Leadership

Leadership

Our success is rooted in passion and perseverance, and is backed by rigorous science. We have brought together accomplished experts in immunotherapy and operational excellence to contribute their knowledge in a practical and efficient way. Our corporate culture encourages people to contribute their unique and diverse perspectives, to leverage their unrelenting optimism and creativity, and to be ready to learn and develop solutions together towards a common and greater purpose.

Board of Directors

Ryan Saadi, MD, MPH

Chair and Chief Executive Officer

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Curtis Patton, PhD

Board of Directors

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Susan Podlogar, MBA

Board of Directors

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Jeffrey Feike, MPH

Board of Directors

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Lindee Goh, PhD

Board of Directors

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Corporate Advisory Board

Neal Flomenberg, MD

Chair, Scientific Advisory Board and Chief Scientific Officer

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Bruce Cooper, MD

Corporate Advisory Board

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Manmohan Patel, MD

Chief Executive Advisor

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Kendell R. Sprott, MD, JD

Corporate Advisory Board

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Sten Vermund, MD, PhD

Corporate Advisory Board

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Victor Sordillo, PE, CSP, MBA

Corporate Advisory Board

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Himanshu Patel, MD

Executive Advisor to CEO

Innovation and Public Health Advisory Council (IPHAC)

The role of IPHAC is to advise on public health priorities based on assessments of regional or national health metrics and on the implementation of evidence-based innovation-driven programs, practices and policies to improve health outcomes. The IPHAC will identify and prioritize public health needs, encourage the development of appropriate innovation-driven programs to meet those needs, as well as encourage, promote, and support engagement on public health issues.

Sten Vermund, MD, PhD

Chairman, Innovation and Public Health Advisory Council

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Himanshu Patel, MD

Executive Advisor to CEO

Jeffrey Feike, MPH

Chief Patient Officer

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Lindee Goh, PhD

Member, Board of Directors

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Leadership

Ryan Saadi, MD, MPH

Chief Executive Officer

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Neal Flomenberg, MD

Chief Scientific Officer and Global R&D Lead

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Stephen Chen, MBA

Chief Technical Officer

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Kirti Desai, CPA

Chief Financial Officer

Lori Grosso, DNP

Clinical Development Lead

Sadiq Khan

Chief Commercial Officer

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Kevin Kovaleski

Strategic Alliance Management Lead

Tommy Joyce, MBA

Government Affairs and Policy

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Manmohan Patel, MD

Chief Executive Advisor

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Himanshu Patel, MD

Executive Advisor to CEO

Jeffrey Feike, MPH

Chief Patient Officer

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Judy Akhtar, DDS

Executive Advisor to CEO

Emerging Leaders Program

Our global healthcare system is dependent on continuous medical innovation. The goal of our Emerging Leaders Program is to develop the next generation of Biopharma leaders who will revolutionize how we think about and tackle our greatest health challenges. Deadline for 2023 intern applications is March 2023. Submit your cover letters and resumes at careers@tevogen.com.

New Jersey, USA

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© 2023 Tevogen Bio. All Rights Reserved.

Ryan Saadi, MD, MPH
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Ryan Saadi, M.D., M.P.H., is Chief Executive Officer and founder of Tevogen Bio. Ryan also serves as Managing Director and Executive Advisor of the Center for Market Access and Medical Innovation, a cross-sector educational initiative which seeks to promote sustainable medical innovation, improve patient access, inform policy-making, and foster talent development.

As a renowned innovator in the world of healthcare and a leading expert in global health policy, market access, clinical development, and research, Ryan actively partners, speaks and advises on various healthcare matters with a number of organizations from the private sector (life sciences companies), the public sector (including at the state, federal and global level), academia, and the not-for-profit sectors.

Ryan points to his unyielding passion for public health, his unique ability to unite normally siloed parties under a common cause, and his “irrational optimism” as the driving force behind his success and the recent formation of Tevogen Bio.

Previously, Ryan spent nearly three decades in healthcare, in leadership roles within hospital administration, managed care, and life sciences. He has been recognized multiple times for his unique leadership approach, including being named among the Most Inspiring Leaders in the Life Sciences Industry. Ryan is an accomplished graduate of Harvard Business School Executive Education Program, Yale School of Medicine, and Dhaka Medical College.

Curtis Patton, PhD

Dr. Curtis Patton, Professor Emeritus at Yale University, is a world renowned scientist and Public Health expert. He has served in a variety of administrative capacities including Division Head, Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases and Acting Head of Global Health. He has also served as the Director of International Medical Studies and Chair of the Committee on International Health at Yale University.

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Susan Podlogar, MBA
Board of Directors

Susan Podlogar is MetLife’s chief human resources officer and is an executive vice president and a member of the Executive Group. She joined MetLife in 2017 and oversees its global Human Resources strategies and practices. Podlogar was instrumental in establishing a Workforce of the Future Development Fund to prepare employees for future work needs. She also championed the signing of the Catalyst CEO Champions for Change Pledge—a commitment to advance diversity, inclusion and gender equality in the workplace, as well as a partnership with the UN Women Global Innovation Coalition for Change to accelerate the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Podlogar serves on MetLife Foundation’s Board of Directors, a philanthropic organization advancing financial wellness around the globe. In addition, she has worked with the Aspen Institute, the U.S. Army, and other government and educational institutions around the world to provide thought leadership and perspectives on innovative HR practices. Previously, Podlogar served as the global vice president of Human Resources for Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and a member of the Human Resources Executive Committee. During her 16 years with J&J, she held a series of sector and corporate leadership roles in HR.

Podlogar earned an MBA summa cum laude from the University of South Florida, with concentrations in Finance and Management, and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, also summa cum laude, with a double major in Labor and Industrial Relations and Business Administration.

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Jeffrey Feike, MPH
Chief Patient Officer and Board of Directors

Mr. Feike is a public health servant-leader with 30+ years of experience as CEO of multiple hospitals. His lifetime work has been to improve health care delivery systems and to remove access barriers for all patients. In his distinguished career he has served on several State and University Boards. He has overseen the development of hospitals, outpatient clinics, and EMS systems coupled with a wide array of medical programs including Cancer Centers, Stroke Centers, and Trauma Centers to reduce morbidity and mortality. His hospitals have received national recognition from both the Joint Commission and the VHA for outstanding clinical excellence and high reliability using lean and 6-sigma statistical methodologies. He represents East Tennessee on the state EMS Board’s Clinical Issues Committee, and serves on the board of Regional Medical Communications Center for East Tennessee. He is past Chairman of the Nevada Hospital Association, and a 30-year member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He holds an MPH from Tulane University graduating summa cum laude and has been inducted into the national public health honor society, Delta Omega. Mr. Feike has a strong passion for public health and is inspired by Tevogen’s mission of providing curative therapies at affordable prices to ensure access for all patients.

Lindee Goh, PhD
Board of Directors

Dr. Lindee Goh leads the Tapestry healthcare practice. She works with public and private sector leaders to develop effective strategies to improve clinical outcomes while fostering sustainable healthcare innovation.

Healthcare public-private working groups Lindee has co-led have included focuses on: initial design and implementation of the parallel scientific advice process, a new approach to regulation and reimbursement in Europe; collaborative recommendations to address innovation, diagnostics, & infrastructure challenges of Alzheimer’s disease; US-focused pilot approach to molecular diagnostic quality assurance as relevant to precision medicine; innovative approaches to healthcare financing and payment models in oncology and rare diseases; and design and launch of multicancer early detection consortium.

Prior to Tapestry Networks, Lindee led teams at the Boston Consulting Group, working in biopharma, payer, and provider spaces, with expertise on strategy, organizational and operational transformation, and addressing issues in innovation, quality, and access.
Lindee holds a doctorate in biology, working on basic cancer biology as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow at the Center for Cancer Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She did post-graduate work at MIT as a Leukemia and Lymphoma Fellow working in neuroscience. She received her BS Honors in Biology from Caltech. She has published articles in leading scientific journals including Nature and Development.

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Neal Flomenberg, MD
Chairperson, Corporate Advisory Board and Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Flomenberg joined Tevogen as its Chief Scientific Officer in July of 2022 after a 40+ year career in academic medicine. Prior to joining Tevogen, he served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Oncology and Deputy Director of Jefferson’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. His career has focused on the care of patients with blood cancers, particularly those undergoing bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplants. His laboratory and clinical research efforts have focused on improving our understanding of the challenges these patients face and developing innovative solutions to these problems. He has authored more than 175 peer reviewed publications.

Amongst others, his most significant scientific accomplishments include:

  • The first in human administration of Interleukin-2
  • Initial descriptions of immunologic recovery after allogeneic BMT including the first description of the spectratyping technique to assess T cell receptor diversity
  • The initial reports describing the mechanisms of immunologic tolerance after mismatched human bone marrow transplantation
  • One of the earliest reports on the utility of the adoptive transfer of donor lymphocytes for control of residual/relapsed malignancy after allogeneic transplantation
  • Establishment of a reproducible platform for haploidentical transplantation which allowed T cell and stem cell dose to be consistently controlled and manipulated for therapeutic advantage

His laboratory work was focused on cellular immunology, immunogenetics, and histocompatibility. He served as the organizer/leader of the cellular section of the Tenth International Histocompatibility Workshop.

In addition to his research, Dr. Flomenberg maintained an active practice until his departure from Jefferson and was continuously listed in Philadelphia Magazine’s Top Doctors in Philadelphia and Castle Connolly’s America’s Top Doctors over the last 15 years. Under his leadership, Jefferson’s Department of Medical Oncology more than tripled in size, established a nationally recognized senior adult oncology program as well as an embedded Supportive Medicine and Survivorship Program, and has launched efforts to expand home chemotherapy administration and other cutting-edge care delivery models.

Dr. Flomenberg has been the recipient of numerous awards including:

  • The Simon Gratz Award for Research Most Likely to influence Patient Care – 2003
  • The Leukemia Lymphoma Society Contributions to Mankind Award – 2006
  • The Pennsylvania State University Outstanding Science Alumnus Award – 2006
  • He was the inaugural recipient of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018
  • Thomas Jefferson University’s Alumnus of the Year Award 2019
Bruce Cooper, MD
Corporate Advisory Board

Dr. Bruce Cooper is biopharma physician-leader and entrepreneur with decades of experience in US and Global Medical Affairs, drug/device development, reimbursement and commercialization. Bruce has demonstrated success in start-up, specialty and large Pharma across a broad range of therapeutic areas and has been particularly instrumental in developing high performing leaders and organizations with a bias for action and innovation.

Bruce is currently Managing Director of VIANZUS LLC, a consulting company. Prior to this, his distinguished career highlights include various leadership roles in medical affairs, company general management, strategic marketing, clinical development and regulatory affairs, pricing and reimbursement, business development and change management at global companies like AstraZeneca, Roche/Genentech, CorMedix, the Medicines Company, and Sanofi Aventis.

Bruce continues to use his skills and expertise advising companies who aim to bring transformative therapies to patients and is very excited about the potential for cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes to cure serious infection and other diseases like cancer.

Privately, as a resident of New York City, Bruce is a passionate supporter of the arts as a Patron of the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic and a number of Off-Broadway theaters. He also enjoys the challenge of growing tropical plants on his Manhattan terrace.

Bruce received his Medical Training and Degrees (MBChB, BHB) and post graduate training in clinical microbiology at University of Auckland Medical School in New Zealand.

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Manmohan Patel, MD
Corporate Advisory Board

Manmohan Patel, MD is a prominent pulmonary and critical care specialist with nearly 50 years of medical expertise in a diverse field of specialties, including pulmonary, internal, geriatric and emergency medicine as well as critical care. Dr. Patel’s commitment to community and medical management is demonstrated by his distinguished appointments, including serving as the Director of Post Cardiac Surgery at Saint Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, NJ and as Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus, NJ. In 2000, he was appointed by the Governor of New Jersey to the Board of Medical Examiners Executive Committee for the state and served on various other committees in that capacity.

Kendell R. Sprott, MD, JD
Corporate Advisory Board

Prior to serving six years as President and CEO of the acclaimed Matheny Medical and Educational Center, Dr. Sprott was a member of the faculty at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School for 30 years and served as Senior Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs as well as Acting Chair of the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Sprott was also Vice Chair and Director of Community Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.

Dr. Sprott also served in the Department of Pediatrics at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, NJ; Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield, NJ; and Children’s Hospital of New Jersey. He was Chair of the Governor’s Council of Children’s Service Planning from July 1989-May 1994 and was a recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Award for Excellence (2005), City News 100 Most Influential in New Jersey (1997), the Golden Apple Award for Teaching Excellence (1995) and the Child Advocacy Award from the National Black Child Development Institute (1990). He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Rutgers Community Health Foundation, Life Camp, and Advocates for Children of New Jersey.

Dr. Sprott received a B.S. degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta, his M.D. from UMDNJ New Jersey Medical School (now Rutgers) and his J.D. degree from the Rutgers School of Law in Newark, NJ.

Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD
Corporate Advisory Board

As an infectious disease epidemiologist and pediatrician, Dr. Vermund served as the Dean of the Yale School of Public Health from 2017-2022 and is now the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health. His work has focused on diseases of resource-limited settings, including HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections including human papillomavirus (HPV), tuberculosis, parasitic diseases, and the novel coronavirus. A special interest is in interventional science, especially HIV prevention clinical trials and implementation science to increase coverage and quality of services. His methodological and field research background encompasses epidemiology, clinical trials, and translational research, namely bringing efficacious clinical and public health tools to the field for assessing efficacy and scaling up in operations for HIV care and cervical cancer screening. In 2020, he pivoted his work towards COVID-19 research and intervention, working with Chinese collaborators on early insights from the December 2019-March 2020 outbreak, with Yale economists on mask use in March 2020, and on safety in schools and arts organizations.

Prior leadership roles include serving as Principal Investigator of these collaborative efforts: the Adolescent Medicine HIV/AIDS Research Network, the NIH Prevention Trials Network, U.S. HIV/AIDS programs in Zambia, Nigeria, and Mozambique (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or PEPFAR), and the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows Program. Dr. Vermund’s work in HIV-HPV interactions informed the change in the 1993 AIDS case definition from the CDC to include cervical cancer, motivating cervical cancer screening within HIV clinics worldwide. He has worked since 1981 in university settings, aside from his 1988-1994 stint as a branch chief at the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/Division of AIDS. Dr. Vermund is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, among others.

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Victor J. Sordillo PE, CSP, MBA
Corporate Advisory Board

Mr. Sordillo has over 35 years of experience providing risk engineering services to residential, commercial, and industrial accounts. He has held senior global leadership positions at two major international insurance organizations, as well as experience with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, before joining the Sompo team.

Mr. Sordillo is a Tufts University graduate where he studied structural engineering. He is a registered professional civil and fire protection engineer. In addition, he is a Certified Safety Professional.

Mr. Sordillo has been a guest speaker at many different venues including American Society of Civil Engineers, AICPA CFO’s annual meeting and the ASSP seminar program. His topics cover innovative approaches in safety and security. Recent publications include: “Preventable Risks Your Law Firm May Be Overlooking” in Law 360, the cover story, “What are the Odds” for Risk Management Insights, “Continuity Planning” for the National Safety Council and a “Supply Chain Risks” white paper.

He has held board level positions on charitable organizations such as United Way and the Red Cross and is currently on the advisory board of the fire science program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, on the Society of Fire Protection Engineers Foundation and a trustee of the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program.

Mr. Sordillo was honored by the American Society of Safety professions for 40 years of lifetime achievement in safety, National Fire Protection Association with Lifetime Membership and by UL for his efforts in promoting safety and security.

Stephen Chen, MBA
Chief Technical Officer

Stephen Chen, MBA, is the Chief Technical Officer for Tevogen Bio. He has more than 18 years of biotech industry experience. He was most recently Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technical Officer at NKGen Biotech where he led technical operations and the build out of their clinical GMP manufacturing facility. Previously, he was Senior Vice President of Quality and Technical Operations at NKGen Biotech. Before joining NKGen Biotech, Stephen was Senior Director of Quality Assurance and Quality Control at ARMO Biosciences. Prior to ARMO Biosciences, he was Director of Quality Assurance at Kite Pharma. Stephen started his career with over a decade of increasing responsibility in technical operations at Baxter BioScience. He earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry/cell biology from the University of California, San Diego.

Sadiq Khan
Chief Commercial Officer

Sadiq Khan, MBA, joins Tevogen to lead its Global Commercial organization. He brings over 30 years of commercial leadership, operations, and alliance management experience. Most recently, Sadiq served as Executive Director of Operations & Business Planning at BioCentriq where he played a key role in the creation of this CDMO specializing in cell and gene therapy manufacturing. Over the course of his career at Sanofi-Aventis and its predecessor companies, Sadiq successfully launched and managed multiple products in individual markets, regions and globally. His experience covers over 12 therapeutic areas from specialty brands to blockbuster franchise with the annual sales exceeding $1.4 billion. In addition to several country and regional commercial leadership roles in the Asia-Pacific region, he has held U.S. and global franchise leadership positions.

Sadiq holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics and physics, and an MBA cum laude from University of Illinois at Chicago. He has been a regular guest speaker on topics related to biopharmaceutical commercialization, marketing, and alliance management at the Martin Tuchman School of Management at NJIT and the School of Engineering at Columbia University.

Tommy Joyce, MBA
Government Affairs and Policy

Tommy Joyce, M.B.A., leads government affairs and investor relations for Tevogen Bio, which is seeking to introduce its promising curative T cell therapy for COVID-19 to markets as its first of many planned curative therapies using its unique technology. Previously, Joyce was the Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Global Energy Security and Multilateral Engagement, and acting DAS for Market Development and Energy Innovation at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Joyce is a national security leader with extensive interagency and international policy experience on the United States’ most pressing issues. He is skilled in the development of international coalitions to solve strategic problems, negotiation of significant bilateral and multilateral outcomes, and development and execution of international strategies. He served as Senior Advisor for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation in the National Nuclear Security Administration. Joyce’s previous public positions include service in the office of the Special Envoy for Nuclear Energy and Nonproliferation, National Security Council, the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, and U.S. House of Representatives. Joyce was also a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton in several capacities including program manager, foreign liaison, project analyst, strategic assessments author, and risk manager. Joyce has an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina, B.A. from Virginia Tech, and graduate certificates from Georgetown University and Mercyhurst College.