LEADERSHIP

Leadership & Team

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Grounded in Science, driven by innovation, we strive to make a meaningful impact on global healthcare

Sohail R. Zaidi

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (CEO)

Sohail Zaidi has been in a number of leadership roles including Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Intech Process Automation Inc and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Ecopack Limited. He started his career at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI PLC UK) and has been in senior operations and management roles. Sohail has received executive business education from Harvard Business School and INSEAD, France. He has served as a Mentor in Residence at UF Innovation Hub and has taught Entrepreneurship and Innovation in an Adjunct capacity at the University of Florida.

Christopher Moore

SVP - CORPORATE & REGULATORY AFFAIRS

Christopher Moore spent most of his career with Merck & Co Inc in senior international operations and management roles. He has been Senior Vice President of Global Business Services and Senior Vice President of Operations for Merck affiliate, Banyu Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd in Japan. Earlier in his career with Merck he held various senior operations and management positions in different regions of the world. He is President Emeritus of ANANDA Scientific.

Jim Streisand, MD

SENIOR MEDICAL ADVISOR

Jim Streisand, MD, is a board-certified Anesthesiologist with over 25 years experience in clinical development, clinical trial design and regulatory filings within Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical companies. He has been Vice President of Clinical Development for Genezyme Corporation and Vice President of Clinical Development at Revo Biologics. He earned his BS at MIT, his MD at SUNY Buffalo and has been Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Utah.

Bill McVicar, PhD

SENIOR SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR

Bill McVicar PhD has an extensive expertise in the pharmaceutical industry having successfully led start ups through FDA approval. He has held positions at Novartis, RPR Gencell, and Sepracor. He has been the Chief Scientific Officer of Inotek Pharmaceuticals and CEO at Flex Pharmaceuticals. He serves on the board of Satellos Biosciences (MSCL.V) and Salarius (SLRX) . Bill earned his B.S. in Chemistry from SUNY College at Oneonta and his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Vermont. He provides strategic scientific advice for ANANDA’s clinical development program.

Nissim Garti, MS, PhD

SCIENTIFIC R&D PARTNER

Nissim Garti MS, PhD, is founder and Chairman of Lyotropic Delivery Systems Ltd, in Jerusalem, Israel. He has had a long and distinguished career at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in ‘product related’ research as a Professor of Chemistry, and as Director of the Casili Institute of Applied Chemistry. He was recently recognized as being in the top 15 Chemistry Scientists in Israel. Dr Garti is the inventor of Liquid Structure™ technology that is used in ANANDA’s investigation Nantheia™ drug products.

Larry Blankenstein, PhD

CLINICAL AUDIT & COMPLIANCE

Larry Blankstein, PhD has extensive Pharmaceutical Industry experience in Clinical Research Operations. For much of his career he worked at Genzyme as their Clinical Operations lead. He now consults to various pharmaceutical companies at differing stages of development. He is working with ANANDA in handling the execution of the clinical development program and in conducting quality assurance and monitoring audits of the clinical trials.

Katherine Kacena, PhD

SENIOR STATISTICIAN

Katherine Kacena is a statician with 15 years of research experience, across industry, academia, and in collaborations with non-governmental and governmental institutions. Katherine received her PhD at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. She has also completed a Visiting Fellowship in the Statistics Department of Harvard University. She is the lead statistician for Ananda Scientific.

Steve Pondell

QUALITY & REGULATORY AFFAIRS

Steve Pondell has worked as a Senior Executive in Pharmaceutical manufacturing for over 20 years and has provided services to the pharma, biologics and device industries in the development and commercialization of their products, from first-in-man studies to full market entry. He specializes in product development, GCP and cGMP systems and auditing, clinical and commercial supplies, and validation services. He leads the quality and regulatory packages for Ananda Scientific as the custodian of the CMC and Drug Master Files.

Ariel Strahovsky

CHIEF ENGINEER

Ariel Strahovsky, is a chemical engineer with extensive experience in establishing manufacturing processes in start-up companies, and managing the process of bringing new products through the development process. Ariel leads the development and manufacturing of Ananda’s investigational drugs ensuring they are fully FDA compliant and ready for use in the company’s multiple clinical trials.

Michael Somuk

DOCUMENTS & CONTROL

Michael Somuk has experience in implementing new manufacturing processes and analytical methods. As Ananda develops it pharmaceutical infrastructure and in particular its quality control processes, and Michael ensures all our production and quality control document and processes are fully compliant with FDA standards.

Heidi Raben

QUALITY ASSURANCE

Heidi Raben has a background as a pharmaceutical chemist and in pharmaceutical quality control. Heidi plays a key role in Ananda in managing our supply chain quality assurance processes and in ensuring all our investigational drugs are fully compliant with FDA regulations.

Allan Kitterman

CONTROLLER

Allan Kitterman, is an experienced company financial manager and controller who has managed the financial processes of a board range of companies. As Ananda’s controller, Allan oversees the daily management of our financial processes and the annual external audit of our financial statements.

Nicole Reimer

OFFICE MANAGER

Nicole Reimers has a broad background in managing day to day financial and office management processes, and in Ananda handles the maintenance of our financial and shareholder records, and the administration of our Denver office.

Sagren Thumbiran

ANALYTICAL CHEMIST

Sagren Thumbiran, is an experienced analytical chemist with broad pharmaceutical industry experience . Sagren manages Ananda’s analytical chemistry laboratory and is an integral part of our product development team.

Marijo Clarke

MANUFACTURING ADVISOR

Marijo Clark has spent her career focused on softgel formulation and new product development, as well as the optimization of softgel manufacturing processes within the pharmaceutical industry. As part of the Ananda team Marijo has been instrumental in using her extensive softgel development expertise to further refine our softgel manufacturing processes.