Executive Team

Sharon Cunningham

CEO

Previously Head of Finance at EirGen Pharma (‘EirGen’) for seven years. Held roles of increasing responsibility at PwC and PNC in Ireland and U.S. Compliance Officer & member of the SOX disclosure committee for OPKO Health Inc (NASDAQ & NYSE) post acquisition of EirGen. Named Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur 2019. PwC Qualified Chartered Accountant & holds an MBA from University College Dublin Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School & a BSc in Finance from University College Cork, Ireland. Certificate in Healthcare Innovation from MIT & Harvard Medical School. Current member and previous non-executive director at Irish Rule of Law International. Advisory board member at LSX Female Founders.

Orlaith
Ryan

CTO

Orlaith co-founded Shorla Oncology in 2018 and leads the product development programs and supply chain activities. She has vast experience in the life sciences industry, having worked previously in product development, regulation and compliance. Orlaith is a Chartered Scientist, a Biochemist and holds an MSc in Regulatory Affairs from the University of Wales.

Nicholas Holsman

Chief Commercial Officer

Nicholas brings more than 19 years of commercial and launch experience in the fields of virology, cardiovascular and oncology to his role. Over the course of his career, Nicholas has held leadership roles in analytics, market access and commercial operations at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Before joining Oncopeptides, Nicholas served as Head of Commercial Operations & Access at Kempharm Inc. Previously he led Commercial Operations & Market Access at Nextwave Pharmaceuticals and held roles of increasing responsibility Gilead Sciences & Symphony Health.
Nicholas holds a B.A. in Finance from the University of Otago, NZ and B.A. in Architectural Studies from the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Management Team

VICTORIA POWER

HEAD OF OPERATIONS

Victoria leads the operations team at Shorla Oncology. Having previously held leadership positions at companies such as Novartis and ICON plc, her extensive experience spans programme management, clinical trial operations oversight and product commercialization for both large and small pharma. Victoria has led the development and commercialization of new products in global markets and their associated life cycle management. Victoria has a BSc from University College Dublin and is PRINCE 2 qualified.

STEPHANIE O’DWYER

HEAD OF FINANCE

Stephanie leads the financial activities at Shorla Oncology. She has extensive accounting (UK & Irish GAAP and IFRS) and taxation experience from her previous leadership roles. Stephanie is a qualified Certified Public Accountant and holds a BA and MBS in Accounting from Waterford Institute of Technology.

SHARON LYNCH

HEAD OF QUALITY

Sharon leads the quality activities at Shorla Oncology. Having previously held leadership positions in Sanofi and EirGen Pharma, her experience includes sterile manufacture, new product introduction, commercialisation of products, batch release and supplier management. Sharon is an accredited lead auditor and is registered to act as an EU QP in Ireland. Sharon holds a MSc in in Pharmaceutical Technology and Quality Systems from University College Cork , Post Graduate Certificate in International Regulatory Affairs and BSc in Pharmaceutical Science, both from Waterford Institute of Technology.

Dr MARK POWELL

Head of Research and Development

Mark joined Shorla Oncology in 2020 and oversees the Research and Development activities. Mark has over 20 years’ experience in both the pharmaceutical industry and academia. He has been involved in both early and late-stage drug development projects and has wide ranging experience in pharmaceutical science, quality systems and drug regulation. In addition to his role as a consultant, Mark has implemented several analytical training programmes in India, Singapore, Japan, the United States and many European countries. Mark has a BSc and PhD from University of Hertfordshire, is a Chartered Chemist, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Director of Mark Powell Scientific Limited.

Board of Directors

DENNIS PURCELL

CHAIRMAN

Dennis is the founder of Aisling Capital LLC, a major life sciences venture capital firm based in New York City and has previously served as the Fund’s Senior Managing Partner and Advisor. Prior to the formation of Aisling Capital, Mr. Purcell served on the Executive Committee and as Managing Director of the Life Sciences Investment Banking Group at Chase H&Q, formerly Hambrecht and Quist.

Dennis serves on the board of directors of Real Endpoints, Ichnos Pharmaceuticals, Summus Global, Shorla Oncology, and Embera Pharma.

Dennis is also an Executive-in-Residence at Columbia University and as an Endowment Committee member at the University of Delaware.

Honored for his work in the biotech industry by Genetic Engineering News, Forbes, Irish American Magazine, Reed Elsevier, and the University of Delaware.

Dennis received his B.S. from the University of Delaware and his MBA from Harvard University.

 

Sharon Cunningham

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
CEO & CO-FOUNDER

Sharon co-founded Shorla Oncology in 2018 and leads the fundraising and commercialization activities. She has vast experience in equity and debt financing and M&A in the pharmaceutical industry. Sharon is a PwC qualified Chartered Accountant, holds a BSc in Finance from University College Cork and an MBA from University College Dublin Smurfit School. Sharon also sits on the Board of Irish Rule of Law International.

Orlaith Ryan

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
CTO & CO-FOUNDER

Orlaith co-founded Shorla Oncology in 2018 and leads the product development programs and supply chain activities. She has vast experience in the life sciences industry, having worked previously in product development, regulation and compliance. Orlaith is a Chartered Scientist, a Biochemist and holds an MSc in Regulatory Affairs from the University of Wales.

Tom Brennan

NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Tom previously co-founded pharmaceutical company EirGen Pharma, stability storage company Q1 Scientific and Animal Healthcare company Trivium Vet. Tom has extensive experience in R&D and business development. Within a 10 year period, EirGen Pharma grew from two employees to over 200 people with product sales in almost 50 countries. EirGen was acquired by OPKO for $135m in 2015.

Tom holds a BSc from Cork Institute of Technology, an MSc from University of Manchester and an MBA from University of Limerick. Tom is also a “Qualified Person” as per European Directive 2001/82/EC.

Tom is also a board member of Cork pharmaceutical technology company, Crest Solutions.

Alan O’Connell

Non-Executive Director

Alan is a Partner at Seroba Life Sciences. He has a background in product and business development in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Prior to joining Seroba, Alan worked at Elan (Dublin), American Biogenetic Sciences, Inc. (New York), and at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (London).

Alan has a Ph.D. (neuropharmacology) from the National University of Ireland and has a M.Sc. in pharmacology from the University of London. In addition to the Shorla board, Alan also sits on the boards of Ario Pharma, Crescent Diagnostics and Fusion Pharmaceuticals. He previously sat on the boards of Prexton (acquired by Lundbeck), Veryan (acquired by Otsuka) and Xention (exited via pharma partnerships).

Harcharan (Harry) Singh

Non-Executive Director

Harry is Founder, President and CEO of Glopec International Inc. a privately held international pharmaceutical trading and investment company based in Ontario, Canada. With over 40 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Harry has been the Founding Director and Strategic Investor in several ventures in India, Canada, Ireland and USA. He was previously a non-executive director at EirGen Pharma, Ireland from its inception and has been a Director of Cyanamid India, General Manager and COO of Tata Pharma and Product Group Manager at Warner Lambert Co. subsidiary in India (Warner Hindustan).

John Moloney

Non-Executive Director

John Moloney is a Board member at FTSE 100 listed DCC Plc, where he is Chairman, and at Smurfit Kappa Group. From 2001 to 2013 he was Group Managing Director of Glanbia Plc, the global Nutrition group. At Glanbia he led the significant expansion of the business into the US. Prior to this, he was CEO of Agribusiness and CEO of Food Ingredients in Glanbia. He is also a Board member and Chairman designate of ABP Food Group, a leading privately held food processor. John’s exceptional track record as a CEO, chairman and non-executive director on a number of listed companies brings key operational, strategic and governance experience.

Tracy M. Woody

Non-Executive Director

US based Tracy Woody is Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Protagonist Therapeutics. With over 20 years of commercial experience in pharmaceuticals, biologics, and medical devices across a wide range of therapeutic areas in diverse markets, Tracy has extensive experience with multi-billion dollar revenue brands as well as products in the rare disease space. She is a member of the board of directors for Esperion Therapeutics, a publicly traded company. She previously served as Chief Commercial Officer of Versartis, Inc. and KemPharm, Inc. Prior to KemPharm, Tracy was Vice President Sales and Marketing of NextWave Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer), Vice President of Business Development and Vice President Sales and Marketing at Greer Biologics.

Advisory Team

ROLAND TURCK MD

COMMERCIAL ADVISOR

Dr Roland Turck is Managing Partner of TurckBio, an international consulting firm focused on corporate strategy as well as on clinical and commercial strategies in oncology and other specialty medicine areas. Roland has gained 25+ years of operational experience as senior biopharm executive in a variety of roles such as President of the Global Specialty Medicine Business Unit at Bayer and as co-founder of an oncology biotech company.

MARTIN F. BEXON MD

CLINICAL ADVISOR

Martin, a UK- and NZ-trained MD, has worked in pharma for 17 years and held positions in the UK, Switzerland and the US leading clinical development programs in oncology, immunology and internal medicine. He has a broad base of experience in the clinic, in early and late clinical development, in medical affairs and across multiple therapy areas.

JOHN H. SAMPSON MD

CLINICAL ADVISOR

John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, is the Robert H. and Gloria Wilkins Distinguished Professor, inaugural chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Duke University, and the most highly funded PI in neurosurgery by the NIH. In March 2020 he was named president of the Private Diagnostic Clinic, Duke Health’s physician practice of 1,850 providers and 140 clinics. He is a neurosurgeon-scientist who develops novel drugs for patients with brain tumors and focuses on the development, translation, and mechanistic understanding of immunotherapies.

HOWARD TAG

Market Access Advisor

Howard Tag, founder of Tag & Associates, provides pricing, reimbursement and market access advice to medical technology developers and to investment, law and communication firms that serve health care manufacturers. Prior to founding Tag & Associates, Howard was Executive Vice President of PAREXEL International Medical Marketing Services, Executive Director of the New York State Legislature’s Joint Committee on Consumer Protection, and Government Affairs Counsel to a Fortune 50 company.

DR ROD BAKER

CMC Advisor

Rod is a Drug Development Advisor with over forty years industrial experience in biotech, pharmaceutical, agrochemical and animal health companies. He is experienced in the development of small molecules as well as proteins and peptides across a wide range of dosage forms and a pharmaceutical formulation specialist in pre-formulation of new molecules formulation development, clinical trials supplies manufacturing, scale-up and process development to commercial scale manufacturing. Prior to becoming a consultant in 2008, Rod was Vice President of Development and Operations and Company Secretary of MediGene Limited. Rod obtained his PhD in microemulsions from Strathclyde University.