Founder, President, Board Member Richard B. Silverman, Ph.D., the founder of AKAVA Therapeutics, is the Patrick G. Ryan/Aon Professor in the Departments of Chemistry, Molecular Biosciences, and Pharmacology at Northwestern University, where he has been a professor for 48 years. He is the inventor of the molecule that became the blockbuster drug Lyrica®, marketed by...
Archives: Team Showcase
Philip Silverman
VP, Corporate Development, Board Member Philip Silverman serves as VP, Corporate Development and Board Member for Akava Therapeutics, Inc. He helped his father, Dr. Richard Silverman, start the company in 2019 and currently focuses on strategic and business-related matters, which include overseeing budgets, hiring key employees, managing investor relations, interacting with the legal team, and...
Brendan Macmillan
Board Member Brendan MacMillan is the Chief Investment Officer of (qp) global, a specialist in setting up and managing single-family offices. Mr. MacMillan is an accomplished investor, investing across geographies, capital structures, and sectors over nearly two decades. Amongst many sectors Mr. MacMillan has invested in, is the biotechnology sector, with a focus on both...
Joe Nolan
Board Member Joe Nolan is a results-focused pharma growth leader with more than 30 years of experience building high-performance teams, driving operational efficiency, and growing products in competitive spaces. In his career, Mr. Nolan helped launch several products in the central nervous system space, with the majority in orphan and specialty settings. Mr. Nolan currently...
Charles Polsky, M.D.
Executive Board Chair Charles Polsky, M.D., is a biotechnology entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience working with startups in the life sciences. He has served in several executive positions, including co-founder of the molecular diagnostic 3PrimeDx (2016-19) developing a cardiac arrhythmia biomarker to predict sudden cardiac death risk; CEO of the gene-delivery company SonoGene...
Richard B. Silverman, Ph.D.
Founder of AKAVA Therapeutics Richard B. Silverman, Ph.D., the founder of AKAVA Therapeutics, is the Patrick G. Ryan/Aon Professor in the Departments of Chemistry, Molecular Biosciences, and Pharmacology at Northwestern University, where he has been a professor for 48 years. He is the inventor of the molecule that became the blockbuster drug Lyrica®, marketed by...
Olga Jasinsky
Director of Operations Olga Jasinsky, MBA, MS, Director of Operations, joined AKAVA Therapeutics with over 30 years of drug development experience at both large and small pharmaceutical companies. Her experience covers all phases of pharmaceutical and clinical development in multiple therapeutic areas including neuroscience, immunology, metabolic conditions, and infectious disease. She has led cross functional...
P. Hande Ozdinler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Neurology Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine Faculty, Chemistry of Life Processes Institute Faculty, Les Turner ALS Center Faculty, Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center Faculty, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Research Center Dr. Ozdinler, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Neurology and received training in the fields of molecular...
Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSc
Chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital Neurology Service Director, Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Dr. Merit Cudkowicz is the Chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital Neurology Service, Director, Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at...
Nicholas John Maragakis, M.D.
Medical Director Johns Hopkins ALS Clinical Trials Unit Director of the ALS Center for Cell Therapy and Regeneration Research Professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University Dr. Maragakis is the Medical Director of the Johns Hopkins ALS Clinical Trials Unit and Director of the ALS Center for Cell Therapy and Regeneration Research and Professor of...