Management

Carol A. Nacy, Ph.D.

Dr. Nacy has been in executive management positions in the biotechnology industry for more than 13 years, following a nearly 20 year academic science career. She was Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at EntreMed, Inc., from 1993 through its successful public offering in June 1996. She left EntreMed in November 1996 and was Chief Scientific Officer for Anergen, Inc., a California company focused on autoimmune diseases, until the company was acquired by Corixa Corporation in December 1998. Dr. Nacy became full time CEO and Chair of the Board of Sequella, Inc. in January 1999. She is a member of the Board of Directors of several for-profit companies and non-profit agencies. Prior to her business experience, she was a career scientist (GS-15) and Science Manager at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC (1976-1993). She continues to serve the scientific research community on grant review committees, scientific advisory boards, and as an officer in scientific societies (President, Society for Leukocyte Biology  and American Society for Microbiology)  Dr. Nacy obtained her A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. in Biology (Microbiology and Immunology) from the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

Leo Einck, Ph.D.

Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Einck has worked in the pharmaceutical industry since 1985, and has started and managed several biotechnology companies since his shift to product development. He was the first employee of and later became the Chief Operating Officer of HEM, a company specializing in double-stranded RNA therapeutics for cancer. He managed all aspects of HEM's business, including manufacturing, clinical trials, regulatory affairs, and daily operations. He joined EntreMed, Inc. in 1993 as Director of Sponsored Research, became Vice-President for Extramural Programs in 1996, and then the Vice President for Research Operations. He has over 15 years of experience in start-up companies, in development of products in the biotechnology industry, and has additional education and experience in patent law. He joined Sequella as President in February 1998. Prior to his business experience, Dr. Einck was a molecular biologist at the National Cancer Institute of the NIH for several years following his Ph.D.

Gary Horwith, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Horwith is a board-certified internist with infectious disease and immunology sub-specialty training and is responsible for guiding clinical development of all Sequella pipeline product candidates. As a 22-year pharmaceutical industry veteran, Dr. Horwith has expertise in clinical evaluation, infectious disease, and registration of new drugs, and a proven track record of bringing investigational products from Phase I through NDA, BLA, and CTD filings. Prior to joining Sequella, Dr. Horwith was Vice President of Clinical Research and Medical Affairs at Nabi Biopharmaceuticals. Prior to Nabi, he was VP of Clinical Research and Drug Regulatory Affairs at Genetic Therapy, Inc., a Novartis company. He has served as Director of Worldwide Clinical Research at the Liposome Company in Princeton, NJ and Wyeth-Ayerst Research in Radnor, PA. Dr. Horwith completed his internal medicine residency training, and infectious disease fellowship at the University of Connecticut and UC-Irvine hospitals, respectively. Dr. Horwith has authored numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Alan Klein  

Executive Vice President, Corporate Development  
Mr. Klein joined Sequella in 2003. In the last 14 years, he has held a number of leadership positions in management, business development, and corporate development in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Prior to joining Sequella, Mr. Klein served as Vice President at GeneLogic, Inc.; was Senior Director of Business Development at CuraGen Corp.; held a number of Senior Director level positions at Quintiles Transnational in Business/Corporate Development and in the Infectious Diseases, Respiratory, and Immunology Therapeutic Areas; and was Director of Business Development at PharmaKinetics Laboratories.  Mr. Klein holds an MBA from John Hopkins University.

Marty Zug, MBA

Vice President, Finance
Mr. Zug is responsible for financial and accounting operations, and plays a significant role in raising capital and managing investor relations. He has extensive experience in management, corporate finance and investment banking. Prior to Sequella, he was a Vice President of the Washington Redskins, where he managed business lines totaling over $45 million in revenue. Prior to this, he was a Director for Snyder Communications where he focused on financial, strategic, investor relations and communications issues. Mr. Zug started his career in Russia as an investment banker financing newly privatized Russian companies. During this time, he was part of the banking team that closed the first syndicated loan in Russia and the largest private financing of a Russian company in 1995. He holds an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. 

Katherine Sacksteder, Ph.D.

Vice President, Diagnostics
Dr. Sacksteder began as a Director and Project Manager at Sequella, and was promoted to Vice President in 2005.  She now manages all aspects of diagnostics research and development, from basic science to clinical studies, and is responsible for leading scientific discussions in support of alliance development. In her time at the company, she has been responsible for obtaining significant funding for development of the diagnostic products, as well as for developing and implementing the Phase III clinical trial of the Sequella lead product, the TB Patch Test. She is a scientist who obtained her Ph.D. training in biological chemistry, cellular and molecular biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD.

Marina Protopopova, Ph.D.

Vice President, Drug Discovery
Dr. Protopopova joined Sequella in 1999 as a Senior Scientist responsible for identifying new TB drugs. She was promoted to Director of Chemistry in 2001, and was named Vice President of Drug Discovery in 2006. From 2000 to 2006, she played a key role in advancing the Sequella drug candidate SQ109 from discovery in 2000 to IND-directed preclinical studies and into clinical development in 2006. She now oversees drug discovery and pre-clinical research programs, including toxicology, chemistry, pharmacology, and biology. Her scientific career spans over 20 years, including work experience in both the United States and Russia. She worked at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under a Sequella CRADA, where she initiated a combinatorial chemistry program for discovery of new antibiotics that was moved to Sequella in 2000. Prior to her employment at Sequella, she worked with Regis Technologies in IL to develop new chiral catalysts and proprietary combinatorial chemistry technology for chromatographic applications. While in Russia, Dr. Protopopova was involved in a National Program for the development of novel technologies for production of pyrethroid insecticides in the (former) USSR. Dr. Protopopova has authored several issued patents, and over 40 publications in leading chemistry and scientific journals. She holds a Ph.D. from Zelinskii Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences and earned a M.S. from Moscow State University.