LEADERSHIP TEAM
LOUIS BRETON, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Mr. Breton is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Calimmune, Inc. Prior to Calimmune, Mr. Breton co-founded CellzDirect, a primary hepatic cell and specialty service biotech firm that was acquired by Life Technologies in 2008. Mr. Breton was a founding member of Integrated Commercialization Solutions, a subsidiary of Bergen Brunswig (now Amerisource Bergen). In his previous consulting career, he provided commercialization support to Fortune 500 corporations as well as innovative start-ups. He is a past board member of the Arizona Governor's Bioindustry Cluster. He is also a past board member of the University of Arizona Steele Children's Research Center, a 501(c)3 organization that researches causes and develops cures for childhood diseases.
GEOFF SYMONDS, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Symonds began his career in academic research with an undergraduate and Master's degree from the University of Sydney; he later obtained his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute, and conducted his Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCSF with Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus. As an academician, he managed a successful research group at the Children's Medical Research Institute in Sydney from 1985 to 1992. While in this position, Dr. Symonds was awarded two prestigious Senior and Principal Research Fellowships through the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. In 1992, he joined Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Research in Sydney to lead their HIV and cancer programs and went on to drive their HIV gene therapy R&D program through pre-clinical development to two Phase I and one Phase II clinical trials. He received the esteemed Philip B. Hoffman Research Scientist Award for Outstanding Achievement in the field of Research and Development for this work. Dr. Symonds has been with Calimmune since early 2009 and heads research and development. He has published over 100 research papers and holds several key patents in the area of HIV gene therapy.
BHAVIN RAVAL, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Raval obtained a Master's in Finance and Chartered Accountancy from India in 1989. His most recent positions include Finance Director of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Research Australia and Financial Controller for Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute Australia. At J&J, he was appointed to the Board of Directors where he provided commercial knowledge and expertise in compliance and governance as well as strategic consulting. Mr. Raval has successfully led the implementation of projects such as Sarbanes Oxley, AIFRS, and various systems upgrades, where he enhanced control mechanisms and ensured compliance with international financial reporting standards (IFRS). He holds several accounting certifications both within the U.S. and in Australia which include, CPA (Australia), CSA (Australia), CIA (USA) and CISA (USA).
JOHN DALLAIRE, Vice President of Information Technology
Mr. Dallaire is Vice President of Information Technology at Calimmune, Inc. and joined the company in 2010. He is responsible for the IT strategy, operations, and development of the global communication structure for the company. Mr. Dallaire also oversees all aspects of information security across the global reach of the company. Prior to joining Calimmune, Mr. Dallaire was manager of Information Technology at CellzDirect from 2001, where he was responsible for global systems development for production/service logistics, inventory/supply chain and QA/QC control systems. He also assisted in the IT project management and planning for migration and integration support following the acquisition by Life Technologies in 2008.