Management Team

Tuan Ha-Ngoc has served as president and chief executive officer of AVEO and as a member of our board of directors since June 2002. From 1999 to 2002, he was co-founder, president and chief executive officer of deNovis, Inc., an enterprise-scale software development company for the automation of healthcare administrative functions. From 1998 to 1999, Mr. Ha-Ngoc was corporate vice president of strategic development for Wyeth, following Wyeth’s acquisition of Genetics Institute, where Mr. Ha-Ngoc served as executive vice president with responsibility for corporate development, commercial operations and European and Japanese operations. Mr. Ha-Ngoc serves on the Board of Directors of Human Genome Sciences, Inc. as well as on the boards of a number of academic and nonprofit organizations, including the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, the Tufts School of Medicine, the MIT Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and the International Institute of Boston. He holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD and an M.A. in pharmacy from the University of Paris, France.

Elan Ezickson has served as AVEO’s chief business officer since April 2003. From 1994 to 2003, he worked at Biogen in roles that included president of Biogen Canada, program executive and associate general counsel. Mr. Ezickson sits on the Board of Directors of the Greater Boston Food Bank. Mr. Ezickson holds a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University and a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law.

David Johnston has served as AVEO’s chief financial officer since October 2007. From 1998 to 2007, he served as senior vice president of corporate finance at Genzyme Corporation. Mr. Johnston sits on the Board of Directors of Tissue Banks International. Mr. Johnston holds a B.S. from Washington and Lee University and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

William Slichenmyer has served as AVEO’s chief medical officer since September 2009. Prior to joining AVEO, Dr. Slichenmyer served as chief medical officer at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals from 2007 to September 2009. From 2000 to 2007, Dr. Slichenmyer worked at Pfizer Inc. in roles that included global head of oncology clinical development as well as positions in medical affairs and regulatory affairs. Dr. Slichenmyer holds a B.A. and M.D. from Case Western Reserve University and an M.A. in clinical investigation from Johns Hopkins Oncology Center.

Jeno Gyuris was named senior vice president, head of research in January 2010.  Dr. Gyuris joined our company in 2002 and served as our vice president, molecular technologies until January 2007 and as our senior vice president, drug discovery from January 2007 to January 2010.From 1993 to 2002, Dr. Gyuris worked at GPC Biotech AG, formerly Mitotix Inc., where he held positions of increasing responsibility, most recently vice president of molecular technologies. Dr. Gyuris has received several research fellowships in Europe and the United States, and is the author of numerous patents and publications. Dr. Gyuris received his Ph.D. from University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.

Murray Robinson, Ph.D. joined AVEO in 2003. Dr. Robinson, our senior vice president, translational medicine and co-chair of our scientific advisory board, is a frequent speaker in oncology-related forums and is an expert resource on predictive cancer biomarker research. He joined AVEO from Amgen, Inc. where he worked for 12 years. While at Amgen, Dr. Robinson started and managed Amgen's internal cancer research program, which led to three internally generated clinical programs comprising both small molecule and antibody drug candidates. Dr. Robinson also maintained a laboratory studying the biology of telomerase, a tumor-specific reverse transcriptase. At Amgen, Dr. Robinson also held positions in genomics discovery as well as primary responsibility for the establishment of Amgen's transgenic facility. Dr. Robinson received his bachelor's degree at UC San Diego and his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.

Pankaj Bhargava, M.D. joined AVEO in 2006 and directs the company’s clinical development programs, and also continues to serve as an attending physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Prior to Dana-Farber, Dr. Bhargava was assistant professor of medicine and co-director of the gastrointestinal oncology program at University of Massachusetts Medical Center. He has more than 12 years of experience in drug development and translational research. Dr. Bhargava is board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology and clinical pharmacology, and did an advanced fellowship in developmental therapeutics at the Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University, during which he assisted in the review of drug applications at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He has conducted several early-phase clinical trials, and has published more than 50 papers, abstracts and book chapters. Dr. Bhargava holds an M.B., B.S degree from the University of Delhi, India.

Isabel Chiu, Ph.D., joined AVEO in 2003. As vice president, translational research, she is responsible for applying AVEO’s preclinical insights to both inform the design of human clinical studies and to guide therapeutic approaches to the company’s cancer product development initiatives. Prior to joining AVEO, Dr. Chiu spent 10 years with GPC-Biotech, formerly Mitotix Inc., where she most recently served as director of target discovery. During her time there, Dr. Chiu established functional phenotypic screens for cancer drug discovery and played key roles in numerous multi-year alliances with external collaborators including Altana Pharma and Dupont-Merck. She completed her post-doctoral training at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and is the author of numerous publications and issued patents. Dr. Chiu received her B.A. in biochemistry from Brandeis University and her Ph.D. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA.

Gary Creason joined AVEO in 2004, and has more than 20 years of experience in intellectual property law. Prior to joining AVEO, Mr. Creason was an associate general counsel at Biogen Idec, in Cambridge, MA. There, he served as primary counsel for several biopharmaceutical R&D programs, managed and developed a large patent portfolio, handled numerous licensing and contract matters, conducted due diligence in connection with various business development opportunities, and frequently advised senior management regarding third party intellectual property rights. From 1994 through 2000, Mr. Creason was an attorney in the Boston office of the law firm Fish & Richardson, where his practice focused on patent prosecution in chemistry and biotechnology, opinion work, and litigation. From 1989 to 1994, Mr. Creason worked as a patent agent in the law firm Fish & Neave, in New York. From 1987 to 1989, Mr. Creason performed basic research in plant biochemistry, at EniChem, in Monmouth Junction, NJ, following postdoctoral training at E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co., in Wilmington, DE, and the Noble Foundation, in Ardmore, OK. Mr. Creason received a Ph.D. in plant physiology from Cornell University in 1984, and graduated from Fordham University School of Law in 1994.

Suzanne Fleming joined AVEO in 2005, and has more than nineteen years of experience as a finance executive in the biotechnology industry.  Prior to joining AVEO, Ms. Fleming was the Senior Director, Finance at Transform Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2005.  Ms. Fleming has also held senior finance positions at Transkaryotic Therapies (TKT), Cytotherapeutics and Oculon Corporation.  Ms. Fleming holds a B.S. in Accounting from Stonehill College and is a Certified Public Accountant.

David Graham joined AVEO in 2005, and has more than 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience. Since joining AVEO, Mr. Graham has led the successful submission of three INDs and associated EU submissions, and managed global development and partner alliances for all AVEO development programs. Prior to joining AVEO, Mr. Graham was at Cubist Pharmaceuticals since 1999, where he created a program management department and was responsible for leading the successful NDA submission and approval of their first ethical pharmaceutical product. Prior to joining Cubist, Mr. Graham had a 10-year tenure at Genetics Institute (GI) where he held various positions of increasing responsibility. At GI, Mr. Graham was responsible for leading the first PLA submission and approval for GI and was instrumental in the building of the commercial operations team and subsequent successful product launches. He began his pharmaceutical career with Hoffmann LaRoche and held positions in sales, market research and project management. Throughout his career, Mr. Graham has been involved in more than 11 successful product approvals. He received a B.S. in microbiology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Joseph Vittiglio joined AVEO in 2007 and has more than 15 years experience in corporate and securities law, with a particular focus in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Prior to joining AVEO, Mr. Vittiglio was the Director of Corporate Legal Affairs of Oscient Pharmaceuticals from 2005 through 2007. From 1998 through 2005, Mr. Vittiglio was a senior attorney at the Boston law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., where his practice focused principally in the life science and technology industries working on collaborative arrangements, corporate partnering, registered public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and venture financings.  Mr. Vittiglio sits on the Board of Directors of the Casa Monte Cassino in Boston and on the Board of Directors Lynnfield Youth Soccer.  Mr. Vittiglio holds a degree in International Relations from Tufts University and graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 1996.