Board Of Directors

Hilde Windels * is an advisor in the life sciences industry. She brings over 20 years of experience in biotech with a track record of business and corporate strategy, building and structuring organizations, private fundraising, mergers and acquisitions and public capital markets. Ms. Windels has worked as Chief Financial Officer for several biotech companies, amongst those Belgium based molecular Dx company Biocartis where she started as Chief Financial Officer CFO in 2011. She transitioned to the co-Chief Executive Officer role in 2015 and became interim Chief Executive Officer in 2017. She took up the CEO role of MyCartis in early 2018 and of its spin-out Antelope Dx mid-2019.

Ms. Windels is a member of the board of directors of Erytech, GIMV and MdxHealth. She holds a Master’s Degree in Economics (Commercial Engineer) from the University of Leuven (Belgium).

* permanent representative of Hilde Windels BV

Matt Kane is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurial, CEO and board roles. Mr. Kane is a pioneer in genome editing, led the development of the first editing technology to receive clearance for clinical evaluation as an in vivo gene insertion therapeutic and, most importantly, led the development and clinical testing of multiple allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies directed against cancer. His extensive scientific and business acumen have been demonstrated during his career by raising over $500M in equity financings and partnerships valued at over $4B.

Prior to Celyad, he served as CEO and board member of Tune Therapeutics, Inc., an epigenetic editing biotechnology company. During his tenure at Tune, he led the development of the initial program portfolio, followed by the selection of a lead epi-editing therapeutic candidate. Prior to Tune Therapeutics, Matt co-founded the gene editing company, Precision BioSciences, Inc. (DTIL), in 2006 and led the company as CEO and board member until 2021. While leading Precision, he oversaw the company’s Initial Public Offering, formed several pharmaceutical partnerships across cell and gene therapy, and ultimately directed four unique allogeneic CAR T therapies into human clinical studies.

Mr. Kane holds a Master of Business Administration, Certificate in Health Sector Management, from Duke University, a Master of Biomedical Engineering and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, both from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Michel Lussier * co-founded Cardio3 Biosciences SA the company which became Celyad SA. Mr. Lussier currently serves also on several Boards of Directors: iSTAR Medical SA and Gabi Smart Care SA as Chairman, Occlutech AG as board member. Previously, Mr. Lussier founded MedPole SA and its  North American affiliate Medpole LTD, a Medtech and cell therapy incubator for start-up companies, serving as CEO until July 2020. From May 2014 until September 2020, Mr. Lussier also served as the CEO of Metronom Health Inc, an early stage medical device company founded by Fjord Ventures. Prior to that, from 2002 to 2013, he worked for Volcano Corporation, where he served in global leadership positions. Mr. Lussier started his career with Medtronic where he held a number of technical, marketing, sales than general management roles. Mr. Lussier obtained a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Electrical Engineering and Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Montreal. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD, France.

* permanent representative of CFIP CLYD LLC

Serge Goblet holds a Master’s Degree in Business and Consular Sciences from ICHEC, Belgium and has many years of international experience as director in Belgian and foreign companies. Mr. Goblet is the managing director of TOLEFI SA, a Belgian holding company and holds director mandates in subsidiaries of TOLEFI.

Mr. LiPuma is a Director in Fortress Investment Group LLC’s Intellectual Property Group based in San Francisco, where he focuses on a wide variety of investment opportunities in connection with intellectual property, life sciences, and academic institutions. Prior to joining Fortress in 2018, Mr. LiPuma headed business development for Kastle Therapeutics, a private equity backed biotechnology company acquiring ultra-orphan drugs. Before joining Kastle, Mr. LiPuma was with OrbiMed Advisors, a life sciences focused asset management firm.  At OrbiMed, Mr. LiPuma worked on royalty monetizations, direct lending to late development stage and early commercial stage life sciences companies, and several private equity transactions focused on acquiring legacy assets from big pharma. Mr. LiPuma started his career as an investment banker at Leerink Partners. Mr. LiPuma holds a B.A. from Hamilton College.

Dominic Piscitelli brings more than 20 years of industry experience, including debt and equity financings, in-licensing transactions, acquisitions, marketing partnerships and commercial product launches (XTANDI® and Tarceva®). Since September 2019 Dominic has served as the Chief Financial Officer of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Nasdaq-listed biotechnology company, that completed its initial public offering in April 2020. Prior to joining ORIC, Mr. Piscitelli was CFO of AnaptysBio, a Nasdaq-listed biotechnology company, where he helped raise over $500 million in an IPO and follow-on financings. From 2012 until 2017, Mr. Piscitelli was Vice President of Finance, Strategy and Investor Relations at Medivation and played a key role in its acquisition by Pfizer. Previously, he served as Senior Director of Collaborations and Operations Finance at Astellas Pharma. Prior to that, Mr. Piscitelli served in various roles of increasing responsibility culminating as the Vice President, Treasury & Management Finance at OSI Pharmaceuticals, and played a significant role in their acquisition by Astellas. Mr. Piscitelli began his career with KPMG and is a certified public accountant. He earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA from Hofstra University (New York).

Marina Udier, Ph.D., currently serves as CEO of Nouscom after joining as Chief Operating Officer in 2016 from Versant Ventures, where she was Operating Principal. Prior to Versant, she held senior development and commercial roles at Novartis in Basel including work as a Global Commercial Head. Previously, Dr. Udier worked for McKinsey & Company in the US, working with Healthcare Fortune 500 companies in areas of marketing, strategy and pricing. She has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Yale University.

Jonathan James is a Managing Director based in Menlo Park for the Fortress Credit Funds Business. Mr. James is part of the Intellectual Property Group where he serves as the Director of Litigation and Portfolio Management. Mr. James has nearly 30 years of experience representing leading technology companies in patent, trade secret and other IP litigation throughout the United States, before the International Trade Commission, and in Europe and Asia. Mr. James also has extensive experience advising clients on patent portfolio strategy, patent licensing, patent sales and acquisition and patent monetization. Prior to joining Fortress in 2017, Mr. James was a partner and Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property Practice at Perkins Coie, an international law firm of over 1,000 lawyers with one of the largest intellectual property practices in the world. Mr. James served in numerous other leadership roles at Perkins Coie, including as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Prior to Perkins Coie, Mr. James was a partner with Brown & Bain, a leading technology and intellectual property litigation firm. Before attending law school, Mr. James worked in marketing positions at IBM. He also served as a law clerk for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee Sub-Committee on Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks. Mr. James is recognized by Intellectual Asset Magazine as one of the World’s Leading IP Strategists and is one of the IAM 300, awarded to individuals with an established track record in developing and rolling out world-class IP value creation programs. Mr. James received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Arizona and a J.D. from Arizona State University.

Sage Mandel is a Vice President in Fortress Investment Group LLC’s Intellectual Property Group based in New York, where she focuses on new investment underwriting and ongoing asset management for opportunities in connection with intellectual property and life sciences. Before joining Fortress, Ms. Mandel was an investment professional at EW Healthcare Partners, a growth focused private equity firm with $4.0 billion AUM dedicated exclusively to healthcare investments in the pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics, and technology-enabled services sectors in the United States and in Europe. Prior to EW Healthcare Partners, Ms. Mandel was in the healthcare investment banking group at J.P. Morgan, where she focused on pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology and services deals spanning M&A, structured transactions and debt and equity financings. Ms. Mandel has also worked in science research labs at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Department of Pharmacology, the University of Pennsylvania Department of Biology, and the Stony Brook University Department of Biochemistry. Ms. Mandel graduated magna cum laude from the Vagelos Life Sciences and Management Dual Degree Program at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics with a concentration in Finance at the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology at the College of Arts and Sciences.

Sharon Roberg-Perez is a Director in Fortress Investment Group LLC’s Intellectual Property Group. She is responsible for life science intellectual property analysis, leveraging both her technical background and over 18 years of experience as a patent litigator. Prior to joining Fortress, Ms. Roberg-Perez was a partner at Robins Kaplan in the Intellectual Property & Technology Group, where her practice focused on disputes and diligence involving medical device, biotechnology, and life science patents. She successfully represented clients of all sizes, ranging from individual inventors to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to her legal career, Sharon worked at biotechnology startups in Minneapolis and Boston and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech. Sharon holds a J.D. from the University of St. Thomas School of Law, a Ph.D. from MIT, and a B.A. from Wellesley College.