Executive Team
George Simeon
CEO & Board Director
George Simeon is the CEO of Curevo Vaccine. He joined Curevo at the beginning of 2019 and has over 30 years of experience in the healthcare sector working with multinational firms, start-ups, and not-for-profits. He has worked in biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, IVD, and healthcare convergence technologies. He has worked extensively in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Before moving to the USA, he was based in South Korea from 2014-2018, where he worked for SK Telecom’s Healthcare Division in M&A and global strategic alliances. In 2016, he joined Sollers Partners, a cross-border investment advisory firm, while maintaining an advisory role with SK Telecom.
He has worked across Europe and the USA as an executive with Johnson & Johnson, as the founding Vice-President of Cordis Neurovascular Europe, and with GHX Europe as a Commercial Vice-President. He also spent 3 years with Novartis Global Headquarters in Switzerland working on projects in their CNS portfolio in Health Economics and Pricing.
George has also founded two start-ups and advised GS1 on their global entry and expansion into the Healthcare, High-Tech, and Customs sectors as well as on ESG practices in FMCG logistics.
George is a graduate of INSEAD (MBA) and Yale University (MPH).
Gregory S. Curhan
CFO
Greg Curhan has been the acting CFO of Curevo Vaccine since 2020. He has over 35 years of operational, financial, capital markets and strategic advisory experience in various sectors including Investment Banking, Medical Device/Life Sciences, Internet, Clean Technology, and Investment/Wealth Management. Greg has been a Partner at FLG Partners since 2020. As CFO, Greg has managed Finance, Legal, HR, and Investor Relations functions for Public and Private companies. He has raised equity and debt capital for both private and public companies, completed numerous successful IPOs, and executed M&A transactions both acquiring and divesting companies. He has also served in CEO, President and Board of Director capacities. In July 2020, Greg was appointed to the Advisory Board at Specific Diagnostics as the company prepares to launch its Reveal rapid susceptibility testing system in Europe.
Greg founded and was President of an investment bank (Merriman Curhan Ford) growing it from pre-revenue startup to 250 employees, $90 million in revenue, profitability, and a Nasdaq listing within 7 years. The investment bank raised over $5 billion dollars for corporate clients (both public and private) during that period in IPOs, Public offerings, PIPE financings and Private Placements, while also executing successful M&A engagements in various Technology, Biotech, Medical Technology and Consumer sectors.
Prior to joining FLG, Greg was CFO and SVP Corporate Development of Providence Medical Technology, a venture backed medical device manufacturer whose purpose is to improve clinical outcomes for high-risk patients and prevent surgical failures of the cervical spine. At Providence Greg raised multiple rounds of equity investment, identifying and bringing in a new lead investor in the company’s largest private round to date. He arranged new debt financing facilities, increasing the size and extending the maturity twice in three years. He introduced long term FP&A practices to support strategy formation and capital raising, including budgeting for a multi-year, randomized clinical trial.
Prior to that Greg was CEO of Clickworker USA, a US subsidiary of a venture backed German Crowdsourcing platform. He was EVP and CFO of MCF Corporation, the parent company of Merriman Curhan Ford. He was also CFO of WorldRes, a venture backed web-based hotel reservation booking engine. In addition, Greg has worked for various investment banking firms including Merrill Lynch, Montgomery Securities, Volpe Brown Whelan and MLV.
Greg earned a BA degree in Economics (summa cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa) from Dartmouth College. He was an Adjunct Professor teaching Entrepreneurial Finance to MBA students at Dominican University and wrote and published a Novel Indomitable Spirit.
Julie A. Brooks
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Julie Brooks has over 30 years of experience as Chief Legal & Compliance Officer and Secretary for international public and private corporations in life sciences, medical devices and ecommerce. She has advised Boards and CEOs of 5 NASDAQ and 5 VC-backed companies as General Counsel as well as counseling multiple Biotechnology, Molecular Diagnostics and Medical Device Companies operating globally.
Neil Barth, MD, FACP
Medical Director
Dr. Neil Barth is president and founder of Genomics Institute LLC, a privately held healthcare consultancy in Kamuela, Hawaii. His 40-year career in hematology and medical oncology has extended across the full range of healthcare environments from private practice in Orange County, California; senior physician executive for Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach, California; and more recently as Chief Medical Officer, building and leading both clinical affairs and medical affairs teams, for biotechnology companies for both domestic and international commercialization of molecular diagnostics. Dr. Barth holds three lifetime board certifications in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology and has been a Fellow of the American College of Physicians since 1988.
In his current role, Dr. Barth is able to leverage his more than four decades of experience as a physician leader/clinical researcher in oncology to guide, medical strategic direction, clinical research, KOL engagement, and regulatory and payer interface for organizations whose focus is on oncology clinical care, immuno-therapy products and strategies, or molecular diagnostics. His extensive management experience with physicians/medical directors, PhDs, clinical and laboratory technologists, and commercial teams in both the private and public sectors has created a unique pedigree for organizations that require deep clinical and basic science knowledge with management skills at the C-suite level. Clinical translation of complex basic science into successful clinical trial design and execution for commercialization of both therapeutics and medical devices (IVDMIA’s). A unique passion and strength is his ability to simplify and clarify messaging both within the scientific and medical arenas as well as among the investment community. This is validated in an extensive peer-reviewed bibliography and both domestic and international speaking engagements. Organizations that are striving to achieve the triple aim of therapeutic effectiveness, patient centered focus, and cost-effectiveness in a dynamic economic and regulatory environment have benefited from of Dr. Barth’s experience and efforts.
Andrea Wang
VP CMC Operations
Andrea Wang is the VP CMC Operations of Curevo Vaccine. She joined Curevo at the beginning of 2022 and has over 20 years of experience in the Biotech industry developing therapeutic drugs including monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibodies, recombinant protein drugs as well as ADC. Her work has been focused on the CMC development for earlier phase clinical studies as well as commercial drug manufacturing. She also had experience working with QA and RA for cGMP compliance and regulatory applications.
Before joining Curevo, Andrea worked at Aptevo as Senior Director for 3.5 years overseeing product quality and CMC activities for multiple projects. During this time, she played critical roles in obtaining FDA approval for a new dose strength of IXINITY®, for specification revision and drug product shelf-life extension. In addition, she participated in Scientific Advice meetings as CMC expert, and led various activities supporting several clinical stage programs. Prior to Joining Aptevo, Andrea worked at Silverback, Askgene, Allozyne and Corixa, and her work span from protein engineering to drug candidate screening/selections, from cGMP production to clinical sample testing. Andrea had 15 peer-reviewed publications, 2 book chapters, and more than 20 patents.
Andrea obtained her B.S. in Chemistry from Tsinghua in Beijing, China, and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Southern Illinois University, IL. She received her postdoctoral training in University of California, San Diego.
Emma Fritzen
Director, Program Management
Emma Fritzen, Director, Program Management for Curevo and has proven experience developing and managing contracts, scope, and budgets in clinical and corporate operations. Emma also has experience with GMP and laboratory oversight, and management of teams, and represents Curevo’s strategic operations in cross-functional initiatives.
Lisa Shelton
Director, Clinical Development
Lisa Shelton, ARNP is the Director Clinical Operations and Development and a Nurse Practitioner. She joined Curevo in 2018 and has over 20 years of experience in clinical research, biotech, and the medical field combined. A leader in clinical trial investigation and study management in both sponsor and clinical site roles, including sponsor roles in clinical development and operations of first-in-human, phase 1 vaccine, and immunotherapy oncology studies and an experienced clinical site sub-investigator for first-in-human and phase 1-3 trials in infectious disease vaccine and immunotherapy allergy trials.
Dennis Aguiling
Director, Clinical Operations
Dennis Aguiling joins Curevo with 15 years of experience in clinical research and development. His career began as a clinical research coordinator at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, and progressed to sponsor side clinical operations within the San Francisco Bay Area life sciences sphere. His therapeutic experience spans multiple indications including hematology and oncology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, and rare diseases.
Dennis is the Director of Clinical Operations. Prior to joining Curevo, he was the Director of Clinical Operations at Spruce Biosciences overseeing development of treatments for rare congenital endocrine disorders. Prior to Spruce Biosciences, he has served as a subject matter expert in quality trial execution at Nektar Therapeutics, Immune Design Corp, and Gilead Sciences. Dennis has dedicated his career to bridging bench to clinic development through thoughtful planning and strategy, as well as mentorship and development of the next generation of life sciences leaders and professionals. Outside of work, Dennis enjoys traveling to local and distant destinations, civic engagement, and tasting his way through new places.
Shail Shah
Director, Regulatory Affairs
Shail Shah is the Director of Regulatory Affairs and a Bioengineer. Shail has over 12 years of experience in Regulatory Affairs Strategy & Operations, Quality Systems, and Process Development in Small molecules and Biologics. He has in-depth experience in the commercial vaccine space and working with USFDA, Health Canada and EU Health authorities. Shail is passionate about the development of innovative, robust and affordable vaccine technology platforms.
He had filed over 15 commercial small molecule drug products, performed 40+ cGMP quality audits, and hosted over 10 Agency inspections. He has an MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School, Masters with a Thesis on Biomaterials from Texas Tech University, and B.Tech in Biotechnology from Dr. D.Y Patil University. He is accredited with Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC-Drugs) by Regulatory Affairs Professional Society.
Abu Siddiqui
Director, Immunology
Abu Siddiqui is the Director of Immunology of Curevo Vaccine. He joined Curevo in July of 2022 and has over 20 years of scientific and strategic experience in the pharmaceutical industry, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) supporting the regulated bioanalysis for vaccines, biotherapeutics, and in-vitro diagnostic research and discovery for infectious diseases, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. He is a subject matter expert in immunogenicity, pharmacokinetics, translational biomarkers, and in-vitro diagnostics assay development, fit-for-purpose qualification, and GLP compliance validation to support preclinical and clinical samples bioanalyses. He possesses deep regulatory knowledge including FDA, ICH, EMA, and PMDA with subject matter proficiency in data analyses. He has extensive experience overseeing contract research organization (CRO) in partnership or alliance settings across international boundaries.
Before joining Curevo, Abu worked as an independent consultant and played critical role in CEPI to identify potential partners to fund testing for immune response elicited by SAR-CoV-2, MERS, Lassa, Nipah, Rift Valley Fever, Chikungunya, and Ebola vaccines; and in the FDA to identify commercial in-vitro diagnostics products for emergency use authorization of SARS CoV-2 laboratory-based, quick-response, point-of-care, and in-home test.
Prior to consultancy role, Abu worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and Merck and serve as principal investigator for immunogenicity and safety assessment of vaccines and biotherapeutics for early research programs right through preclinical and clinical trials. He also oversaw bioanalytical laboratory operations and lead scientists for anti-drug antibodies, neutralizing antibodies, pharmacokinetics, and translational biomarker method development, validation, and bioanalysis to support preclinical clinical studies per Good Laboratory Practices.
Abu obtained his M.S in Microbiology from Dhaka University, Bangladesh, Ph.D. in Immunology from Stockholm University, Sweden, and postdoctoral training at Stanford University, California.
Board of Directors
George Simeon
George Simeon is the CEO of Curevo Vaccine. He joined Curevo at the beginning of 2019 and has over 30 years of experience in the healthcare sector working with multinational firms, start-ups, and not-for-profits. He has worked in biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, IVD, and healthcare convergence technologies. He has worked extensively in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Before moving to the USA, he was based in South Korea from 2014-2018, where he worked for SK Telecom’s Healthcare Division in M&A and global strategic alliances. In 2016, he joined Sollers Partners, a cross-border investment advisory firm, while maintaining an advisory role with SK Telecom.
He has worked across Europe and the USA as an executive with Johnson & Johnson, as the founding Vice-President of Cordis Neurovascular Europe, and with GHX Europe as a Commercial Vice-President. He also spent 3 years with Novartis Global Headquarters in Switzerland working on projects in their CNS portfolio in Health Economics and Pricing.
George has also founded two start-ups and advised GS1 on their global entry and expansion into the Healthcare, High-Tech, and Customs sectors as well as on ESG practices in FMCG logistics.
George is a graduate of INSEAD (MBA) and Yale University (MPH).
Jae Uk Jeong
Jae Uk Jeong is currently working at GC Biopharma in Korea as a head of research and early development and executive vice president since October 2021 with over 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in many therapeutic areas. He served as the president of Mogam Institute for Biomedical Research, Korea’s first privately funded non-profit research institute focusing on the development of life science technology from February 2020 to April 2022.
He had worked at GSK near Philadelphia for 22 years since 1998 after completing his postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute under the guidance of Nobel Prize laureate, Professor K. Barry Sharpless. He continued to accumulate notable research achievements in several therapeutic areas including immuno-inflammation, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and oncology as a medicinal chemist. Prior to obtaining his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at Purdue University, he received his B.S. and M.S. in chemistry from Sogang University and he worked as a research scientist at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Seoul, Korea from 1996 to 1998. He served as the President of Korean American Society in Biotech and Pharmaceuticals (KASBP) from 2015 to 2017.
Mario Barro, PhD
Mario is a Director of Innovation, Vaccines at RA Capital. Mario has more than two decades of experience in vaccinology, virology and immunology research in large pharma, government, academy and biotech settings. Prior to joining RA Capital, Mario was Associate Vice President for Advanced Research at Sanofi Pasteur where he created and executed a novel integrative strategy for influenza vaccine development including Machine Learning, Automation, High Through Put, Antigen Design, Translational Models, Data Viz, Scrum Agile and New CMC Platforms.
He authored patents in the use of ML to create novel translational models, vaccine antigen selection and design that were tested in the clinic. Prior to this, Mario held a Project Director position at BARDA with the highest US project certification (COTR III) leading technical completion of multiyear vaccine development programs. At BARDA, he led collaborative/networks/partnerships with both government and private partners. He also evaluated government market research for new vaccine technologies/programs, qualification of services to government and commercial clients, and negotiated contracts for the vaccine industry and the US Government. He also acted as CSO for a small vaccine start up (Global Vaccines Inc) that developed novel adjuvants and chimeric viruses for HIV and other targets. Mario received postdoctoral training at the NIH and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in innate immunity and bioinformatics. He earned a PhD in microbiology at University of Chile and a MS in Nuclear Physics. He is an active reviewer for NIH grants and contracts.
Charlie Petty
Charlie is the co-founder of Adjuvant Capital, which manages a $300m venture capital fund focused on life sciences technologies for high-burden public health challenges. Previously, he was with the Global Health Investment Fund, an experimental investment vehicle formed by JP Morgan and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to his career investing in global health research and development, he was a private equity investor at Artemis.
Charlie Spent the first two years of his career in Haiti as a financial analyst at the country’s largest microfinance bank, Fonkoze.
Baeksik Bae
Baeksik Bae is the Head of the Corporate Strategy Division at GC Pharma. Prior to GC Pharma, he worked as a General Manager & Team Leader for Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction for seven years and The Boston Consulting Group as a Management Consultant for eight years. Baeksik received MBA from Columbia Business School, M.S. from KAIST Management Engineering, and B.S. from KAIST Civil Engineering.
Scientific Advisors
David Koelle, MD
Dr. Koelle is a professor of Medicine and Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington. His research focuses on the T cell immune response to viruses in the alphaherpesvirus family, including varicella-zoster virus (VZV), the cause of shingles, as well as herpes simplex virus (HSV). Candidate HSV vaccines have been advanced through discovery, pre-clinical, and clinical stages of development. The laboratory also performs immune monitoring tests for specimens from vaccine clinical trials. Studies are sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health and by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. In addition to research, Dr. Koelle sees patients and assists with T cell-based diagnostic testing at the University of Washington.
Steven Reed, PhD
Steve Reed is CEO of HDT Bio in Seattle, and Curevo’s Executive Advisor and Director. His academic appointments include Professor of Medicine at Cornell University Medical College in New York and a Research Professor of Pathobiology at the University of Washington. He serves on several editorial review committees, has served as a member of the Tropical Medicine Review Board of the National Institutes of Health, and has served as a member of diagnostic and vaccine steering committees of the World Health Organization. Steve’s research interests have focused on the immunology of intracellular infections, and the development of vaccines and diagnostics for both cancer and infectious diseases. In addition to HDT, he has founded the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) and co-founded two other biotech companies, Immune Design Corp and Corixa Corp.
Peter Gilbert, PhD
Peter Gilbert is a biostatistician whose research centers on the design and analysis of randomized clinical trials for preventive vaccines against HIV and other pathogens, including dengue, malaria, and herpes zoster. Dr. Gilbert received his Ph.D. in biostatistics from the University of Washington in 1996. Following five years at Harvard Biostatistics, he has been at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington. Dr. Gilbert’s two main research activities over the past 20 years have been leading for the Statistical Data Management Center of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, and methodological and applied statistical research for evaluation of vaccine efficacy and evaluation of immunological/viral sequence correlates of vaccine efficacy.
Dr. Myron Levin, MD
Myron J. Levin is a Professor of Pediatrics & Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine (UCSOM) in the section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology, and he is the Associate Director of the Pediatric HIV Clinic. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1960 and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center (Einstein Medical School).
He spent three years at the National Institutes of Health; the last two years devoted to research in molecular virology. He returned to Harvard in 1969 to complete a fellowship in Infectious Diseases and, as an Associate Professor, to become the first Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Sidney Farber Cancer Center (now the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute). In 1982, he moved to Colorado as a Professor and Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. In 2002, he resigned from this role but remained as Director of the Vaccine Research clinic. His research interests are in clinical virology, antiviral therapy, vaccinology, and immune responses to vaccines. He has published more than 450 peer-reviewed papers, chapters and books.
Hannah Nam
Hannah Nam is a senior investigator and the head of infectious disease research in MOGAM Institute for Biomedical Research. She has over 10 years of research and development in industry and has experience in infectious disease area including preventative vaccines and therapeutics. Her main research focuses are on early research, preclinical efficacy, and immunogenicity studies.