Experienced
leaders with
profound ideas

Alan Bash brings to ZielBio a wide range of industry experience across biotech and pharmaceutical companies, with a focus on advancing novel treatments for cancer patients. Mr. Bash most recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded clinical-stage oncology biotechnology company that was acquired by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in May 2022. He joined Checkmate after a 22-year career at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), where he served as Senior Vice President, Commercial Model Innovation, and prior to that, Senior Vice President for Immunology and Fibrosis, partnering with Research & Development to advance early and late-stage assets in the integrated BMS and Celgene portfolios. During his years leading teams in oncology at BMS, he led  the U.S. launch of the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, Opdivo^® and the first FDA-approved checkpoint combination. He also served as Worldwide Vice President for BMS’s lung cancer franchise and led the product team for a targeted antibody for head and neck cancer and colorectal cancer. He earned his BA from Georgetown University and his MBA from Columbia Business School.

Dieter Weinand is an experienced executive with over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceuticals and biotech industries. Mr. Weinand presently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Replimune Group Inc. (NASDAQ: REPL). Previously, Mr. Weinand served as the Executive Vice President of Primary Care and was a member of the Executive Committee at Sanofi from November 2018 to March 2020. Before moving to Sanofi, he was CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer Pharma AG and member of the Management Board at Bayer AG. Prior to his work at Sanofi and Bayer, Mr. Weinand held various positions in commercial, operational, and strategic areas of the pharmaceutical industry. These included responsibilities spanning various therapeutic areas and geographies for companies such as Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Otsuka. Mr. Weinand is a former board member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries & Associations (EFPIA), and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (IFPMA), and served as a member of the Board of Directors of HealthPrize Technologies.

Brian Schwartz, M.D., has deep experience as a drug development expert in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Dr. Schwartz most recently served as Chief Medical Officer and head of Research and Development of ArQule, Inc. where he served as a key member of the management team and spearheaded a number of preclinical and clinical drug development programs in oncology and rare diseases. Prior to joining ArQule in 2008, Dr. Schwartz served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, Clinical and Regulatory Affairs, at Ziopharm Oncology, Inc., where he built and led clinical, regulatory, and quality assurance departments responsible for the development of new cancer drugs. Earlier in his career, Dr. Schwartz held positions of increasing responsibility at Bayer Healthcare and Leo Laboratories. Dr. Schwartz received his medical degree from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, practiced medicine, and worked at the University of Toronto prior to his career in the biopharmaceutical industry. Dr Schwartz currently serves as an advisor to the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine and as a board member of several biotech companies.

Gregg Beloff has more than 20 years of experience in the life science industry, ranging from venture-backed start-ups to publicly traded companies. Mr. Beloff is the co-founder and managing director of Danforth Advisors, a company focused on providing finance support and strategy for life science companies. He previously served as CFO of four public and over 20 privately held companies, during which time he managed finance, accounting, corporate communications, human resources, IT, facilities, legal, IP, business development and manufacturing functions. Mr. Beloff’s core expertise includes operational management, strategic planning and corporate and business development, fundraising and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to his CFO roles, Mr. Beloff was a life science investment banker with Adams, Harkness & Hill, where he underwrote financings for and provided buy- and sell-side M&A counsel to biotechnology, medical device, and healthcare information technology companies. He began his career as a corporate attorney with Gaffin & Krattenmaker, a Boston-based law firm. He received a B.A. from Middlebury College, a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.

Ramesh K. Ramanathan, M.D., joined ZielBio in 2022 as Vice President for Clinical Development. Prior to this appointment he was Executive Medical Director, Global Medical & Scientific Affairs, Merck Research Labs. Dr. Ramanathan is a board certified medical oncologist. Prior academic appointments were at the Mayo Clinic, Phoenix campus, where he was Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Medical School with a joint appointment at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGEN). Prior to joining Mayo Clinic, he served as the medical director of the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials Program. He completed fellowship training in Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and served as a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. Dr. Ramanathan has 20+ years’ experience in new drug development. Dr. Ramanathan has contributed to the development of several new drugs (PARP, PI3K inhibitors, hedgehog inhibitors, liposomal formulations, etc.) and had a pivotal role in development and approval of oxaliplatin and nab-paclitaxel. He has published more than 200 papers in peer reviewed journals, served on national professional committees, is an Editorial Board member for Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology, Gastrointestinal Cancer Research and is an ad hoc reviewer for several other journals.