Vision and

focus

Aleksandra Rizo, M.D., Ph.D., joined Vividion in 2022 as President and Head of Research and Development. In 2023 Dr. Rizo was promoted to President and Chief Executive Officer and joined the Board of Directors of Vividion.

Previously, Dr. Rizo served as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Geron Corporation where she provided leadership and direction for all clinical and translational efforts. Included in her reporting responsibilities were clinical development, clinical operations, clinical pharmacology, biometrics, translational research, program management, and medical affairs. Prior to joining Geron, Dr. Rizo was Strategy and Clinical Lead at Celgene Corporation where she led submission activities which resulted in successful NDA and MAA approvals and participated in strategic development activities in the Myeloid Therapeutic area. From 2008 to 2018, Dr. Rizo served in a number of oncology drug development functions with increasing responsibilities at Janssen Research and Development, LLC (Janssen), including Senior Director, Compound Development Team Leader for the myeloid portfolio and Senior Director, Global Clinical Leader for multiple assets, including imetelstat, ibrutinib mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), and others. In these roles, she had oversight and leadership responsibilities for clinical development strategy, execution, and regulatory submission activities. In addition, Dr. Rizo was a core member of Janssen’s Hematology Strategy Team where she participated and led multiple diligence projects.

Dr. Rizo earned an M.D. from the University Ss Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, Macedonia, where she also completed a residency in internal medicine/hematology. Dr. Rizo obtained her Ph.D. in stem cell biology from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the University of Tokyo, in Japan.

Matt Patricelli, Ph.D., joined Vividion in 2016 as a Founding Scientist and member of the company’s Senior Management Team, and has taken on increasing responsibility since that time. He was promoted to Chief Scientific Officer in 2023 and currently leads all aspects of discovery and preclinical research at Vividion. In this role he oversees the Early Discovery and Enabling Technologies Chemistry, Biology, and Pre-Clinical Development departments. Previously at Vividion, Dr. Patricelli was SVP, Early Discovery Sciences and led all early drug discovery efforts including target selection and validation, as well as the early development of Vividion’s chemical proteomics platform.

Prior to joining Vividion, Dr. Patricelli served as the Senior Director of Biology at Wellspring Biosciences where he led several drug discovery programs including the KRAS-G12C covalent inhibitor discovery project. From 2000-2012 he led the chemical proteomics platform activities at ActivX Biosciences. He was the first scientist to join ActivX and played a key role in the development of ActivX’s platform technologies, including establishing the KiNativ platform which operated as a successful commercial screening service for more than 15 years.

Dr. Patricelli obtained his B.Sc. in biochemistry from McGill University, and Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute as the first graduate student of Vividion’s Co-Founder Dr. Benjamin Cravatt. He is an author or co-author of more than 30 scientific publications and three issued patents.

Jean Bemis joined Vividion in 2017 as a member of the senior management team to provide strategic oversight of program management and alliances. She was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2024 and leads CMC, intellectual property and legal compliance, quality assurance, business development, and site operations in addition to program management and alliance management.

Jean brings over 30 years of experience in drug discovery and development to Vividion. Prior to joining Vividion she was involved in new company formation at Gene Sciences, Inc., Rodin Therapeutics, and Warp Drive Bio, leading chemistry, program management, and early drug development functions. Prior to that Jean was Head of Chemistry at Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for the discovery and early development of two products through first-in-human studies. Jean’s experience also includes driving programs forward at Amgen, GSK, and Wyeth.

Gerry Hernandez serves as the Senior Vice President, Head of Finance since 2023, leading Vividion’s operations related to finance, strategic budgeting, long term planning, financial reporting, procurement, and information technology. Mr. Hernandez joined Vividion in 2018 serving as Controller and then Vice President of Finance. Joining Vividion as its early finance leader, Mr. Hernandez has led cross-functional teams and collaborated with senior management to define, launch, and drive critical strategic business initiatives including private financings, business development, and initial public offering (IPO) readiness in 2021 that pivoted to an acquisition by Bayer.

Mr. Hernandez is an accomplished professional accountant with nearly 20 years of operational and management accounting experience. He first started his career as an auditor at Ernst & Young and then transitioned to working closely with innovative entrepreneurs at both private and public biotechnology companies, leading accounting and cross-functional teams in fast-paced and growth-oriented environments.

Mr. Hernandez earned his B.S. degree in business administration with an emphasis in accounting from Biola University in La Mirada, California.

Alexis McWilliams has served as Vividion’s Vice President, Human Resources, since 2023, providing leadership and guidance to the organization’s HR operations. She joined Vividion in 2017 as Manager, Human Resources and Business Integration. Currently, she collaborates with Vividion’s Executive Leadership Team to define the long-term mission and goals, and identifies ways to support this mission through strategic talent management, including talent acquisition, training and development initiatives, performance management, compensation and benefits design, employee relations, and policy administration.

Prior to joining Vividion, Ms. McWilliams held a variety of senior level positions focused on all aspects of human capital management. Most recently, she worked with a national real estate sales and marketing firm where she oversaw all aspects of its human resources strategy.

Ms. McWilliams graduated from Indiana University with a B.A. in telecommunications.

Dr. Cravatt is Professor and Norton B. Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. His research group is interested in developing chemical proteomic technologies that enable protein and drug discovery on a global scale, and applying these methods to characterize biochemical pathways that play important roles in human physiology and disease.

Professor Cravatt joined the faculty at The Scripps Research Institute in 1997. In addition to co-founding Vividion, Dr. Cravatt also co-founded Activx Biosciences and Abide Therapeutics. Dr. Cravatt’s honors include a Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Cope Scholar Award, the ASBMB Merck Award, the RSC Jeremy Knowles Award, the AACR Award for Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, and memberships in the National Academies of Medicine and Sciences.

Dr. Cravatt obtained his undergraduate education at Stanford University, receiving a B.S. in biological sciences and a B.A. in history. He then received a Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute in 1996.

Tom Daniel, M.D., has more than 20 years of experience leading and building research and development organizations, as well as leading investments in new companies at the forefront of innovative application of science to healthcare. Recently, he served as a Venture Partner at ARCH Venture Partners for five years following a decade as President of Global Research and Early Development at Celgene Corporation. He previously served in senior leadership roles at AmbRx, Amgen, and Immunex. Dr. Daniel was formerly a Director at Juno Therapeutics, Epizyme, Sana Biotechnology, Larimar Therapeutics, and Vir Biotechnology. He currently serves as Board Chair at Locanabio, Gate Therapeutics, and Trotana Therapeutics, and is Director at Gossamer Bio, Magenta Therapeutics, Aspen Biosciences, and Mozart Therapeutics. He chairs the Board of Managers for Life Science Cares-San Diego, serves as a Trustee at Reed College, is Director and Chair of the Board of Overseers at Scripps Research, and acts as Senior Advisor to several private biotechnology companies.

A nephrologist and former academic investigator, Dr. Daniel was previously C.M. Hakim Professor of Medicine and Cell Biology at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Daniel received his M.D. from the University of Texas, Southwestern, trained in molecular genetics at UTSW, and completed his residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Richard Heyman, Ph.D., is a scientist and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in co-founding and building biotech and life science companies. He is the Co-Founder and Chairman of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, which is developing drugs to overcome resistance in cancer. Dr. Heyman most recently served as Chairman of both Vividion Therapeutics, which was purchased in August 2021 by Bayer AG, and Amunix Pharmaceuticals, which was purchased by Sanofi in December 2021. Previously, Dr. Heyman was the Co-Founder and CEO of Aragon and Seragon Pharmaceuticals, which focused on therapeutics targeting hormone dependent cancers; J&J purchased Aragon in 2013 and Genentech purchased Seragon one year later. He has been involved in the discovery and development of multiple therapeutic agents approved by the FDA, including the prostate cancer drug, ERLEADA®. Dr. Heyman is a Venture Partner for ARCH Ventures and serves as Chairman of PMV Pharma and RayzeBio, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of Enliven Therapeutics. In addition to his corporate experience, Dr. Heyman is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Salk Institute, on the Board Foundation for the AACR, the Board of Directors at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center, and a Founding Member of both Life Science Cares, San Diego and Curebound. He has won numerous awards including Ernst and Young San Diego Regional Entrepreneur of the Year, Connect Hall of Fame Award, and the Endocrine Society Outstanding Innovation Award.

Earlier in his career he trained as an NIH postdoctoral fellow and staff scientist at the Salk Institute. Dr. Heyman is the author or inventor on more than 125 publications and patents.

Olivier Mauroy-Bressier is the Chief Financial Officer at Bayer Pharmaceuticals, having assumed his role in October 2022. He joined Bayer through the Aventis Crop Science acquisition in 2001, and held increasing responsibilities in the areas of finance, strategic planning, mergers, and acquisitions and transfer price office for Bayer Crop Science in the US and the headquarters in Germany. In 2009, he assumed the CFO role for Bayer Group in France. After heading the Global Controlling and Business Analytics organization for Bayer Consumer Care between 2014 and 2016 in the US, Mr. Mauroy-Bressier relocated to Basel, Switzerland to lead the establishment of Bayer Consumer Health as the divisional CFO in 2016, coordinating and overseeing the subsequent turn-around of the business until end of 2019. Before taking his current role, Mr. Mauroy-Bressier served as Head of Internal Audit & Risk Management for the Bayer Group, dedicated to safeguard and strengthen Bayer’s license to operate.

Mr. Mauroy-Bressier holds a M.S. in corporate finance from EDHEC Business School, France.

Stefan Oelrich is a Member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG and President of its Pharmaceuticals division, a position he has held since November 2018.

Prior to joining the company, he was on the Executive Committee of Sanofi, leading its Global Diabetes and Cardiovascular business. During his seven-year tenure, he was also at the helm of Sanofi Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, as well as the diabetes and cardiovascular business units in Europe.

From 1989 to 2011, Dr. Oelrich held various leadership positions in the healthcare business of Bayer AG with extensive international experience spanning Latin America (Argentina, Uruguay), Europe (France, Belgium), and the United States.

Dr. Oelrich is a member of the supervisory board of the University Hospital Charité.

Frank Poschen is the Global HR Head of Global HR Pharmaceuticals at Bayer, based in Berlin, Germany. In his role, he is dedicated to unleashing human potential within a highly innovative, fluid, and adaptable ecosystem, and is a key member of the PH Leadership Team of Bayer Pharmaceuticals. With over two decades of experience in HR, Mr. Poschen has spent nearly a decade at Bayer in various leadership roles, including Global Head of HR Business Partnering for R&D, Marketing, and Global Culture and Change Lead. Prior to joining Bayer, he worked for almost 15 years at Grünenthal, in mid-sized & start-up environments.

Mr. Poschen holds an M.S. in European labor sciences from Warwick Business School in the UK and an M.S. in economics from Universität Trier in Germany. He is also a certified coach and organizational developer.

Aleksandra Rizo, M.D., Ph.D., joined Vividion in 2022 as President and Head of Research and Development. In 2023 Dr. Rizo was promoted to President and Chief Executive Officer and joined the Board of Directors of Vividion.

Previously, Dr. Rizo served as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Geron Corporation where she provided leadership and direction for all clinical and translational efforts. Included in her reporting responsibilities were clinical development, clinical operations, clinical pharmacology, biometrics, translational research, program management, and medical affairs. Prior to joining Geron, Dr. Rizo was Strategy and Clinical Lead at Celgene Corporation where she led submission activities which resulted in successful NDA and MAA approvals and participated in strategic development activities in the Myeloid Therapeutic area. From 2008 to 2018, Dr. Rizo served in a number of oncology drug development functions with increasing responsibilities at Janssen Research and Development, LLC (Janssen), including Senior Director, Compound Development Team Leader for the myeloid portfolio and Senior Director, Global Clinical Leader for multiple assets, including imetelstat, ibrutinib mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), and others. In these roles, she had oversight and leadership responsibilities for clinical development strategy, execution, and regulatory submission activities. In addition, Dr. Rizo was a core member of Janssen’s Hematology Strategy Team where she participated and led multiple diligence projects.

Dr. Rizo earned an M.D. from the University Ss Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, Macedonia, where she also completed a residency in internal medicine/hematology. Dr. Rizo obtained her Ph.D. in stem cell biology from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the University of Tokyo, in Japan.

Dr. Rommel has served on our Board of Directors since 2021.

Dr. Rommel is the Executive Vice President, Global Head of Research & Development and Member of the Pharmaceuticals Leadership Team at Bayer, a role he has held since February 2021. From January 2014 to February 2021, Dr. Rommel served in various positions at Roche, culminating in his role as Senior Vice President, Global Head of Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) Oncology. Prior to this, Dr. Rommel worked at Amgen where he held roles including Vice President of External Research and Development and Vice President, Research Oncology. Previously, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of Intellikine, a private biotech, from its inception to its acquisition by Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Rommel also contributes to the Board of Directors for Asklepios Bio., BlueRock Therapeutics, and CRISPR Therapeutics. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics.

Dr. Rommel received his Ph.D. in molecular oncology from the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, Germany and the Institute of Medical Virology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. In addition to his leadership roles, he lectured biotechnology at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland for several years. He has authored more than 70 publications, including papers in Science and Nature.

Christine Roth is a highly accomplished pharma executive recognized for building purpose-driven oncology organizations that accelerate delivery of innovative therapies. In her three decades of experience, she has played key roles in the development and launches of the first immuno-oncology therapy, the first intentionally designed targeted therapy combination, and multiple new drug classes.

Ms. Roth is a member of the Pharmaceuticals Executive Committee of Bayer AG, where she is the Executive Vice President of the Oncology Strategic Business Unit. She joined Bayer in early 2022 after leading the rebuild of the oncology business at GSK, including the acquisition of TESARO. Prior to this, she held country and global leadership positions in oncology, cardiovascular, metabolic, and infectious disease therapy areas at Novartis and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Benjamin Cravatt, Ph.D., is Professor and Norton B. Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. His research group is interested in developing chemical proteomic technologies that enable protein and drug discovery on a global scale and applying these methods to characterize biochemical pathways that play important roles in human physiology and disease.

Dr. Cravatt joined the faculty at The Scripps Research Institute in 1997. In addition to co-founding Vividion, Dr. Cravatt also co-founded Activx Biosciences and Abide Therapeutics. Dr. Cravatt’s honors include a Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Cope Scholar Award, the ASBMB Merck Award, the RSC Jeremy Knowles Award, the AACR Award for Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, and memberships in the National Academies of Medicine and Sciences.

Dr. Cravatt obtained his undergraduate education at Stanford University, receiving a B.S. in the biological sciences and a B.A. in history. He then received a Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute in 1996.

Phil Baran received his B.S. in chemistry from New York University in 1997, his Ph.D. at The Scripps Research Institute in 2001, and from 2001-2003, he was an NIH-Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard. Dr. Baran began his independent career at Scripps in the summer of 2003. He currently holds the Darlene Shiley Chair in Chemistry. He has published over 180 scientific articles and has been the recipient of several ACS awards, such as the Corey (2015), Pure Chemistry (2010), Fresenius (2006), and Nobel Laureate Signature (2003). He also has several international distinctions such as the Hirata Gold Medal and Mukaiyama Prize (Japan), the RSC award in Synthesis (UK), and the Sackler Prize (Israel). In 2013 he was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, in 2015 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2016 he was awarded the Blavatnik National Award.

Dr. Baran has delivered hundreds of lectures around the world, and consults for numerous companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb (since late 2005), Boehringer-Ingelheim, AstraZeneca, DuPont, and TEVA, and is a Scientific Advisory Board Member for Eisai, Abide Therapeutics, and AsymChem. In 2016, he was appointed as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Chemical Society. He co-founded Sirenas Marine Discovery (2012) and Vividion Therapeutics (2016), and in 2013, he co-authored The Portable Chemist’s Consultant, an interactive book published on the iBooks store along with his graduate class in Heterocyclic Chemistry.

Jin-Quan Yu, Ph.D., received his B.S. in chemistry at East China Normal University, where he worked with Professor Li-Xin Dai and Professor Bi-Qi Wu as a visiting student at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1987. Following a one-year course study at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Dr. Yu went to Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences to study terpene chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis under the supervision of Professor Shu-De Xiao, and obtained his M.S. in 1990. He stayed on as a research associate for four years and went to Cambridge University for his doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr. J.B. Spencer, where he studied biosynthesis and the mechanistic details of the hydrometallation step in asymmetric hydrogenation. Dr. Yu was elected as a Junior Research Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge University in 1998. From 2001-2002, Jin-Quan worked on Pd-catalyzed allylic oxidation as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in the laboratories of Professor E. J. Corey. He returned to Cambridge University in 2002 and was appointed as a University Royal Society Research Fellow in 2003 to start his independent research towards developing asymmetric C–H insertion reactions. In 2004, he moved to Brandeis University as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry. He joined The Scripps Research Institute as an Associate Professor in 2007 and became a full Professor in August 2010. He was appointed as the Frank and Bertha Hupp Professor of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute in 2012. He received the Mukaiyama Award in 2012, the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Physical Sciences in 2013, the Elias J. Corey Award in 2014, and the MacArthur Fellowship in 2016.