potential value of $1.1 billion with Astellas Pharma in 2008. Dr. Tolar held a variety of clinical development and business leadership positions at Pfizer, where he was instrumental in a wide range of business transactions, including acquisition of Rinat Neuroscience for $500 million in 2006, and directed programs through all stages of clinical development and FDA approval including NDA filings.
During his academic career, Dr. Tolar served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine, where he focused on movement disorders. Dr. Tolar trained in Neurology at the Boston Medical Center, received a Ph.D. in Neuroscience for his work on the role of apolipoprotein E in pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, and published many scientific publications in the areas of neuroscience and neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Tolar received his M.D. from Charles University in Prague, where, as a medical student, he helped organize and lead the Velvet Revolution that toppled the communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia in November 1989.
In 2021, Dr. Tolar founded the International Neurodegenerative Disorders Research Center, INDRC, a global institute applying artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions to identify and validate therapeutic interventions for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. He serves as the Chairman of the INDRC Executive Board. Dr. Tolar also serves on business and scientific boards including the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, the Alzheimer Foundation, the CERGE-EI Foundation, and Advance Healthcare Management Institute.
In 2024, Dr. Tolar received the Eliška and Zdeněk Strmiska Award from the Alzheimer’s Foundation for significant contribution towards the research and treatment of Alzheimer´s disease and donated the cash prize to the INDRC institute. In 2021, Dr. Tolar received the Czech Laurels Award from the Czech Chamber of Commerce in recognition of his leadership in Alzheimer disease therapeutics, as well as clinical, scientific, and business projects in the Czech Republic. The Czech Chamber of Commerce is the largest and the most representative business association in the Czech Republic. Dr. Tolar was recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the world of drug development and manufacture by The Medicine Maker Magazine’s Power Lists for 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
We believe that Dr. Tolar is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his scientific expertise and extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.