Management Team

Laura K. Shawver, Ph.D. has served as our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors since June 2002. In addition, she served as our President until October 2007. Prior to joining us, Dr. Shawver was the President of SUGEN, Inc. from October 2000 to May 2002, after holding various positions there since June 1992. SUGEN, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule drugs which target specific cellular signal transduction pathways, was acquired by Pharmacia Corporation in 1999. Prior to her employment at SUGEN, Inc., Dr. Shawver was employed at Berlex Biosciences, formerly known as Triton Biosciences, from August 1989 to June 1992. She is co-founder of The Clearity Foundation, a non-profit organization which seeks to improve treatment options for women with ovarian cancer. Dr. Shawver received a Ph.D. degree in Pharmacology and a B.S. degree in Microbiology, both from the University of Iowa.[CLOSE BIO]

Christopher Aker, J.D. has served as our Corporate Counsel and Senior Director of Administration since January 2009. Mr. Aker joined Phenomix as its Corporate Counsel and Director of Administration in October of 2005. Prior to joining Phenomix, Mr. Aker was employed by SUGEN, Inc. most recently serving as its Senior Corporate Counsel. In that capacity, Mr. Aker was responsible for SUGEN’s corporate contractual group, oversight of operational legal issues, and interfacing on similar issues with its parent companies Pharmacia and later, Pfizer. Before joining SUGEN in June of 2001, Mr. Aker was employed by various law firms in the San Francisco Bay Area where he practiced civil litigation and transactional law. Mr. Aker received his J.D. from Santa Clara University in 1986 and a BA degree in International Relations from the University of California, Davis in 1983. [CLOSE BIO]

Brian Baker, C.P.A. has served as our Vice President of Finance since September 2007. Mr. Baker joined Phenomix in April 2006 as Director of Finance. From February 2006 to March 2006, Mr. Baker served as the Corporate Controller at Sequenom, a company that manufactures genetic analysis products. Mr. Baker was with Cengent Therapeutics, a biotechnology company, from April 2000 to January 2006, where he was Corporate Controller and held other senior finance positions. Between September 1996 to April 2000, Mr. Baker was a Senior Audit Staff Member at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Baker maintains an active license to practice as a Certified Public Accountant in California with a B.S. degree in accounting and a M.S. degree in information systems, both from San Diego State University.. [CLOSE BIO]

Angela Birchler, Ph.D. has served as our Vice President, CMC since April 2008. Prior to joining Phenomix, Dr. Birchler served as Vice President, Manufacturing for Kanisa Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company which she joined in January 2006. Before that, Dr. Birchler held positions with increasing responsibilities in pharmaceutical development and commercial manufacturing at Pfizer from 2001 to 2005, Warner-Lambert from 1998 to 2001 and Agouron Pharmaceuticals from 1995 to 1998. Dr. Birchler received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Emory University. [CLOSE BIO]

Hans-Peter Guler, M.D. has served as our Chief Medical Officer since January 2009. From August 2004 to December 2008 he served as our Vice President, Clinical Development. Prior to joining Phenomix, Dr. Guler served as Vice President, Clinical Sciences of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company which he joined in April 1998. Before that, Dr. Guler held positions with increasing responsibilities in various therapeutic indications in clinical development at Chiron Corp. from 1994 to 1998 and at Ciba-Geigy from 1989 to 1994. Dr. Guler received an M.D. degree from the University of Zurich. [CLOSE BIO]

Marie O’Farrell, Ph.D., has served as our Vice President, Development, since January of 2010. Dr. O’Farrell joined Phenomix in January 2005 as Director, Discovery Biology & Translational Medicine. Prior to joining Phenomix, Dr. O’Farrell served as Group Leader at SUGEN, Inc., leading target validation and modulation efforts in oncology which assisted in the design of early proof-of-concept trials for Sutent™. Prior to joining SUGEN in 2000, Dr. O’Farrell was employed at Systemix, Inc. from 1998 to 2000, with a focus on functional genomics and gene therapy using stem cells, and at the DNAX Research Institute from 1993 to 1998, with a focus on cytokine signal transduction. Dr. O’Farrell received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1993 from the University of Manchester, UK, and her B.Sc. in Biochemistry in 1989 from the University of Cork, Ireland. [CLOSE BIO]