Senior Management

Donald J. Elmer, Interim CEO and Chairman of the Board

Mr. Elmer is the managing general partner of Pacific Horizon Ventures. He is currently a board member of Illumigen Biosciences, iScience Interventional and Novocell. He has extensive prior board experience and has successful operational experience over a twelve-year period in early-stage technology companies, including Cascadia Technology Corporation-a medical electronics company-and Cygnet Systems Corporation-a software developer. Mr. Elmer received his M.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jean-Pierre Laurent, Ph.D., interim Chief Operating Officer

Jean-Pierre Laurent has extensive experience in applied biochemisty. He is co-founder of Rasiris, a research stage drug development company formed in 2003 and has served as its President and Chief Executive Officer. As a Principal at Pacific Horizon Ventures, Dr. Laurent is involved in both the evaluation and post-investment follow-up of the firm's biotechnology investments. Dr. Laurent earned a B.S. in biology from Université des Sciences et Techniques de Lille and a Ph.D. in Population Biology & Ecosystems at Université des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc. He first came to the U.S. to learn applied biochemistry in infectious diseases, which he practiced for seven years in both protozoan and prokaryotic systems.

David A. Krekel, Interim Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Krekel is a principal at Pacific Horizon Ventures where he has been involved in portfolio company oversight and management for several companies, including Koronis, Illumigen, ViaCyte, and iScience.  Prior to joining Pacific Horizon in 2003, Mr. Krekel worked at Virginia Mason Medical Center where he had operational responsibility for outpatient surgery groups.  Mr. Krekel received his B.S. in Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College and his M.B.A. from the University of Washington.

Mark G. Fromhold, Ph.D., Vice President of Manufacturing & Process Development

Dr. Fromhold joined Koronis from ICOS Corporation where he served as senior CMC project manager for small molecule manufacturing. In this capacity, he headed multidisciplinary teams of scientist and technical professionals responsible for development and delivery of drug substance and drug product supporting pre-clinical/clinical investigations and associated regulatory filings. In addition, Dr. Fromhold also headed strategic sourcing and external GMP manufacturing while at ICOS and has direct experience managing manufacturing operations in the US, EU, Canada, Japan and China. Prior to ICOS, Dr. Fromhold worked as a research scientist for Chiron Corporation, where he led CMC teams and headed process development and scale-up of numerous drug candidate molecules ranging from reverse transcriptase and kinase inhibitors to antibacterials. Dr. Fromhold received his Ph.D. (synthetic organic chemistry) and M.S. (inorganic chemistry) from Indiana University and a B.S. (chemistry) from Hope College.

Jeff S. Parkins, Vice President of Clinical Development & Regulatory

Mr. Parkins has over 20 years experience in pharmaceutical drug and biologics development. Prior to working with Koronis he directed clinical, manufacturing, quality and project management functions at NeoRx Corporation, and served on their executive staff. Mr. Parkins received his B.S. in microbiology from Oregon State University and an M.B.A. from Seattle Pacific University.

Kevin S. Harris, Ph.D., Director of Virology

Dr. Harris joined Koronis from Abbott Laboratories, where he was employed as a senior molecular biologist. In his capacity at Koronis, Dr. Harris initiated a cell culture based screen for identifying and characterizing new anti-HIV compounds. Over the past 15 years he has presented in conferences around the world, has authored numerous publications and is a member of the American Society of Virology. Dr. Harris received his Ph.D. from SUNY Stony Brook in 1994 and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA.