Lonnie Moulder

Mr. Moulder (Executive Chair) is the Managing Member of Tellus BioVentures, a life sciences investment fund, and the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Zenas BioPharma. Prior to establishing Tellus, Mr. Moulder co-founded TESARO and served as Chief Executive Officer and Director until its acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Abraxis BioScience. Prior to Abraxis, he served as Vice Chairman of Eisai Corporation of North America following Eisai’s acquisition of MGI PHARMA, where he served as President and Chief Executive Officer. This followed him serving as a member of the founding management team of a venture-stage biotech company. Mr. Moulder began his career as a clinical pharmacist followed by a 17-year career at predecessor companies of Sanofi, beginning with Marion Laboratories.

Mr. Moulder is a Temple University Trustee and a Council Member for both the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He serves on the Board of Directors for Zai Lab and Helsinn Group and for the Tellus BioVentures portfolio companies: Aegle Therapeutics, Interius BioTherapeutics, Navrogen, Praeventix, Vittoria and Zenas BioPharma. Mr. Moulder received a Pharmacy degree from Temple University and an M.B.A from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Heidi Kempinski

Ms. Kempinski (CEO) is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive with over 30 years of experience in global drug development and organizational build, spanning discovery to commercialization. Ms. Kempinski has successfully built and led integrated R&D operations for companies of variable size and maturity. Her experience includes the development of large and small molecules and cell and gene therapy products, spanning all development stages through to commercialization.

Ms. Kempinski also serves as Senior Principal and Operating Executive at Tellus BioVentures, a life sciences investment fund, and Chief Operating Officer for Aegle Therapeutics, a Tellus Portfolio company. Previously, she also served as Chief Operating Officer for Zenas BioPharma, a Tellus portfolio company, where she built the R&D organization from the ground to over 50 employees in 2 countries and built and managed a portfolio of 6 IND/clinical stage products.  Prior to Tellus, Ms. Kempinski served as VP of Business Operations and Strategic Alliances at GlaxoSmithKline following the acquisition of TESARO in 2019.  Ms. Kempinski was part of the founding management team of TESARO where she established pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, quality, regulatory, clinical operations, and program management for the company, ultimately leading to multiple, successful development programs, regulatory approvals in >30 countries and product launches in the US and EU. Ms. Kempinski brings fundraising experience through the generation of corporate strategic plans, investor pitch decks, and supporting investor diligence processes resulting in over $200M Series A-B financing, and the successful acquisition of 3 of her prior companies for a total of $9B. 

Dr. Douglas Pippin

Dr. Pippin, PhD (President & Founder, PI) is a scientist, educator, serial biotechnology entrepreneur and corporate executive with deep expertise in drug development. He brings over 20 years of experience in discovering and developing novel therapeutics across a range of areas. Dr. Pippin’s track record of success includes serving in key roles to close a $500M deal with Genentech to discover, develop, manufacture, and commercialize therapeutics and selling Cellular Genomics, Inc. to Gilead, Inc. for $120M. As the Founding CEO of Praeventix, Dr. Pippin successfully raised $13.6M of funding through non-dilutive competitive grant awards (NIH), public-private partnerships (Temple University School of Pharmacy), and private investment funds (Tellus BioVentures). Over the years, Dr. Pippin’s research group efforts have led to the discovery of 3 clinical candidates, one FDA approved OTC Eczema/anti-pruritic treatment, two follow-on candidates currently in IND enabling studies for AD/pruritus, and numerous late-stage pre-clinical candidates, including symptomatic and disease modifying treatments for arthritis (pre-clinical and clinical), ovarian cancer (Phase II), lung cancer (Phase I), and Lymphoma (Phase II). Dr. Pippin’s discovery efforts over the last five years have been focused primarily on identifying and commercializing novel therapeutic candidates for Pruritus/Inflammation/Addiction/Immunology (Serotonin signaling modulators and Sphingosine-1-Phosphate lyase modulators). Dr. Pippin’s work designing ligands targeting the serotonergic receptor 5-HT7 has led to the discovery of Praeventix’s novel selective lead candidate PRA-523 as a potential first-in-class topical treatment for pruritus.