Our leadership, including our executive management team and Board of Directors, is made up of experts in the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare, and business management. Together, they provide extensive experience gained through years of creating and guiding successful companies.
Our Board of Directors brings a wide range of experience, knowledge, and judgment to CTI leadership. The board is made up of highly esteemed leaders in the scientific and business communities. Two members, James A. Bianco, M.D. and Jack Singer, M.D. are, members of our executive management team. The other members are from outside of CTI.
Our executive team includes oncologists with first-hand experience treating patients and bringing drugs to market.
John H. Bauer was appointed to the Board in October 2005. Mr. Bauer serves as an executive advisor and Chief Financial Officer at DigiPen Institute of Technology. He was formerly Executive Vice President for Nintendo of America Inc. from 1994 to 2004. While at Nintendo of America Inc., he had direct responsibility for all administrative and finance functions, and since 2004, he also has served as a consultant to Nintendo of America Inc.
Mr. Bauer is also a member of the board of directors of Zones, Inc., RIPL Corporation, and Caliber Data, Inc., and is Chairman of the Zones, Inc. audit committee. From 1963 to 1994, he worked for Coopers & Lybrand, including serving as the business assurance (audit) practice Partner. He also was a member of Coopers & Lybrand’s Firm Council, the senior policy making and governing board for the firm. Mr. Bauer received his B.S. degree in accounting from St. Edward’s University and attended South Texas College of Law.
James A. Bianco, M.D., is the principal founder of Cell Therapeutics, Inc. and served as the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer and Director from February 1992 to July 2008. He now serves as CTI’s CEO and Director. Dr. Bianco has been responsible for securing more than $1 billion in operating capital and is the chief architect of the company’s portfolio strategy, leading the acquisition, development, and commercialization of novel agents that improve the safety and efficacy of existing standard-of-care chemotherapies or have unique mechanisms of action.
Achievements include:Prior to founding CTI, Dr. Bianco was an Assistant Member in the clinical research division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington. From 1990 to 1992, Dr. Bianco was the director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Program at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Seattle. Dr. Bianco currently serves on the board of directors of Seattle Police Foundation and Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research. He received his B.S. degree in Biology and Physics from New York University and his M.D. from Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Dr. Bianco received the 2005 Corporate Visionary Award from Gilda’s Club Seattle, an organization where people with cancer and their families can receive emotional and social support. “Dr. Bianco has made it his life’s mission to make cancer more treatable by pursuing less toxic, more effective chemotherapy drugs,” said Anna Gottlieb, founder and executive director of Gilda’s Club Seattle. “He also understands that people living with cancer need more than medicine. His support of Gilda’s Club Seattle is actually helping to make cancer more livable.”
And, in a region that boasts some of this nation’s leading companies, Dr. Bianco was named CEO of the Year for 2000 by Washington CEO magazine.
Vartan Gregorian, Ph.D. has been a CTI director since December 2001. He is the twelfth president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, a grant-making institution founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911. Prior to his current position, which he assumed in June 1997, Gregorian served for nine years as Brown University’s sixteenth president.
He was awarded a Ph.D. in history and humanities from Stanford University. He was founding dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania in 1974 and four years later became its twenty-third provost. He served as president of the New York Public Library from 1981 to 1989, when he left to become president of Brown.
A Phi Beta Kappa and a Ford Foundation Foreign Area Training Fellow, he is a recipient of numerous fellowships, including those from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council and the American Philosophical Society.
His numerous civic and academic honors include some fifty honorary degrees, including those from Brown, Dartmouth, Drew, Johns Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the City University of New York, Rutgers, Tufts, New York University, University of Aberdeen, The Juilliard School, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Notre Dame University, and most recently, The University of Southern California and Carnegie Mellon University. In 1986 Gregorian was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and in 1989 the American Academy and the Institute of Arts and Letters’ Gold Medal for Service to the Arts. In 1998 President Clinton awarded him the National Humanities Medal, and in 2004 President Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Richard L. Love has 40 years of industry experience, with more than 27 years of leadership roles in the biosciences industry. He started two biopharmaceutical companies and served as CEO for both, Triton Biosciences Inc. from 1983 to 1991, and ILEX Oncology Inc. 1994 to 2001. In addition Love has served in executive positions at not-for-profit organizations, including the Cancer Therapy and Research Center, The San Antonio Technology Accelorator Initiative, and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).
At Triton and ILEX, Love led teams that were responsible for the clinical development of four important therapeutic products that are currently in the practice of medicine: Betaseron® for patients with multiple sclerosis, Fludara® and CAMPATH® both for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and Clolar® for acute leukemias. In 2004 ILEX was acquired by Genzyme Corporation for approximately $1B.
Currently Love is a managing partner in Translational Accelerator LLC, an Arizona-based venture capital investment firm, and also serves on the Boards of PAREXEL International (PRXL), ImaRx Therapeutics (IMRX), and MedTrust, LLC, and, prior to its acquisition by CTI in July 2007, served as Chairman of the Board of Systems Medicine, Inc. Love received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
Mary O’Neil Mundinger, DPH, RN, has been a CTI Director since April 1997. Dr. Mundinger is the Centennial Professor in Health Policy and Dean of the Columbia University School of Nursing. She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, the American Academy of Nursing, and the New York Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Mundinger is the founder of Columbia Advanced Practice Nurse Associates (CAPNA), the first nursing school faculty practice where nurse practitioners hold commercial managed care contracts and are compensated at the same rate as primary care physicians. Recently she established at Columbia the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree, the first clinical nursing doctorate in the nation. In 1998 she was named Nurse Practitioner of the Year by The Nurse Practitioner: The American Journal of Primary Health Care.
Dr. Mundinger holds a BS cum laude from the University of Michigan and a doctorate in public health from Columbia University School of Public Health. In 1984-85, she served as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in the office of Senator Edward Kennedy. In 1996, she was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters (Honorary) from Hamilton College. In 1995, she was the first nurse to be honored and profiled by the University of Michigan as a distinguished alumna. She is a noted health policy expert, primarily known for her work on workforce issues and primary care. Author of Home Care Controversy: Too Little, Too Late, Too Costly (1983) and Autonomy in Nursing (1980), she has led Columbia’s nursing school since 1986.
Phillip M. Nudelman, Ph.D., has been a director of CTI since March 1994 and Board Chairman since 2005.
From 2000 to 2007, he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Hope Heart Institute and is currently a member of the board of directors for Hope Heart. From 1998 to 2000, he was the Chairman of the board of Kaiser/Group Health, retiring in 2000 as Chief Executive Officer Emeritus. From 1990 to 2000, Dr. Nudelman was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, a health maintenance organization. He also currently serves on the board of directors of OptiStor Technologies, Inc. and Zynchros, Inc.
A noted leader in improving healthcare in the country, Nudelman served on the White House Task Force for Health Care Reform from 1992 to 1994 and the President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in Health Care from 1996 to 1998. He also served on the Pew Health Professions Commission and on the American Medical Association’s Task Force on Ethics, the Woodstock Ethics Commission, and currently serves as chairman of the American Association of Health Plans. Dr. Nudelman received his B.S. degree in microbiology, zoology, and pharmacy from the University of Washington, and holds an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in health systems management from Pacific Western University.
Jack W. Singer, M.D. is one of the Company’s founders and directors and currently serves as the Company’s Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Singer has been one of the Company’s directors since its inception in September 1991. From July 1995 to January 2004, Dr. Singer was the Company’s Executive Vice President, Research Program Chairman, and from April 1992 to July 1995, he served as the Company’s Executive Vice President, Research and Development. He also serves on the board of directors of DiaKine Therapeutics, Inc.
Prior to joining CTI, Dr. Singer was Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and full Member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. From 1975 to 1992, he was the Chief of Medical Oncology at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Seattle. Dr. Singer received his M.D. from State University of New York, Downstate Medical College.
Frederick W. Telling, Ph.D. joined CTI’s Board in December 2006. Prior to his retirement in June 2007, Dr. Telling was a corporate officer of Pfizer, most recently as Vice President of Corporate Policy and Strategic Management since 1994. He joined Pfizer in 1977 and was responsible for strategic planning and policy development throughout the majority of his career.
He currently serves on the board of directors of Eisai N.A., Medex, and Aequus. Dr. Telling also is a member of the Committee for Economic Development, IBM’s Healthcare & Life Sciences Advisory Council, the March of Dimes National Foundation Board, ORBIS, the EAA, and the United Hospital Fund. Dr. Telling received his B.A. from Hamilton College and his Master's of Industrial and Labor Relations and Ph.D. in Economics and Public Policy from Cornell University.
James A. Bianco, M.D., is the principal founder of Cell Therapeutics, Inc. and served as the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer and Director from February 1992 to July 2008. He now serves as CTI’s CEO and Director. Dr. Bianco has been responsible for securing more than $1 billion in operating capital and is the chief architect of the company’s portfolio strategy, leading the acquisition, development, and commercialization of novel agents that improve the safety and efficacy of existing standard-of-care chemotherapies or have unique mechanisms of action.
Achievements include:Prior to founding CTI, Dr. Bianco was an Assistant Member in the clinical research division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington. From 1990 to 1992, Dr. Bianco was the director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Program at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Seattle. Dr. Bianco currently serves on the board of directors of Seattle Police Foundation and Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research. He received his B.S. degree in Biology and Physics from New York University and his M.D. from Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Dr. Bianco received the 2005 Corporate Visionary Award from Gilda’s Club Seattle, an organization where people with cancer and their families can receive emotional and social support. “Dr. Bianco has made it his life’s mission to make cancer more treatable by pursuing less toxic, more effective chemotherapy drugs,” said Anna Gottlieb, founder and executive director of Gilda’s Club Seattle. “He also understands that people living with cancer need more than medicine. His support of Gilda’s Club Seattle is actually helping to make cancer more livable.”
And, in a region that boasts some of this nation’s leading companies, Dr. Bianco was named CEO of the Year for 2000 by Washington CEO magazine.
Louis A. Bianco is a founder of CTI and has been CTI’s Executive Vice President, Finance and Administration since February 1, 1992. He was a Director of CTI from the Company’s inception in September 1991 to April 1992 and from April 1993 to April 1995. From January 1989 through January 1992, Mr. Bianco was a Vice President at Deutsche Bank Capital Corporation in charge of risk management. Mr. Bianco is a Certified Public Accountant and received his M.B.A. from New York University.
Dan Eramian joined CTI as Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications in March 2006. Mr. Eramian is responsible for developing and implementing the internal and external communications strategy. He brings nearly 13 years of experience in the biotechnology industry to the position—most recently as Vice President of Communications at BIO, a Washington, DC-based industry organization representing more than 1,200 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers, and related organizations. Prior to BIO, Mr. Eramian was Assistant Administrator of Communications at the Small Business Administration and Director of Public Affairs at the Department of Justice and Chief Spokesman for the Attorney General of the United States. Previously, Mr. Eramian served as Chief of Staff to the Senate Leader in the Massachusetts Legislature, and was also Executive Editor of Suburban World Newspapers in the Boston area. He holds a B.A. in English Literature from UMass/Amherst and an M.P.A. from Suffolk University.
Craig W. Philips assumed his role as CTI's President in August 2008. In that role, he manages the company’s day-to-day drug development and commercial operations. Prior to joining CTI, Philips was Vice President and General Manager of Bayer Healthcare Oncology. Since 2006, Philips has been leading Bayer's U.S. oncology operations following the integration of the U.S. oncology businesses from Berlex and Bayer. In this capacity, he oversaw the U.S. oncology operations with sales of $350 million and a staff of more than 150. Philips was also either a member or chair of alliance executive committees which included Onyx, Novartis, Genzyme, and Favrille.
Prior to Bayer Healthcare, Philips was the head of Berlex Oncology since 2004. He was responsible for the U.S. oncology operations with sales of more than $160 million. Before Berlex, Philips was with Schering Plough in U.S., and international roles. He began his career with Bristol Myers, where he worked in a variety of therapy areas including oncology, cardiology, and CNS.
Jack W. Singer, M.D. is one of the Company’s founders and directors and currently serves as the Company’s Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Singer has been one of the Company’s directors since its inception in September 1991. From July 1995 to January 2004, Dr. Singer was the Company’s Executive Vice President, Research Program Chairman, and from April 1992 to July 1995, he served as the Company’s Executive Vice President, Research and Development. He also serves on the board of directors of DiaKine Therapeutics, Inc.
Prior to joining CTI, Dr. Singer was Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and full Member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. From 1975 to 1992, he was the Chief of Medical Oncology at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Seattle. Dr. Singer received his M.D. from State University of New York, Downstate Medical College.
Christina Waters, Ph.D. joined CTI’s management team in October 2008. Dr. Waters holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Davis and a M.B.A. from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Dr. Waters has been involved in biotechnology research since 1988 and has recently served as the Director of Scientific Development at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation an institute that is focused on applying integrated state-of-the-art technologies in chemistry, biology, automation, and information sciences in order to pursue new approaches towards the understanding of complex biomedical problems in cancer biology, immunology, neuroscience, and metabolic as well as infectious diseases. Most recently she was President and COO of A Tyr Pharma, a company involved in the development of protein therapeutics across a broad range of diseases.