Our Team

Chuck has over 25 years of experience in new drug development, technology transfer and manufacturing. Most recently, he held the position of Group Vice President - Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients for Pharmacia. Responsibilities included executive management of all chemical and biopharmaceutical bulk active ingredient plants as well as pilot development facilities and all process development functions. Prior experiences included executive management of preclinical development functions including analytical development, pharmaceutical development, drug metabolism, and drug safety at The Upjohn Company. Over the years, he has been involved in the development of over a hundred drug and product candidates working on the discovery-development interface and the development-manufacturing interface.

Chuck received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Hope College and his Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry from Indiana University.

Phil's career spans 34 years in the pharmaceutical industry, primarily in the area of corporate affairs and public relations, that includes government relations, media relations, policy analysis, company communications and community relations programs on a global basis. His most recent position before joining the Apjohn Group in 2004 was as Vice President, Public Affairs and Kalamazoo Site Executive at Pfizer. 

During his career, Phil has held a number of board positions with industry and professional associations in Europe and the U.S., including the National Association of Manufacturers, the Public Affairs Council and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation's Life Sciences Steering Committee. He is currently a managing director for the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center.

Dan has worked in both the pharmaceutical and medical device industries for large and small corporations for over 24 years. He began his career in sales at Eli Lilly and Company before holding positions of increased responsibility in marketing and managed care. Dan joined Diversified Pharmaceutical Services (a pharmacy benefit manager) as Senior Director of a new product development division focusing on formulary and patient compliance. Dan also led the business development and reimbursement areas for Equidyne, Inc and Upsher-Smith Laboratories before founding Strategic Pharmaceutical Solutions, Inc., which specializes in helping small companies buy or sell technology and develop reimbursement strategies.

Dan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from Drake University.

Holly has 30 years of financial experience in the pharmaceutical industry, in both large pharmaceutical and small biotech settings. Holly began her career in the public accounting sector with Peat, Marwick & Mitchell Certified Public Accountants. She spent 25 years in various financial positions within Upjohn and Pharmacia, focusing the last 17 years on business development and portfolio management activities. During this period she developed financial structures and negotiated financial terms of more than one hundred business development agreements, and provided financial oversight to the prioritization and integration of the Upjohn, Pharmacia, and Searle R&D development pipelines.

In 2003 Holly became the Chief Financial Officer of Afmedica, Inc., a biotech start-up cofounded by the Apjohn Group, which was subsequently purchased by Angiotech Pharmaceuticals. Holly currently provides financial consulting services to numerous young pharmaceutical companies in the midwest and east coast regions and sits on the board of directors of three biotechnology companies.

Jim has over 30 years of pharmaceutical experience with increasing responsibility in marketing research, new products planning, strategic planning and public relations at Pharmacia Corporation and its predecessor companies Pharmacia & Upjohn and The Upjohn Company. Prior to retiring from Pharmacia he was Director of Community Relations and Contributions. Jim was also on the faculty at Western Michigan University as an Adjunct Professor of Marketing.

Jim received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Memphis and a MBA in marketing from Indiana University. He has been on numerous boards and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees for Bronson Healthcare Group.

Charles has more than 30 years of experience in all phases of drug discovery, development and registration at Pharmacia Corporation and its predecessor companies Pharmacia & Upjohn and The Upjohn Company.  During his career at these companies he held management positions of increasing responsibility in drug discovery and development. Most recently he served as Vice President, Product Development for CNS and Infectious Disease products with accountability for the worldwide development and registration of products in these therapeutic areas. He led the multidisciplinary team that was accountable for the successful worldwide registration of Zyvox (linezolid), the first truly novel antibiotic in over 30 years.

Charles received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from The University of the South in Sewanee, TN and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Minnesota. He was a Public Health Service Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute für Organische Chemie in Munich, Germany.

Bill has over 30 years experience in life sciences patents, contracts, licensing, and scientific evaluations as an independent consultant and at Pharmacia and its predecessor companies. Bill is a Patent Agent registered to practice before the US Patent Office. In 2003 he formed WEH LLC, whose services to clients include intellectual property (IP) portfolio management, patentability and project viability assessments, facilitating understanding of patent matters, contract drafting, and the like.  He advised an Apjohn Group portfolio company on its IP portfolio for nearly two years until it was sold in 2005; in that capacity he proactively identified events with potentially serious patent consequences, and facilitated the acquirer's understanding of the detailed state of the IP portfolio. At Pharmacia he participated in the CNS Discovery Leadership Team, and co-led a multidisciplinary CNS team with responsibility for identifying and evaluating suitable opportunities with the goal of in-licensing the most promising candidates to augment the development pipeline.

Bill holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Case Western Reserve University and an A.B. degree from Princeton University.

Jack is currently Executive Director of the Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center where he works with entrepreneurs and University Technology Transfer Offices to foster commercialization of technological innovations. Prior to this position, Jack served as Vice President for Research at Western Michigan University and prior to that  he was Vice President for U.S. Medical Affairs at Pharmacia.  Jack has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 17 years, having held a series of senior executive positions resulting in a worldwide experience in all phases of pharmaceutical product development. He has supervised more than 300 clinical trials across numerous therapeutics areas. He has global regulatory experience encompassing numerous IND and NDA filings. Jack’s experience in the senior management level of a large multi-national pharmaceutical company has provided him broad experience in the evaluation of new technologies, evaluation and development of new business opportunities, strategic/corporate planning, financial management, and personnel management.

Jack received his medical degree from Northwestern University. He also holds a Masters Degree in Chemistry and is Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology. He has held academic appointments in the Departments of Medicine and Pharmacology at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and the clinical faculty at Michigan State University College of Medicine.

John is a senior consultant with PharMac LLC. He began his career as a medicinal chemist with Upjohn and has subsequently held positions with Pharmacia and Upjohn and with Pharmacia before joining Pfizer. John was global head of chemistry for both Pharmacia and Pharmacia & Upjohn. Prior to this, he was head of Upjohn's CNS unit. John is currently chairing a NINDS development team, serving on eight scientific advisory boards, consulting, and participating as a NIH study section member in addition to his responsibilities with Apjohn. John holds 53 US patents and has over 60-refereed publications.

Prior to founding the Apjohn Group, Don was a Senior Vice President at Pharmacia. At Pharmacia, Don's responsibilities included all of the Associated Businesses (Animal Health, Diagnostics, Pharmaceutical Commercial Services and Plasma Products.) Additionally, Don oversaw the company's investments in Amersham Pharmacia Biotech and Biacore International AB. Don also had overall Site Management responsibilities for the company's operations in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Don received his BA degree in economics from the University of Arizona in 1975 and his M.B.A. degree in finance from the University of Michigan in 1977. Don is a trustee of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, trustee and the past Chairman of the Board of Bronson Healthcare Group and Chair of the Board of the Kalamazoo College Board of Trustees. In addition, Don serves as a Board Member of Southwest Michigan First, MPI Research and Kelly Services, Inc (KELYA).

Sheri’s responsibilities at the Apjohn Group include overseeing the evaluation and diligence processes associated with review of early stage life science opportunities.  She has 27 years of multidisciplinary experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including the areas of quality assurance, pharmacovigilance, regulatory affairs and project management.  Most recently, Sheri managed the worldwide development of new chemical entities and product line extensions, assuring that their successful development and registration aligned with corporate strategies and agreed timelines.   She also led multiple-disciplinary teams that performed due diligence evaluations of in-licensing candidates.

Sheri holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from the University of Nebraska.

Pete is a pharmaceutical industry consultant. He recently was President of the Health Care Group at Kaleidoscope Television, a cable channel and health care information company devoted to health, wellness and ability programming and information. Pete’s 30-year business career with Pharmacia & Upjohn began soon after his discharge as First Lieutenant from the U.S. Army Medical Service Crops following completion of a tour of duty in Vietnam. Pete joined The Upjohn Company as a pharmaceutical salesman and progressed through sales and sales management positions. He has held positions as Executive Director of Domestic Pharmaceutical Marketing and Vice President of Pharmaceutical Marketing Operations.  He was appointed a Corporate Officer and Vice President of Worldwide Pharmaceutical Marketing in January 1989 and in June of 1992 was appointed Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Strategic Marketing.

Pete joined the Board of Directors of the National Pharmaceutical Council in 1987 and served as Chairman in 1993.  In addition, he serves on the University of Arizona Pharmacy School National Advisory Board, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Advisory Board, the Board of Directors of Barr Laboratories, as well as the Board of Nelson Information Systems. He is a member of the Board of Fellows of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.

Pete is a graduate of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, with a BA Degree in Biology.

Ron has over 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, he served as the VP of Pre-Clinical Research for Afmedica, Inc, a biotech start-up that developed a drug-eluting (sirolimus) polymer product which was placed around surgical graft sites to prevent hemodialysis access and peripheral vascular graft failure. Afmedica was acquired by Angiotech Pharmaceuticals.

Currently, Ron is CSO and VP of Research for MedElute, Inc., which is developing a polymer-based product from which anti-fibrin drugs are eluted locally to prevent post-surgical adhesions. Ron is also the President & CEO of MuciMed which is developing novel mucin-based protein therapeutics for treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and mucositis.

While serving as Director of Cardiovascular Therapeutics at Pharmacia & Upjohn (1990-198) he managed the team responsible for FDA approval of the Class III anti-arrhythmic agent, Corvert ®.  Prior to that, Ron was a Senior Scientist responsible for leading cardiovascular drug discovery teams at Merck Research Laboratories and at Smith Kline & French. His primary field of research has focused on platelet and coagulation activation in thrombosis and the development of effective new therapies. At Merck, Ron led the in vivo discovery and development effort which culminated in the identification and eventual FDA approval of the anti-platelet GPIIb/IIIa antagonist, Aggrastat ®. He also led development teams in identification of novel factor Xa and P-selectin antagonists at Merck and Pharmacia & Upjohn, respectively.

Dr. Shebuski is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Full Professor of Integrative Biology & Physiology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He received his B.S. Degree in Microbiology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison (1976) and Ph.D. Degree in Pharmacology from the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis (1985).

For the past 15 years Joe has been involved in entrepreneurial activities with startup companies as a founder, board member, executive and consultant. In that time period, Joe served as CEO of Rubicon Genomics, President & COO of Biopure and Executive VP and COO of Chugai-Upjohn. Coupled with his startup background is his 25 year career at the Upjohn Company, a large pharmaceutical corporation, where he had responsibilities in R & D and general management, covering all major aspects of the pharmaceutical business from compound discovery, clinical development to product launch. His passion is the identification and conversion of world-class innovations and discoveries to commercial reality.

Joe received an A. B. in chemistry from Drew University and an M.D. from Georgetown. Post M.D. residencies were served at Tulane and NIH. He is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology and has held faculty appointments as Visiting Professor of Pathology at Dartmouth Medical School and as Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University School of Medicine.

Mina brings with her over a decade of pharmaceutical and healthcare experiences as an entrepreneur, strategy & finance advisor, and venture capitalist. As a founder and general partner at Apjohn, she had been active in sourcing, screening, due diligence, and closing of all the fund investments. Mina currently serves on the board of Asterand and ProNai and as board observer at Zystor and Kereos. She also serves as board member of the Midwest Healthcare Investment Network and Michigan Venture Capital Association as well as gives her time to speak at many entrepreneurial and life sciences community activities.

Since 2001, Mina has been fully engaged in the early stage life sciences space through synergistic roles as founding principal of Apjohn Group (life sciences business accelerator) and entrepreneur in residence at North Coast Technology Investors ($100 million early stage venture capital firm in Ann Arbor). Through those roles, she has served as founding CFO of Afmedica and founding CEO of SenseGene Therapeutics (now ProNAi) and led the investments in Nephros Therapeutics by NorthCoast and Apjohn affiliates.

Prior to 2001, Mina spent eight years as a global account manager at Monitor Group, a top tier global strategy consulting firm based in Boston, with her client base consisting of mid-cap and large-cap healthcare companies and multi-billion dollar private equity companies. With a focus on M&A, she has worked on over 30 deals including $7B Pharmacia & Upjohn merger in 1995 and $1B merger of PharMerica in 1997. Mina was also a founding leader of Monitor's Corporate Finance practice in 1998 with Tom Copeland. Mina began her career spending several years in research and product development at Ford Motor Company, Dow Chemical Company, and Proctor and Gamble.

Mina received a MBA from Harvard Business School in 1993. She graduated summa cum laude and commencement speaker from Wayne State University in 1989 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.

Since June 2007, Gary has been President and CEO of IntelliDx, a company developing a device to automate blood testing at the point-of-care.  Previously, he was the CEO of Afmedica, Inc., an Apjohn Group start up drug/device company that merged with Angiotech Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Stroy’s career spans several years in both the pharmaceutical and medical device businesses.  He was a senior manager at four large pharmaceutical firms (GSK, Baxter, Syntex and Bayer), a founder of seven medical device companies (Sicca Labs, LifeScan, Biotrack, ChemTrak, Aprise, Abaxis and LXN) an angel investor, venture partner or general partner with several first-tier West Coast venture capital firms (Sequoia Capital, USVP, Delphi Ventures, MedVenture Associates and Waldern International) and a board member at several drug and device firms (RxKinetix, Cutera, Avocet, NeurogesX, Coalescent Surgical, Accumetrics and Carbylan Biosurgery).

Mr. Stroy earned an MS in Industrial Pharmacy (double major in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Business) from the University of Nebraska, a BS degree in Biochemistry fromColorado State University and a Certificate in International Business from UCLA.  He has been a featured speaker at several medical meetings on topics in both science and business and is recognized worldwide for his pioneering contributions in immunoassay technology and diabetes management.  He pioneered the use of immunoassay technology in therapeutic drug monitoring and is often credited for conceiving of the first “personal glucose monitoring”, a device that revolutionized the management of diabetes and created a $6+ billion world wide business.

Prior the founding of the Apjohn Group, Eli worked more than 30 years at The Upjohn Company, which became Pharmacia & Upjohn, in the areas of animal health sales & marketing, mergers & acquisitions, divestitures, licensing, and strategic planning. When Eli left Pharmacia & Upjohn in 1999, he was Vice President, Business Development & Strategic Planning. In this position he was responsible for organizing and leading teams to identify opportunities, value the business and conduct due diligence, finalize all agreements and organize the integration.

Eli is currently President & CEO of Axenic Dental, Inc., a company he helped found with the Apjohn Group in 2005. Prior to forming Axenic Dental, Eli was a co-founder and Chief Business Officer of Afmedica, Inc. until this company was sold to Angiotech Pharmaceuticals. In addition to Afmedica and Axenic, Eli has been a founding principal and has held different management and Board positions of SenseGene, ProNAi, and MedElute. He is also Chairman, Board of Directors, Venomix, Inc., a company focused on developing the next generation of proprietary insecticide products.

Eli has a B.S. in Animal Science from the University of Nebraska and a M.B.A. from Western Michigan University. He has also participated in numerous executive development courses including "Merger Week" at Northwestern University and "Strategy Formulation and Implementation" and "Competitive Marketing Strategy" at Columbia University.

Mac has served as Founder and Treasurer for three Apjohn portfolio companies to date. Prior to Apjohn, Mac held positions in sales and marketing within the life sciences industry as well as oversight for private placement of equity into start-up companies.  Previous positions have included regional sales associate covering the tri-state area for a large biomedical products company calling on all research based universities and corporations. Mac is also a real estate developer focusing on large commercial office space, vacant investment grade land tracts, and build-to-suite leaseback opportunities for single-tenant industrial spaces.

Mac is a graduate of Western Michigan University's MBA program with a focus on Management and Small Business Ventures. His undergraduate degree is in Biological Sciences from the University of Michigan where his emphasis was on animal physiology and biochemistry.  Mac currently serves on the Board of Directors of Family & Children Services, as a Trustee of the Gilmore Car Museum, where he chairs the Advisory Board, and as an Asset Allocation Advisor for the Greater Kalamazoo United Way.

Don’s career in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry spans 17 years, primarily in the areas of management, finance and research and development.   He has co-founded several successful companies in the life sciences industry and served as CEO, COO and VPBD. While in academia, Don attained leadership roles at Georgetown’s HIV Research Facility (RIGHT), UMBC and the Uniformed Services University.  In addition to serving as Executive in Residence, Don is an Adjunct Professor at Grand Valley State University in the Department of Biological Sciences.

Don holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Biology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.