Our Team

Raj Dua, PhD is Sr. Vice President, Chemistry & Manufacturing of Vincerx. For the past 11 years, Dr Dua served as a CMC advisor and an independent consultant for several smaller and virtual biotechnology companies and helped in establishing CMC strategy, process development, scale up and overall product development from early stage to commercialization of pharmaceutical products. Previously, Dr Dua held a senior management role at Resolve Bio, Alder Biopharmaceuticals, Trubion Pharmaceuticals and Xcyte Therapies, where he played a key role in development, scale up and commercialization of products related to autologous cell therapy, monoclonal antibodies, fusion proteins and peptides.

Dr Dua received a PhD from the University of Georgia in the field of Medicinal Chemistry and pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Renee Breed is Vice President of Medical Safety Operations at Vincerx and brings 20 years of pharmacovigilance experience in oncology product development. Before joining Vincerx, Ms Breed was head of Medical Safety Operations and Excellence at Acerta Pharma (AstraZeneca), head of Drug Safety Operations at Onyx (Amgen), head of Pharmacovigilance at Sunesis, and head of Drug Safety Risk Management Operations at InterMune (Roche). Ms Breed’sexperience has focused on early to late-phase assets in hematologic malignancies, including leading safety activities for the product launch of Kyprolis® (carfilzomib) for multiple myeloma and CALQUENCE® (acalabrutinib) for mantle cell lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Her background is supplemented with product development in solid tumor, pulmonary, hepatic, and infectious disease indications.

Ms Breed holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Melanie Frigault, PhD is the Vice President of Translational Medicine of Vincerx. In the year before joining Vincerx, Dr Frigault was the US head of Translational Medicine at AstraZeneca with a strategic focus on precision medicine and accelerating clinical development using novel biomarker-based endpoints in hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. From 2016 to 2020, Dr Frigault established a translational science department at Acerta Pharma in South San Francisco, CA to support development of CALQUENCE® in mantle cell lymphoma (2017) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (2019) with clinical biomarker data. Dr Frigault held positions of increasing responsibility at AstraZeneca from 2011 to 2016 where she inserted science into the development of the portfolio ranging from target selection to phase 3 pivotal trials including biomarker discovery and companion diagnostic development. Dr Frigault began her clinical research career at Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA where she developed biomarkers and drove preclinical collaborations to inform clinical development.

Dr Frigault obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from McGill University, Québec, Canada.

Kevin Haas is the Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller at Vincerx. Mr Haas has more than 25 years of experience in the high tech and biotech industries, 20 of which have been in the biotech industry with both large commercial and small emerging companies. Prior to Vincerx, Mr Haas held positions at Versartis, InterMune, Gilead Sciences, and Cisco Systems where he played a key role in financial management, including building finance infrastructure for product launches and leading financial integration during periods of rapid growth. Mr Haas began his career in public accounting with Grant Thornton, LLP and holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Western State Colorado University.

Xin Huang is the Vice President of Biometrics of Vincerx. Before joining Vincerx, Dr Huang was the Head of Biostatistics at Loxo Oncology, where she established the Biostatistics and Statistical Programming department and was responsible for the oversight of all biometrics activities. Before joining Loxo, she was Director of Biostatistics at Acerta Pharma and led the statistical support for multiple hematology and solid tumor studies. Dr Huang began her career in oncology at Amgen, where she worked as statistical lead for phase 2 and phase 3 studies in the trebananib program. During her career, Dr Huang led the biometrics activities for RETEVMO (selpercatinib) approval and played a key role for CALQUENCE (acalabrutinib) MCL approval.

Dr Huang obtained her PhD in Biostatistics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Amy Johnson, PhD is Vice President of Medical Affairs of Vincerx.  Before Vincerx, Dr Johnson was Senior Director of Translational Research at Janssen Oncology responsible for preclinical and biomarker research in hematological malignancies.  Prior to joining industry in 2017, she had a highly productive and successful career in experimental therapeutics research at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio where she was Associate Professor of Medicine with tenure.  At OSU, Amy served in many roles, including Coleader of the Leukemia Research Program and Coprincipal Investigator of three R01 National Cancer Institute grants. Dr Johnson led her own laboratory and served as mentor to many undergraduate and graduate students and has contributed to more than 100 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr Johnson received her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from University of Kentucky, Lexington. Amy also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of John Byrd, MD at OSU.

Elsa Johnson is the Vice President of Program and Portfolio Management of Vincerx. Ms Johnson is the principal for Goal Management Consulting, a consulting company assisting small pharmaceutical startups in Seattle and the Bay Area develop and execute on their development plans, since December 2018.  Before that, Ms Johnson was a senior director of program management at Acerta Pharma from June 2014 to July 2018 and was part of the initial management team that led to a successful Astra Zeneca acquisition and subsequent CALQUENCE® approval. From October 2008 to January 2014, Ms Johnson was director of project management for HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals, a clinical development stage company developing small molecules for the treatment of life-threatening hematologic disorders. From May 2006 to August 2008, Ms Johnson was a senior project manager for Nastech Pharmaceuticals, a company developing nasal delivery formulations.  From December 2003 to May 2006, Ms Johnson was senior project manager at Corus Pharma where she supervised the overall cross functional activities of an inhaled antibiotic orphan drug program for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, CAYSTON®. From March 1990 to November 2003, Ms Johnson has held different positions of increasing responsibility from data management, clinical research, clinical operations management and clinical project management.

Ms Johnson received her BS in Economics from Southern Methodist University and MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.

Tasheda Navarro is Vice President of Clinical Operations of Vincerx.  Before joining Vincerx, Ms Navarro was the senior director of clinical operations of Acerta Pharma from March 2014 to August 2020. Ms Navarro led the clinical operations department as well as the global chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) program for CALQUENCE®, which was one of the fastest joint approvals in US, Canada, and Australia.  Before that, Ms Navarro was the lead clinical trial manager of a global phase 3 trial of a novel immuno-oncology prostate cancer drug at Bavarian Nordic from April 2012 to March 2014.  Before that, Ms Navarro worked at Pharmacyclics LLC from March 2010 to March 2012 as the senior clinical trial manager who managed the ibrutinib phase 2 trial in CLL that lead to an accelerated approval in CLL in 2014.  Tasheda has also worked on various hematology and oncology programs at Astex, Amgen, and Genentech.

Tasheda graduated with a BS in Cell and Molecular Biology from University of Washington in Seattle.

Karen Quarford is Vice President of Quality Operations and Compliance at Vincerx and brings with her 30 + years of quality compliance experience in small to large biotechnology companies.
Before joining Vincerx, Ms Quarford served as an independent consultant and Head of Quality for several small virtual biotechnology companies. Previously, Ms. Quarford held senior management roles at Forte biosciences, Juno Therapeutics, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, ZymoGenetics Inc., and Acambis pharmaceuticals working with small molecules,biologics, CAR-T therapy, and vaccines, from phase 1 clinical trials through commercialization.
Karen graduated with a master’s in business from Webster University in Denver.

Gabriela Jairala
Sr Executive Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

Gabriela Jairala is Sr Executive Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications for Vincerx. Before joining Vincerx, she was Vice President of Client Services at Vaniam Group, LLC, a global healthcare communications company, working with biotech and big pharma clients in the oncology/hematology space. As Head of Communications and Investor Relations, Ms Jairala oversees all internal and external communications for the organization, ensuring consistent messaging and enhanced stakeholder relationships.

Ms Jairala graduated from the Pennsylvania State University with degrees in International Politics and Economics.

Melissa Merrick is Sr. Director, People & Culture / Head of HR for Vincerx and brings with her 10+ years of experience in leading the Human Resources function in small to mid-sized financial services, pharmaceuticals, and SaaS companies. Before joining Vincerx, Ms Merrick was the Director of Agency Integration and Onboarding at The Liberty Company where she led the integration of 6 brokerage acquisitions. Prior to Liberty, Ms Merrick was an early employee at Newfront Insurance where she built an onboarding program that captured 82% of the company’s total revenue at 900% legacy speed. Before joining Newfront, Ms Merrick co-founded Odyssey Therapeutics, a seed-stage computational immunology company focused on creating new therapeutics for patients with multiple sclerosis. Before forming Odyssey, Ms Merrick was the Head of US Operations for UXPin, where she lead HR policy, employee relations, performance management, and training and development programs for a 150+ person, global SaaS company. Ms Merrick has also held positions at BioPharmX and JPMorgan Chase Bank.

Ms Merrick graduated with a BS in Physiology and Neuroscience from UC San Diego.