Developing novel medicines for autoimmune,
inflammatory, and neurodegenerative diseases

Mark serves as our Chief Medical Officer. Mark is a physician scientist with deep expertise in clinical drug development. Prior to joining Ventyx, Mark served as Chief Medical Officer at Passage Bio, where he oversaw and managed their research and development portfolio focused on gene therapies for central nervous system disease. Dr. Forman has nearly two decades of experience in translational research for neurological disorders, including positions of increasing responsibility at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, Acadia Pharmaceuticals, and Merck. Earlier in his career, Mark was an Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania. Mark received his Ph.D. at Rockefeller University, M.D. at Duke University and B.S. at Yale University.

Raju founded Ventyx Biosciences and has served as a member of our board of directors since the company’s inception. Prior to Ventyx, Raju founded Akarna Therapeutics, which was acquired by Allergan for up to $1.2B. In addition to Ventyx, Raju has founded Oppilan Pharma, Zomagen Biosciences, Escalier Biosciences and Vimalan Biosciences, all immunology-focused specialty pharmaceutical companies. From 2006 to 2011, Raju served as Vice President and head of the San Diego site for Exelixis and Vice President of Chemistry at X-Ceptor Therapeutics (acquired by Exelixis). Raju started his pharmaceutical career at Berlex Biosciences, a subsidiary of Bayer/Schering AG, where he held positions of increasing responsibility. Raju is responsible for the discovery of multiple small molecule drug candidates that have entered clinical trials. He is the inventor of MINNEBRO^®, an approved therapeutic for hypertension. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and is an inventor on 64 issued US patents. Raju received a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Illinois and a Master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Matthew is our Chief Operating Officer and has over 25 years of transactional and operational experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Before joining Ventyx, he served as Chief Business Officer at Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc., where he led corporate strategy, business development and project management functions. Earlier in his career, Matthew held positions of increasing responsibility at AbbVie, Allergan and its predecessor companies, Actavis and Forest Labs, where he was responsible for creating and executing business development growth strategies across multiple therapeutic areas including medical aesthetics, neuroscience, anti-infectives, and critical care. Matthew started his career in the healthcare investment banking group at CIBC Oppenheimer. Matthew earned his BA in psychology from Trinity College.

John brings more than 25 years of small molecule drug discovery and development experience to the company, primarily in the areas of immunology, inflammation, oncology and metabolic disease. Prior to joining Ventyx, John was Vice President of Drug Discovery at the Ferring Research Institute where he was responsible for global drug discovery activities. John also previously served as Senior Vice President of Chemistry at Exelixis. Under his leadership, his teams have advanced more than 30 molecules into the clinic. He is the co-inventor of the approved therapeutics COMETRIQ^®/CABOMETYX^® and MINNEBRO^®, and led the team that discovered COTELLIC^®. Earlier in his career, he held positions of increasing responsibility in discovery at Chiron and served as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside. John has more than 80 publications and 30 issued patents. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Kansas, a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow in organic synthesis at Stanford University.

Roy is our Senior Vice President of Finance and our Principal Financial and Accounting Officer. He has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, medical device, transportation, and consumer electronics industries. Before joining Ventyx, he began his career at KPMG LLP and has also served in various finance leadership roles with companies such as Dexcom, Arena Pharmaceuticals, and Landos Biopharma. Outside of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, he also held positions at Norfolk Southern Corporation, Sony Electronics, and a contract role at Invesco US. Roy received his MBA from UCLA, a BSBA from Old Dominion University, and a BA from Virginia Tech. He is also a licensed CPA in the state of Virginia.

Snehal Naik, PhD is Senior Vice President, Clinical Development. Snehal’s diverse career has spanned 20 years in the biopharmaceutical industry with roles of increasing responsibility at Arena Pharmaceuticals, Prometheus Laboratories, Pfizer, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Merck. Snehal has a PhD in Pharmacology from Temple University School of Medicine, and a bachelor’s degree in biology from University of Kentucky.

Kathy is Senior Vice President, Translational and Non-Clinical Research for Ventyx Biosciences. She leads the effort to predict the effects of potential therapeutics in the human body (i.e., pharmacology, DMPK and toxicology). Over her 25-year career in San Diego pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, she has received several performance-related awards, led or made major contributions to more than 15 clinical candidates, published more than 40 papers, and mentored numerous scientists to promotions and graduate school. In the community, Kathy serves on board of the San Diego Children’s Choir.

Arline is our Senior Vice President of Biometrics. She has over 35 years of experience in the biotech industry as a biostatistician, a biostatistics therapeutic area head, and ultimately a Biometrics department head. In these roles, she has worked in numerous therapeutic areas including inflammation, cardiovascular, neuroscience, bone health, and endocrine. Before joining Ventyx, Arline spent most of her career at Amgen and, more recently, successfully grew a Biometrics department at Neurocrine Biosciences. Arline received an MS in Applied Mathematical Statistics and BS degrees in Mathematics and Biological Sciences at University of California, Irvine.