About Us
Senior Leadership Team
Board of Directors
Paul Clancy has served on Xilio’s board of directors since July 2020 and brings more than 35 years of experience in financial management and strategic business planning. Mr. Clancy most recently served as executive vice president, senior advisor of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and earlier served as chief financial officer of Alexion. Prior to Alexion, Mr. Clancy served as the executive vice president and chief financial officer at Biogen Inc. Before Biogen, Mr. Clancy spent 13 years at PepsiCo Inc., serving in a variety of finance, strategy, and general management positions. Mr. Clancy serves as a member of the board of directors of Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Incyte Corporation, Exact Sciences Corporation and Sionna Therapeutics. Mr. Clancy is a senior visiting lecturer of finance at Cornell University’s Graduate School of Business. Mr. Clancy received his B.S. in business administration from Babson College and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
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.
Aoife Brennan has served as a member of our board of directors since June 2024. Dr. Brennan brings over 16 years of industry leadership and drug development experience to Xilio and currently serves as chief executive officer, president and a member of the board of directors of Eliem Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to Eliem Therapeutics, Dr. Brennan served as chief executive officer, president and a member of the board of directors of Synlogic, Inc. from 2018 until 2023, and previously served as chief medical officer from 2016 until 2018. Prior to joining Synlogic, Dr. Brennan was vice president and head of the Rare Disease Innovation Unit at Biogen, where she was responsible for research and development for programs ranging from preclinical to commercial-stage within Biogen’s rare disease portfolio. Dr. Brennan currently serves on the board of directors of FibroGen, Inc. and Cerevance. Dr. Brennan received her medical degree from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and completed her post-graduate training in internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland. In addition, she completed post-doctoral training in clinical research and metabolism at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and is a graduate of the Harvard Medical School Scholars in Clinical Science Program.
Daniel Curran, M.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since December 2020. He has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical experience in strategy, business development, project leadership and development roles. Between October 2012 to January 2024, Dr. Curran held roles of increasing responsibility at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., or Takeda, a pharmaceutical company, and most recently served as a senior vice president and the head of the rare genetics and hematology therapeutic area unit. Prior to Takeda, he served as vice president, corporate development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., or Millennium, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda, from June 1999 to October 2012. Prior to Millennium, Dr. Curran held a business development role in the product planning and acquisition group at DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical company. Dr. Curran received an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in chemistry from King’s College.
Robert Ross, M.D., currently serves as chief executive officer of Clasp Therapeutics. Prior to Clasp Therapeutics, Dr. Ross served as the chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of Surface Oncology, Inc. before its acquisition by Coherus. Dr. Ross previously served as Surface’s chief medical officer. Before Surface, Dr. Ross served as the head of oncology at bluebird bio, Inc. and earlier served in roles as senior vice president of clinical development and pharmacovigilance and vice president of clinical development. Prior to bluebird bio, Dr. Ross worked at Genentech and Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Ross was a Fellow in Medical Oncology and a faculty member at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) from 2003 to 2007, and then he maintained a clinical practice at DFCI until 2015. Dr. Ross currently serves on the board of directors of Obsidian Therapeutics, Inc., a private biotechnology company. Dr. Ross received a B.S. in biological sciences and a B.A. in philosophy from Stanford University, an M.S. in medical science from Harvard Medical School and an M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Christina Rossi has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2021. Since October 2018, Ms. Rossi has served as chief commercial officer of Blueprint. From January 2015 to October 2018, Ms. Rossi served as the Multiple Sclerosis business unit head, North America, at Sanofi Genzyme, or Sanofi, a biotechnology company. Previously, Ms. Rossi served as vice president, Multiple Sclerosis Sales at Sanofi from May 2014 to December 2015 and vice president, Multiple Sclerosis Patient and Provider Services at Sanofi from June 2012 to May 2014. Prior to joining Sanofi, Ms. Rossi served in various roles at Biogen, including head, commercial strategy for Eidetica Biopharma GmbH, Biogen’s biosimilar-focused venture, and U.S. brand leader for TYSABRI®(natalizumab). In addition, Ms. Rossi consulted in the healthcare practice at the Boston Consulting Group. Ms. Rossi holds a B.S. in biology, cum laude, from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
René Russo, Pharm.D., is an accomplished biotechnology CEO with over 20 years of experience leading R&D and commercialization in the biopharmaceutical industry across a range of therapeutic areas, including oncology. As an executive leader, Dr. Russo has led successful teams from early preclinical research through all phases of clinical development, registration, and commercialization to bring innovative therapies to patients across the United States and Europe. Before Xilio, Dr. Russo was the President and CEO of Arsanis, a company developing monoclonal antibodies to prevent and treat serious infectious diseases, merged with X4 Pharmaceuticals in 2018. Prior to Arsanis, Dr. Russo spent 12 years at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, a leading global anti-infective company that Merck acquired. Before Cubist, Dr. Russo held R&D roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb, contributing to the successful development and global commercialization of multiple therapeutics. Dr. Russo serves on the boards of Xilio Therapeutics, Celsius Therapeutics, Ledyen Labs, and the non-profit Life Science Cares. Dr. Russo holds a B.S. in pharmacy and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Rutgers University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship with Bristol-Myers Squibb.
James Shannon has served as a member of our board of directors since June 2024 and brings more than 30 years of drug development and leadership experience to Xilio. From 2012 until his retirement in 2015, Dr. Shannon served as the chief medical officer of GlaxoSmithKline. Prior to that, Dr. Shannon spent more than a decade with Novartis, including as global head of pharma development, where he was responsible for all of Novartis’ development activities, from preclinical through Phase 4 clinical development, and oversaw an annual development budget of approximately $4 billion. Dr. Shannon currently serves as chair of the board of directors of MannKind Corporation, ProQR Therapeutics NV, and Kyowa Kirin (NA). Dr. Shannon also serves on the boards of Leyden Labs and MyTomorrows. Dr. Shannon is trained in Medicine and Cardiology and received his undergraduate degree and M.D. from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Dr. Shannon is also a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (UK).
Yuan Xu, Ph.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since January 2022. Dr. Xu is a biopharmaceutical executive with more than 25 years of experience, most recently serving as chief executive officer of Legend Biotech Corporation (Legend Biotech) from March 2018 until August 2020. In this capacity, she played a leading role in Legend Biotech’s initial public offering, clinical development of Legend Biotech’s autologous CAR T-cell therapy cilta-cel, and a strategic partnership with Janssen Biotech, Inc. Prior to Legend Biotech, Dr. Xu served as senior vice president at Merck & Co., Inc. (Merck), where she led discovery, preclinical and technical development, and manufacturing for Merck’s biologics and vaccines subdivision. Dr. Xu also served as general manager and vice president of biologics at Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Gilead), where she led biologics and vaccines development and oversaw all operational aspects of Gilead’s Oceanside manufacturing facility as site head. Prior to Gilead, Dr. Xu served as vice president at Novartis and led several functions in the U.S. and Europe, including the biotherapeutics development unit focusing on innovative medicines. Earlier in her career, Dr. Xu held positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen Inc., Chiron, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Genentech Inc. Dr. Xu currently serves as a member of the boards of directors of Fate Therapeutics, Inc. and Akero Therapeutics, Inc., as well as a scientific advisory board member and manufacturing advisory board member of Resilience. Dr. Xu received a B.S. in biochemistry from Nanjing University, a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Maryland and completed her post-doctoral training in virology and gene therapy at the University of California, San Diego.