Who We Are

Daniel Lynch

Chairman of the Board

Dan joined our board of directors in 2012 with more than 25 years of experience serving in management positions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Dan spent nearly five years at ImClone Systems, serving as chief executive officer and chief financial officer. As CEO, Dan led ImClone through a significant turnaround, helping to restore the company’s reputation and to secure FDA approval of ERBITUX^® (Cetuximab), a novel cancer treatment. As CFO, Dan led negotiations to form the major partnership between ImClone and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Earlier in his career, Dan served in various financial positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb over a 15-year tenure.

Dan has advised and served as executive chair or member of the board of directors for a number of private biopharmaceutical companies, including Stromedix, Inc. (until its acquisition by Biogen Idec in February 2012); Avila Therapeutics, Inc. (until its acquisition by Celgene Corporation in February 2012); Nimbus Discovery, LLC; Edimer Pharmaceuticals; Ember Therapeutics, Inc. and BIND Therapeutics Inc. He currently serves on the board of directors of Blueprint Medicines, Bluebird Bio, Proclara Biosciences, Surface Oncology and Eleven Biotherapeutics, Inc. Dan received his BA in mathematics from Wesleyan University and his MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Daniella Beckman

Independent Director

Daniella Beckman joined our board of directors in 2017. Ms. Beckman has over 15 years of financial and operational experience working with private and publicly traded biotechnology companies, and currently serves as chief financial officer at Tango Therapeutics. Prior to joining Tango, Ms. Beckman provided consulting and interim chief financial officer services for early-stage biotechnology companies. With strategic and operational expertise, Ms. Beckman focuses on building financial infrastructure and leading financial functions, including strategic financial planning. Previously, Ms. Beckman was the chief financial officer of Idenix Pharmaceuticals until it was acquired by Merck in 2014. At Idenix, she oversaw finance, treasury, capital raises, investor relations and IT. Prior to the CFO role, Ms. Beckman also served as Idenix’s corporate controller. Earlier in her career, she held various finance positions at Coley Pharmaceuticals, Biogen Idec and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ms. Beckman holds a B.A. in business administration/accounting from Boston University. She is also a certified public accountant in Massachusetts.

Jean-François Formela, MD

Atlas Venture and Translate Bio Cofounder

Jean-François is a partner and cofounder and focuses on new advances in biology and drug-discovery technologies as well as novel therapeutics. He joined our board of directors in 2011. Jean-Francois is also chair of the board of IFM Therapeutics and serves on the boards of F-star, Intellia Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NTLA), Kyn Therapeutics, Spero Therapeutics. Jean-François has been involved in the formation of companies such as Adnexus (acquired by BMS), ArQule (NASDAQ: ARQL), Arteaus Therapeutics (acquired by Lilly), Cellzome (acquired by GSK), deCODE (NASDAQ: DCGN, acquired by Amgen), Exelixis (NASDAQ: EXEL), MorphoSys (Xetra: MOR.DE), NxStage (NASDAQ: NXTM, acquired by Fresenius Medical) and SGX Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SGXP, acquired by Lilly). He was also an investor in Achillion (NASDAQ: ACHN), Annovation Biopharma (acquired by The Medicines Company), CoStim Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Novartis) and Horizon Pharma (NASDAQ: HZNP) as well as a board member of Biochem Pharma (NASDAQ: BCHE, acquired by Shire) and Novexel (acquired by AstraZeneca). Jean-François joined Atlas Venture in 1993 to build the U.S. life sciences franchise. Prior to joining Atlas, Jean-François worked at Schering-Plough, where he directed U.S. Phase IV studies in all therapeutic areas. Before that, he was responsible for the marketing of Intron A, Schering-Plough’s alpha-interferon. Jean-François began his career as a medical doctor and practiced emergency medicine at Necker University Hospital in Paris. Jean-François is a member of the Massachusetts General Hospital Research Advisory Council and a former trustee of the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art. He received his MD from Paris University School of Medicine, and his MBA from Columbia University.

Owen Hughes

Independent Director

Owen Hughes currently serves as the chief executive officer at Cullinan Oncology focused on oncological drug development. Prior to Cullinan, Mr. Hughes was the chief business officer and head of corporate development at Intarcia Therapeutics. Mr Hughes also served as director at Bain Capital Public Equity, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund. There, he comanaged public and private healthcare investments, including those in the biopharmaceutical, medtech and services segments. Mr. Hughes has over 16 years of Wall Street experience on both the buy and sell sides and serves on the board of both Radius Health (Nasdaq: RDUS) and Malin PLC (ESM: MLC).

Robert Meyer, MD

Independent Director

Dr. Meyer joined our Board of Directors in January 2019. Dr. Meyer has been a principal of the drug and biological products team, at Greenleaf Health Inc., a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) strategic advising company, since January 2018. He is an associate professor of public health sciences at the University of Virginia, and he also served as the director of the Virginia Center for Translational and Regulatory Sciences from March 2013 to December 2017. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Virginia, Dr. Meyer joined Merck & Co, Inc. in October 2007 and served as vice president and head, global regulatory strategy, policy and safety at Merck Research Laboratories. Prior to Merck, Dr. Meyer worked for the FDA from 1994 to 2007. In his last 5 years at the FDA, Dr. Meyer was the director for the Office of Drug Evaluation II within the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, with responsibilities for pulmonary and allergy; metabolic and endocrine; and analgesics, anesthetics and rheumatologic drug products. Dr. Meyer received his BA in Natural Sciences, cum laude from Lehigh University, received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, where he also completed his residency in Internal Medicine and served as Chief Resident, and completed a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Vermont. Dr. Meyer also serves on the board of directors of Chimerix, Inc. and Correvio Pharma Corp. He has been a medical science trustee for the United States Pharmacopeia Board, a non-profit foundation, since April 2015.

Robert Plenge, MD, PhD

Independent Director

Dr. Plenge spent over 20 years in academic medicine before transitioning to a career in the pharmaceutical industry in 2013. He is currently vice president, research and early development and head of the Inflammation and Immunology Thematic Center of Excellence Unit at Celgene. In this role, he is responsible for the strategic vision, implementation and partnership of novel therapies for immune, inflammatory and fibrotic disorders. Prior to joining Celgene in May 2017, Dr. Plenge was vice president and head of translational medicine at Merck & Company. Prior to transitioning to the pharmaceutical industry, he was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute while practicing clinical rheumatology and running a research laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital from 2007 to 2013. Dr. Plenge completed his internal medicine residency as a Molecular Medicine Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco in 2002, served as rheumatology fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital from 2002 to 2006 and post-doctoral research fellow at the Broad Institute from 2003 to 2007. Dr. Plenge’s original research has been published in top-tier medical journals. In recognition of his accomplishments, he has received numerous awards, including: Pre-doctoral Clinical Award from The American Society of Human Genetics (1995), The Young Investigator Award from the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (2008), Career Award for Medical Scientists from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (2008), and election to The American Society for Clinical Investigation (2012). Dr. Plenge graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science from the University of California, San Diego in 1992, and received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Case Western Reserve University in 2000.

Ronald C. Renaud, Jr.

Chief Executive Officer

Ron has served as our chief executive officer since 2014. Formerly, Ron was at Idenix Pharmaceuticals (2007-2014), where he served as chief financial officer, chief business officer and finally, president and chief executive officer. Under his leadership, Idenix refocused its drug-discovery and development efforts and streamlined operations to better enable cross-functional collaboration and employee engagement, which culminated in its acquisition by Merck for $3.85 billion in August 2014. Prior to joining Idenix, Ron served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals. Before joining Keryx, Ron was a biotechnology equity research analyst at J.P. Morgan, Schwab Soundview and Bear Stearns. He also spent more than five years at Amgen, where he held positions in clinical research, investor relations and finance. Ron holds a BA from St. Anselm College and an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. In addition to serving on the Translate Bio board of directors, Ron is a board member of Ikena Oncology, Atara Biotherapeutics and Axial Biotherapeutics. Ron also serves on the Board of Overseers at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and the Board of Trustees at Saint Anselm College.

George Demetri, MD

Independent Director

Dr. Demetri is  the Senior Vice President for Experimental Therapeutics at DFCI, Director of the Sarcoma Center at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, and Co-Director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard Medical School. At Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, he leads a multidisciplinary team focused on developing novel therapeutics for solid tumors, with an emphasis on sarcomas. His research and clinical interests have centered on mechanism-based drug development for solid tumors, and he has contributed to the development of numerous approved therapies, as well as other new targeted therapeutics in development. Dr. Demetri serves as Chair of the Science Policy and Government Affairs Committee of the American Association for Cancer Research, as well as several scientific and editorial advisory boards. Dr. Demetri completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Washington Hospitals in Seattle and a fellowship in medical oncology at DFCI. He earned his medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine after receiving an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Harvard University.