Board of Directors
Frank E. O'Donnell, Jr. MD : Chairman
Mark A. Sirgo, Pharm. D. : President and Chief Executive Officer
William B. Stone : Lead Director
John J. Shea
William S. Poole
Frank E. O'Donnell, Jr. MD
Chairman
Frank E. O'Donnell, Jr. MD. has been our Chairman of the Board and a Director on a full time basis since 2002. He is our former President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. O'Donnell serves as managing director of The Hopkins Capital Group, an affiliation of limited liability companies which engage in private equity and venture capital investing in disruptive technologies in healthcare. He is a co-founder and chairman of RetinaPharma Technologies, Inc. which now includes Tatton Technologies, LLC, and a co-founder of Biotech Specialty Partners, LLC, an alliance of specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He serves as Chairman and CEO of Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. O'Donnell is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and received his residency training at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. O'Donnell is a former professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, St. Louis University School of Medicine. Dr. O'Donnell holds 34 U.S. Patents. Dr. O'Donnell is the 2000 Recipient of the Jules Stein Vision Award sponsored by Retinitis Pigmentosa International. He is a trustee of the Health Careers Foundation and of St Louis University.
Mark A. Sirgo, Pharm. D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mark A. Sirgo, Pharm.D. has been our President and Chief Executive Officer since July 2005. Dr. Sirgo joined our company in August 2004 as Senior Vice President of Commercialization and Corporate Development upon the acquisition of Arius Pharmaceuticals, of which Dr. Sirgo was a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Sirgo has also served as our Executive Vice President, Corporate and Commercial Development, and Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Sirgo has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including 16 years in clinical drug development; seven years in marketing, sales, and business development, and five years in executive management. Prior to his involvement with Arius Pharmaceuticals from 2003 to 2004, he spent 16 years in a variety of positions of increasing responsibility in both clinical development and marketing at Glaxo, Glaxo Wellcome, and GlaxoSmithKline, including Vice President of International OTC Development and Vice President of New Product Marketing. Dr. Sirgo was responsible for managing the development and FDA approval of Zantac 75 while at Glaxo Wellcome, among other accomplishments. From 1996 to 1999, Dr. Sirgo was Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing at Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc. Dr. Sirgo serves on the Board of Salix Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: SLXP), a specialty pharmaceutical company specializing in gastrointestinal products. Dr. Sirgo received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Ohio State University and his Doctorate from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.
William B. Stone
Lead Director*
William B. Stone is a member of our board of directors. For thirty years, until his retirement in October 2000, Mr. Stone was employed with Mallinckrodt Inc. For the last twenty years of his career, held positions of Vice President and Corporate Controller and Vice President and Chief Information Officer for 16 years and 4 years, respectively. Mr. Stone is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia where he earned BS and MA degrees in accounting, and is a Certified Public Accountant.
*On July 26, 2007, the Board of Directors of BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc. created the position of Lead Director. The Board designated William B. Stone, an existing director, as the Lead Director of the Company.
John J. Shea
John J. Shea is a member of our board of directors. He is currently the head of his own firm of John J. Shea & Associates and has also been a Quality Systems Adviser with Quintiles, a private consulting firm. Mr. Shea has been employed at John J. Shea Associates since 1989. Mr. Shea has also served in the capacity of Director of Quality Assurance and was responsible for the implementation of quality assurance procedures in a number of public companies. From 1987-1989, he served as Director of Quality Assurance at NeoRx Corporation. Mr. Shea was also the Director of Corporate Quality Assurance at Hexcel Corporation from 1980-1987. Mr. Shea has also served as the quality assurance person for other companies including, Teledyne Relays, Ortho Diagnostics, Inc. and Bio Reagents & Diagnostics, Inc. Mr. Shea earned a B.S. in Chemistry at Bethany College.
William S. Poole
William S. Poole was appointed to our board of directors on April 28, 2005. He was formerly a member of Arius' Commercial Advisory Board. Mr. Poole has extensive experience in the bio-pharmaceutical and medical device industries for over thirty years. From 1972 to early 1996, Mr. Poole worked for Lederle Laboratories, a Division of American Cyanamid Company. During his 24-year career at Cyanamid, Mr. Poole held positions of increasing responsibility and held the position of World-Wide Division President of the Medical Device Division when Wyeth acquired Cyanamid in 1995. After a brief stint as President of Fisons Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Rhone Poulenc-Rorer, Mr. Poole went on to become President, North American Pharmaceuticals, of Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals, where he served from 1997 to 2000. From 2001 to 2003, he served as President of Biovail Pharmaceuticals. In both of these companies, Mr. Poole was instrumental in aggressively growing revenue, building a solid management team and dramatically improving profitability. As President of these firms, Mr. Poole had total P&L responsibility and directly oversaw vice presidents in charge of manufacturing, research & development, sales, legal, marketing, finance, regulatory and human resources functions. Since his departure from Biovail, Mr. Poole has acted as an independent consultant to the pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Poole graduated from Boston University in 1972 with a B.A. Psychology.