Management
The Horizon team is made up of senior executives and advisors with extensive experience in the areas of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and consumer products. Members of the Horizon team have played integral roles in the creation and launch of multi-billion dollar products and companies.
Timothy Walbert
President and Chief Executive Officer
Tim serves as our President and Chief Executive Officer as well as a member of our board of directors. He brings to Horizon almost 20 years of proven experience launching and commercializing blockbuster drugs in the pain and arthritis fields, including HUMIRA, Celebrex, Arthrotec, and Daypro as well as broad executive and general management experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Mr. Walbert's most recent position is as President, Chief Executive Officer and board member at IDM Pharma (NASDAQ: IDMI), which he joined in 2007. IDM Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative products that activate the immune system to treat cancer. At IDM Pharma, Tim has led a significant turnaround effort, taking the Company from a negative U.S. regulatory decision with its lead drug L-MTP-PE for osteosarcoma to a potential EU approval in less than one year. Prior to IDM Pharma, Mr. Walbert was at NeoPharm, Inc. (a biotech company focused on oncology), where he was Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations. Previously, Tim served at Abbott (NYSE: ABT) as Divisional Vice President and General Manager of Immunology and Divisional Vice President of Global Cardiovascular Marketing. There he had full P&L responsibility for the creation of Abbott's Global Immunology Franchise and led all aspects of the approval and global commercialization of HUMIRA for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). He also led the development of the full life cycle plan for HUMIRA, developing it in RA, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylsoing spondylitis and crohn's disease. HUMIRA became the most successful launch in Abbott’s history, achieving sales over $1.4 billion by 2005 and will exceed $3 billion in 2008. Tim’s team submitted the largest application (BLA) ever to CBER, the biologic division of the FDA, which was approved in only nine months. He was responsible for establishing and overseeing all aspects of marketing, sales, public relations, medical affairs, regulatory affairs, medical liaisons and global supply chain. Prior to Abbott, Tim served as Director, Celebrex North America and Arthritis Team Leader, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Canada at Searle/Pharmacia. During this time Celebrex maintained brand leadership with over $2 billion in sales in 2000. Tim was involved in FDA label negotiations for the pain indication and FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee meetings for Celebrex. He also coordinated launch, and post launch activities in Canada, Australia, and Latin America where sales grew to nearly $400 million in 2000, the most successful pharmaceutical product launched in most of those countries. He also held a number of key marketing and sales positions with Searle/Pharmacia, including the U.S. Launch of Arthrotec (a combination arthritis/pain product which generated over $200 million in first year sales in 1998) and Daypro, a arthritis/pain product which generated over $300 million in peak U.S. sales. Earlier in his career, he held sales positions at Wyeth and Searle (anti-inflammatory, GI, cardiovascular, and sleep products).
Robert J. De Vaere
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Bob joined us in October, 2008 and serves as our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Bob is an experienced executive who brings more than 28 years of financial management experience to the Company, including the last 13 years in healthcare with both public and private companies, where he has been instrumental in numerous M&A transactions as well as an IPO. Mr. De Vaere’s most recent position is as Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer of IDM Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: IDMI), which he joined in 2007. IDM Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative products that activate the immune system to treat cancer. Prior to IDM Pharma, Mr. De Vaere served from August 2006 until April 2007 as the CFO of Nexa Orthopedics, which was acquired by Tornier in February 2007. Prior to that, Mr. De Vaere served as the Vice President, Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer of IDM Pharma from August 2005 to March 2006, and was Vice President and CFO of Epimmune from May 2000 until the business combination with IDM in August 2005. Prior to joining Epimmune in May 2000, Mr. De Vaere was with Vista Medical Technologies, Inc., a medical device company, from January 1996 to May 2000, where he served as Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier in his career, Mr. De Vaere held accounting, finance and administrative positions within the electronics and aerospace industries. Mr. De Vaere received a Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Jeffrey Sherman, MD, FACP
Executive Vice-President and Chief Medical Officer
Jeffrey (Jeff) W. Sherman, MD, FACP is Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President at Horizon Therapeutics. Jeff has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Before joining Horizon Therapeutics, Jeff was Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development at IDM Pharma. He also served previously as Vice President of Clinical Science at Takeda Global Research and Development, and Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President at NeoPharm, Inc. In addition, Jeff held various positions at Searle/Pharmacia, including Director, Senior Director, and Executive Director of Clinical Research, for a variety of therapeutic areas, including infectious diseases, women’s health, sleep, central nervous system, and oncology. He also served as Head of Oncology Global Medical Operations. Prior to Searle/Pharmacia, Jeff worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Clinical Pharmacology and Clinical Research. Jeff received his medical degree from the Rosalind Franklin University/Chicago Medical School. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Northwestern University, where he also served as chief medical resident. Additionally, he completed fellowship training at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF) and was a research associate at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at UCSF. Jeff is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a member of a number of professional societies as well as a Diplomat of the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Internal Medicine. Jeff is President of the Drug Information Association (DIA) and a member of the Board of Directors. He also served as chairperson of the DIA 2008 Annual Meeting and received an Outstanding Service Award in 2001.
Amy Grahn
Vice President Clinical Operations
Amy has more than 20 years pharmaceutical industry experience spanning pre-clinical research to sales, with a primary focus on clinical operations. At Horizon, Amy will lead all clinical operations activities. She was most recently vice president of clinical operations at MedGenesis Therapeutix Inc. in British Columbia, Canada where she was responsible for strategic planning, development and implementation of clinical and pre-clinical development plans for therapeutic agents delivered via the MedGenesis convection-enhanced delivery (CED) platform. Prior to MedGenesis, Amy served as vice president of clinical operations at NEOPHARM where she was responsible for taking the lead compound, IL13-PE38 (under a CRADA with FDA) for recurrent glioblastoma mulitforme, from Phase 1 to completion of Phase 3 in five years. In addition to the lead compound, Amy oversaw the progression of two additional compounds from Phase 1 to Phase 2. During her career, Amy has also held various senior level positions at Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., G.D. Searle & Company and Abbott Laboratories. She has a master’s degree in biochemistry from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology from Knox College in Galesburg, Ill.
Iain Duncan
Senior Vice President Operations
Iain has more than 20 years executive-level management experience in international, general and operations management. At Horizon, he will lead all manufacturing, quality control and supply chain activities. Prior to joining Horizon, Iain co-founded Corus Pharma, Inc., which was purchased by Gilead Sciences, Inc. He also served as vice president of operations at Corus where he was integral in the development and manufacturing of aztreonam lysinate for inhalation (AI). While at Corus, he also supervised the formulation and development of three additional drug candidates. During his career, Iain has also held senior-level positions at Pathogenesis Inc. and Lyondell Chemical. He has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Trent University in Ontario, Canada.
Robert W. Metz
Vice President, Business Operations
Robert Metz joined Horizon in September 2009 as vice president, business operations. He has been a consultant to Horizon for over a year. Mr. Metz is responsible for sales and marketing, advocacy, administration and human resources.. He brings nearly 20 years of commercial and administrative experience within both small and large pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations.
Carolyn Feamster
Commercial and Business Development
Carolyn supports Horizon Therapeutics on the commercial and business development fronts. She has spent over 25 years in commercial development, marketing and business development management positions in the pharmaceutical and biotech arenas. Her experience spans many therapeutic areas, including pain and inflammation, autoimmune disease, oncology, CNS, transplantation and women’s health. She spent over 15 years at Syntex where her responsibilities included such major brands as Naprosyn and culminated in the launch of the transplant drug, Cellcept. In 1995 she joined ALZA Corporation where she headed up New Product Planning/Marketing and built a fledgling team into a department that successfully shepherded three pipeline products onto the market. Most recently, Ms Feamster served as Vice President of Business Strategy and Analysis for Clearview Projects, a company focused on providing transaction support and strategic business advice to biotech companies, where she managed projects with over 20 biotech companies. She received her BS in biochemistry from Iowa State University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Barry L. Golombik
Founder, Business Operations
Barry is a co-founder of Horizon. He has over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience launching successful companies across multiple industries including biotechnology, internet, consumer products, and publishing. Barry has been a founding member of four startups that have generated more than $2Billion in cumulative sales, in addition to three M&A’s, an IPO, and over $100Million in venture financing. Prior to Horizon, he helped to launch Threshold Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:THLD) in 2001, a biotech company that went public in 2005. Barry was an original member of the team that spun-off Toysrus.com in 1998 and built it from startup into a leading e-commerce site with over $400Million in annual sales. He helped co-found OddzOn Products in 1988, a sporting goods company that produced nearly $1Billion in cumulative sales (sold to Hasbro in 1998), and was a senior advisor to Palladium Interactive, a software publishing venture eventually sold to The Learning Company. Barry received his BA in Business from the University of Colorado, Boulder.