James M. Karis, Chairman
Mr. Karis Joined Marina Biotech’s Board of Directors in August 2009 and became Chairman in July 2011. Previously, Mr. Karis served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Entelos from January 2000 until May 2009. Prior to Entelos, he held senior positions in the contract research industry, serving as Chief Operating Officer and President of PAREXEL International Corporation, and earlier, as Chief Operating Officer of Pharmaco International. He was the Vice President of International Operations for Baxter International and a founder of KMR Group, a leading pharmaceutical R&D benchmarking consulting firm. Mr. Karis serves on the Board of BayBio, an advocacy group for Northern California’s life science community. He has a B.S. in management and economics from Purdue University and a M.S. in applied economics from The American University.
R. John Fletcher
Mr. Fletcher joined Marina Biotech’s Board of Directors in July 2011. Mr. Fletcher is a Founding Partner of Fletcher Spaght Ventures. Mr. Fletcher also serves as the CEO of Fletcher Spaght Inc., a management consulting firm he founded to provide strategy and financing assistance to new companies. Mr. Fletcher has over twenty-five years providing strategy and financing assistance to new companies. Prior to launching FSI in 1983, Mr. Fletcher was a Senior Manager at The Boston Consulting Group, managing client relationships in healthcare and high technology companies. Previously, Mr. Fletcher was a Ph.D. candidate and instructor in International Business at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Prior to Wharton, Mr. Fletcher was a Captain and jet pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Mr. Fletcher holds an MA in Finance from the Wharton School, an MBA from Southern Illinois University, and a BA from George Washington University. Mr. Fletcher is a current or past board member for many companies, including Axcelis, AutoImmune, GlycoFi, NMT Medical, Quick Study Radiology, Spectranetics and Panacos Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Fletcher also serves on the Board of Overseers and Cardiology Council of Children’s Hospital of Boston, the Board of Advisors of the Boston University Photonics Center, the Whitehead Institute at MIT, the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, and the School of Government and Business at George Washington University.
J. Michael French
Mr. French joined Marina Biotech in June 2008 as Chief Executive Officer. He became a Director in September 2008 and President in October 2008. Mr. French was Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Sirna Therapeutics from 2005 until 2007 when the company was acquired by Merck. Sirna was well-known as one of the leading RNAi companies. Earlier, Mr. French was Chief Business Officer at Entelos, Inc., a pre-IPO biotechnology company, as well as a variety of other positions at healthcare companies, including Health IQ and Bayer Pharmaceuticals. He also served for 13 years in the United States Army and Army Reserve. Mr. French holds a M.S. degree in physiology and biophysics from Georgetown University and a B.S. degree in aerospace engineering from the United States Military Academy.
Peter Parker
Mr. Parker joined Marina Biotech's Board of Directors as part of Marina Biotech’s acquisition of Cequent Pharmaceuticals in July 2010. He co-founded Cequent after two decades of very successful venture capital experience in healthcare investing. Prior to Cequent, Peter was a General Partner at Ampersand Ventures for over 15 years. While there, he was pivotal in raising 6 Ampersand funds, totaling over $500MM in capital. He focused his investments in healthcare, serving as founding investor and a Director in several firms including: ACLARA Biosciences, AC Tech, Alexis, CoPharma, Cyclis Pharmaceuticals, Dynex, Huntington Laboratories, Magellan Biosciences, Nanodyne, NOVEX, Panacos Pharmaceuticals, Pentose Pharmaceuticals, Protein Ingredient Technologies, TekCel, and Tomah Products. After leaving Ampersand, Peter also started Boston Heart Lab, BioEssences, and StemSpan Solutions. Prior to Ampersand, Mr. Parker held various senior management positions at AMAX Inc. Mr. Parker holds a B.S. and an M.S. from Columbia University.
Gregory Sessler
Mr. Sessler has served on Marina Biotech’s Board of Directors since June 2008 and currently serves as Chair of the Audit Committee and as a member of the Compensation and Nominating & Corporate Governance Committees of the Board of Directors. Mr. Sessler has served as the Chief Operating Officer since December 2008 and as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Spiration, Inc. since 2002, and is also currently a Director and Chairman of the audit committee of VLST, Corp. Prior to joining Spiration, Mr. Sessler served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Rosetta Inpharmatics, a leader in informational genomics, from March 2000 until its acquisition by Merck & Co., Inc. in July 2001 for $540 million. Mr. Sessler is a member of the AICPA and FEI, and he previously served on the Board of Directors of Corixa Corporation. He also serves on the Executive Committee and is a past chairman of the Board of Directors of the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association (WBBA). Mr. Sessler holds a B.S. degree, magna cum laude, from Syracuse University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Michael Taylor, Ph.D.
Dr. Taylor joined Marina Biotech's Board of Directors as part of Marina Biotech's acquisition of Cequent Pharmaceuticals in July 2010. He has been President and CEO of Ensemble Therapeutics since July 2007 with more than 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry with extensive experience in drug discovery and development, licensing and business development, and managing R&D alliances with pharmaceutical and biotech partners. Prior to joining Ensemble, Dr. Taylor was Senior Vice President for Pfizer’s Global R&D division responsible for global project and portfolio management. In other positions with Pfizer (and previously Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis), he led early and late-stage development projects across multiple therapeutic areas, including Lipitor® and Neurontin®. He has authored or coauthored 65 manuscripts and published abstracts and holds 6 patents. Dr. Taylor earned a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the State University of New York at Buffalo and was awarded an NIH postdoctoral fellowship in natural products synthesis and structure elucidation at the University of Pennsylvania.