Our Team
Advancing today’s innovation into tomorrow’s transformative therapeutics.
Evrys Bio
ACTUALIZING INNOVATION. A TEAM WITH A PROVEN TRACK RECORD FOR SUCCESSFUL INNOVATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION.
Team
Evrys Bio has a world-class team focused on ensuring our drug discovery programs can ultimately address patient needs in the clinic.
Currently, we are pursuing a focused business plan while maximizing non-dilutive funding. We are also focused on pursuing multiple pharma partnering opportunities in parallel with internal value creation.
Senior Management Team
Lillian W. Chiang, PhD, MBA
President & CEO
Prior to Evrys Bio, Lillian was VP of Translational Medicine at Kadmon Corporation. She was responsible for strategy and translation from early discovery through proof of concept in man. Throughout her career she has built from scratch, state-of-the-art technologies, drug discovery & development teams, and businesses at Stanford, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Purdue Pharma, Aestus Therapeutics, and Kadmon. At Aestus, she applied her own data mining algorithms to identify drug-repositioning assets to acquire and develop in a virtual pharma environment. Aestus’ first in-licensed product was successfully advanced from novel mechanism of action & therapeutic hypothesis to completion of phase 2A trial in 5 years and $5 M spend primarily funded by government grants. BS, MIT; PhD, Wisconsin; Post-Doc, Stanford; MBA, Wharton.
Thomas E. Shenk, PhD
Founder and Board Director
Tom is the James A. Elkins Professor of Life Sciences, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the American Philosophical Society. Intellectual property and concepts from Tom’s lab in the fields of molecular biology, gene therapy, vaccines, and virology, have fueled multiple start-ups with successful exits including DNX (IPO), ImClone Systems (IPO), Merlin (acquired by Somatix), Novalon (acquired by Kara Bio), Cadus (IPO) and PMV Pharma (IPO). Tom served in the past on the boards of multiple companies, including Merck & Co., Cell Genesis and CV Therapeutics. In addition to his current position as chair of the Evrys board, he serves on the boards of MeiraGTx and the Hepatitis B Foundation.
Stacy W. Remiszewski, PhD
Vice President - Research
Stacy is a medicinal chemist with over 30 issued patents spanning tenures at Schering-Plough, Novartis, and Hoffmann-La Roche. At Novartis, Stacy led a multi-disciplinary project team that delivered two compounds to Phase 1 clinical trials within five years. One of those compounds, panobinostat is a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor developed by Novartis that received marketing approval for treatment of multiple myeloma. Most recently, Stacy was Director of Chemistry, Section Head for Oncology Chemistry and member of the Discovery Chemistry Management Team at Hoffmann-La Roche. Throughout his career he has led in-licensing evaluation and preclinical research teams, consistently delivering strategic collaborations and clinical candidates, while embracing new technologies and developing unique methods to affect drug targets including disrupting protein-protein interactions.
Jens Erik Knudsen, BS, MBA
Chief Financial Officer
Jens Erik Knudsen joined Evrys Bio in December 2023 to assume the new role of Chief Financial Officer, and became a member of our leadership team.
Jens has over 25 years of experience building and leading international finance and operations teams at different stages of company development, primarily in the life sciences sector. He has completed multiple forms of financing including IPO, PIPES, Rights Issue, Bank Financing, and Debt Financing raising over $100 million. Working for European, Chinese and U.S. companies Jens has had roles of increasing responsibilities in controlling and finance for private and public companies.
Jens holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business from the Copenhagen Business School, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Philadelphia University.
Susan Little, SPHR
Acting Chief of Human Resources
As a consultant and management advisor to Evrys starting in 2014, Sue has provided leadership and strategic direction in aspects of HR, including employee relations, talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, training and development, talent management review and succession, performance management, and organizational development and culture.
Sue has been a member of senior leadership teams for both small and large biotech and pharmaceutical companies including Cell Pathways, Discovery Labs, Ansaris and Vitae Pharmaceuticals. Her most recent role was head of Human Resources with AbbVie, where she oversaw a 500+ employee manufacturing site. She was responsible for aligning people resources with business strategy.
Previously, Sue was directly involved with the successful execution of Vitae Pharmaceuticals’ IPO and subsequent acquisition by Allergan. She served as a key member on the Vitae/Allergan and Allergan/AbbVie Integration Teams. Allergan was acquired by AbbVie in 2020.
Sue has her BA in Psychology from Rutgers University.
Robert Drakas, PhD.
Robert is a seasoned biotechnology executive with more than 25 years of experience across venture investment, drug discovery, academic commercialization, and strategic business development. Prior to joining Evrys Bio he served as President of ShangPharma Innovation, where he led the organization’s investment strategy, managed overall operations, and oversaw the company’s 40,000-sq-ft incubator in South San Francisco. In this role, Robert directed scientific and operational strategy, guided budgeting and portfolio planning, and supported affiliated investment funds in identifying cutting-edge therapeutic platforms.
A central focus of his leadership has been bridging academic innovation with venture creation. Robert established and managed collaborations with UCSF, Scripps Research, Mount Sinai, and Massachusetts General Hospital, resulting in the launch of multiple newcos spanning oncology, fibrosis, and women’s health. He has a proven track record of evaluating companies, negotiating term sheets and licenses, and syndicating investments alongside top-tier venture firms.
With extensive board experience—from seed-stage startups through acquisition—Robert has helped shape the strategy, governance, and scientific direction of numerous emerging biotech companies. His background also includes more than a decade in R&D roles at Merck, where he supported oncology drug discovery programs and external innovation initiatives. Robert received a B.S. degree in biology from the University of Scranton, an M.S. in biochemistry from Drexel University and a PhD. in molecular pharmacology from Thomas Jefferson University