John H. Johnson has served as the Chairman of our board of directors since November 2010. Mr. Johnson is the president and chief executive officer of Dendreon Corporation, or Dendreon (NASDAQ: DNDN), a position he has held since February 2012. Mr. Johnson has served as a member of Dendreon's board of directors since August 2011. Prior to joining Dendreon, Mr. Johnson was the chief executive officer of Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he has also served as a member of its board of directors since January 2011. Before joining Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Mr. Johnson served as president of Eli Lilly & Company's Oncology Unit, following the company's 2008 acquisition of Imclone Systems, Inc., where he served as chief executive officer. Prior to joining Imclone, he served as the Company Group Chairman of Biopharmaceuticals within Johnson & Johnson, where he was responsible for the Johnson & Johnson Biotechnology, Immunology and Oncology commercial businesses. Prior to assuming that role, Mr. Johnson held several executive positions at Johnson & Johnson, Parkstone Medical Information Systems, Inc., Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Corp., as well as positions at Pfizer, Inc. Mr. Johnson received his bachelor's degree from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania. He is currently a member of the board of directors for Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Cempra Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
George B. Abercrombie joined Tranzyme's Board of Directors in September, 2011. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. from 2001-2009 where he was responsible for leading the North American Pharmaceuticals Operations. He also served as a member of the Roche Pharmaceutical Executive Committee, which was responsible for developing and implementing global strategy for the Pharmaceuticals Division. Before joining Roche, Mr. Abercrombie was Senior Vice President of U.S. commercial operations at Glaxo Wellcome. He joined Glaxo as Vice President and General Manager of the Glaxo Pharmaceuticals Division in 1993 following 10 years at Merck, where he held a broad range of positions in sales, marketing, executive sales management and business development. Mr. Abercrombie currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Brickell Biotech, and was a Director on the Boards of Inspire Pharmaceuticals (recently acquired by Merck) and Ziopharm Oncology. Mr. Abercrombie received a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and earned an M.B.A. from Harvard University.
Jean-Paul Castaigne, M.D. has served as one of our directors since June 2004. Dr. Castaigne is President and CEO of Angiochem Inc., or Angiochem, a position he has held since September 2006. Angiochem leverages its EPiC platform technology to create drugs that cross the blood brain barrier to treat brain diseases. In this capacity, he has advanced multiple clinical and preclinical drug candidates and leads the company's financing and partnering activities. Prior to joining Angiochem, he was COO and CSO of Conjuchem Inc. (TSX: CJB), or Conjuchem, a Montreal-based drug delivery company. Prior to joining Conjuchem in 2000, he was Vice President, World Wide Head of Global R&D at Groupe Fournier SA in France. Before that, he was with Novartis for over 10 years in a variety of international positions, including President and Managing Director for Sandoz Philippines and Director of Medical and R&D for Sandoz in France and as Corporate Vice-President, R&D, Medical and Regulatory in Canada, where he oversaw significant growth in the R & D operation. Earlier in his career, Dr. Castaigne worked for Cilag France (Johnson & Johnson) and Sanofi-Aventis in clinical and regulatory management. He received his M.D. from Paris University in 1975, held the position of Associate Professor of Oncology, Pneumology there in 1978, and received his advanced diploma in Management and Business Administration in 1987 from HEC Paris. We believe Dr. Castaigne's experience working in various pharmaceutical companies as well as his extensive knowledge of all aspects of our preclinical and clinical development plans make him a crucial member of our board of directors.
Anne M. VanLent has served as one of our directors since March 2011. Ms. VanLent is currently the President of AMV Advisors, a company which she founded in 2008 to provide corporate strategy and financial consulting services to emerging growth life sciences companies. From May 2002 through April 2008, Ms. VanLent was the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Barrier Therapeutics, Inc., a company that develops and markets prescription dermatology products that was publicly-traded before being acquired by Stiefel Laboratories in June 2008. From July 1997 to October 2001, she was the Executive Vice PresidentPortfolio Management for Sarnoff Corporation, a multidisciplinary research and development firm. From 1985 to 1993, she served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Liposome Company, Inc., a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company. Ms. VanLent also currently serves as a director of and chair of the audit committee of Integra Life Sciences Holding Corporation (NasdaqGS: IART). She also served as a director of Penwest Pharmaceuticals, a NASDAQ-listed company from 1997 through its sale to Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in the fall of 2010. Ms. VanLent received a B.A. degree in Physics from Mount Holyoke College. Ms. VanLent brings significant management experience in both public and private life sciences companies as well as expertise in financial and accounting matters that will enable her to serve as our audit committee financial expert.
Alex Zisson has served as one of our directors since May 2005. Since 2002, Mr. Zisson has been a Partner at Thomas, McNerney & Partners, a prominent health care venture capital firm that invests in life science and medical technology companies at all stages of development. He is currently a board member of several private life sciences companies, including Clarus Therapeutics, Inc, and Celator Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Before joining Thomas, McNerney & Partners, he spent 11 years in the research department at Hambrecht & Quist (and its successor firms Chase H&Q and JPMorgan H&Q). During his tenure at H&Q, Mr. Zisson led research teams covering the biotechnology, specialty pharmaceuticals, large-cap pharmaceuticals, drug delivery and diagnostics industries. After the merger of Chase H&Q and JPMorgan, Mr. Zisson also became the firm's Health Care Strategist. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Mr. Zisson serves on the board of directors of numerous life sciences companies, has extensive knowledge of the health care and biopharmaceutical industries and has been instrumental in our development since joining our board in 2005.


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