Our team is built with experts in the fields of gene therapy, manufacturing and drug development. Our driven and compassionate team comes to work each day to make progress towards our goal of delivering cures to patients living with devastating diseases.
Dr. Alexandria Forbes has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors since March 2015. Prior to joining MeiraGTx, Dr. Forbes served as Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at Kadmon Holdings, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from September 2013 to April 2015. Prior to Kadmon Holdings, Inc., Dr. Forbes spent eleven years as a healthcare investor at Sivik Global Healthcare, a healthcare hedge fund, from September 2000 to November 2008, and at Meadowvale Asset Management, a healthcare hedge fund, from January 2010 to June 2012. Before entering the hedge fund industry, Dr. Forbes was a Human Frontiers/Howard Hughes postdoctoral fellow at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center from March 1997 to September 2000. Prior to this, Dr. Forbes was a research fellow at Duke University, and also at the Carnegie Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Forbes received an M.A. in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Oxford University.
Richard Giroux has served as our Chief Operating Officer since March 2015 and as Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer since April 2019. Mr. Giroux joined MeiraGTx from Sarissa Capital Management LP, an activist healthcare hedge fund, where he was a partner from March 2014 to March 2015. Prior to Sarissa Capital Management LP, Mr. Giroux was a founding partner and healthcare portfolio manager of Meadowvale Partners, a multi-strategy hedge fund, from January 2010 until June 2012. Prior to Meadowvale Partners, he was a partner at Sivik Global Healthcare (formerly Argus Partners), a healthcare hedge fund, from August 2001 to November 2008. Prior to that, he worked at investment banks Salomon Smith Barney and Goldman Sachs. Mr. Giroux received a B.A. in Economics from Yale University.
Dr. Stuart Naylor has served as our Chief Development Officer since April 2015. From April 2015 to April 2016, Dr. Naylor was Chief Executive Officer of Athena Vision, a biotechnology company. From June 2013 to April 2015, Dr. Naylor served as managing director of Coltivare Ltd., a healthcare consulting company. From 2008 to 2013, Dr. Naylor was Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of Oxford BioMedica plc, a gene therapy company. Prior to joining Oxford BioMedica, Dr. Naylor focused on translational cancer research at the Institute of Cancer Research. Dr. Naylor has a B.S.C. in microbiology and virology from the University of Warwick, a M.S. in Immunology from Kings College London, and a Ph.D. from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund laboratory studying ovarian cancer and cytokine biology.
Dr. Robert Zeldin has served as Chief Medical Officer of MeiraGTx since August 2020. A clinical immunologist by training, Dr. Zeldin brings over two decades of clinical, regulatory, and industry experience to MeiraGTx. Previously, Dr. Zeldin was CMO of Acceleron Pharma where he was instrumental in the preparation of the biologics license application for luspatercept which has been approved in the U.S. and Europe for the treatment of anemia associated with myelodysplastic syndromes and anemia associated with beta thalassemia, as well as CMO of Immunovant. Prior to Acceleron, he was CMO of Belgium-based Ablynx NV, where he directed the Phase 3 development program and regulatory filings of caplacizumab, which has been approved for the treatment of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura in the U.S. and Europe. Dr. Zeldin also served as Senior Vice President and Head of Global Clinical Development at Stallergenes SA and Vice President and U.S. Medical Franchise Head – Respiratory and Dermatology at Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Earlier in his career, Dr. Zeldin spent seven years at Merck in increasingly strategic roles in worldwide regulatory affairs and clinical development. Prior to his work in industry, Dr. Zeldin served as a Medical Officer at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. He also spent several years in clinical practice.
Dr. Zeldin holds a B.A. with honors from the Johns Hopkins University and a M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine. His postdoctoral training included Residency in Internal Medicine at the University Health Center of Pittsburgh and Fellowship in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Robert Wollin joined MeiraGTx in August 2019 and serves as General Counsel and Secretary. Prior to joining MeiraGTx, Mr. Wollin was Director, Associate General Counsel at Investment Technology Group, Inc. (NYSE: ITG), a global financial technology company. Prior to ITG, he was Senior Corporate Counsel in the Corporate Governance and Securities Group at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY). Mr. Wollin began his legal career at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP in New York, where he practiced for nearly a decade as a corporate attorney advising senior management, boards of directors and business clients on a wide range of matters affecting public and private companies. He received a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Alastair joined MeiraGTx as SVP Manufacturing and Supply Chain in July 2019. Dr. Leighton joined the company following 7 years at GSK where he was general manager of two of their larger manufacturing sites supplying a wide range API and drug products to more than 130 global markets with responsibility for GSK’s flagship global launch site for new sterile and biopharmaceutical drug products in the US, EU and Japan. Prior to GSK, Alastair worked for 12 years in Vaccines Manufacturing and Supply Operations with increasing levels of seniority at both Novartis Vaccines and Crucell (a Janssen Company) and spent his early career in Pharmaceutical and other regulated process industries at GSK, British Nuclear Fuels and EA Technology. Alastair holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and BSc in Physics.
Christine Sheehy is SVP Global Integration of MeiraGTx. Ms. Sheehy is a pharmaceutical business leader with over 25 years of experience in designing and executing operational, financial and organizational infrastructure. Most recently, Ms. Sheehy was SVP of Operations for Kadmon Pharmaceuticals leading the global supply chain, distribution, and IT organizations. Ms. Sheehy was a founding member of start-up pharmaceutical company, Three Rivers Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Kadmon in 2010. During that time, she launched branded and generic products in the U.S. leading the operational business. Globally, she executed international supply and distribution partnerships in Europe and Asia. Prior to Three Rivers Pharmaceuticals, Ms. Sheehy was in a business consulting/finance role for Schneider Downs, specializing in finance and technology in various industries. She also held various finance management roles for Ametek, Inc. Ms. Sheehy was on the board of directors of GPhA from 2006-2008 and also served on various Oracle organizations, Oracle Leaders’ circle- 2010 and 2014, Oracle Women’s Leadership (OWL) program – 2014 and the Oracle Customer Advisory Board.
Tim Randall has served as our SVP of Risk and Internal Controls since April 2019, with responsibility for various corporate programs, including financial reporting compliance, information technology, data privacy, cyber security, internal audit, and operational resilience. Mr. Randall began his career in public accounting, and then spent 20 years at Sony Corporation in management roles that encompassed business risk management, business process optimization, enterprise-wide technology, information security, corporate controls and compliance, and internal audit. Mr. Randall received a B.A. in Mathematics from Oxford University.
Prof. Michel Michaelides (BSc MB BS MD(Res) FRCOphth FACS) is a Founding Member of MeiraGTx and Head of Clinical Ophthalmology. He is a Professor of Ophthalmology at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology in the Department of Genetics and Molecular Therapy. He is a Consultant Ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital (MEH) in the Departments of Inherited Eye Disease, Medical Retina, and Paediatric Ophthalmology. He was awarded a Medical Retina and Genetics clinical fellowship at MEH (2008-2009) and a combined Ophthalmic Genetics and Paediatric Ophthalmology Clinical & Research fellowship at Casey Eye Institute, USA (2009-2010).
He is a recipient of a career development award from the Foundation Fighting Blindness (USA) – an award which is rarely given to non-US applicants; and has gained membership of the highly prestigious Macula Society and Retina Society in the USA. He is the International investigator on the Foundation Fighting Blindness Executive Committee – the largest global private funder of research into inherited retinal disease and dry age-related macular degeneration.
He has made notable contributions to the literature and improved understanding and treatment of both inherited and acquired retinal diseases, with over 450 peer-reviewed publications, an H-index of 75, and over 20,500 citations. He is currently the Principal Investigator of 5 active interventional clinical trials and has 10 on-going ethically approved studies, including in-house natural history studies and multi-center international natural history studies.
Tassos Georgiadis, Ph.D, has serves as our Vice President of Preclinical Development. Dr Georgiadis has been researching virus-mediated gene therapy for over 18 years, specialising on AAV gene therapy vector design and neurodegeneration. Prior to joining MeiraGTx, Dr Georgiadis worked at the UCL Institute of Child Health and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology where he focused on ocular disorders and regulation of gene expression. Dr Georgiadis currently sits on the UK Health Research Authority Research Ethics Committee as an Expert Member. He also served as an elected member on the Board of the British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy as well as a Scientific Consultant for Athena Vision, a biotechnology company. Dr Georgiadis has a BSc in Genetics from Queen Mary & Westfield College, a MSc in Human Molecular Genetics from Imperial College University and a PhD in Molecular Genetics from University College London.