About UsOur
Leadership

Geoff MacKayPresident & CEO

Geoff is a pioneer in cell and gene therapy with a track record of successful leadership at innovative biotechs.

He is the former CEO of Organogenesis Inc., the world’s leading cell therapy company. During his tenure at the helm, the company treated 1 million patients with living cell therapies, received the first approval of an allogeneic cell therapy from the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and led the field of regenerative medicine. Geoff is also the founding CEO of eGenesis, a biotech dedicated to applying CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to xenotransplantation. Earlier in his career, Geoff spent 11 years at Novartis in senior leadership positions within the global transplantation and immunology franchise.

Geoff sits on the boards of Talaris Therapeutics and Satellos Bioscience. Past activities include chairman of the board of MassBio, chairman of the board of the Alliance of Regenerative Medicine and a member of the advisory council to the Health Policy Commission for Massachusetts.

Steven Avruch, JD Chief Legal Officer

Steven was chief corporation counsel and assistant secretary (VP) at Biogen Inc., and prior to that worked at Biogen as an associate general counsel. A corporate attorney, Steven has more than 30 years of experience in a broad range of industries including life sciences and technology companies.

He graduated with an AB in Russian Studies from Dartmouth College, and later earned his JD from Boston College Law School.

Azadeh Golipour, PhDChief Technology Officer

Azadeh Golipour is a senior leader with global experience and proven track record in cell and gene therapy process development, analytical development and GMP manufacturing. She is a CMC subject matter expert with ability to provide and execute CMC strategies from early-stage through late-stage product development. Azadeh is experienced in progressing novel therapies to regulatory filings and leading CMC interactions with global regulatory authorities.

Azadeh joined AVROBIO in 2016; during this period, Azadeh designed and implemented AVROBIO’s platform plato^®. Azadeh has also built and led multiple teams during her time at AVROBIO.

Prior to AVROBIO, Azadeh spent time at CCRM, a catalyst for commercializing regenerative medicine-based technologies and cell and gene therapies. CCRM enables product development through its unique translational platforms and process development and manufacturing capabilities. During her time at CCRM, Azadeh led the due diligence, business planning and program leadership for two successful company concepts developing iPSC-derived cell therapies as part of CCRM’s company incubation program. Both of these companies attracted funding from venture capitalists and were spun out of CCRM.

Azadeh holds a PhD in molecular genetics from University of Toronto (Canada) and has published multiple articles, including two first-author articles in the prestigious journal Cell, Stem Cell and one article in the prestigious journal Nature. Azadeh’s landmark articles on reprogramming stem cells have been cited more than 1,000 times.

Erik Ostrowski, MBAChief Financial Officer

Erik brings over 20 years of finance and biotech operating experience, including a focus on rare diseases and cell-based therapies. He was previously CFO at Summit Therapeutics, where he led the finance and investor relations functions and played a key role in multiple strategic transactions to build out the company’s U.S. and global operations.

Prior to joining Summit, Erik was vice president of finance at Organogenesis Inc. He previously worked in investment banking, including as a director of healthcare investment banking with Leerink Partners. Erik began his career as an accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and received a BS in accounting and economics from Babson College and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Deanna Petersen, MBAChief Business Officer

Deanna is a seasoned biotech executive with unparalleled experience in global business, corporate development and strategic planning.

She previously led business development for Shire’s rare disease unit, where she and her team identified and evaluated new business opportunities and negotiated and executed more than 40 licenses, mergers, acquisitions and other transactions in five years, including a $4.2 billion acquisition of ViroPharma. Prior to joining Shire, Deanna was vice president of business development at Agenus Inc. and at Coley Pharmaceutical Group.

Deanna sits on the board of directors for Tecogen, Inc. (TGEN) and has previously served on boards at Armagen, American DG Energy (ADGE), the Massachusetts Biotechnology Association, the Boston chapter of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and the Boston BioPharma Executive Council.

Essra Ridha, MD, MRCP, FFPMChief Medical Officer

Essra is a global medical leader with extensive experience in clinical research and development, translational medicine, and clinical medicine with specialist training in cardiology and internal medicine.

Essra’s experience includes strategically and scientifically advancing the ex vivo lentiviral gene therapy now licensed for the treatment of metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) and the first CAR-T regulatory cell therapy to enter the clinic for the induction of immunological tolerance in solid organ transplantation. She has worked in leadership positions within AVROBIO as well as Sangamo Therapeutics and GlaxoSmithKline, on highly innovative cell and gene therapy programs in rare neurological, metabolic (including lysosomal disorders) and immunological diseases. Previously, Essra worked as a medical expert at Bristol Myers Squibb advising on late-stage clinical development, medical affairs, real-world evidence and HEOR in cardiovascular medicine.

In addition to her industry leadership, Essra is a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London, as well as a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. She was also an expert panel member at the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Advisory Committee to develop Global Standards for the Governance and Oversight of Human Genome Editing. She earned her medical degrees from the Royal Free and University College London Medical School and earned her neuroscience degree with Basic Medical Sciences degree with honors from University College London.

Kirsten DupuisChief of Staff

Kirsten has been with AVROBIO since March 2016, providing strategic and operational support to the CEO and Executive Team to ensure successful business planning and implementation of all AVROBIO initiatives. She has more than 17 years of experience in the biotechnology industry.

She has extensive experience working with startup companies. Prior to joining AVROBIO, she worked with the CEOs at Organogenesis, Generation Health and Alseres Pharmaceuticals on developing business strategy, managing priority projects and overseeing timing of milestone achievements.

Her career in biotechnology was preceded by working as a consultant in business management, consulting and marketing, advising Fortune 500 companies including Fidelity, Ford Motor Company, Goldman Sachs, McDonald’s, NBC, Raytheon and Toyota. Kirsten holds a B.S. in marketing from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

Mathews Adera, MDVP, Clinical Development

Mathews is a physician, medical physiologist and clinical research professional with 20+ years’ experience in clinical practice, clinical research, biomedical research and tertiary college teaching. Mathews has a wealth of experience across a number of therapeutic areas including lysosomal disorders (Pompe, Fabry and Gaucher), respiratory diseases, oncology, transplantation, immunology and CNS.

While at Amicus Therapeutics, he was head of the Pompe clinical development program and was responsible for authoring and contributing to the drug development strategy for all Pompe clinical programs. There, Mathews was also the project physician and clinical team lead for the Pompe, Fabry and Gaucher clinical programs. He has served in similar roles at Ovid Therapeutics, Albireo Pharma, Braeburn Pharmaceutical and Acorda Therapeutics.

He received his medical degree at the University of Nairobi.

Joe DavisVP, Information Technology

Joe Davis joined AVROBIO in September 2019 and leads the Information Technology team. Prior to joining AVROBIO, he was the head of IT at ImmunoGen, Inc., for 15 years.

Joe graduated from Franklin Pierce University with a BA in Computers & Management and in addition to working in the life science industry, he has also held IT roles in the finance, power generation, manufacturing and e-commerce industries.

Dawn GolightlyVP, Global Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Dawn brings decades of experience to her role at AVROBIO, where she leads a team responsible for supply chain, external manufacturing, analytical sciences and technology and apheresis operations.

Prior to AVROBIO, she led Operations and Project Management at Lentigen Technology, Inc. for five years. Lentigen Technology, Inc is a CDMO specializing in cGMP manufacturing of lentiviral vector for cell and gene therapy. During her time, she built the Project Management team responsible for interacting with clients and directing internal deliverables to meet contractual requirements. She worked cross functionally to develop the serum free suspension platform process for lentiviral vector manufacturing that leads the field today. Previously, she worked at the Southern Research Institute for 11 years in a variety of scientific roles and ultimately led a team responsible for analytical development, qualification, and validation of assays to support GLP preclinical studies for infectious disease therapies and vaccines. Additionally, she was responsible for site data management and project coordination to support both government and commercial client contracts.

Early in her career, she worked at the bench at Genetic Therapy, Inc., a Novartis Company, driving forward various vector platform technologies impacting gene therapy programs for hemophilia A and B, oncology indications as well as ocular disease.

Dawn graduated from the Florida Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Molecular Biology.

Scott GottesmanVP, Human Resources

Scott is an HR leader who brings over 15 years of HR/TA experience across all business functions and geographies within life sciences. He has direct knowledge and working experience in TA/HR in over 25 countries. He has been deployed several times, for long stretches, overseas where he did both turn around- and build-work in the EU, APAC and LATAM.

Prior to AVROBIO, he spent over 8 years at Biogen and held various leadership roles of increasing responsibility, including the ownership of the recruiting strategy and operations for designated regions (US, APAC, LATAM, EU) within Corporate Functions, Global Commercial Operations, R&D, Manufacturing and Executive Search. His last role at Biogen was the Head of Talent Acquisition for Biogen’s US Organization, International Markets, Medical and Global Product Strategy & Commercialization. Prior to Biogen, Scott spent six years as a Senior Consultant at Winter Wyman & Company, an award-winning, 40+ year old recruiting agency. Scott’s earlier career consisted of him founding and running his own vinyl record import business for over 8 years, including a retail store at 279 Newbury Street in Boston, MA.

Scott is an Advisory Board Member for Enspira, an innovative, LGBTQ-owned HR services, search and technology firm working to re-imagine and revolutionize the human work experience. Scott has a BA from Brandeis University.

Simon Hawkins, MD, PhDVP, Clinical Development

Simon is a medical leader experienced in translational medicine and clinical research. His experience includes advancing hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) gene therapy programs for primary immunodeficiency programs at Orchard Therapeutics and for mucopolysaccharidosis type 1 at GSK.

Simon also worked at GSK in immunological disease programs in early and late clinical development and completed the ‘Esprit’ physician leadership program.

He is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and earned his stem cell-based research Ph.D. and medical degrees from the University of Bristol, England.

Kelly HuntingtonVP, Program Lead, Gaucher Franchise

Kelly is the Vice President and Program Lead for the Gaucher disease franchise. She brings to the role extensive experience with leading program teams for early and late-stage programs.

Prior to joining AVROBIO, Kelly served as Vice President of Program Management and Program Lead for the SRF388 program at Surface Oncology, a program testing a fully human anti-IL-27 antibody designed to inhibit the activity of IL-27, an immunosuppressive cytokine. Prior to that, she held roles with increasing responsibility in Program and Project Management at Amag Pharmaceuticals, Merck, Radius Health, Sanofi and Genzyme. Kelly earned her bachelor’s degree in Biology and Human Development from Colby College.

She is currently pursuing a Master’s of Science in Immunology at Drexel University Medical College.

Richard W. Pfeifer, PhD, DABTVP, Toxicology, Research and Preclinical Development

Rich is a nonclinical development strategist and board-certified toxicologist with more than 25 years of experience in industry, including expertise in planning, conduct and/or management of GLP-compliant safety testing of small-molecule and anti-sense-based therapeutics, biopharmaceuticals, enzyme and mRNA replacement therapies, vaccines, genetic therapies and medical devices. At AVROBIO, he provides timely and resource-efficient execution of all pre/nonclinical activities needed to advance unique HSC-based gene therapies into Phase I/II testing (LD/rare disease indications).

Before joining AVROBIO, Rich spent seven years at Shire (now Takeda) as Head of Toxicology and, more recently, as Nonclinical Research Fellow, Global Nonclinical Development. Prior to joining Shire, Rich functioned as a drug safety expert on exploratory, discovery and Global Development/Learn Teams across a broad range of therapeutic areas for Wyeth Research (now Pfizer). He previously worked at Wyeth and Ciba-Geigy (now Syngenta).

He was Assistant Professor of Toxicology in the Purdue University School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences and is recognized as an expert in immunotoxicology, molecular carcinogenesis (tumor promotion), intrathecal enzyme replacement, and ex vivo gene therapy. He has authored or co-authored more than 60 papers, abstracts and book chapters. Rich pursued postdoctoral fellowships in Immunotoxicology at the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. He received a BS in Biology from Bucknell University and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry.

Doug Sanders, PhDVP, Translational Medicine

Doug is a seasoned scientific leader with extensive experience in rare diseases, translational medicine and analytical development. Doug’s experience includes graduate work performing natural history characterization of larger animal models of lysosomal diseases and developing a more complete understanding of subpopulations of stem cells in the bone marrow compartment that might be amenable to stem cell and ex vivo gene therapy applications.

Most recently, Doug led the Analytical Sciences team at Affinia Therapeutics, a startup AAV gene therapy company working to develop next-generation AAV capsids with specific targeting, safety and manufacturing characteristics to address some of the common challenges with AAV-mediated gene therapy. Previously, Doug worked as a diagnostic development scientist at Novartis and EMD Serono in the Companion Diagnostics groups. At Sarepta Therapeutics, Doug led the Translational Development laboratory, where his group was responsible for developing methods to measure dystrophin protein production and other biomarkers in patients from Sarepta’s PMO and gene therapy clinical trials.

Doug holds a Ph.D. in Veterinary Pathobiology from the University of Missouri and has published multiple articles in the field of neurodegenerative disease animal models and biomarkers.

Anita Treohan, MPH, PMP, LSSMBBVP, Clinical Development Operations

Anita Treohan brings extensive and diverse drug development expertise coupled with experience in building sustainable and high-functioning teams at several life sciences companies. At AVROBIO, she steers a multi-disciplinary operational team to foster a culture of execution, compliance and quality.

Previously, she served as Vice President, Development Operations at IMARA, spearheading the strategic and operational execution of two rare disease programs and maximizing organizational efficiency across clinical development. As the Portfolio and Program Manager and Interim Regulatory and QA Lead at Axcella Health, she led strategic, portfolio and product development for all assets while building a sustainable infrastructure across all drug development functions. In prior program and operational roles at ImmusanT, FORUM Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, she advanced portfolio and development strategies for Phase 1 – 4 global clinical programs and studies across multiple therapeutic areas, including rare, pediatric and vulnerable populations.

Anita maintains certifications in Project Management and Lean Six Sigma. In 2018, she served on the advisory committee for the Clinical Leader Forum and was accepted to Harvard University’s Women on Boards program. She earned her B.S. in Biology from Emory University and her MPH in Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Social Behavioral Sciences from Boston University.