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Kevin S. Boyle, Sr.
Chief Executive Officer
Kevin S. Boyle, Sr., was appointed to be our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board in August 2021. Prior to joining Alaunos, Mr. Boyle was CEO of Kuur Therapeutics (formerly known as Cell Medica Ltd.), leading the company through a successful transformation, culminating in a $185 million acquisition in May 2021 by Athenex (NASDAQ: ATNX). Mr. Boyle was at Kuur from 2018-2021. From 2008-2017 he served as Chief Financial Officer of various companies including FlowWorks International, Sigma3 Integrated Reservoir Solutions, RecoverCare and SPT Inc. Earlier in his career Mr. Boyle had finance roles with increasing levels of responsibility, leading businesses in competitive and transformative situations and delivering shareholder value. He is an accomplished capital markets professional raising over $2.0 billion in equity and debt capital over his career.
Mr. Boyle graduated with a BS from Carnegie Mellon University and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
Melinda Lackey
SVP, Legal & Admin
Melinda Lackey joined Alaunos as Senior Vice President, Legal in November 2021. She previously served as Counsel for Hogan Lovells, where she supported life sciences companies at all stages with a focus on licensing and intellectual property.
Previous roles include Legal Counsel at life sciences companies Athenex and Kuur Therapeutics. Before industry, Melinda practiced law for 10 years focusing on intellectual property strategy and patent litigation.
Melinda has a JD from University of Houston Law Center and graduated from Texas Tech Health Sciences Center with an MS in medical microbiology and immunology, focusing on molecular biology and immunology and a BS in Microbiology from Texas Tech University.
Drew Deniger, Ph.D.
VP, Research & Development
Drew C. Deniger, Ph.D., joined Alaunos in July 2019 and is now VP of Research & Development. Prior, he led state-of-the-art efforts to translate TCR-T cell and TIL therapies for the treatment of metastatic epithelial cancers and identify TCRs targeting tumor mutations under the mentorship of Steven A. Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D. at the National Cancer Institute. Drew has over 14 years of experience with Sleeping Beauty transposition, one of the leading non-viral gene transfer technologies for cell therapy, in the setting of TCR-T and CAR-T cell therapy.
Drew has degrees in Chemistry (BS) and Biochemistry (BS) from the University of Texas at Austin, degrees in Cancer Biology (MS) and Immunology (PhD) from MD Anderson Cancer Center and post-doctoral training at the NCI Surgery Branch.
Abhishek Srivastava, Ph.D.
VP, Technical Operations
Abhishek Srivastava (Abhi) joined Alaunos as Vice President, Technical Operations in August 2022. He brings over a decade of experience developing cell and gene therapy products.
Most recently, Abhi served as Vice President, Cell Therapy Development at Athenex, overseeing early development, and technical operations of both the autologous and allogeneic cell therapy programs. Prior to joining Athenex, he was an Assistant Professor at the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh, where he led the process development and manufacturing of Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TILs) to support multiple clinical trials.
Abhi received his postdoctoral training at Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Immunology from University of Louisville, School of Medicine.
Michael Wong
VP, Finance
Michael Wong was appointed Vice President, Finance in September 2021. Mr. Wong has more than 16 years of experience leading teams and has had numerous management roles on complex finance projects.
Previously, Mr. Wong was Director, Technical Accounting at McDermott International, Ltd., where he also served as Interim Head, Audit. Prior to joining McDermott, Mr. Wong was an Audit Senior Manager at Ernst & Young LLP in Houston, and also spent part of his 14 year career with Ernst & Young in both the London, U.K. and Toronto, Canada offices.
Michael is a licensed CPA in Texas and Canada and has a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University, Canada.