Leadership
Management Team
Stephen Gately, PHD
President and CEO
Dr. Stephen Gately obtained his Ph.D. from McGill University in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital. Thereafter he joined the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine as Research Assistant Professor, where his research focused on the identification and development of pharmacologic and endogenous inhibitors of angiogenesis. During this time, Dr. Gately served as a consultant to the Oncology Clinical Research Team at Searle/Monsanto (now Pfizer). In this position, he was responsible for scientific and technical input on clinical trial designs to rapidly assess the utility of antiangiogenic compounds. Additional responsibilities included interacting with discovery scientists to understand drug mechanism of action to aid in the identification of
potential biomarkers for early clinical proof of drug activity studies.
He then joined the oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company NeoPharm where he served as Executive Director of Translational Medicine. In this position, Dr. Gately had responsibility for the design and implementation of basic and clinical research studies to enhance the scientific understanding and positioning of existing products and development candidates. Dr. Gately then served as a consultant to Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Medical and Scientific Affairs group where he was responsible for the scientific integration of non-clinical, clinical and regulatory data on portfolio compounds for optimal commercial planning. In addition, he was involved in the scientific due diligence for oncology new business development opportunities.
Dr. Gately is currently President and Chief Executive Officer at TD2, and adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP
Chief Development Strategist
Dr. Daniel Von Hoff is TD2’s Chief Development Officer. He also serves as Physician in Chief, Distinguished Professor and Director of Clinical Translational Research Division at TGen (Translational Genomics Research Institute) in Phoenix, Ariz., as well as Chief Scientific Officer for US Oncology and for Scottsdale Healthcare’s Clinical Research Institute. He holds an appointment as Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Dr. Von Hoff’s major interest is in the development of new anticancer agents, both in the clinic and in the laboratory. He and his colleagues were involved in the beginning of the development of many of the agents we now use routinely, including: mitoxantrone, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, irinotecan, nelarabine, capecitabine, lapatinib and others. At present, he and his colleagues are concentrating on the development of molecularly targeted therapies particularly for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Dr. Von Hoff has published more than 565 papers, 135 book chapters and more than 1,000 abstracts. Dr. Von Hoff received the 2010 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology for his outstanding contributions to cancer research leading to significant improvement in patient care.
Dr. Von Hoff was appointed to President George W. Bush’s National Cancer Advisory Board in 2004 and served until 2010. Dr. Von Hoff is the past President of the American Association for Cancer Research (the world’s largest cancer research organization), a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member and past board member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is a founder of ILEX™ Oncology, Inc. (acquired by Genzyme after ILEX had two agents, alemtuzumab and clofarabine, approved by the FDA for patients with leukemia). Dr. Von Hoff is founder and the editor emeritus of Investigational New Drugs – The Journal of New Anticancer Agents; and former editor-in-chief of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. He is a co-founder of the AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop. He is also proud to have been a mentor and teacher for multiple medical students, medical oncology fellows, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.
Tara Franks, MBA
Chief Operating Officer
Tara Franks’ role at TD2 involves the oversight of business development, marketing, administrative, operational and financial activities. She is also responsible for managing strategic business initiatives and collaborations. She has more than a decade of experience in business development for preclinical, regulatory and clinical services in the oncology space as well as project management oncology programs in early stage development. She has spent the last five years leading operations at TD2. During her time at the company, she has helped to significantly grow top line revenue, streamline operations and expand the client base.
Ms. Franks graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona where she studied business and genetics and received her Master of Business Administration from Arizona State University.
Alan Miller, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Miller obtained his Ph.D. at Roswell Park (SUNY) and his M.D. from the University of Miami School of Medicine. Trained as a medical oncologist, he was also the Associate Senior Vice President for Health Sciences for Tulane Cancer Center, where he navigated the challenges of rebuilding and re-establishing the university and hospital following Hurricane Katrina. He also served as Cancer Center Director of the Baylor Sammons Cancer Center where he brought together a not-for-profit healthcare system and private oncology practices to form an oncology network across north Texas. Additionally, Dr. Miller built a larger system-wide oncology network while at SCL Health and established a system-wide clinical trials infrastructure for a multi-state healthcare system. He also serves as a Board Member for the American Cancer Society Denver and Rocky Mountain Oncology Society.
Eric Tooker, JD
VP and General Counsel
Eric Tooker is Vice President and General Counsel for TD2.
He is also a Manager of Translational Accelerator, LLC, a $20 million biotech venture fund in Phoenix, Ariz.
Mr. Tooker previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of MCS Biotech Resources, which provides business, legal, administrative and support services to expert medical consultants and startup companies. Mr. Tooker also previously served as Vice President and General Counsel for Central Newspapers, Inc.
Mr. Tooker has extensive experience in advising executive business teams throughout his 25 years as in-house counsel. In that role with Conseco, Inc., he served as legal counsel and business adviser for a significant private equity portfolio and led mergers and acquisitions and associated bank financings.
Mr. Tooker earned a Bachelor of Science in education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School.
Kristen Dempsey, BA
Senior Vice President, Commercial Development
Kristen Dempsey started her career in R&D at Sigma-Aldrich where she developed several novel cloning and expression systems. She was among the team that launched the first ever knockout rat models, improving target identification and validation for multiple pharma programs. Kristen brings more than 20 years of experience in product management, strategic marketing, and business development to TD2. She is passionate about driving client success to bring better drugs to the market faster.
Mrs. Dempsey received her BA in Biology with a focus in Genetic Engineering from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
Paul Gonzales, BS
Vice President, Nonclinical Operations
Paul Gonzales has twenty years of experience working in oncology drug development. Mr. Gonzales has been with TD2 for more than 10 years working with biotech clients and maturing the nonclinical research department. His vast experience in preclinical models contributes to the design and execution of TD2 clients’ preclinical development plans. Mr. Gonzales has aided in the advancement of many current oncology treatments during their early development phase. He trained in the oncology drug development field at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center.
Mr. Gonzales received his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences from Texas A&M University in College Station.
Jennifer Keppler, MBA
Vice President, Translational Medicine
Jennifer Keppler has more than 20 years of experience in translational research, clinical trials and regulatory strategy across academic, industry and CRO settings. Prior to joining TD2 as Vice President of Translational Medicine, she was the Chief Operating Officer and acting Vice President of Clinical Development for ImaginAb, where she oversaw the preclinical translation, as well as clinical and regulatory strategy, for biologic-based drug products. Over the course of her career, she has overseen investigational new drug (IND) filings from phase I through phase II for both small and large molecules.
Ms. Keppler has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from the University of Phoenix and an Associate of Science in Nuclear Medicine Technology. Ms. Keppler is an author of numerous scientific papers about clinical PET/radiopharmaceuticals and diagnostic imaging.
Susan Night, JD, LLM
Vice President, Site Engagement and Network Strategy
Susan has 20+ years in health care strategic planning, regulation, policy and law. Her work focuses on the intersection of policy, ethics and law. She is the co-author of several key books: Risk & Reward, A “How-To” Guide to Choosing an MSO (MGMA) and The Texas Medical Jurisprudence Examination: A Self-Study Guide. Prior to joining TD2, Susan led the clinical research operations in community oncology practices for McKesson Specialty Health, US Oncology Research.
She received her B.S. for University of Oklahoma and her JD and Health Law degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law and University of Houston Law Center.
Matthew Witman, BA
Vice President, Business Operations
Matthew Witman has more than 15 years of experience in business development and contract management/negotiation within the life sciences and commercial litigation industries. His role at TD2 involves the oversight of preclinical and clinical proposals and the contracts group, in addition to drafting, negotiating and managing internal and external contracts for TD2.
Mr. Witman graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. and has previously held paralegal and legal document preparer certifications.
Susan Tessmann, MBA, PHR, CPM, PMP
Vice President, Clinical Operations
Susan Tessmann is Vice President of Clinical Operations at TD2 and oversees and manages the TD2 clinical team, which includes project management, data management and administrative functions. She has more than 25 years of experience working in the CRO field, including seven years in clinical pharmacology running phase I and phase II clinical trials, nine years in human resources and 11 years in preclinical toxicology as department manager, supervisor and surgical technician. She is a certified training facilitator and a certified Six Sigma Greenbelt.
Ms. Tessmann holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. She is a Certified Project Manager (CPM) and has obtained the Project Management Institute Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. Ms. Tessmann also holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with emphasis in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Edgewood College in Madison, Wis. and an Associate in Veterinary Technology from Macomb Community College in Mount Clemons, Mich.
Marc Appelbaum, MS
Vice President, Business Development
Marc has spent 20+ years focused on Business Development and is passionate about helping clients move their oncology drugs forward. Prior to joining TD2, Marc managed teams at Covance and Abbott. Marc received his BS from Alfred University.
Shawnna Rustenbeck, MBA
Vice President, Finance and Operations
Shawnna joined TD2 in 2017 and has been leading our finance and controlling teams. She has an extensive background in accounting with a deep understanding in forensic accounting. Shawnna received her BS in Accounting from Grand Canyon University and her MBA with a concentration in Forensic Accounting from Southern New Hampshire University.
Board of Managers & Advisors
Stephen Gately, PHD
President and CEO
Dr. Stephen Gately obtained his Ph.D. from McGill University in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital. Thereafter he joined the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine as Research Assistant Professor, where his research focused on the identification and development of pharmacologic and endogenous inhibitors of angiogenesis. During this time, Dr. Gately served as a consultant to the Oncology Clinical Research Team at Searle/Monsanto (now Pfizer). In this position, he was responsible for scientific and technical input on clinical trial designs to rapidly assess the utility of antiangiogenic compounds. Additional responsibilities included interacting with discovery scientists to understand drug mechanism of action to aid in the identification of
potential biomarkers for early clinical proof of drug activity studies.
He then joined the oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company NeoPharm where he served as Executive Director of Translational Medicine. In this position, Dr. Gately had responsibility for the design and implementation of basic and clinical research studies to enhance the scientific understanding and positioning of existing products and development candidates. Dr. Gately then served as a consultant to Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Medical and Scientific Affairs group where he was responsible for the scientific integration of non-clinical, clinical and regulatory data on portfolio compounds for optimal commercial planning. In addition, he was involved in the scientific due diligence for oncology new business development opportunities.
Dr. Gately is currently President and Chief Executive Officer at TD2, and adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Shaun A. Kirkpatrick
President, Research Corporation Technologies
SHAUN A. KIRKPATRICK is President at Research Corporation Technologies (RCT) in Tucson, Arizona, and serves on the company’s Board of Directors. Kirkpatrick oversees RCT’s investment portfolio and technology development and licensing activities in therapeutics, life science tools and diagnostics. RCT’s investment and technology portfolio includes over 20 biotechnology companies and some of today’s landmark platforms, pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, including the anticancer drugs cisplatin and carboplatin, the PSA blood test for prostate cancer, the technetium-99-based imaging agents, the Pichia protein expression system, the anticonvulsant drug Vimpat®, and the shingles vaccine Shingrix®. Kirkpatrick received a master’s degree in international economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a bachelor’s degree in economics and ecology/evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona. Kirkpatrick serves on the boards of several companies in RCT’s venture investment portfolio and is also a board member of the Flinn Foundation in Phoenix, AZ, the Critical Path Institute in Tucson, AZ, and the Thomas R. Brown Foundations, Tucson, AZ.
Chad Souvignier
Vice President, Research Corporations Technologies
CHAD SOUVIGNIER is Vice President at Research Corporation Technologies (RCT) where he focuses on the company’s investments in therapeutic platforms and life science tools companies. Dr. Souvignier has nearly 20 years of life sciences venture investing experience. At RCT, he has managed multiple internal programs for the development and commercialization of therapeutic products and platforms and has served as a member of the board for several start-up companies in the RCT portfolio. Previously Dr. Souvignier held roles in business development and international marketing at Guilford Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Souvignier holds an MBA with an emphasis in entrepreneurship and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering, both from the University of Arizona.
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