Christopher Powala is a serial entrepreneur with over 34 years of experience in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry. Mr. Powala previously served as President & CEO of NFlection until 2021 and returns as the Chief Development Officer. Mr. Powala co-founded and served as Chief Development Officer of Aclaris Therapeutics until his retirement in June 2019. He also served as the Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Vicept Therapeutics, Inc. from 2009 until its acquisition by Allergan, Inc. in July 2011. Prior to joining Vicept Therapeutics, Inc., from 2008 to 2009, he served as Vice President, Clinical Operations & Global Regulatory Affairs for Vital Therapies, Inc., a biotechnology company. From 1993 to 2008, Mr. Powala was with CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a dermatology-focused specialty pharmaceutical company, where he served as Vice President, Drug Development and Regulatory Affairs. Previously, Mr. Powala held various positions in product development and regulatory affairs at Wyeth Laboratories, Inc. Mr. Powala received his Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in General Management from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and his bachelor’s degree in Biology from State University of New York-Regents College.
Patrice Horwath
Ms. Horwath has over 20 years of clinical development and operation experience directing global pharmaceutical, medical device and combination products through all phases of clinical development. Prior to joining NFlection, Ms. Horwath held positions in clinical development and operations with Kalika Biosciences, Ralexar Therapeutics, Medtronic Neuromodulation, and 3M Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Horwath holds a bachelor of arts degree in health and human services from Metropolitan State University.
Guy Webster
Guy Webster received an MD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed a dermatology residency at New York University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology. Dr. Webster is Clinical Professor of Dermatology at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and was previously Professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs. He has published widely on infectious and inflammatory diseases of the skin. At Jefferson, Dr. Webster started the Clinical Trials Unit and has participated in numerous phase 2, 3 and 4 trials as well as many interactions with the FDA.
Diane Marcou
Diane Marcou is an independent financial consultant who provides interim financial leadership to early stage companies. Working with start-up companies for many years, Ms. Marcou has applied her strategic planning and leadership capabilities to identify, implement and improve business systems, create operating plans and support growth. She has helped her clients raise hundreds of millions of dollars in equity and debt financing, mergers and acquisitions and strategic partnerships.
Marcou has provided financial and strategic advisory services to a number of venture-backed technology and life sciences companies, including Fractyl Laboratories, TARIS Biomedical, Cytrellis Biosystems, Boston Microfluidics, T2 Biosystems and Topera Medical. For more than 25 years working across private and public sector organizations, she has consistently built effective teams, strengthened relationships with investors, partners, customers and employees, secured funding and negotiated critical business agreements.
Prior to working as an independent financial consultant, Marcou was Chief Financial Officer and VP of Finance and Administration for Incentive Systems (dba Centive), a privately held venture-funded software company, and Chief Financial Officer at Workgroup Technology, a publicly traded software company with domestic and international operations. Ms. Marcou earned her CPA at PricewaterhouseCoopers (formerly Coopers & Lybrand) and graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Business Administration from Boston College.
Marcou volunteers as treasurer for several non-profit organizations and serves on the board of directors for Plowshares Education Development Center.
William Hodder
William Hodder joined NFlection in October 2021 as Chief Executive Officer, bringing more than 35 years of broad biopharmaceutical industry experience including fundraising, business development, corporate and product marketing, sales, and product development.
Most recently, Mr. Hodder was Chief Business Officer for Escient Pharmaceuticals a privately held biotechnology company that is advancing first-in-class G Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR)-targeted drugs for neuro-immuno-inflammatory and autoreactive diseases. At Escient, Mr. Hodder led the completion of a $77.5 million Series B financing and was responsible for all finance and operational functions. Previously, he was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at Protagonist Therapeutics (Nasdaq: PTGX), a clinical stage biotech company where he was responsible for all licensing and alliance management as well as certain fundraising and operations activities. At Protagonist, Mr. Hodder led, or played a significant role in, licensing and fundraising transactions that raised over $220 million including the licensing of a pre-clinical asset to Janssen Biotech for upfront and future milestone payments totaling $990 million. Prior to joining Protagonist, Mr. Hodder was a co-founder and CEO of Trenovus, Inc., a biotech company focused on developing novel inhibitors of heterotopic ossification present in several serious and rare conditions including Ankylosing Spondylitis and Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva. Mr. Hodder also previously served as Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Officer at FibroGen, Inc., where he was responsible for all licensing and M&A activity, raising over $500 million for the company. This included the out-licensing of HIF prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors for anemia indications to Astellas for the European, South Africa and Middle East territories. Prior to joining FibroGen, Mr. Hodder served as Director of Business Development and Marketing at Aradigm, a drug delivery company. He has also held sales, marketing, and product development positions at Penederm (acquired by Mylan Laboratories), Ciba Geigy (now Novartis), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, and Marion Laboratories (now Sanofi).
Mr. Hodder received a B.S. in biology from Oakland University and an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.