Management Team
Sheridan G. Snyder, OBE, LLB (Hon), President and Chief Executive Officer
Sherry Snyder has a long career of creating successful start-ups. He created his first start-up in 1963, a high-speed mailing machine which was sold to Pitney Bowes in 1969. Since that time, he has created 14 commercial start-ups and organizations, all of which are operating. He received an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of Dundee, Scotland in 2004 and was appointed an Officer of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen of England in 2006 for his contributions in the development of biotechnology.
Mr. Snyder started his biotech career in 1981 when he founded Genzyme and personally funded its first years of development. With the involvement of Scientific Founder, Henry Blair, Genzyme formed a collaboration with Dr. Roscoe Brady, an NIH clinician and researcher who developed an enzyme replacement treatment for Gaucher’s Disease. Genzyme’s focus on orphan diseases has been the result of the strategic direction developed at its inception and has resulted in 2010 revenues of $4.05 Billion. Instapak, a division of Sealed Air Corporation, is also a $1 Billion+ current operation of a Snyder start-up. Instapak is a novel form of industrial packing based on foam-in-place techniques. It began development in 1971 and was sold to Sealed Air Corporation in 1976 and now operates as Sealed Air’s largest Divisions.
Snyder created Biotage, a biotools company focused on specialty chromatography, which was later sold for $85 Million. He funded and created Upstate Biotechnology in 1996, which was sold in 2004 for $205 Million. $45 Million of the proceeds of this transaction were donated to the University of Virginia to support a new Cancer Center, Children’s Hospital and Translation Research Center. He founded Xcovery with Dr. Chris Liang in 2006, that same year he founded a Molecular Diagnostics Company, Molecular MD with Brian Druker, developer of Gleevec® (Novartis)
Chris Liang, Ph.D., Director, EVP and Chief Scientific Officer
In 1984, Dr. Liang was awarded a scholarship as one of the top university undergraduate students in China, to pursue a graduate degree at Princeton University. Dr. Liang graduated with his Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry and quantum physics. Following a five year tenure at Accelrys, Dr. Liang joined SUGEN as the Director of Medicinal Chemistry in 1996. While at SUGEN, Dr. Liang applied his background in computational and quantum chemistry to the development of Sutent®, an FDA approved multi-kinase inhibitor for Gleevec® resistant gastrointestinal stromal tumors and renal cell carcinoma. SUGEN’s laboratories were closed in 2003 as part of the reorganization following Pfizer’s purchase of Pharmacia. In 2004, Dr. Liang was appointed Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Scripps Research Institute, Florida. His research focused on the design of protein kinase inhibitors by combining computational modeling and combinatorial chemistry. His recent work with Xcovery has focused on the reduction of elevated toxicity in existing multi-kinase inhibitors.
Dr. Liang has over 30 scientific publications and 30 patents.
James Gibbons, PhD,Vice President, Oncology
Dr. Jay Gibbons has more than 25 years experience in translational oncology research. Recently, Dr. Gibbons served as AVP, Oncology Research, Wyeth Research. In this role he was instrumental in filing eight IND’s and the NDA for Torisel® (temsirolimus), currently approved for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma. He is an expert in the PI3K/mTor signaling pathway and has published numerous scientific papers on this topic. Dr. Gibbons is responsible for the translational development of Xcovery’s preclinical drug candidates through IND enabling studies and Phase I human clinical trials.
Dr. Gibbons has over 50 scientific publications and 9 patents.