Team
Reinier Beeuwkes, Ph.D.
Chairman, President & Chief Scientific Officer
Albert D. Friesen, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Robert Weinstein, MBA, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
Geoffrey E. Clark, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Steven A. Kates, Ph.D.
Vice President, Research
Alan S. Lader, Ph.D.
Director, Clinical Operations
Ischemix Management
Reinier Beeuwkes, Ph.D. - Chairman, President & Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Beeuwkes joined Ischemix in 2002 as a Director and was appointed President/CEO in 2005. Dr. Beeuwkes began his career working with Nobelist Bernard Lown on “cardioversion”, the electrical correction of cardiac arrhythmia. From 1970 to 1982, Dr. Beeuwkes held a faculty position at Harvard Medical School. His work centered on the microcirculation of the kidney and heart, and resulted in more than 80 publications, including four chapters in renal textbooks and three award-winning kidney teaching films. With A. Clifford Barger, he discovered the association of coronary vasa vasorum with atherosclerotic plaque. This work is widely ited in myocardial infarction literature.
In 1982, Dr. Beeuwkes co-founded Braintree Laboratories, a privately held pharmaceutical company which pioneered products for colonoscopy. From 1982-1987, he served as Director of Renal and Cardiovascular Pharmacology at Smith Kline and French Laboratories and Director of Strategic Planning for SmithKline Worldwide R&D. He holds nine U.S. patents. Dr. Beeuwkes earned his B.S. from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Albert D. Friesen, Ph.D. - Chief Executive Officer
Albert D. Friesen has been instrumental in the founding and development of several health industry companies, including ABI Biotechnology (now Apotex Fermentation), Canada's first profitable biotech company, and also led the development of Canada's first biotech product, WinRho. Dr. Friesen is a founder of the Industrial Biotechnology Association of Canada (now BIOTECanada). He is currently CEO of Medicure Inc., and President of Genesys Venture Inc. (GVI), which provides the expertise for launching and managing emerging health and biotechnology ventures.
Dr. Friesen led the establishment of CentreStone Venture Partners; a $22 million life sciences fund based in Winnipeg. He currently serves on the Premier's Economic Advisory Council, which advises on a range of Manitoba's economic priorities, the Manitoba Innovation Council as Co-Chair, the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Council of Canadian Academies, the College of Physicians and Surgeons Council and the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Advisory Board of the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Dr. Friesen holds a Ph.D. in protein chemistry from the University of Manitoba.
Robert Weinstein, MBA, CPA - Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Weinstein has extensive accounting and finance experience, spanning over 25 years, as a public accountant, investment banker, healthcare private equity fund principal and chief financial officer, principally with emerging, publicly-traded healthcare companies. Mr. Weinstein has consistently provided investors above average returns on investment and has served as a board member for companies at which he has been involved.
Mr. Weinstein was most recently the Chief Financial Officer of Green Energy Management Services Holdings, Inc., a publicly-traded energy consulting company. Mr. Weinstein served as the Chief Financial Officer of Xcorporeal, Inc., a publicly traded, development-stage medical device company which was sold in March 2010 to Fresenius Medical USA, the largest provider of dialysis equipment and services worldwide. Prior to joining Xcorporeal, Mr. Weinstein was Vice President, Director of Quality Control & Compliance of Citi Private Equity Services, a worldwide private equity fund administrator and accounting service provider. Mr. Weinstein served as the Chief Financial Officer of Able Laboratories, Inc., a publicly traded developer and manufacturer of generic pharmaceutical products. Mr. Weinstein founded EB Associates, LLC, an entrepreneurial service organization providing accounting and financial services to small, entrepreneurial companies. Mr. Weinstein received his M.B.A. in Finance & International Business from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, is a Certified Public Accountant, and received his B.S. in Accounting from the State University of New York at Albany.
Geoffrey E. Clark, M.D. - Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Clark was a co-founder and first Medical Director of Braintree Laboratories, Inc. He has been instrumental in preparing the clinical and toxicological sections of several New Drug Applications, as well as designing and monitoring clinical trials. He has also been responsible for the preparation of FDA reports for marketed pharmaceuticals. In addition to his responsibilites at Braintree Laboratories, he has maintained an active clinical practice for more than 30 years. Dr Clark graduated from Harvard College and received his medical degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo. There he conducted research in nutritional science and immunology. He returned to Boston to complete his internship, residency and fellowship training at the Harvard Medical School services of Cambridge and Boston City Hospitals.
Steven A. Kates, Ph.D. - Vice President, Research
Dr. Kates joined Ischemix in October 2003 bringing more than 25 years experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Kates served as Senior Scientist at Surface Logix, Inc., a drug development company specializing in the chemical improvement of already-approved drugs and late-stage compounds. Previous positions also include Director, Chemistry, at Consensus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Director of Peptide Research at Millipore Corporation.
Dr. Kates is a world-leading chemist and industry expert in peptide design and manufacture. He has written or co-authored more than 100 articles, reviews, and patents. Dr. Kates has served as editor of ADMET for Medicinal Chemists; A Practical Guide and Solid-Phase Synthesis: A Practical Guide; guest editor of Biopolymers; and as a member of the Editorial Board of International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics. An Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at Northeastern University and Visiting Professor of Chemistry at Brandeis University, Dr. Kates earned his B.S. in chemistry from Bates College, Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from Brandeis University and conducted post-doctoral studies at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Alan S. Lader, Ph.D. - Director, Clinical Operations
Alan S. Lader, Ph.D. has over 25 years of experience in medical research including both clinical and basic science research. Prior to joining Ischemix, he was an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital where he taught Integrated Human Physiology and was Principal Investigator for NIH funded studies in mechanisms of lung cancer metastasis. Dr. Lader began his research career at Hartford Hospital working on clinical studies in the Cardiovascular Medicine department. After earning his Masters degree from the Hartford Graduate Center of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1988, he joined the Cardiovascular Division of the New England Regional Primate Research Center at Harvard Medical School where he did basic science studies in cardiovascular physiology. He went on to receive his Ph.D. in Biomedical Science and Physiology in 1995 from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, then returned to Harvard Medical School for his post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Lader was the recipient of 4 fellowship awards and a career development award, and has authored over 20 publications in peer reviewed journals and has presented more than 20 abstracts in scientific meetings.