Leadership
Richie Cunningham
Mr. Cunningham has more than 20 years of successful leadership experience spanning from pre-IND drug discovery through the commercialization and launch of over a dozen therapies. He brings to Anebulo an in-depth understanding of maximizing therapeutic lifecycles, enhancing efficiencies and outcomes in biotech business models, and most importantly a commitment to a values-driven culture.
Most recently, Mr. Cunningham served as CEO at Tyme where he led the company through a merger with Syros Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Tyme, he was CEO at Icagen, leading the company through two transformational acquisitions. While CEO at Icagen, he oversaw the successful negotiation and execution of multiple licensing deals with Roche, Sanofi and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Prior to joining Icagen, Mr. Cunningham was an executive with Boehringer Ingelheim, where he held a variety of strategic and operational roles, including the launch of multiple products at Boehringer Ingelheim.
In addition, Mr. Cunningham excelled in the National Football League, holding All-Pro honors for the Dallas Cowboys. His career in the NFL spanned from 1994 until his retirement in 2002.
Dr. Kenneth Cundy, Ph.D.
Prior to joining Anebulo, Dr. Cundy served as Chief Scientific Officer at CohBar, Inc., a publicly-traded biotechnology company developing therapeutics targeting chronic and age-related diseases, where he built a technology platform around peptides encoded in the mitochondrial genome, advancing the lead program to successful clinical proof of concept for NASH and obesity. Before CohBar, Dr. Cundy was Chief Scientific Officer at XenoPort, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on therapeutics for neurological disorders. He was coinventor of XenoPort’s approved drug Horizant®, leading efforts from discovery to development including approval for the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia and restless legs syndrome in the US and Japan. Previously, Dr. Cundy held various positions at Gilead Sciences, Inc. where he was coinventor of the blockbuster drug tenofovir DF (Viread®) and a key contributor to the larger antiviral franchise, including Hepsera®, Vistide®, and Tamifu®.
Dr. Cundy started his scientific career at Sterling Winthrop, a pharmaceutical division of Eastman Kodak Company, where he developed novel formulation technologies exploiting Kodak’s historical capabilities. He was coinventor of Nanocrystal® technology used in many approved drug products. Dr. Cundy received a B.S. in pharmacy from the University of Manchester and registered as a pharmacist in the United Kingdom before earning a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Kentucky and postdoctoral training in Biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
Daniel George
Acting Chief Financial Officer
Daniel George has managed his professional services practice since December 2022, specializing in providing executive financial services to healthcare companies. Mr. George served as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Lucira Health, Inc. a publicly traded medical diagnostics company on a full-time basis from August 2020 to November 2022. From April 2019 until August 2020, Mr. George served as Lucira’s Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer through his consulting practice, which he established in May 2016, specializing in providing executive financial services to healthcare companies covering a broad range of specialties. Mr. George served as Vice President, Finance for Avinger Inc., a publicly traded medical device company specializing in peripheral atherectomy from August 2014 to May 2016. From June 2012 to August 2014, Mr. George served as a consultant and Vice President of Finance for ApniCure, Inc., a medical device company specializing in the treatment of sleep apnea. From March 2009 to June 2012, Mr. George worked for Avantis Medical Systems, Inc., a manufacturer of colonoscopy visualization technology, where he was both a consultant and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. George was also the Sr. Director of Finance at FoxHollow Technologies Inc., a publicly traded medical device company, and worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an accounting and management consulting firm, in the assurance and business advisory practice. Mr. George holds B.S. degrees in both Accounting and Finance from California State University, Long Beach.
Board of Directors
Joseph F. Lawler, MD, PhD
Joseph Lawler. Dr. Lawler is the founder and managing member of JFL Capital Management LLC, a hedge fund manager in Austin, Texas. Prior to founding JFL Capital, Dr. Lawler was a co-founder and Senior Managing Partner of Merus Capital Partners, LLC, a proprietary trading business based in New York City (“Merus”). Before co-founding Merus, Dr. Lawler invested in public equity, debt, and derivatives securities of healthcare companies at Sagamore Hill Capital Management LP, a multistrategy hedge fund manager with offices in Greenwich, Connecticut and London (“Sagamore Hill”). In 2008, Dr. Lawler assisted his former Sagamore Hill colleagues in opening a U.S. office in New York for MKM Longboat Capital Advisors LLC, a London-based hedge fund manager. Prior to his employment at MKM Longboat, Dr. Lawler was responsible for public and private biotechnology investments at Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC and participated in investments in public and private biotechnology and medical device companies, as part of the venture capital group at J.P. Morgan Partners. Dr. Lawler received M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where his research resulted in over a dozen publications and he received the Paul Ehrlich research award for “Identifying Prime Numbers with a DNA Computer”. He is the holder of an issued U.S. patent and has commercialized a novel DNA labeling reagent, and has also taught pharmacology at the Perdana University School of Medicine in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Dr. Lawler earned a B.A. degree from Queens College, City University of New York, where he was honored as a Salk Scholar.
Mr. Cunningham has more than 20 years of successful leadership experience spanning from pre-IND drug discovery through the commercialization and launch of over a dozen therapies. He brings to Anebulo an in-depth understanding of maximizing therapeutic lifecycles, enhancing efficiencies and outcomes in biotech business models, and most importantly a commitment to a values-driven culture.
Most recently, Mr. Cunningham served as CEO at Tyme where he led the company through a merger with Syros Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Tyme, he was CEO at Icagen, leading the company through two transformational acquisitions. While CEO at Icagen, he oversaw the successful negotiation and execution of multiple licensing deals with Roche, Sanofi and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Prior to joining Icagen, Mr. Cunningham was an executive with Boehringer Ingelheim, where he held a variety of strategic and operational roles, including the launch of multiple products at Boehringer Ingelheim.
In addition, Mr. Cunningham excelled in the National Football League, holding All-Pro honors for the Dallas Cowboys. His career in the NFL spanned from 1994 until his retirement in 2002.
Jason Aryeh has more than twenty years of equity investment experience focused on the life sciences industry. He is the Founder and Managing General Partner of JALAA Equities, LP, a private investment fund focused on the biotechnology and medical device sectors. He has served in such capacity since 1997.
Mr. Aryeh currently serves on the Board of Directors of Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDQ: LGND), Anebulo Pharmaceuticals (NASDQ: ANEB), and Orchestra BioMed. He serves as Chairman of Ligand’s Nominating & Governance and on its Compensation Committee, on Anebulo’s Audit Committee, and as Chairman of Orchestra’s Nominating & Governance and on its Audit Committee.
Since 2006, Mr. Aryeh has served as Chairman of the Board, on the Board of Directors or as a consultant to many other public and private life sciences companies and charitable foundations, including the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Therapeutics Board for seven years.
In 2009, in honor of his late wife, Mr. Aryeh founded and has since served as Chairman of Rio Grande Solar and Rio Grande Renewables, LLC, a renewable energy company serving the Americas. www.riogranderenewables.com
Mr. Aryeh earned a B.A. in economics, with honors, from Colgate University, and is a member of the Omnicron Delta Epsilon Honor Society in economics.
Dr. Calloway is an analyst and partner at 22NW, LP, a Seattle-based value fund specializing in small and microcap investments with a multi-year investment horizon, where he has been employed since June 2021. Dr. Calloway is the lead for 22NW, LP’s biotechnology, pharmaceutical and other healthcare investments, including Anebulo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to that, Dr. Calloway was the Associate Director of Healthcare Research for Edison Group from December 2015 to June 2021. Dr. Calloway is also on the board of Lifecore Biomedical, an integrated CDMO company specializing in sterile injectables. He has a PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Cornell University, a Masters of Science in Chemistry from Columbia and completed a post-doctoral study in neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical School. He has 10 scientific publications in the areas of physical chemistry, biochemistry and neuroscience.
Aron R. English has been a member of our board of directors since June 2020. He is the founder and has served as the President and Portfolio Manager of 22NW, LP, a Seattle-based value fund specializing in small and microcap investments with a multi-year investment horizon, since August 2014. Previously, Mr. English served as the director of research at Meson Capital Partners LLC, an investment firm, from January 2014 to August 2014. Prior to that, he served as director of research at RBF Capital, LLC, a provider of wealth management and financial services, from September 2010 until December 2013, after initially serving as a research analyst at the firm from September 2008 to September 2010. Mr. English served as a research assistant at McAdams Wright Ragen Inc., an investment firm, from March 2006 until September 2008. Mr. English earned his B.A. degree in English Literature with honors from the University of Washington, and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
Areta Kupchyk is regulatory lawyer representing biotechnology companies at all stages of development and commercialization on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) matters. She currently co-chairs the FDA practice at Foley Hoag LLP in Washington, D.C. Areta began her 30-year career serving at FDA in the Office of the Chief Counsel. During her 10-year tenure at FDA, Areta served as Assistant General Counsel for Litigation and, subsequently, as Associate Chief Counsel for Drugs and Biologics. Areta has extensive experience with pre- and post-market regulatory requirements, such as investigational new drug applications (INDs), clinical trials, breakthrough designations, market exclusivities, compliance with current good manufacturing practice regulations, advertising and promotion, and interactions with healthcare providers. Areta is the author of numerous articles, including two important chapters in Medical Biotechnology: Premarket and Postmarket Regulation, published by the American Bar Association Section of Science and Technology Law: “Approval of Biotechnology Products for Human Use” and “Federal and State Regulation after Approval.” Areta received her J.D. with honors from the University of Maryland School of Law and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.
Kenneth Lin, M.D. joined our board of directors in February 2021. From January 2015 to July 2019, Dr. Lin founded and served as the President and CEO of Ab Initio Biotherapeutics, a biologics discovery company targeting G protein coupled receptors, through to its sale to Ligand Pharmaceuticals. From July 2012 to July 2014, Dr. Lin was the Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations for Ulthera, Inc., a medical device company that was acquired by Merz Pharma. From April 2008 to June 2012, Dr. Lin was a Vice President at TPG, a private equity investment firm, where he focused on healthcare. From August 2003 to June 2007, Dr. Lin was an associate at JPMorgan Partners, a private equity investment firm. From September 2000 to June 2003, he was an associate in the Global Equity Research Division of Goldman Sachs. Dr. Lin received his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University with honors and his B.S. degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University.
Mr. Shah is Chief Financial Officer of Corium LLC, a Boston-based commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, where he has been employed since August 2022. Prior to joining Corium, he served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance and Strategy, for Sumitovant Biopharma, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals, one of Japan’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Mr. Shah previously held business development, finance, and strategic commercial roles at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals and Genentech (part of Roche). He also worked in the financial sector at Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Warburg Pincus, where he focused on the broader life sciences and healthcare sectors and was responsible for executing a wide range of deal transactions, including financings, investments, acquisitions, and alliances. Mr. Shah received his Master’s in Business Administration, Master of Arts in International Policy Studies and Bachelor’s in Economics from Stanford University.
Scientific Advisory Board
Andrew Monte is trained as a medical toxicologist and has a Ph.D. in clinical sciences with a focus on genetics. Dr. Monte conducts research on novel psychoactive substances and precision medicine. He is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine & Medical Toxicology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and an attending physician consultant at the Children’s Hospital Colorado, Denver Health & Hospital Authority and the Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Center. Dr. Monte is particularly interested in drug-drug and drug-gene interactions with a goal of improving emergency therapies through genomic and metabolomic methodologies. His work in substance abuse examines the public health effects of cannabis liberalization, drug detection and genomic variability in patient illicit drug responses. His work is funded by institutional grants, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the Department of Defense.
Arjun Chanmugam is a professor and Vice-Chair of Emergency Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In addition, he serves as the Chair of Emergency Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and the Chief Medical Officer for Emergency Medicine for Johns Hopkins Medicine. Dr. Chanmugam is the editor of a number of textbooks and scholarly papers. He remains actively involved in healthcare innovation and integration. He continues to care for patients, in addition to performing his roles as an administrator and educator.
