Kevin M. Smith
President and Chief Executive Officer
Kevin was a member of the group that developed the business plan and State Grant proposal which resulted in the creation of CID4. Prior to joining CID4, Kevin was Managing Director of Act Three Consulting, LLC. Act Three was formed in July 2007 to provide consulting services to management teams and their advisors during times of dramatic change. Prior to founding Act Three, Kevin spent nine years as President of Gambro, Inc., the US holding company for the publicly-traded, Swedish-based Gambro Group, until its acquisition by private equity investors in 2006. The US operations of Gambro included the manufacture and distribution of cardiovascular (CV), blood separation and renal dialysis products and the operation of US and international kidney dialysis centers. Before joining Gambro, Kevin was an audit partner in the Denver and New York offices of Ernst & Young, specializing in entrepreneurial services and led the formation of E&Y’s Denver Life Sciences Practice.
Richard C. Duke, Ph.D.
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Duke is a biotechnology executive, inventor, biomedical researcher and serial entrepreneur with fifteen years of experience in building, financing, and managing start-up biotechnology companies based on inventions made in Colorado’s non-profit research institutions. He is currently Co-scientific Founder, President and CEO of ApopLogic Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Duke is a Co-scientific Founder and former CEO, President and Director of GlobeImmune, Inc. and was involved in the formation of Sierra Neuropharmaceuticals where he was an initial Director. These Colorado-based companies have raised more than $150 million in financing and have multiple products in phase 1 and 2 human clinical trials. In addition to his entrepreneurial activities, Dr. Duke has over twenty-five years of experience in cutting-edge biomedical research and is a tenured faculty member in the Departments of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and Immunology at the University of Colorado Denver. Dr. Duke has provided independent 3rd-party research analysis in the life sciences sector to Janus Capital and to venture capital firms.
Lauren C. Costantini, Ph.D.
Consultant
Lauren C. Costantini, Ph.D. has over 15 years of experience driving products from research through to commercialization. She has lead preclinical, clinical, and regulatory development for drugs, medical foods, devices and dietary supplements through successful launch. She plays a key role in business development activities including licensing, patents, due diligence, and partnering discussions, and is often invited to present at scientific, investor and partnering conferences. Dr. Costantini was most recently Vice President, Research and Development at Sierra Neuropharmaceuticals, focusing on intracerebral delivery of medications for epilepsy. Prior to joining Sierra, she was Vice President of Clinical Development at Accera, where she directed the Clinical and Regulatory departments through clinical trials and commercialization of an Alzheimer’s disease product. Prior to Accera, Dr. Costantini directed Product Development at Titan Pharmaceuticals, developing novel treatments for CNS disorders including drug delivery, gene therapy and cell therapy platforms. Previously, Dr. Costantini was on faculty at Harvard Medical School where she investigated mechanisms and treatments for neurodegeneration.
Adam Rubenstein
Consultant
Adam has worked in the life science sector for over twelve years, as an associate for High Country Venture and Tango, a private equity group; Senior Analyst on the finance team at ARCA biopharma (Nasdaq: ABIO); Director of Corporate Strategy and Finance at MycoLogics; Co-founder of the venture development and advisory group, Fitzsimons BioBusiness Partners; Founder of the online competitive intelligence resource OnBioVC.com; and, as a consultant providing corporate strategy, business development, due diligence and finance work for numerous development and commercial-stage entities (sample clients include: PhosphoSolutions, BaroFold and SomaLogic). Earlier pursuits included Portfolio Manager, Analyst and Trader roles with the investment banks Merrill Lynch (now Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)) and B.C. Zeigler & Co. (now Envestnet (NYSE: ENV)).