Our Team
Our Executive Team
René Russo, Pharm.D. has served as our chief executive officer and as a member of our board of directors since May 2019 and as our president since May 2021. Dr. Russo served as entrepreneur-in-residence at New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm, from November 2018 to November 2019. Prior to that, she served as president and chief executive officer of Arsanis, Inc., or Arsanis, a biopharmaceutical company, from April 2016 to November 2018, and as its chief development officer from July 2015 until April 2016. Prior to joining Arsanis, Dr. Russo served in various roles of increasing responsibility over an 11-year period at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical development company, focused on the development and commercialization of infectious disease therapeutics, from 2003 until its acquisition by Merck Research Laboratories, or Merck, a healthcare company, in May 2015, most recently as its vice president, global medical affairs. Dr. Russo served as a member of the board of directors of Arsanis, Inc. since April 2016 and continues to serve as a member of X4 Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, following its merger with Arsanis in March 2019. Prior to joining the biotechnology industry, Dr. Russo held clinical positions at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Princeton Hospital. Dr. Russo received her Pharm.D. and B.S. from Rutgers University.
Martin Huber, M.D. has served as our President of R&D since August 2021 and as our Chief Medical Officer since April 2020. From August 2015 to April 2020, Dr. Huber served as senior vice president and chief medical officer at Tesaro, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, before its acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline plc, a biopharmaceutical company. Prior to that, he was vice president, oncology clinical research at Merck where he was instrumental in the advancement of Merck’s oncology programs, serving as program lead for pembrolizumab in non-small cell lung cancer. Prior to Merck, Dr. Huber served in roles of increasing responsibility at Schering-Plough, Hoffmann-La Roche and Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, a pharmaceutical company, from 1994 to 2015. Dr. Huber received a B.S. in Biology from Texas Lutheran College and an M.D. from the Baylor College of Medicine. He completed his medical oncology training at U.T. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Salvatore Giovine has served as our chief financial officer since March 2021. Prior to joining us, Mr. Giovine held roles of increasing responsibility at Johnson & Johnson, Inc., a diversified healthcare company, from May 2006 to March 2021, and most recently served as senior finance director. Prior to that, he served as associate in the private equity group at Deloitte LLP, an audit and accounting firm, from May 2004 to May 2006. Mr. Giovine received a B.S. and MBA from Fordham Gabelli School of Business.
Dr. Malmberg is an accomplished leader with more than 25 years of product development and manufacturing experience. Prior to joining Xilio, Dr. Malmberg was the senior vice president of CMC at Magenta Therapeutics and established the CMC technical operations and drove the strategy for product development. Prior to joining Magenta, Dr. Malmberg served as vice president of biologics development and manufacturing at Celgene where she built an organization of over 150 scientists and engineers and was responsible for developing and supporting manufacturing of clinical and commercial biologics products globally. During her tenure at Celgene, she led the CMC development for 15 biologics clinical programs and launched one commercial product. Previously, Dr. Malmberg was director, head of process sciences at AbbVie, Inc. where she built and led an organization of more than 80 scientists and engineers responsible for biologics drug development from preclinical to commercial launch. Previous roles include various leadership roles in R&D at Abbott Laboratories. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Bialucha is senior vice president of research at Xilio. He is a passionate life science leader with broad experience in oncology/immuno-oncology drug discovery and preclinical development. Prior to joining Xilio, Dr. Bialucha served as vice president of drug discovery at Immunitas Therapeutics, developing a single cell genomics-based discovery platform and immuno-oncology focused therapeutic pipeline. Prior to joining Immunitas Therapeutics, Dr. Bialucha held positions of increasing responsibility at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, most recently leading the oncology biotherapeutics group, and directed multiple programs towards successful entry into clinical development across a variety of modalities. Dr. Bialucha received his B.S. in Molecular Genetics from University of Sussex and his Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology from the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, University College London. He completed his postdoctoral training in Professor Scott Lowe’s laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, studying tumor suppressor gene networks using genetic mouse models of cancer.
Mr. Frankenfield is an accomplished biotechnology professional with approximately 15 years of experience supporting and counselling companies on complex legal issues, transactions, and corporate matters. Prior to Xilio, Mr. Frankenfield served as vice president of corporate legal affairs at Blueprint Medicines Corporation. At Blueprint Medicines, he served on the company’s management team and led public company reporting activities, advised on capital markets strategies, supported multiple successful equity offerings, and executed collaborations and partnerships with Roche, CStone Pharmaceuticals, and Clementia Pharmaceuticals, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ipsen. Prior to Blueprint Medicines, Mr. Frankenfield was a senior associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, with a focus on strategic transactions, securities regulations and compliance, and corporate governance. Mr. Frankenfield began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP where he advised clients on complex commercial disputes and investigations. He received his B.A. in Economics from The College of William & Mary and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Our Board
Daniel S. Lynch is the Chair of the Board of Directors at Xilio Therapeutics and a strategic advisor at Third Rock Ventures. He brings more than 25 years of experience in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and has active board roles in several companies including chairman at bluebird bio, Blueprint Medicines, and Translate Bio (formerly RaNA Therapeutics). Mr. Lynch served as chief executive and chief financial officer of ImClone Systems Corp. While at ImClone, he negotiated a major partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb and helped secure FDA approval of its novel cancer treatment, ERBITUX. He has served as executive chair or board member for a number of private biopharmaceutical companies, including Stromedix, until its acquisition by Biogen Idec in February 2012, and Avila Therapeutics Inc., until its acquisition by Celgene in February 2012. Earlier in his career, Mr. Lynch served in various financial positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb over a 15-year tenure. He served on the board of directors and the audit committee of U.S. Oncology Inc., for five years until December 2010 when it was acquired by McKesson. Mr. Lynch received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Wesleyan University and his master’s degree in business administration from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.
Sara Bonstein has served as a member of our board of directors since August 2021. Ms. Bonstein has approximately 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry and has served as chief financial officer of Insmed since January 2020. Prior to joining Insmed, she served as chief financial officer and chief operating officer of OncoSec Medical Incorporated from May 2018 to January 2020 and as the chief financial officer, treasurer and executive vice president at Advaxis, Inc. (Advaxis) from February 2014 to April 2018. In these roles, she led multiple capital markets and licensing transactions, established strong financial controls, streamlined business operations, and was responsible for the overall leadership and management of operations, including corporate finance, investor relations and business development. Prior to Advaxis, Ms. Bonstein served in various finance roles of increasing responsibility at Eli Lilly & Company (Eli Lilly), ImClone Systems and Johnson & Johnson, including as a Six Sigma Champion and Black Belt, a program implemented at Eli Lilly to enable more efficient financial growth while increasing customer satisfaction. Ms. Bonstein has served as a member of the board of directors of scPharmaceuticals Inc. since July 2020. She holds a B.S. in finance from The College of New Jersey and an M.B.A. from Rider University.
Mr. Clancy has more than 30 years of experience in corporate and financial leadership and strategic business planning. He currently serves on the boards of Agios Pharmaceuticals and Incyte Corporation. Mr. Clancy was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Alexion Pharmaceuticals from July 2017 to October 2019. Prior to that, Mr. Clancy was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Biogen. While at Biogen, he successfully led the financial strategy of the company over a ten-year period of growth. Mr. Clancy joined Biogen in 2001, where he also served in several other senior executive positions, including Senior Vice President of Finance, Vice President of Business Planning, Vice President of Portfolio Management, and Vice President of Marketing. Prior to Biogen, he spent thirteen years at PepsiCo in a range of finance, strategy, and general management positions. Mr. Clancy received his B.S. in Finance from Babson College and M.B.A. from Columbia University.
Dr. Daniel Curran is the Head of the Rare Genetics and Hematology Therapeutic Area Unit (TAU) at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. In this role, he leads Takeda’s strategy, research and development efforts to unlock innovation and deliver transformative medicines in the areas of rare genetic and hematologic diseases.
Previously, Dr. Curran served as Head of Takeda’s Center for External Innovation (CEI). In this role, he and his team diversified and transformed Takeda’s research and development pipeline, focusing on partnerships to access cutting-edge technologies and innovation. Over a four-year period, the team completed more than 200 transactions and invested more than $1.5 billion in capital in external relationships and investments.
Prior to his role as Head, CEI, Dr. Curran led the corporate development group at Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company and was a member of the executive management team. In that role, he oversaw the development and execution of corporate strategic business development initiatives, including licensing arrangements, acquisitions and a range of other transactions.
He has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical experience in strategy, business development, project leadership and development roles.
Prior to Millennium, previous professional experiences include a business development role in the Product Planning and Acquisition group at DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Curran received an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in chemistry from King’s College.
Dave Gardner, CFA, is a senior member of the investment team at Rock Spring Capital Management LP. Rock Springs invests in both publicly held and private companies across multiple subsectors within healthcare, including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, life sciences and health care services. Mr. Gardner’s primary research focus is on therapeutics companies with material programs in oncology, neuroscience, and rare diseases. Mr. Gardner has been responsible for the oversight of investments in private companies where Rock Springs has served as the lead investor for a syndicate of other healthcare-focused investors. From 2005 until his departure to join Rock Springs in May of 2015, Mr. Gardner was a Vice President and research analyst at BlackRock (and its predecessor company Merrill Lynch Investment Managers) on the Fundamental Equity large cap team, with primary coverage of all US health care investments. Mr. Gardner is a former director of the New York-based non-profit Change for Kids. He holds a B.S. in Commerce with a minor in Economics from the University of Virginia, and an MBA from Columbia University.
David is a partner at Atlas Venture and focuses on investments in novel therapeutics, often those that are near to first in human clinical testing. Since joining Atlas in 2010, David has co-founded and served as chief executive officer of numerous companies including Arteaus Therapeutics acquired by Eli Lilly in 2014, Annovation Biopharma acquired by The Medicines Company in 2015, and was a founding board member of Delinia acquired by Celgene in 2017. David is a co-founder, founding chairmen, and board member of Surface Oncology (NASDAQ: SURF), Cadent Therapeutics, and Q32 Bio. David also sits on the boards of Xilio Therapeutics and Affinia Therapeutics, and is a board observer at Day One Biopharmaceuticals. David serves as an advisor to several organizations including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s (MSKCC) Technology Development Fund, the American Heart Association’s One Brave Idea, and is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Tri-TDI that includes Rockefeller University, MSKCC, and Cornell. He earned his B.A. from Stanford University, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed his internship and residency training in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He also serves on the board of Acera: The Massachusetts School for Science, Creativity, and Leadership, a STEM focused K-8 school, which his wife Courtney founded in 2009.
Andrew Hack is a Managing Director of Bain Capital Life Sciences. Before joining Bain Capital, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Editas Medicine from July 2015 through March 2019. Prior to that, Dr. Hack served as a portfolio manager at Millennium Management, where he ran a healthcare hedge fund focused on biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies. Prior to Millennium, Dr. Hack was an analyst at HealthCor Management, an analyst at Carlyle-Blue Wave Partners, and a principal of the MPM BioEquities Fund. He started his investment career as an equity research analyst covering the biotechnology sector at Banc of America Securities after serving as Director of Life Sciences at Reify Corporation. In addition, Dr. Hack is a member of the Board of Directors of Affinivax, Allena Pharmaceuticals, Atea Pharmaceuticals, BCLS Acquisition Corp, Dynavax Technologies, Imperative Care, JenaValve Technology, and Mersana Therapeutics. Dr. Hack received his B.A. in biology with special honors from the University of Chicago, where he also received his M.D. and Ph.D., was named the inaugural Frank Family Scholar, and received awards from the American Heart Association and the American Society for Cell Biology.
Rachel Humphrey is a medical oncologist, who most recently served as the Chief Medical Officer of CytomX, a biotech company based in South San Francisco where she supervised the clinical development of ProbodyTM Therapeutics for the development of cancer. Prior to this, she held various senior level roles in cancer drug development including at Cytomx (Board of Directors), AstraZeneca (SVP, Head of the Immuno-oncology department), and Bristol Myers Squibb (VP, Clinical Development). Dr. Humphrey’s career is notable for, among other things, overall supervision of the (early and late-stage) clinical development of ipilimumab (Yervoy) at BMS and sorafenib (Nexavar) at Bayer. She is also the lead singer and one of the co-founders of the band, The Checkpoints, a blues band made up of luminaries in immuno-oncology, including the Nobel Laureate, Jim Allison, and is featured in the movie Jim Allison: Breakthrough, which was released in 2019.
Mike joined SV Health Investors as a Venture Partner in 2001 and became Managing Partner in 2002. He is responsible for biotech investments and activities in the US and serves on the boards of companies in the US and UK. His career spans over 19 years in venture capital, which followed 21 years in senior operating executive roles for leading biotechnology companies. At SV, Mike has been involved from the beginning with the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) and serves on the DDF Investment Committee. He has been the seed investor in a number of startup biotech companies and has invested in platform companies, small molecule, antibody and cell therapy therapeutic companies. Prior to joining SV, Mike was the tenth employee at Genentech, where he worked for 13 years. He served as Genentech team leader for Humulin® (human insulin-Lilly), Roferon® (Interferon alpha-Roche), Protropin® (hGH), Vice President of Development during the development of Activase®, Nutropin® and Pulmozyme®. He then started Genentech’s protein engineering and small molecule discovery effort as Vice President of Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry. Mike was also the Founding CEO of Arris Pharmaceutical, MetaXen, ExSAR and CyThera (now Viacyte). Outside of SV, Mike serves on the Board of the Thayer School of Engineering (Dartmouth College). Academic credentials: AB, Dartmouth College; PhD, Chemistry, Caltech; NIH Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Molecular Biology, Harvard.
Ms. Rossi joins the board of Xilio Therapeutics with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. She currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer of Blueprint Medicines. At Blueprint Medicines, Ms. Rossi has played a critical role in the U.S. launches of AYVAKIT™ and GAVRETO®. Before her time at Blueprint, she spent six years at Sanofi Genzyme in various roles leading launches of new therapies, and optimized operations to expand patient access, including Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Business Unit Head of North America; Vice President of MS Sales; and Vice President of MS Patient and Provider Services. Prior to Sanofi Genzyme, Ms. Rossi lead brands and a biosimilar-focused venture at Biogen, Inc. She also consulted within Boston Consulting Group’s healthcare practice. Ms. Rossi holds a B.S. in Biology from Duke University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Dr. Russo has more than 20 years of experience leading all aspects of R&D and commercialization in the biopharmaceutical industry. She is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Xilio Therapeutics, a privately held immuno-oncology company focused on tumor-selective activation of potent IO therapeutics. Prior to Xilio, Dr. Russo was the President and CEO of Arsanis (NASDAQ: ASNS), a company developing monoclonal antibodies to prevent and treat serious infectious diseases, which merged with X4 Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: XFOR) in 2018. Prior to Arsanis, Dr. Russo spent 12 years at Cubist Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CBST), a leading global anti-infective company (acquired by Merck for $9.6B). Prior to Cubist, Dr. Russo held R&D roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) contributing to the development and global commercialization of several successful products, including Reyataz and Baraclude. Dr. Russo is also Chair of the Board of Adagio Therapeutics and serves on the boards of Xilio Therapeutics, X4 Pharmaceuticals, Celsius Therapeutics, and Life Science Cares. Dr. Russo holds a B.S. in pharmacy and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Rutgers University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in infectious diseases with Bristol-Myers Squibb.