senior management

• Victor Perlroth, M.D.

  Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Victor Perlroth, M.D.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Victor Perlroth co-founded Kodiak Sciences in 2009 and is the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  Together with a talented core team, Dr. Perlroth has built Kodiak on a foundation of scientific excellence with a simple mission—to design and develop important new medicines for highly prevalent diseases.  Under Dr. Perlroth’s leadership, Kodiak is building a pipeline of potentially life transforming ophthalmology drug candidates with the goal to build a dominant retinal franchise for the benefit of patients globally.  Previously, Dr. Perlroth served as Venture Partner and then Entrepreneur in Residence at MPM Capital, a dedicated healthcare venture capital investment firm. In 2003, Dr. Perlroth co-founded Avidia Inc., a biopharmaceuticals drug discovery and development company where he served as General Manager and Vice President of Corporate Development.  In this role, at various times he had broad management responsibility across both corporate and research and development activities.  Dr. Perlroth was one of two principals involved in the acquisition of the company by Amgen for $450 million.  Earlier, Dr. Perlroth worked at Guzik Technical Enterprises, the industry-leading provider of test equipment to the hard disk drive industry, where he was Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Perlroth earned his M.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Stanford University and an A.B. in Molecular Biology summa cum laude from Princeton University.

• John Borgeson

  Chief Financial Officer
John Borgeson

Chief Financial Officer

John Borgeson is our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and has served in this position since January 2016.  From January 2013 until December 2015, Mr. Borgeson led finance for a variety of private biotech companies, including Labrys Biologics, Inc., which was acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals.   Previously, Mr. Borgeson was a Vice President of Finance at Pfizer Inc. and a member of Pfizer’s Global Finance and Business Operations Leadership Team.  Mr. Borgeson’s roles at Pfizer included finance head for Pfizer’s biotherapeutics and bioinnovation group and corporate tax executive with responsibility for the United States and Europe.  Under Mr. Borgeson’s leadership, Pfizer completed a transformational restructuring of the global tax group that was replicated by other Fortune 50 companies.  Mr. Borgeson started his career as an auditor with Ernst & Young and is a certified public accountant (inactive).  He has an M.B.A. from R.I.T. and an undergraduate degree from the School of Management at the University at Buffalo (S.U.N.Y.)

• Jason Ehrlich, M.D., Ph.D.

  Chief Medical Officer and Chief Development Officer
Jason Ehrlich, M.D., Ph.D.

Chief Medical Officer and Chief Development Officer

Dr. Ehrlich serves as Chief Medical Officer and Chief Development Officer at Kodiak.  Dr Ehrlich is internationally recognized for his leadership and expertise in ophthalmic drug development.  Prior to joining Kodiak, Dr. Ehrlich served in an executive capacity as Global Head, Clinical Ophthalmology at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group.  In roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech/Roche from 2008-2018, Dr. Ehrlich’s efforts as lead clinician for Lucentis in diabetic eye disease resulted in a unanimous FDA Advisory Committee vote and the first-ever FDA approval of an intraocular drug for diabetic macular edema.  He then championed filing of a collaborative group study to further expand the Lucentis labeling into all forms of diabetic retinopathy, resulting in another first-ever FDA approval that provided a new option for patients:  to be treated with anti-VEGF to achieve regression of their diabetic retinopathy disease.  Dr. Ehrlich guided the integration of the ophthalmic drug delivery company ForSIGHT VISION4 into Genentech/Roche after its acquisition, including oversight of the successful Phase II study of the ranibizumab Port Delivery System.  In his work, Dr. Ehrlich has participated in or overseen numerous sBLAs and both FDA and European health authority interactions. He led the global development of lampalizumab, including design and execution of the pivotal Phase III program that included over 1,800 patients, over 275 sites, and more than 20 countries.  He also oversaw his team’s effort to secure FDA approvals for Lucentis in its Prefilled Syringe and for choroidal neovascularization due to pathologic myopia and guided the successful transition to global Phase III development of Faricimab, a novel bispecific antibody for retinal vascular disease.  Dr. Ehrlich completed his Ophthalmology residency at Stanford University School of Medicine, earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford through the NIH-funded Medical Scientist Training Program, and received his A.B. in Molecular Biology summa cum laude from Princeton University.

• Hong Liang, Ph.D.

  Senior Vice President, Discovery Medicine
Hong Liang, Ph.D.

Senior Vice President, Discovery Medicine

Hong Liang is our Vice President of Discovery Medicine and has served in this position since December of 2015. Dr. Liang leads Kodiak’s discovery efforts with the goal to design important medicines that prevent and/or slow the progression of retinal disease in high risk patients. Most recently, Dr. Liang was Senior Director at the Rinat Laboratory of Pfizer Inc. where she led the Genomics and Computational Biology group focusing on target discovery and translational biomarker work. Previously, she was responsible for many preclinical projects in metabolic and neurological diseases at Rinat/Pfizer. In particular, Dr. Liang was the project initiator and inventor and a driving force behind Rinat/Pfizer’s Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin Kexin type 9 inhibitor (PCSK9i) bococizumab development program. Bococizumab antagonizes PCSK9-mediated degradation of low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor, increases LDL-C clearance, and lowers blood LDL-C levels. Bococizumab’s phase 3 global clinical development program involves approximately 32,000 high-risk primary and secondary prevention patients and is being studied for its potential to lower the known cardiac risk factor LDL-C and improve cardiovascular outcomes. Earlier, Dr. Liang lead the expression profiling and knockout construct generation efforts at Deltagen Inc. Dr. Liang trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, earned a Ph.D. degree at Northwestern University, and completed requirements in Biology at the University of Science and Technology of China.

• Almas Qudrat, MsC

  Senior Vice President, Quality Operations
Almas Qudrat, MsC

Senior Vice President, Quality Operations

Almas Qudrat is our Vice President of Quality Operations.  In this role, Ms. Qudrat is responsible for leading all quality functions at Kodiak.  Ms. Qudrat joined the company in 2018 and has more than 25 years of experience in managing and directing all aspects of quality activities for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.  Her experience spans all stages of drug development from first in human to commercial products.  She has been responsible for small molecules, biologics, tablets, capsules, pre-filled syringes, vials, and combination products via intravenous, subcutaneous, intravitreal, inhalable, as well as transdermal routes of administration.  Ms. Qudrat’s experience spans good manufacturing practice (GMP), good clinical practice (GCP) and good laboratory practice (GLP). She has managed in-house quality functions as well as overseeing and managing external contract manufacturing and research organizations.  Ms. Qudrat led the pre-approval inspections that brought Botox (Allergan), Myoblock (Elan), and Exubera (Nektar-Pfizer) to the market and supported, prepared, and contributed to multiple pre-approval activities for other products including the Lucentis pre-filled syringe (Roche/Genentech).  Before joining Kodiak, Ms. Qudrat held positions of increasing responsibility at Abbott, Baxter, Elan, Allergan, Nektar, Avidia, Amgen, Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Roche/Genentech.  Ms. Qudrat earned masters degrees in both microbiology and biology from Brock University in Ontario, Canada.

• Laurent Ducry, Ph.D.

  Vice President, Biologics Development and Manufacturing
Laurent Ducry, Ph.D.

Vice President, Biologics Development and Manufacturing

Laurent Ducry serves as Vice President, Biologics Development and Manufacturing. In this role, Dr. Ducry is responsible for the Kodiak Group’s biologic drug substance and drug product manufacturing, including the oversight and supervision of Kodiak’s contract manufacturing suppliers and global supply chain. Dr. Ducry joins Kodiak after a successful 19-year career at Lonza where he led the bioconjugate business of Lonza including the large scale commercial supply of marketed antibody-drug conjugate products. Prior to leading the bioconjugate commercial team, Dr. Ducry was Group Leader Bioconjugates R&D with a focus on the development and scale-up of bioconjugation processes. He was previously Senior Scientist, developing chemical processes and producing pharmaceutical intermediates and APIs under cGMP. Dr. Ducry studied chemistry and obtained his Ph.D. from the ETH Zürich (Switzerland). He held a Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia with Prof. A. B. Smith, III and Prof. R. Hirschmann.

• Sinette Heys

  Vice President, Clinical Operations
Sinette Heys

Vice President, Clinical Operations

Sinette Heys serves as Kodiak’s Vice President and Head of Clinical Operations and is responsible for the overall strategic direction, growth and leadership of Kodiak’s Clinical Operations team. Sinette brings over 20 years of global experience from pharma, biotech, CRO and the medical device industries. She joined Kodiak from Proteus Digital Health, where she led the clinical operations department supporting the development of innovative Digital Medicines. Prior to her time at Proteus, Sinette held multiple positions at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, most recently as Head of Clinical Operations for U.S. Medical Affairs. During her earlier roles at Genentech, she lead Clinical Operations and was accountable for operational strategy and execution of the clinical trial portfolio for global development teams across multiple therapeutic areas and from the early development through commercial launch stages. Prior to Genentech, Sinette held various clinical development roles at Chiron Corporation, Abgenix and Quintiles. She received her master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Johannesburg, and served on staff at the University of the North and the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.

• Bernd Jandeleit, PH.D.

  Vice President, Chemistry
Bernd Jandeleit, PH.D.

Vice President, Chemistry

Bernd Jandeleit serves as Vice President of Chemistry and is responsible for advancing our polymeric platform technologies for sustained delivery of biologics and small molecules in the eye. Dr. Jandeleit’s career spans more than 25 years in the biopharmaceutical and life sciences industries. Prior to joining Kodiak, he co-founded Quadriga BioSciences, Inc., now a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company. As Vice President of Chemistry, Dr. Jandeleit was involved in Quadriga’s corporate development, governance, financing, and IP protection. He coinvented QBS10072S, a small molecule chemotherapeutic for the targeted treatment of CNS cancers, and an advanced preclinical amino-acid transporter inhibitor candidate for T-cell mediated immune disorders. Prior to Quadriga BioSciences, Dr. Jandeleit worked with ascending responsibilities at XenoPort, Inc. (now Arbor Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) where he led multiple R&D prodrug delivery programs and helped establish XenoPort's Transported Prodrugs™ technology platform, which exploits intestinal solute carrier transporters to improve pharmacokinetic properties of parent drugs. Earlier, he held leading roles at Symyx Technologies, Inc., a pioneer in combinatorial and high-throughput R&D in catalysis and materials science. He is a named inventor on over 40 granted US and international patents and is a co-author on over 30 publications in peer-reviewed journals and abstracts. Several of the molecules that he has invented and developed have been licensed to pharmaceutical companies for further development. Dr. Jandeleit conducted postdoctoral research as a fellow at the German National Scholarship Foundation and BASF AG in the labs of Prof. K.C. Nicolaou at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla on the total synthesis of complex natural products and small molecule anti-angiogenesis agents. He received his MS and PhD degrees, both with summa cum laude, from the RWTH Aachen University in Germany with Prof. D. Enders. He was awarded the prestigious Borcher's Batch and the Springorum Medal.

• Stephen Raillard, Ph.D.

  Vice President, Chemical Development and Manufacturing
Stephen Raillard, Ph.D.

Vice President, Chemical Development and Manufacturing

Stephen Raillard serves as Vice President, Chemical Development and Manufacturing. In this role, Dr. Raillard is responsible for chemical development activities in support of new product candidates and product platforms as well as leading chemical development and manufacturing activities in support of Kodiak’s drug substance portfolio. Dr. Raillard brings to Kodiak over twenty years of experience in building and leading global teams tasked with pharmaceutical research and development, process scale-up and commercial manufacturing. Most recently, Dr. Raillard was Executive Director of Chemical Development at XenoPort, Inc. In this role, he was responsible for developing the commercial manufacturing process for Gabapentin enacarbil (Tradename HORIZANT) and for commercial manufacturing campaigns. In addition, he was responsible for the development and manufacture of seven additional APIs in XenoPort’s portfolio, four of which entered clinical trials. Dr. Raillard was a core Chemistry Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) team member in due diligence discussions that led to licensing agreements with GSK and Astellas for Gabapentin enacarbil, Indivior for Arbaclofen Placarbil, and Dr. Reddy’s for XP23829, a monomethyl fumarate prodrug. Dr. Raillard has contributed to CMC filings and interactions with global regulatory authorities across the spectrum of drug discovery, development, and commercialization including pre-Investigational New Drug Applications, New Drug Applications, and post-approval commitments. Prior to joining Kodiak, Dr. Raillard held technical positions at Affmax Research Institute where, among other duties, he invented and reduced to practice methods enabling fast scale-up using solid-phase chemistry on custom high-load polymer resins. Dr. Raillard received his Ph.D. from the ETH Zürich in Switzerland followed by a post-doc at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA.

• Pablo Velazquez-Martin, M.D.

  Vice President, Clinical Research and Translational Medicine
Pablo Velazquez-Martin, M.D.

Vice President, Clinical Research and Translational Medicine

Dr. Velazquez-Martin serves as our Vice President of Clinical Research and Translational Medicine and is an ophthalmologist and retinal specialist.  Previously, Dr Velazquez-Martin was head of ophthalmology global medical affairs for Bayer in Europe, Canada, and Latin America with a focus on Bayer’s ex-U.S. Eylea franchise.  His emphasis was on scientific differentiation of Eylea with phase 3 and phase 4 clinical studies design, interpretation and communication.  Dr. Velazquez-Martin contributed to the dramatic growth of Eylea revenue and market share on a local, regional, and global basis.  In his role at Kodiak, Dr. Velazquez-Martin is responsible for generating scientific and clinical data to help differentiate and profile our therapeutic candidates and ABC Platform versus the approved agents Eylea and Lucentis as well as versus other retinal medicines in development.  Dr. Velazquez-Martin earned his M.D. from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Upon completion of a residency in ophthalmology and obtaining an ophthalmology surgeon certification, he completed a two-year fellowship in retina surgery, followed by an ocular oncology fellowship at the University of Toronto.  During his tenure at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, he led the ophthalmic evaluation of patients in phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials of novel cancer agents.

• Rezi Zawadzki, D.P.H

  Vice President, Biometrics and Clinical Data Science
Rezi Zawadzki, D.P.H

Vice President, Biometrics and Clinical Data Science

Rezi Zawadzki serves as Kodiak’s Vice President of Biometrics and Clinical Data Science. She leads the company’s biostatistics, data science, statistical programming, and clinical data management strategies and teams. Rezi brings more than 20 years of extensive experience in building and directing biometrics and data science functions in both small and large, public and private VC-backed biotech companies across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device sectors. Rezi has contributed to the development and approval of several products. Most recently, during her tenure at Aimmune Therapeutics, Rezi had a lead role on the BLA and MAA submissions for Palforzia, a first-in-class medication for peanut allergy approved by the FDA and EMA. Rezi has co-authored numerous papers including in the fields of nephrology, cardiology, and immunology in peer-reviewed journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. She received her Doctor of Public Health in Biostatistics from Columbia University with honors.