About

Fredrik Wiklund serves as our President and Chief Executive Officer, having previously served as our Chief Operating Officer since January 2020. Fred brings over 20 years of operational experience with significant breadth of management responsibility with both emerging and large biotechnology companies. Most recently, Fred served as the Chief Operating Officer at Bioniz Therapeutics Inc., a company developing cytokine-based therapies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. At Bioniz, Fred negotiated the company’s ~$500M Option and Merger agreement with Almirall S.A. in late 2019. Previously, Fred served as the Vice President of Corporate Development and later as President and Chief Executive Officer of Celladon Corporation (CLDN). Under Fred’s leadership, Celladon completed an IPO in 2014 and merged with Eiger Pharmaceuticals in 2016. Before Celladon, Fred served as Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Tercica Inc. (TRCA) where he guided the company through its IPO and later its ~$650M acquisition by the Ipsen Group in 2009. Earlier, Fred was an investment banker with Lehman Brothers serving in the Healthcare Group based in London, UK.  Fred also spent five years at Gilead Sciences where he helped launch Gilead’s first commercial product in 1996. Fred holds a Bachelor of Arts from University of San Diego and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

Jon Wigginton serves as our President of Research and Development. He has over 25 years of experience in clinical oncology and most recently served as Senior Advisor and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board at Cullinan Oncology, Inc., having previously served as the company’s Chief Medical Officer. Prior, Jon was Chief Medical Officer at MacroGenics, where he led the company’s evolution of a fully-integrated clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy organization. Dr. Wigginton also held leadership positions at Bristol Myers Squibb as Therapeutic Area Head and Executive Director, Immuno-Oncology Early Clinical Research and as Group Medical Director of Discovery Medicine-Clinical Oncology. There, he led early clinical development of the BMS Immuno-Oncology portfolio, including checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 (Nivolumab)/Opdivo®) and anti-PD-L1 (BMS-936559), checkpoint inhibitor-based combinations including anti-CTLA-4 (Yervoy®)/anti-PD-1 (Opdivo®) among others, and a spectrum of other I-O agents. He also co-founded and co-led the BMS International Immuno-Oncology Network (IION). Dr. Wigginton also previously served as President of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). Earlier in his career, Dr. Wigginton worked at the National Cancer Institute for 15 years, and served as Head of the Investigational Biologics Section in the Center for Cancer Research (NCI intramural program). There, he demonstrated the initial therapeutic synergy and key mechanisms of action by several novel cytokine-based regimens including IL-2 in combination with IL-18, as well as IL-12 and IL-27 among others. Dr. Wigginton is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Sutro Biopharma. He earned his M.D. and B.S in biology from the University of Michigan.

Bertolt Kreft has served as our Chief Scientific Officer since February 2020.  Bertolt is an expert in cancer drug discovery with 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience and a broad background in oncology research covering target validation, biologics and small molecule lead discovery, as well as research supporting pre-IND, early and late-stage clinical development programs.  Prior to joining Bright Peak, Bertolt served as VP Immuno-Oncology at Bayer AG.  From 2009 to 2020, he was responsible for cancer drug discovery efforts at Bayer focused on Immuno-Oncology, antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), and biologics.  Bertolt entered pharmaceutical industry with Schering AG in 1999 where he held positions of increasing responsibility including group leader in target identification & validation.  Bertolt received a PhD in biochemistry from the Free University Berlin/Charité (Germany), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  He holds a diploma in biochemistry from the Free University Berlin.

Vijaya R. Pattabiraman is a co-founder of Bright peak and serves as Chief Technology Officer. Vijay has made seminal contributions to Bright Peak’s technology and brings in extensive expertise and know-how on the EDC platform. He has more than 15 years of experience in biomolecules, small molecules discovery and development for academic and translational research. Vijay has co-authored several peer-reviewed publications and book chapters in the field of chemical protein synthesis, peptide antibiotics and small-molecules for inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases. He is also a co-inventor on multiple patents and serves as a co-founder of another ETH spin-off company that focuses on automation in chemistry. Vijay has fostered many academic and biotech collaborations and led multi-disciplinary global teams. Since 2012, he worked as a Senior Scientist with Prof. Bode at ETH Zürich and continues with this affiliation. He gained first insights in to the world of drug discovery and development in early 2000’s as a medicinal chemist at Dr. Reddy’s laboratories, a multinational pharmaceutical company. Vijay received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Alberta, Canada and performed his postdoctoral studies at University of Pennsylvania, USA and at ETH Zürich, Switzerland.

Lazar Dimitrov serves as our Senior Vice President of Corporate Development.  He brings more than 20 years of research, investment and operational experience in the life sciences to Bright Peak.  Most recently, Lazar was the Head of Business Development at Day One Biopharmaceuticals, a precision oncology company developing targeted therapies for patients of all ages. At Day One, Lazar negotiated the exclusive global license agreement with Merck KGaA to develop and commercialize the MEK inhibitors pimasertib and MSC2015103B in 2021 and the global collaboration with Foundation Medicine to advance pediatric cancer care in 2022.   Previously, Lazar served as Principal at the leading global life sciences investment firm Clarus Ventures, which now operates as Blackstone Life Sciences.   At Clarus, Lazar sourced, led the diligence, and negotiated several venture, co-development and royalty transactions across therapeutic areas, modalities and stages of development.  He was a Board Observer at SFJ Pharmaceuticals,  Galera Therapeutics, Graybug Vision, Lumos Pharma, and Tisbury Pharmaceuticals, and a Board Member at Tropicalis Finance Company.  Before Clarus Ventures, Lazar was a scientist at Crystal Biosciences (acquired by Ligand Pharmaceuticals).  Prior to his scientific training, he was an analyst at Rho Ventures and the M&A group at Merrill Lynch.  Lazar obtained his Ph.D. in Genome Sciences from the University of Washington and conducted his postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley.  He received his B.A. in Mathematics and Economics with high honors from Dartmouth College.

David Cardino has served as our Vice President of Finance since January 2020.  David is a financial and operational leader with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.  Most recently, David served as Vice President of Finance at GT Biopharma, a publicly traded, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel immuno-oncology products.  Previously, David led the finance and accounting operations of Agensys, Inc., a U.S. based oncology research center of Astellas Pharma, Inc. where he managed annual expenditures in excess of $100M and led the implementation of an ERP system along with Sarbanes-Oxley controls.  Prior to joining Agensys, David held positions of increasing responsibility at MannKind Corporation, supporting R&D and commercial operations while serving on the finance and pharmaceutical development leadership teams.  Before MannKind, David held various positions at Merck & Co., Inc in areas including pharmaceutical economics and R&D portfolio evaluation.  David began his career as an auditor with Price Waterhouse LLP.  He is a certified public accountant (inactive) in the state of New Jersey and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics-Accounting from the College of the Holy Cross, and a Master of Business Administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Sharon Gao has served as our Vice President of Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls since November 2021. She brings over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries supporting R&D, accelerated CMC development with phase-appropriate strategies, and regulatory filings.  Prior to Bright Peak, Sharon worked at Synthrox, later known as Sanofi San Diego upon the company’s acquisition. At Synthrox/Sanofi, Sharon oversaw CMC analytical and formulation development, drug product manufacturing, GMP test release and stability for the Company’s IL-2 immuno-oncology program. She played a crucial role in correspondences to Health Authorities and actively participated in Type C meetings with FDA. Previously, Sharon was a senior director at La Jolla Pharmaceuticals where she oversaw the analytical development of a peptide drug candidate in Phase 1-2 and supervised QC release and stability for the phase 1 drug product. Sharon also participated in pre-approval inspection for the commercial launch of Giapreza. Before joining La Jolla Pharmaceutical, Sharon was the head of Analytical Chemistry and Quality Control at Quidel (formerly known as Alere Inc.), where she established the GMP testing and quality control facilities and supervised validations to support quality investigations and manufacturing. From 2005-2012, Sharon and her teams assessed the developability of monoclonal antibodies, multi-specific antibodies and pegylated proteins. Sharon received her PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego and completed post-doctoral training at Washington University in St Louis.

Matt Robbins has served as our General Counsel since July 2021.  From 2012 to July 2021, Matt was an associate at the law firm of Cooley LLP, where he served as outside counsel to companies in the biotech and technology industries, advising on corporate and securities matters.   Prior, Matt was a senior associate in the Enterprise Risk Services group of Deloitte & Touche LLP, advising clients on internal audit and Sarbanes-Oxley issues.   Matt received a JD from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and a BA in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.  He is a member of the State Bar of California

Robert Tam has served as Vice President, Program Management since June 2020. Robert has over 27 years of pharmaceutical drug development experience covering drug discovery through to NDA submission. During this period, he has accrued 20 years of portfolio, alliance and program management expertise, of which the last 12 years has been in oncology drug development. Prior to joining Bright Peak, Robert served as Executive Director, Program and Alliance Management at Mirati Therapeutic where he led the development of small molecule inhibitors of tumor-specific mutations (including KRAS G12C program) from preclinical candidate to phase 2 while managing 4 global alliance partnerships. Before that, he was Senior Director, Program Management at Agensys In., a subsidiary of Astellas Pharma Inc. From 2009 – 2017, he and his team were responsible for managing the development of the portfolio of antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) for various oncology indications at Agensys, from discovery through to clinical proof-of-concept. Robert received his PhD working on erythropoietin research at Kings College, University of London, UK followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in immunology at University of California, San Francisco.