Ron Philip is President & Chief Executive Officer at Orbital Therapeutics. With more than 30 years of experience across biopharma companies and management consulting, Mr. Philip is a proven leader with extensive experience in building companies, leading organizational growth, and guiding teams through the development of novel therapies.

Prior to joining Orbital, Mr. Philip served as the Chief Executive Officer of Spark Therapeutics where he led the company through the commercial launch of the first approved gene therapy for a genetic disease, LUXTURNA® (voretigene neparvovec-rzyl); led the transition and growth of the company from founder-led to a fully integrated standalone business as part of the Roche Group; pivoted Spark’s platform to target larger disease areas; acquired technologies and therapeutic assets through business development efforts; and oversaw the initiation and build of a state-of-the-art 600,000 sq. ft. Gene Therapy Innovation Center that will open in 2026. Mr. Philip served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Commercial Officer in prior roles at Spark.

Before joining Spark, Mr. Philip spent a decade at Pfizer and Wyeth, where he held several senior leadership roles, including regional president for Africa/Middle East, head of global business unit strategy, head of business development search and evaluation, and commercial development lead within Pfizer’s innovative products business. Earlier, he worked at Deloitte Consulting in the strategy and operations practice and at Merck & Co. in the company’s manufacturing and marketing divisions.

Mr. Philip currently serves as a board member at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia, at the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, at Life Sciences Pennsylvania and was previously an active board member of Cure Duchenne. He is a graduate of Drexel University.

Dr. Gilles Besin joined Orbital Therapeutics in September 2022. He brings 15 years of research experience in immunology and vaccines for infectious diseases, oncology, and metabolic disorders, including rare diseases. Prior to joining Orbital Therapeutics, Dr. Besin led all discovery research efforts at Affinivax as Head of Discovery. In this role, he led a team to discover and develop vaccine candidates  (targeting Staphylococcus, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, Clostridium difficile bacteria and more recently SARS CoV-2 vaccine), and support the development of the Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccine pipeline. Previously to Affinivax, Dr. Besin led the Moderna immunology platform and efforts to optimize the mRNA delivery platform to modulate T cell responses in cancer and autoimmune diseases using lipid nanoparticles. In addition, Dr. Besin has collaborated on numerous Moderna mRNA vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases, some in the clinical phase. Prior to Moderna, Dr. Besin was involved in the discovery of DNA vaccines mainly in cancer, for example hepatocellular carcinoma in In-Cell-ART  (France). Along with these efforts, Dr. Besin has been involved in the development of mRNA vaccines in collaboration with Sanofi Pasteur and CureVac under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency  (DARPA). During his academic career, Dr. Besin worked on the characterization of autoimmune T cells and dendritic cells interaction in Type 1 diabetes at the clinical research center of the University of Sherbrooke in Canada.

Dr. Besin holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Germany and an engineering degree in Biotechnology from ESBS in France.

Anna Dixon is Senior Vice President, Human Resources at Orbital Therapeutics. Ms. Dixon is responsible for all aspects of Orbital’s human resources operations and strategy, including talent acquisition, talent management and organization development, and serves as member of the executive team.

Ms. Dixon brings to Orbital considerable experience in building and leading human resources organizations at life sciences companies. Prior to Orbital, she served as SVP and head of human resources at Pyxis Oncology, where she was responsible for the overall strategic direction of the human resources and talent acquisition functions and served as business partner and contributing member of the senior leadership team. Prior to Pyxis, Ms. Dixon served in roles of increasing responsibility at Solid Biosciences, most recently as VP, human resources.

Ms. Dixon earned her master’s degree in communication management with a concentration in human resources and employee relations from Emerson College and bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Guelph.

Mr. Munsie has more than 20 years of legal experience, thirteen of which are in the biotechnology industry. Most recently, he served as Chief Legal Officer and Secretary at Concert Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for overseeing all legal, compliance, transactional and intellectual property matters. Prior to joining Concert, Mr. Munsie served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Head of Corporate Operations and Secretary at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals. He began his legal career with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, where he was a Counsel in the Corporate Department.

Mr. Munsie holds an A.B. in Engineering Sciences modified with Environmental Science from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Mr. Piazza joined Orbital Therapeutics in January 2023 as Chief Financial Officer. He is a seasoned biotech executive and finance professional with more than 20 years of experience in biotech, healthcare investment banking, finance, and large pharma roles.

Most recently, Mr. Piazza served as CFO of Silverback Therapeutics and helped orchestrate its IPO and, later, its reverse merger with ARS Pharma.

Prior to joining Silverback, as a healthcare banker over the course of 15 years, he advised on approximately $100 billion in biopharma and life sciences financing and strategic transactions across both large and small companies while a Managing Director of healthcare investment banking at Goldman Sachs, a Managing Director of healthcare investment banking at Barclays Capital, and as a member of the healthcare investment banking team at Lehman Brothers.

Previously, he was a financial advisor at Smith Barney  (now Morgan Stanley Smith Barney). Earlier in his career, Mr. Piazza worked in engineering, development, and international marketing disciplines at Abbott Laboratories  (now AbbVie and Abbott) across multiple divisions of the company.

Mr. Piazza earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from The Ohio State University and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.

Ms. Burow is focused on the creation and development of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and health tech companies. Since joining ARCH in 2002, she has risen from Associate to Managing Director and has played a significant role in the growth of ARCH’s life sciences portfolio, including multiple public companies exceeding billion-dollar valuations.

Ms. Burow is a Director of Beam Therapeutics  (BEAM), Gossamer Bio  (GOSS), Scholar Rock  (SRRK), Boundless Bio, Autobahn Therapeutics, ROME Therapeutics, Neumora Therapeutics, Pretzel Therapeutics and Treeline Biosciences, among others. She previously was a co-founder and Director of Receptos  (RCPT – acquired by Celgene) and was a Director of Vir Biotechnology  (VIR), Vividion Therapeutics  (acquired by Bayer AG), and Epirium Bio among others. Ms. Burow has participated and led investments in a number of other ARCH portfolio companies including Interline Therapeutics, Erasca  (ERAS), Dewpoint Therapeutics, Aledade, Kura Oncology  (KURA), Kythera Biopharmaceuticals  (KYTH – acquired by Allergan), and Ikaria  (acquired by Mallinckrodt).

Prior to joining ARCH, Ms. Burow was an Associate with the Novartis BioVenture Fund in San Diego. As an early employee at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation  (GNF), she directed Chemistry Operations and was active in Business Development where she helped create numerous companies as spinouts from GNF.

Ms. Burow holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in Chemistry from Columbia University and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

John Evans joined Beam in 2017 as CEO, bringing significant experience as a company builder, dealmaker, and drug developer in the biotechnology industry.

Mr. Evans was previously an early employee and member of the leadership team at Agios Pharmaceuticals, most recently serving as Senior Vice President for Corporate Development and Portfolio Leadership. At Agios, Mr. Evans served as IDH Portfolio Executive, providing strategic and operational leadership for a portfolio of first-in-class IDH inhibitors including IDHIFA and TIBSOVO. He helped initiate and lead Agios’ landmark alliance with Celgene, resulting in over $600M of funding and investments across multiple research collaborations in cancer metabolism. He also co-led Agios’s expansion into rare genetic diseases. Prior to joining Agios, Mr. Evans worked at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, McKinsey & Company  (Pharmaceuticals practice) and MedImmune.

Mr. Evans holds an M.B.A. in Healthcare Management from Wharton, a Masters in Biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in English with distinction from Yale University.

Dr. John Maraganore served as the founding CEO and a Director of Alnylam from 2002 to 2021, where he built and led the company from early platform research on RNA interference through global approval and commercialization of the first four RNAi therapeutic medicines, ONPATTRO®, GIVLAARI®, OXLUMO®, and Leqvio®. At Alnylam, he also led the company’s value creation strategy, building over $25B in market capitalization and forming over 20 major pharmaceutical alliances. He continues to serve on the Alnylam Scientific Advisory Board. Prior to Alnylam, he was at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for the company’s product franchises in oncology, and cardiovascular, inflammatory and metabolic diseases, in addition to leadership of M&A, strategy, and biotherapeutics functions. Before Millennium, he held scientific and business roles at Biogen, Inc. where he invented and led the discovery and development of ANGIOMAX®  (bivalirudin) for injection. Previously, he was a scientist at ZymoGenetics, Inc. and the Upjohn Company.

Dr. Maraganore is currently a Venture Partner at ARCH Venture Partners, a Venture Advisor at Atlas Ventures, an Executive Partner at RTW Investments, and Senior Advisor for Blackstone Life Sciences. He is also member of the Board of Directors of publicly traded companies, including Agios Pharmaceuticals, Beam Therapeutics, Kymera Therapeutics, ProKidney Corp., and Takeda Pharmaceuticals. He is also on the Board of a number of private companies – including Aerium, Hemab, Aera, and Versanis, and on the Board of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, or “BIO,” where he was Chair from 2017-2019 and is Chair Emeritus. In addition, he serves on the Board of the Termeer Foundation – committed to continuing the legacy of the late Henri A. Termeer, as Chair of the n-Lorem Foundation Advisory Council – committed to meeting the needs of patients with nano-rare diseases, on the Advisory Board of Ariadne Labs – advancing global health system innovations, and as an advisor to Nucleate – a student-led organization facilitating the formation of pioneering life sciences companies. Dr. Maraganore also serves as a strategic advisor to a number of innovative biotechnology companies, with a focus on mentoring CEOs in their mission to advance science and innovation for patients.

Dr. Maraganore received his M.S. and Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Chicago.

Carol Suh is a Partner with ARCH Venture Partners. She joined the company in 2018 as an Associate and was named Partner in 2021. Carol focuses on identifying and evaluating new life science technologies and is involved in company creation. Carol is a stem cell biologist by training and combines her scientific expertise with experiences on the business side of biotech. Carol is a co-founder and SVP, Strategy at Neumora Therapeutics and helped build Sana Biotechnology, Autobahn Therapeutics and Boundless Bio. Prior to ARCH, Carol helped launch Magenta Therapeutics, a biotech company transforming the way bone marrow stem cell transplants are performed. Previously, she was a consultant at Trinity Partners, working with a wide range of biotech and pharma companies on corporate strategy, market research, and business development. Carol began her career in R&D Strategy with GlaxoSmithKline’s Regenerative Medicine group. For her work, she was recognized on the 2015 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Healthcare.

Ms. Suh holds an A.B. in Molecular Cellular Biology from Harvard University, where she trained under Dr. David Scadden at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. She also holds a M.Phil from Yale University and was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship for her work in stem cell biology. She completed her M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Ron Philip is President & Chief Executive Officer at Orbital Therapeutics. With more than 30 years of experience across biopharma companies and management consulting, Mr. Philip is a proven leader with extensive experience in building companies, leading organizational growth, and guiding teams through the development of novel therapies.

Prior to joining Orbital, Mr. Philip served as the Chief Executive Officer of Spark Therapeutics where he led the company through the commercial launch of the first approved gene therapy for a genetic disease, LUXTURNA® (voretigene neparvovec-rzyl); led the transition and growth of the company from founder-led to a fully integrated standalone business as part of the Roche Group; pivoted Spark’s platform to target larger disease areas; acquired technologies and therapeutic assets through business development efforts; and oversaw the initiation and build of a state-of-the-art 600,000 sq. ft. Gene Therapy Innovation Center that will open in 2026. Mr. Philip served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Commercial Officer in prior roles at Spark.

Before joining Spark, Mr. Philip spent a decade at Pfizer and Wyeth, where he held several senior leadership roles, including regional president for Africa/Middle East, head of global business unit strategy, head of business development search and evaluation, and commercial development lead within Pfizer’s innovative products business. Earlier, he worked at Deloitte Consulting in the strategy and operations practice and at Merck & Co. in the company’s manufacturing and marketing divisions.

Mr. Philip currently serves as a board member at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia, at the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, at Life Sciences Pennsylvania and was previously an active board member of Cure Duchenne. He is a graduate of Drexel University.