Paul Bresge has been a leader in the cell and gene therapy biotech space for over a decade. He is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Ray Therapeutics, an optogenetics gene therapy company for blinding diseases. Prior to co-founding Ray Therapeutics, Paul served as Chief Executive Officer at jCyte, a late-stage clinical cell therapy company developing a treatment for retinitis pigmentosa. He was involved with jCyte prior to its inception in 2012 and concluded a $252M licensing deal with Santen Pharmaceutical in 2020. In addition to his current role as CEO, Paul is on the board of directors of Healios, an iPSC company with programs in ophthalmology and oncology, and is a mentor on the Winning Pitch Challenge. Paul is passionate about supporting companies with emerging technologies that have great potential to address unmet needs for patients with blinding and other diseases.

Chris Whitmore is a highly accomplished executive who brings over 20 years of strategic finance, accounting, and operational expertise. His deep experience spans from early-stage biotech to publicly-traded companies, with a focus on both private and public capital raising. He most recently served as CFO at Immune-Onc where he was instrumental in supporting the company’s progress into later-stage clinical trials, fundraising and executing strategic collaborations with Roche and Beigene. His leadership experience also includes management positions at Harpoon Therapeutics and Immune Design (both acquired by Merck), Notable Labs, AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, and Sangamo Therapeutics. Mr. Whitmore started his career at KPMG LLP, where he served as a manager in the audit practice. He received his B.A. in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara and holds an active CPA license.

Peter Francis is a highly experienced biotechnology executive and an ophthalmologist clinician-scientist with expertise in ophthalmic genetics and retinal disease. He graduated from medical school in the U.K. and undertook residency in London. He obtained his PhD in ophthalmic genetics from University College, London and is fellowship trained in Retina. Peter has almost two decades of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries where he has led a number of gene therapy products from discovery to early-stage clinical development. Most recently he served as Chief Scientific Officer at 4D Molecular Therapeutics, a leader in AAV-based gene therapy and was prior, their first Chief Medical Officer and Head of Translational Research. Previously, Peter was Chief Medical Officer at RetroSense Therapeutics, the first visual optogenetics company which was successfully sold to a large pharmaceutical company. Peter is a member of the Macula Society, the American Ophthalmological Society and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He has held academic faculty positions at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London and Casey Eye Institute, OHSU, Portland, OR. He has published about 100 peer-reviewed articles.

Jenny Holt, PMP is an experienced biotech and pharmaceutical executive with more than 25 years of experience primarily in gene therapies, ophthalmology, and oncolytic viral research. She is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara. Her first roles included scientist positions at UCSF Gladstone Institutes, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, and Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research. Most recently Jenny was head of project management at 4D Molecular Therapeutics, a leading AAV-based gene therapy company, where she managed five gene therapy products from discovery to early-stage clinical development. Jenny also was a co-founder/advisor at Ignite Immunotherapy which was purchased by Pfizer in 2019.

Jonathan Melnick has over 15 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, with a focus on platform development in the fields of high throughput biology and gene therapy. He received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in Chemistry and Biology, and his PhD in 2006 from The Scripps Research Institute. Jon specializes in a multidisciplinary approach to platform refinement and optimization, combining the principles of chemical biology with next generation sequencing (NGS) and bioinformatics/machine learning. Jon’s career has focused on early stage biotechs, where he has established teams and brought in new capabilities to expand academic platforms into industrial discovery engines.

Jerrod is a seasoned CMC leader in cell and gene therapy with over 2 decades of biotech experience. His first jobs were at 3 cell therapy therapeutic product development companies- Geron, ViaCyte and StemCells where he had increasing roles of responsibility in R&D, process and analytical development, pilot plant, GMP manufacturing and MSAT. He was then hired by Dark Horse Consulting Group as the first full-time employee and first Principal where he gained CMC experience in multiple types of cell therapies, ex vivo gene therapies and in vivo gene therapies including AAV products. After working at DHC, Jerrod took on a new challenge at Ology/National Resilience as VP of Cell Therapy Tech Ops for a CDMO. Most recently, Jerrod was VP of Cell Therapy Tech Ops at Athenex where we went back full circle to therapeutic product development of CAR-NKT cell therapy products.

Dr. Raj Agrawal is an Ophthalmologist and Retina Specialist with over 25 years of experience in clinical work, research and academia across four countries around the world, including India, Hong Kong, Bahamas and the US. Currently Vice President for Clinical Development and Therapeutic Area Lead at Ray Therapeutics, he was previously with Rezolute Inc, as VP of Clinical Development and Ophthalmology lead, heading the clinical development for an oral medication for diabetic macular edema; with Coherus Biosciences as Senior Vice President, Clinical Development and Ophthalmology lead where he led the clinical development of Cimerli™, a Lucentis biosimilar that was approved by the FDA in 2022; and with Santen Inc. as Senior Medical Director and Retina Lead where he led the retinal development program.

Dr. Agrawal was a full-time Clinical Faculty at Doheny Eye Institute and USC Keck School of Medicine, where, apart from clinical work and teaching fellows and residents, he was significantly involved in research, including being the co-patent holder for and involved in clinical trials and approval for ARGUS-II, the first-ever treatment for advanced retinitis pigmentosa in the world.

Dr. Agrawal is also the President and CEO of Retina Global, an international nonprofit that provides sustainable solutions to retinal disease management around the world. He is also the Founder of the Orange County Eye Project Eye Clinic in Santa Ana, CA.

Vicki has over 30 years of clinical development operations experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. She has made significant contributions at companies ranging from biotech start-ups to large pharmaceutical companies, including contract research organizations. Working in small biotechs has allowed her to excel in clinical operations, data management and statistical programming. Therapeutic experience includes ocular diseases, neurodegenerative impairment, non-abusive pain therapy alternatives, and oncology. She is a graduate of Lehigh University.