Management Team
Carl F. Grove, President
Terence A. Kelly, Ph.D., Senior Vice President Discovery and Preclinical Development
Daniel Hunt, General Counsel, Vice President Alliance Management, Secretary
Geoff Bilcer, Ph.D., Vice President Medicinal Chemistry
Gerald Koelsch, Ph.D., Vice President Discovery Neurobiology
Carl F. Grove, President
Mr. Grove has over twenty years experience in senior management positions in the biopharmaceutical industry. He spent 13 years at SEQUUS, where he held a variety of positions including Vice President of Regulatory Affairs. In this role he led efforts to register two products, DOXIL® (liposome doxorubicin HCl injection) and Amphocil® (lipid complexed amphotericin B) in the US and Europe. In 1999 SEQUUS was acquired by ALZA, which later was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. Mr. Grove has served as President of two early stage drug delivery companies (iMEDD, Inc. and IDEA, AG) where he raised capital, built R&D organizations, managed budgets and led development efforts on a variety of products using novel drug delivery systems for subcutaneous, transdermal, oral and intravenous administration.
Mr. Grove joined CoMentis in September 2006 where he was responsible for development operations and regulatory affairs. He was promoted to President in August, 2010.
Mr. Grove received his Bachelor of Science degree in urban planning from California State University, San Luis Obispo and a Master of Science degree in urban planning from University of Oregon in Eugene.
Terence A. Kelly, Ph.D., Senior Vice President Discovery and Preclinical Development
Dr. Kelly is responsible for the research and pre-clinical development operations associated with our beta-secretase inhibitor program in Oklahoma City and serves on the Joint Research Committee for the CoMentis-Astellas collaboration.
Dr. Kelly has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in the US and Europe. After finishing postdoctoral studies in 1990, he worked as a medicinal chemist at Boehringer Ingelheim on projects in the areas of Immunology, Virology, CNS and Cardiovascular diseases. From 2002 to 2009 he led BI's medicinal chemistry department in the US, which included 145 scientists in the high throughput screening, computational chemistry, structural biology, combinatorial chemistry and medicinal chemistry groups. Under his direction as a project leader and as the department's Vice President, the organization advanced multiple compounds into clinical development. Dr. Kelly is the co-author on over 25 scientific publications and serves on the College of Natural Sciences Advisory Council for the University of Texas.
Dr. Kelly completed his BS degree in chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his Ph.D. degree in chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. He completed his postdoctoral work in natural products synthesis at Yale University. In addition to his scientific degrees and activities, Dr. Kelly also holds an MBA from New York University, Stern School of Business.
Daniel Hunt, General Counsel, Vice President Alliance Management, Secretary
Daniel Hunt has 20 years of legal, IP, business development, transactional, alliance management, finance, and operational experience with prominent life science companies, including Genentech, Abgenix, Roche and Chiron.
During his career he has acquired extensive experience integrating science, business legal disciplines in connection with life science transactions. Mr Hunt has led and closed hundreds of transactions with cumulative valuations in excess of $1B. Prior to joining CoMentis, Inc., Mr. Hunt was Associate General Counsel, Licensing, Contracts Management and Patent Law at Genentech, where he was responsible for managing Genentech's business development and transactional activities in collaboration with Genentech's business development, finance, research and alliance management groups, and was responsible for managing alliances for approved products and managing $2.5B in annual revenues from those alliances. Prior to Genentech, Mr. Hunt was the Director of Legal Affairs at Abgenix, where he was responsible for all company transactions, ranging from acquisitions and strategic collaborations to ordinary course transactions, and engaged in strategic planning for business development, product development, acquisition and manufacturing activities. At Roche Molecular Systems, Mr. Hunt was Chief Corporate Counsel. He was responsible for business development and transactional support and managed Roche's PCR licensing program. Prior to Roche, Mr. Hunt was Senior Corporate Counsel at Chiron.
Mr. Hunt began his career as a patent litigator and securities attorney at the law firm of Morrison & Foerster. Mr. Hunt obtained his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and his B.A. in Molecular Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Geoff Bilcer, Ph.D., Vice President Medicinal Chemistry
Based in Oklahoma City, Dr. Bilcer is responsible for managing the medicinal chemistry and intellectual property associated with our beta-secretase inhibitor program.
Dr. Bilcer was one of the original members of Zapaq, Inc., one of CoMentis' legacy companies, in 2003. He started as the Director of the medicinal chemistry group as well as a bench chemist in the early days of the company's beta-secretase inhibitor program. He eventually moved up through the ranks to his current position of Vice President. Dr. Bilcer's areas of expertise include: medicinal chemistry, intellectual property, and preclinical drug development. He has authored numerous peer reviewed scientific papers and is an inventor on many issued patents.
Prior to starting his career in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Bilcer completed his doctorate in organic chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Gerald Koelsch, Ph.D., Vice President Discovery Neurobiology
Dr. Koelsch directs the early stage screening and profiling of beta-secretase inhibitors at the CoMentis Oklahoma City facility.
Dr. Koelsch joined Zapaq, a predecessor of CoMentis, as Director of Biochemistry in 2002. He has expertise in one of the primary drug targets of Alzheimer’s disease, BACE-1 (Beta-site of APP Cleaving Enzyme 1), and has been integral in the screening, lead optimization and development of BACE-1 inhibitors.
He earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. His experience in BACE-1 function, bioinformatics, and structural biology has led to invited lectures and presentations. During his academic career, Dr. Koelsch participated in seminal works on BACE-1 characterization, inhibition, structure, and proof-of-activity for BACE-1 inhibitors. He has more than 15 years academic and industrial experience with more than 30 papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.