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Avanish Vellanki is committed to advancing better treatment options for patients, bringing over 20 years of experience across the healthcare and investment banking sectors. He began his career on Wall Street at Bear Stearns in equity research and later joined Citigroup’s Global Healthcare Investment Banking group, where he advised on large-cap global biopharmaceutical strategic and financing transactions.

In 2009 Avanish joined Proteolix where he contributed to the development of a therapy for patients with multiple myeloma. He went on to serve as Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer at Aptose Biosciences. In 2017 Avanish co-founded Rain Oncology where he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer through its evolution from a private to a public biotechnology company and through a global registrational clinical trial for its lead precision oncology program.

Avanish holds a BA from Carleton College, an MBS in biochemistry from the University of Minnesota, and MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

David H. Kirske is Chief Financial Officer at Stratus Therapeutics, bringing extensive experience in finance, accounting and investor relations for both public and emerging private companies across biotechnology, technology, and manufacturing sectors. His expertise spans financial management, operations, and capital strategy across both debt and equity markets.

Prior to joining Stratus, David served as Chief Financial Officer at CTI BioPharma, where he played a key leadership role through its acquisition by Sobi in 2023 for $1.7 billion. Prior to CTI, he was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Helix BioMedix, overseeing all financial and administrative functions. Earlier in his career, David held senior finance roles at F5 Networks and Redhook Brewery, where he helped guide both companies through successful initial public offerings. He also held a controllership position at Cray Computer, managing financial operations for corporate and international entities.

David holds a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Puget Sound.

Richard currently serves as Acting Chief Medical Officer at Stratus Therapeutics, where he leads all clinical development initiatives for the company’s lead asset, ST-101. Before Stratus, Dr. Bryce was Chief Medical Officer at enGene where he lead the transition of the Phase 1 study in gene therapy of EG70 in BCG-refractory non-muscle invasive bladder cancer to a global pivotal phase 2 study, and prior to that the Chief Medical Officer at Rain Oncology where, reporting to Avanish Velanki, he established and scaled the clinical development organization, overseeing multiple clinical programs including a global Phase 3 registrational trial.

Previously, he held the role of Chief Medical & Scientific Officer at Puma Biotechnology, where he directed the global development strategy for neratinib (Nerlynx) through to approval for HER2-positive adjuvant breast cancer and metastatic breast cancers as well as NCCN guideline recommendations for HER-2 mutant cervical and other solid tumors. Earlier in his career, he served as Senior Director of Clinical Science at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, with responsibility for the pivotal Phase 3 trials supporting the registration of a therapy for patients with multiple myeloma.

Dr. Bryce earned his MBChB (Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery) from the University of Edinburgh and holds advanced postgraduate clinical qualifications from the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).

Dr. Panteli Theocharous brings more than 30 years of experience in the clinical development of advanced therapies. Dr. Theocharous has led pivotal programs from first-generation clinical CAR-T to gene-directed therapies in non-malignant diseases.

Most recently, Dr. Theocharous served as Global Head and Cell & Gene Therapy Strategy Lead at PPD, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he oversaw global strategy for a wide range of innovative therapies. Prior to that, he held senior Clinical and Medical Affairs leadership roles at Cell Therapeutics Inc. and Janssen Oncology, contributing to the advancement of several novel hematology assets. Earlier in his career, Dr. Theocharous served as Director of Stem Cell Transplantation and Advanced Therapies at the Royal Free Hospital in London, training clinically under hematology experts Professor A. Victor Hoffbrand and Professor H. Grant Prentice, with a focus on hematologic disorders and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Dr. Theocharous holds an MS in Applied Clinical Hematology, as well as advanced degrees in cancer medicine including a Ph.D. and FRCPath from the Royal Free and University College Medical School at the University of London.

Claire Barry brings over 20 years of extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, serving as an EU Qualified Person (QP) with specialized expertise in aseptic processing, quality assurance, and quality systems. She has demonstrated a strong ability to drive quality excellence in complex environments, with a particular focus on sterile product manufacturing.

Before Stratus, Claire successfully led the quality function in obtaining a MIA for an Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products manufacturing facility in the West of Ireland. Claire works cross-functionally with product development, operations, and leadership teams to create and implement robust quality systems, drive innovation, and mitigate risk, to foster a culture of accountability and high performance.

Claire holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the National University of Ireland Maynooth and a Master of Science degree from Trinity College Dublin.

Jay Sorensen brings over 25 years of GMP Manufacturing, Validation, Supply Chain, and Facilities experience to support clinical production of cell and gene therapies and commercial production of monoclonal antibody-based biologics.

He has successfully brought manufacturing processes, facilities, materials management, and validation areas into GMP compliance for clinical and commercial use, partnering with Quality Assurance, Regulatory, and Process Development departments with specific emphasis on aseptic processes for cell therapies and large-scale bioreactor production for monoclonal antibodies. This has led to a 100% success rate for the approval of INDs and site licenses for GMP Manufacturing.

Before joining Stratus, Jay held roles of Vice President of Manufacturing at Fate Therapeutics, Sr. Director of Manufacturing and Operations at ViaCyte, and Manager of Manufacturing Sciences and Technologies at IDEC, Biogen IDEC, and Genentech.

Jay obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the University of California San Diego.

Vijaya Tirunagaru, Ph.D. is Vice President of Translational and Clinical Science at Stratus Therapeutics, bringing more than 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience across research, translational and clinical spanning multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, metabolic disorders, pain, and neuroscience.

Before Stratus, Vijaya was Senior Vice President and head of research at Rain Oncology, where she led scientific strategy, translational research, biomarker development for phase 2/3 programs and early-stage program development. Earlier in her career, Vijaya held roles of increasing responsibility at AstraZeneca and Aragen Life Sciences leading drug discovery teams to deliver clinical candidates in multiple therapeutic areas, disease area strategy, novel drug discovery target identification, translational/clinical strategy, competitive intelligence and business development.

Vijaya holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, India.

Ranga brings over 15 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, with deep expertise in strategic growth and corporate development. At Stratus, Ranga leads internal operations, business development, and other key growth initiatives.

Before Stratus, Ranga served as Chief of Staff to the CEO at Rain Oncology and Head of Business Development, where he played a key role that ultimately culminated in the company’s acquisition. Earlier in his career, Ranga held roles of increasing responsibilities at Amgen, contributing in the areas of commercial operations, competitive strategy and market insights.

Ranga holds a M.Sc. (Biological Sciences) degree from BITS Pilani, India and a Master of Business and Science (MBS) from Keck Graduate Institute – a member of the Claremont Colleges.