Aastrom has brought together a group of highly skilled individuals from different areas of the industry creating a strong management team that is prepared to lead the Company through the clinical development stage and into the commercial marketplace. The Board of Directors is comprised of individuals with broad experience at both large public and private biotech and pharmaceutical companies, making them excellent representatives for Aastrom's shareholders and key advisors for the Company.
Management Team
Timothy M. Mayleben Chief Executive Officer, President, and Director
Mr. Mayleben joined Aastrom as a member of the company's board of directors in June 2005. Previously he was an advisor to life science and healthcare companies through his advisory and investment firm, ElMa Advisors. He has also been president, chief operating officer and a director of NightHawk Radiology Holdings, Inc. Mr. Mayleben also served as chief operating officer of Esperion Therapeutics, where he led the raising of more than $200 million in venture capital and institutional equity funding and later negotiated the acquisition of Esperion by Pfizer in December 2003. Mr. Mayleben is on the advisory board of the Wolverine Venture Fund and serves as a director for several private life science companies. He holds an MBA with distinction from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA in business administration from the University of Michigan Ross Business School.
Ronnda L. Bartel, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, joined Aastrom in 2006 and is responsible for research, development and manufacturing and engineering operations. Dr. Bartel has more than 20 years of research and product development experience and most recently was Executive Director, Biological Research at MicroIslet and Vice president, Scientific Development at StemCells Inc. Earlier in her career, she was Senior Principal Scientist, Cell Biology at Advanced Tissue Sciences and was involved in the development and approval of some of the first cell based products approved by the FDA. She has also worked as Senior Director, Science and Technology at SRS Capital, LLC evaluating life science investments and has also held positions in clinical development, drug delivery, business development and manufacturing. Dr. Bartel holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Kansas, completed postdoctoral work at the University of Michigan and received a B.A. in Chemistry and Biology from Tabor College.
Scott Durbin Chief Financial Officer
Scott Durbin brings more than 15 years of healthcare-related banking, financial and corporate development experience to Aastrom. Formerly he was the chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Prescient Medical, Inc., which develops diagnostic and therapeutic catheter-based medical devices for the treatment of severe coronary artery disease. While at Prescient, Mr. Durbin raised more than $60 million in private equity financing and helped advance the company through early-stage research, development and regulatory approval. Previously he served as a finance and corporate development consultant for Scios, Inc. (a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary) and Alteon, Inc. Prior to this consulting work, he was an investment banker with Lehman Brothers, Inc. where he completed more than $5 billion in financings and M&A transactions for life science companies. Mr. Durbin earned an MPH in health management from the Yale University School of Medicine & School of Management and a BS from the University of Michigan.
Sheldon A. Schaffer, Ph.D. Vice President, Corporate Development
Dr. Schaffer joined Aastrom in 2006 and is responsible for corporate and business development and intellectual property. He has more than 30 years of experience in life sciences and most recently was a business development consultant to a range of life science companies. Previously, Dr. Schaffer served as president and CEO of Inveresk Research, N.A., vice president of pharmaceutical development at DepoTech, and vice president of business development at Cholestech. Earlier in his career, Dr. Schaffer served as director and researcher at Ciba-Geigy and Lederle Laboratories. Dr. Schaffer has also been a postdoctoral and teaching fellow at Harvard Medical School, holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois and a BS in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Sharon Watling, PharmD Vice President, Clinical and Regulatory
Sharon Watling joined Aastrom in February 2010 and is responsible for clinical development, clinical operations and regulatory affairs. Dr. Watling has over 12 years of experience in clinical development, with an emphasis on translational and early stage development, as well as development of clinical strategies. Her industry career started in late stage development within Warner-Lambert/Parke Davis and evolved while at Pfizer to include an early clinical leadership role in cardiovascular-metabolic diseases. Following Pfizer, she was Site Leader and Senior Director, Clinical Development at Metabasis, Inc. Most recently, she served as the Research and Development Strategy Leader at Cognigen Corporation, working with multiple companies to incorporate modeling and simulation practices into their development strategies. Prior to industry, she was an intensive care unit clinical specialist at various academic institutions. Dr. Watling received a Doctor of Pharmacy Degree from the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy.
