About

Mission

As one of the world’s most renowned motivational speakers, Mark helps folks achieve the best versions of themselves through his dynamically diverse speaking. As a premier keynote speaker, Mark engages people of all ages to “make your mark” on the world.

Vision

Mark has founded Keynote, a company sparked to kindle hope and ignite empowerment among the next generation of leaders around around. Mark is absolutely committed to motivating this next generation to be high achievers as he introduces new audiences every day to strive for success.

Dr. Doug Pippin

Dr. Pippin (Co-Founder, CEO, President and Chairman of the Board, PI/PD) 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 to sell Cellular Genomics, Inc. to Gilead, Inc. for $120M. As the Founding CEO of Praeventix, Dr. Pippin has successfully raised XX of funding. 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 Atopic Dermatitis/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/Immunology (Serotonin signaling modulators and Sphingosine-1-Phosphate lyase modulators)

Heidi Kempinski

Heidi Kempinski (COO) is an experienced R&D and operations executive with over 30 years of experience in global drug development.  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 has successfully built and led integrated R&D operations for companies of variable size and maturity. 

Ms. Kempinski also serves as Senior Principal and Operating Executive at Tellus BioVentures, LLC, an early-stage life sciences investment fund and Chief Operating Officer for both Aegle Therapeutics and TamuroBio Inc, Tellus Portfolio companies. 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 $203.5M Series A-B financing, and the successful acquisition of 3 of her prior companies for a total of $9B. 

Kevin Blattner

Kevin Blattner (Senior Scientist) has spent the last 4 years at Praeventix expanding the 5-HT7 antagonist library (~500 compounds) and have identified lead compounds that differ in pharmacological properties (BBB penetration) with the ultimate goal of identifying pre-clinical and clinical lead compounds for the treatment of cocaine use disorder, UC and Pruritus. From this series, Dr. Blattner has demonstrated efficacy with BBB-penetrant PRA-078 in rat models of cocaine use disorder as well as identified periphery-restricted lead, PRA-523, that has demonstrated efficacy in models of Pruritus and IBD. He has optimized scalable synthetic protocols that have allowed for the generation of 15-20 g of PRA078 and 50 g of PRA523.  Prior to joining Praeventix, Dr. Blattner spent his five years in graduate school involved in research related to the development of both selective 5-HT7 antagonists and sigma 2 binders within the Temple University School of Pharmacy’s Moulder Center for Drug Discovery Research. Because of my successful PhD research program (5-HT7 antagonists), he has established extensive structural activity relationship knowledge on the proposed series and has developed significant expertise in the science of 5-HT7 modulators.  Dr. Blattner completed his PhD research program and graduated from Temple University School of Pharmacy in August 2018 (Thesis title: Design, synthesis and evaluation of 5-HT7 antagonists for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease).

Meghan Moulder

Meghan Moulder (Program Lead) has over 10 years of program management experience in the pharmaceutical industry and the aerospace industry. Her experience includes the management of pre-IND large and small molecules. 

Ms. Moulder also serves as Principal and Vice President of Portfolio Management at Tellus BioVentures, LLC, an early-stage life sciences investment fund and Vice President of Portfolio Management at TamuroBio Inc, a Tellus Portfolio company. Previously, she served as Vice President of Portfolio Management at Zenas BioPharma, a Tellus Portfolio company, where she established and implemented the Program Management System for the Portfolio, managed Partnership and Alliances, as well as secured vendors for early-stage development.  Prior to Tellus, Ms. Moulder served as the Executive Director at GE Aviation leading program operations for the CF6 Engine Program. In her previous roles, Ms. Moulder has provided cross-functional leadership to develop integrated strategies, communicated with senior management for endorsement, and ensured timely implementation of agreed plans.  She has worked closely with key opinion leaders and experts in the field to ensure that the program plans were optimized to meet regulatory (FDA and FAA) and commercial needs.  

Dr. Dave

Dr. Dave (CMC) has over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry; 30 of which were spent in Big Pharma/Biotech at Merch Research Labs (1984-2008) and Genentech (2009-2014) as a scientist/director of successful CMC development projects and teams. His combined work at Merck and Genentech resulted in 7 registered human health products (6 small molecules and 1 antibody-drug conjugate featuring a small molecule payload including COTELLICTM, KADCYLA TM, ERIVEDGE TM, ISENTRESS, ZOCOR, CRIXIVAN, JUNUVIA. Dr. Askin received the Heroes of Chemistry Award in 2013 as well as the Thomas Alva Patent Award in 1997. Dr. Askin has been a full-time consultant for the last 8 years, providing guidance and expertise to CDMO selection, supply chain management, route selection, formulation development, process development, characterization, and validation, FDA meeting support, as well as overall project management.

Dr. Adaline

Dr. Adaline (Non-Clinical Development)