About Products & Pipeline Partnering Investors & News Blog Our Team Executive Management Team Lisa Conte: Founder & CEO Ms. Conte is the founder, president and chief executive officer, and a member of the board of directors, of Jaguar Health, a commercial-stage pharmaceuticals company committed to discovering, developing and commercializing plant-based prescription medicines for urgent global health needs. Mytesi®, the company’s FDA-approved drug product indicated for the symptomatic relief of noninfectious diarrhea in adults with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral therapy, is a first-in-class, plant-based anti-secretory agent and the first oral drug approved under FDA Botanical Guidance. In July 2017, two companies founded by Ms. Conte—Napo Pharmaceuticals, a human-focused pharmaceuticals company, and Jaguar Animal Health, the veterinary-focused licensor of all of Napo’s technology—merged and now comprise Jaguar Health. In 1989, Ms. Conte also founded Shaman Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and has pioneered plant-based prescription medicine investigation and development for more than 30 years, including a recent Entheogen Therapeutics Initiative, looking at psychoactive plants for novel cures for mood disorders and CNS neurodegenerative diseases. Ms. Conte is currently a member of the board of directors of Healing Forest Conservatory, and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Life Science Leader magazine. She holds an M.S. in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of California, San Diego, and an M.B.A. and A.B. in Biochemistry from Dartmouth College. Carol Lizak: Chief Financial Officer Ms. Lizak has 20+ years of corporate controllership and financial planning & analysis experience under U.S. GAAP & IFRS. Prior to joining Jaguar, she served as senior director and corporate controller of Zosano Pharma Corporation, as controller of Quantum Secure, Inc., and as executive director, corporate controller of Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior thereto, she spent nine years as corporate controller of a subsidiary of HID Global Corporation. She holds an Executive MBA from Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. Steven King, PhD: Chief Sustainable Supply, Ethnobotanical Research & IP Officer Dr. King has served as our head of sustainable supply, ethnobotanical research and intellectual property since 2004. Prior to that, Dr. King served as the Vice President of Ethnobotany and Conservation at Shaman Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. King has been recognized by the International Natural Products and Conservation Community for the creation and dissemination of research on the long-term sustainable harvest and management of Croton lechleri, the widespread source of crofelemer. Dr. King is currently a member of the board of directors of Healing Forest Conservatory, a California not-for-profit public benefit corporation. Dr. King holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in biology from the City University of New York (CUNY), and he received the first doctoral fellowship granted by the Institute of Economic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden. Pravin Chaturvedi, PhD: Chair of Scientific Advisory Board; acting Chief Scientific Officer In his role as the chair of our Scientific Advisory Board, Dr. Chaturvedi is responsible for providing direction on strategy, tactics and oversight to the leadership team regarding advancing the development and commercialization of the Napo drug pipeline, including, but not limited to, Mytesi and SB-300. Dr. Chaturvedi has co-founded and led multiple biotech enterprises including Scion, IndUS and Oceanyx, and has served as the CEO or CSO for Scion, IndUS, Napo, Oceanyx and Pivot Pharmaceuticals. Over his 25+ year career, Dr. Chaturvedi has led the discovery and/or the development activities for several new chemical entities (NCEs) including the successful development of crofelemer (Mytesi) and has participated in the discovery and/or development of novel drugs for the treatment of HIV, hepatitis C, epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease. Earlier in his career, Dr. Chaturvedi was the Head of Lead Evaluation at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and was in the preclinical group at Alkermes. He started his career in the Product Development group at Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert Company (now Pfizer). Dr. Chaturvedi holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from West Virginia University and a Bachelor’s in Pharmacy from the University of Bombay. Darlene Horton, M.D.: Chief Medical Officer, Napo Pharmaceuticals Dr. Horton brings 25 years of clinical research and development, medical affairs, senior executive, and consulting experience in the development of investigational and commercialized biopharmaceutical and drug-device combination products. She has extensive clinical development experience in multiple therapeutic areas including cardiology, oncology, immunology, orthopedics, gastroenterology, women’s health, and endocrinology. Prior to joining Napo, she led clinical development and regulatory strategy as CMO at Coherus Biosciences, Itero Biopharmaceuticals, and SMC Biotechnology. As Head of Clinical and Medical Affairs at Scios, she led the clinical development program that led to the approval of Natrecor® and was on the senior executive team when Scios was acquired by JNJ for $2.4B. At JNJ, she co-led (with strategic marketing) the cardiovascular therapeutic area when JNJ in-licensed and began developing the blockbuster drug Xarelto®. She also served as CEO at Nile Therapeutics and TulangCo Inc. Dr. Horton completed her Pediatric Cardiology fellowship and Pediatrics Residency at UCSF. She holds M.D. and B.S. in Microbiology degrees from the University of Florida. David Sesin, PhD: Chief Manufacturing Officer David is a pharmaceutical scientist with more than 30 years of experience ranging from drug discovery through manufacturing. He is the developer of the crofelemer manufacturing process. Prior to serving as Jaguar’s CMO, he was Director of Chemistry and QHSE at Bayer CropScience, Director of Chemistry at AgraQuest, Inc., and he spent nine years with Shaman Pharmaceuticals. Jonathan Wolin, JD, MBA, CPA: Chief of Staff, Chief Compliance Officer & General Counsel Mr. Wolin joined Jaguar’s team in November 2018. He brings more than 25 years of compliance, legal, and business experience with a number of life science, biotech and healthcare companies. Prior to joining Jaguar, Mr. Wolin was the Chief Administrative Officer for Pacific Pulmonary Services. He also served as the Chief Compliance Officer at other public and private companies, including Natera, Inc. Pacific Pulmonary Services, and Celera, Inc. Additionally, Mr. Wolin was General Counsel for Berkeley HeartLab, Inc. and a healthcare partner at the Mintz Levin law firm (Washington, DC). Jon has been part of leadership teams during three acquisitions, an IPO, and a turnaround. He is also certified in Healthcare Compliance and Healthcare Privacy Compliance. Ian H. Wendt, MBA: Chief Commercial Officer Prior to joining Jaguar, Mr. Wendt was at Gilead Sciences in a variety of field leadership and marketing roles in the HIV and hepatitis C therapeutic areas. Most recently, he led strategy and tactical development for a national team focused on policy and protocol development within key HIV treatment and prevention accounts, capacity building, and direct patient education. Mr. Wendt was also responsible for Gilead’s efforts to increase hepatitis C virus screening and treatment among non-specialist health care practitioners in support of Gilead’s market development efforts for a $10 billion brand franchise. Before Gilead, Mr. Wendt was at Boehringer Ingelheim, where he led HIV and oncology sales teams across the US, and led commercial operations at Roxane Laboratories, which included sales operations, analytics, incentive compensation, and training. He received a BSc from Acadia University and an MBA from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Melissa Yeager, J.D.: Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs & Quality Assurance Ms. Yeager has held management positions in regulatory affairs, quality assurance and operations with Fortune 500 corporations such as Gilead Sciences and Becton Dickinson as well as specialized biotechnology ventures that include Alder BioPharmaceuticals, Breath Therapeutics, and Cardeas Pharma. Her major achievements include drug, device and combination product approvals in more than 40 countries. She has provided key leadership through all phases of product development and product approval efforts for multiple pharmaceutical products including Vyepti®, Cayston® and TOBI®, the first approved inhalation antibiotic product. Ms. Yeager additionally has extensive experience in directing company compliance in accordance with international standards for laboratory testing and human clinical trial and manufacturing activities. She received her B.A. degree in Human Biology from Stanford University and her J.D. degree from Santa Clara University. Karen Brunke, PhD: Executive Vice President, Corporate & Business Development Dr. Brunke brings to Jaguar over 30 years of scientific, operational, clinical, senior executive, and corporate development experience in both large and small biotechnology companies. Following her post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute for Cancer Research in Fox Chase, Dr. Brunke joined the seeds division of Sandoz, with her most recent position having been Research Director, overseeing a department whose successes included recombinant insect-resistant plants (GMOs) which have been an important backbone for the greater than $3 billion seed business of the now Syngenta Seeds. She was next part of the executive team that merged Mercator Genetics with Progenitor and helped take the resultant company public. Dr. Brunke was COO of Anexus Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of the Japanese public company MediBic, responsible for in- and out-licensing assistance for Japanese companies, and was next founding CEO of Cardeus Pharmaceuticals, a neuroscience company. In business and corporate development, Dr. Brunke has had primary responsibility for negotiating multiple partnerships and licenses, including with MedImmune and Astellas, and assisted in closing a deal with GlaxoSmithKline, among others. Dr. Brunke received her BA degree in Biochemistry as well as PhD in Microbiology from the University of Pennsylvania. Brian Sutton: National Business Director Mr. Sutton previously served as western regional business director for Napo. Prior to joining Napo, he was an executive cardiovascular hospital account manager with Novartis, an executive institutional business manager with Bristol-Myers Squib in HIV, and an institutional diabetes account Manager with Novo Nordisk A/S, and held roles with Shire, Johnson & Johnson and other companies in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. He has a B.S. in Marketing from Penn State University and an M.S. in Information Systems Engineering from the CHUBB Institute. Michael K. Guy, DVM, MS, PhD: Vice President, Preclinical & Nonclinical Studies ‘Dr. Mike’ joined Jaguar in September 2015 with over 20 years of experience in animal and human pharmaceutical development. Dr. Guy has worked in clinical development, manufacturing, regulatory and pre-clinical drug discovery, and he has worked at Amgen, Heska, Colorado Serum Company, Lloyd Pharmaceuticals, Virbac Animal Health, and most recently, the Morris Animal Foundation, where he created and recruited the largest and longest clinical trial ever done in dogs – the 3,000 dog Golden Retriever Lifetime Study. In addition, Dr. Mike has over 12 years of experience as a practicing veterinarian, and his patients have included everything from dogs, cats, horses and ferrets to birds, wildlife and zoo animals. Dr. Guy still maintains his veterinary license and volunteers as a spay/neuter surgeon at a local animal shelter. At Jaguar, Dr. Mike supervises all animal health clinical studies, is involved in regulatory, safety assessment and manufacturing, and he advises on the many other scientific and medical activities within the company. © Copyright 2020 Jaguar Health Contact Us | Careers | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Social Media Policy | Website Accessibility Feedback Email | Web Accessibility Feedback Form | Admin |