Jerry Norskog    |    Chairman & Co-Founder

Jerry had an award-winning 30 year career as a senior executive with Johnson & Johnson in North America and throughout Asia and was a central part of a team that built and operated companies for Johnson and Johnson in 15 countries in the Asia Pacific. Serving 10 years in China, Jerry and a talented team helped to found, build and operate Johnson and Johnson’s key franchises: Consumer (BandAid), Medical Device and Diagnostics, OTC (Tylenol) and XJP Janssen Pharmaceutical founded by Dr. Paul Janssen in Xian China. Jerry's close relationship and respect for Dr. Paul led him to pursue drug development and the co-founding of Genyous Biomed and Omnitura Therapeutics.

Paul Freiman | Director

Mr. Freiman’s career spans more than 50 years in healthcare, starting as a salesman at ER Squibb & Sons in 1958, before joining Syntex as a salesman in 1962 and rising through the ranks. By the time of its acquisition by Roche in 1993 for $5.3 Billion, Mr Freiman had become its CEO and Chairman. During his Syntex career, Mr. Freiman served on the Board of PhRMA including its Chairmanship during the Bill and Hillary Clinton attack on the industry from 1994-96, he founded and owned Third Age Consulting, San Francisco, consulting on Pharmaceuticals and Boards of Directors. From 1996-2009, Mr. Freiman was CEO of Neurobiological Technologies Inc, a California-based biotech company. More recently (2009-14), he has been a partner in BB Investments, Rio de Janeiro, helping to discover and fund a nascent Brazilian biotech industry as well as the delivery of healthcare in Brazil. Mr Freiman served as Chairman of Neurotrope, an Alzheimer focused company. He has served on the boards of numerous biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including the US subsidiary of Otsuka and currently serves on the board of NovaBay, a publicly traded company and Chronix a private firm in the field of liquid biopsy.

Mr. Freiman is a native New Yorker, a graduate of Fordham University College of Pharmacy, receiving numerous awards in the field of pharmacy including an Honorary Doctor's degree from the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Collage of Pharmacy in NY. He has served on a number of non-profit boards including Chairmanship of United Way Silicon Valley, Founding Chair of the American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley and is currently on the Fordham University Scientific Advisory Board.

John Ruckdeschel, M.D.    |    Director

Dr. Ruckdeschel, director of the UMMC Cancer Center and Research Institute and Ergon Chair of Cancer Research, is also a practicing medical oncologist with a focus on thoracic malignancies.  He trained at Johns Hopkins, Harvard and the National Cancer Institute and then joined the faculty at Albany Medical College.  From there he went on to become the first CEO at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, leading it to NCI Comprehensive designation and a top 10 designation in US News and World Report. He then served as CEO of the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit and the Nevada Cancer Institute in Las Vegas.  Ruckdeschel has received numerous honors, including:

·       Being presented the American Cancer Society St. George National Award for a lifetime body of work to eradicate cancer and his continuing support of the ACS. 

·       Being named to the ACS Mississippi Board of Directors.

·       Being named to the ACS National Lung Cancer Roundtable. 

·       Being recognized at the World Conference on Lung Cancer for continuous attendance at WCLC conference since they started in 1978. 

Since he joined UMMC in January 2017, he has created clinical and scientific boards to set the direction for cancer care and research; to unite efforts of multiple departments to provide better cancer care and more focused research; and to unite scientific research efforts of CCRI members at UMMC, University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University. His research focuses on lung cancer and patient-physician communication resulting in close to 200 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Simon B Sutcliffe, MD, FRCP, FRCP(C), FRCR | Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Sutcliffe is a clinical oncologist (retired), having been President & CEO of the Princess Margaret Hospital/Ontario Cancer Institute (1994-1996) and the BC Cancer Agency (2000- 2009). Board appointments include; Premier Diversified Holdings (including Premier Diagnostics Centre/INITIO Medical Innovations); InspireHealth, Omnitura Inc., QuBiologics Inc., the International Cancer Control Congress Association, Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration – INCTR Canada, the Institute for Health Systems Transformation and Sustainability (2010-2016); the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC, 2009-2012), the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR, 2000-7), and Genome BC (2000-2008).

He is an Adjunct Clinical Professor (UBC) and an Associate Scientist (BC Cancer Agency), and has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth 50th Jubilee Gold Medal (2003), the Terry Fox Award of the BC Medical Association (2009), and the LifeSciences B.C. Dr. Don Rix Award (2015).

Dr. Sutcliffe graduated in medicine with honours in 1970, and obtained his Doctoral thesis in 1979.

Dr. Sutcliffe has published extensively in the areas of radiation and medical oncology as applied to the treatment of lymphoma, leukemia, bone marrow transplantation, endocrine malignancies, fertility and gonadal function in cancer patients and cellular immuno-deficiency and immuno-modulation in cancer.

Lee Ting    |    Director and Audit Committee Member

Lee Ting currently serves as a Managing Partner of WR Hambrecht Ventures I and II, an affiliate of WR Hambrecht+Co, an investment bank based in San Francisco. He is an independent Board Member of the Lenovo Group, a leading global IT company based in the US and China, and Neophotonics Inc., a global supplier of optical components and modules to the telecommunications industry based in San Jose, CA. Mr. Ting is a former Corporate Vice President of Hewlett Packard Co. (HP) where he served for more than thirty years. His last position at HP was Corporate Vice President and Managing Director of Worldwide Geographic Operations. During a two-year absence from HP in the late eighties, Mr. Ting was a Senior Vice President of Hambrecht & Quist where he played a key role in the expansion of the firm's venture capital business into Asia.

Jack Troia    |    Director and Audit Committee Chair

Jack Troia was a partner at Deloitte & Touche for fourteen years and in public accounting for over twenty-five years. Mr. Troia was a National Director of the Financial Services Practice and responsible for the financial services groups in the local offices of Deloitte & Touche in Washington, DC and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has significant experience in accounting and auditing for public and private companies, mergers and acquisitions, initial and secondary public offerings, financial management, and general business matters. Over the years he has worked with a significant number of businesses, in all aspects of financial management, business planning, accounting, and information systems. 

After retiring from Deloitte & Touche, Mr. Troia assumed a position at Georgetown University as an adjunct professor. For over five years Mr. Troia was involved with dynamic growing companies as both COO and CFO. He was responsible for all financial and operating aspects including accounting, treasury, human resources, management information systems, and operations.