Meet the Team
Shorla Oncology was founded by two healthcare entrepreneurs, Sharon Cunningham and Orlaith Ryan who worked together previously in senior positions at EirGen Pharma and have a passion for building organizations and developing products to meet unmet needs.
Board of Directors
Dennis Purcell
Chairman
- 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.
- Serves on the board of directors of Real Endpoints, Ichnos Pharmaceuticals, Summus Global, Shorla Oncology, and Embera Pharma.
- 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.
- He received his B.S. from the University of Delaware and his MBA from Harvard University.
Sharon Cunningham
Executive Director
CEO & Co-Founder
- Previously Head of Finance at EirGen Pharma having worked in 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
Executive Director
CTO & Co-Founder
- Previously on EirGen Pharma’s Management team, holding senior positions in Analytical, QA & Regulatory Affairs.
- Led numerous regulatory inspections including FDA, HPRA and Saudi FDA.
- Coordinated IND’s, INAD’s and pre-development meetings with FDA for OPKO Health Inc.
- Primary interface with FDA & EMA on the development and registration of new human (including orphan) and veterinary drugs.
- Is a chartered scientist and holds an MSc in Regulatory Affairs from the University of Wales, BSc in Applied Biology with Quality Management from Waterford Institute of Technology & a Certificate in Corporate Governance from INSEAD business school.
Tom Brennan
Non-Executive Director
- 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.
Harcharan (Harry) Singh
Non-Executive Director
- 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).
Alan O’Connell
Non-Executive Director
- Alan is a Partner at Seroba Life Sciences.
- Prior to joining Seroba, worked at Elan (Dublin), American Biogenetic Sciences, Inc. (New York), and 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).
John Moloney
Non-Executive Director
- John Moloney is Chairman of FTSE 100 listed DCC Plc, and a board member of 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.