Experienced leadership and independent oversight guiding our strategy and long-term value creation.

John W. Kozarich, Ph.D.

John W. Kozarich, Ph.D., has served as a member of our board since March 2003. Since November 2021, Dr. Kozarich has been Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Marsal Therapeutics and since June 2022, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Paludatus Pharmaceuticals, LLC. Previously,  he served on the Board of Directors at Curza Global, LLC, a biopharmaceutical company, from February 2019 through June 2024. Dr. Kozarich also serves as Distinguished Scientist Emeritus of ActivX Biosciences, Inc., and previously served as ActivX’s Chairman and President from 2004 through March 2017. From 1992 to 2001, Dr. Kozarich was vice president at Merck Research Laboratories and previously held professorships at the University of Maryland and Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Kozarich is also an adjunct professor of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Texas, Austin and serves on the board of Intec Pharma Ltd., a publicly traded biotechnology company. Previously, Dr. Kozarich served as a director of ActivX Biosciences Inc., Corium Intl, Novelion Therapeutics and Retrophin, Inc. He is also a recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award from the San Diego Section of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Kozarich earned his B.S. in chemistry, summa cum laude, from Boston College, his Ph.D. in biological chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard.

Jason M. Aryeh

Jason M. Aryeh has more than 25 years of equity investment experience focused on the life sciences industry. He has served on the Board of Directors at Ligand since September 2006, on the Board of Directors of Orchestra BioMed (Nasdaq: OBIO) since 2018, on the Board of Directors of LifeCore Biomedical (Nasdaq: LFCR) since August 2024, and on the Board of Directors at Anebulo Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ANEB) since March 2021. He is the Founder and Managing General Partner of JALAA Equities, LP, a private investment fund focused on the biotechnology and medical device sectors. He has served in such capacity since 1997. Mr. Aryeh has served as Chairman of the Board, on the Board of Directors or as a consultant to over fifteen public and private life sciences companies and charitable foundations, including the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Therapeutics board for seven years. Mr. Aryeh earned a B.A. in economics, with honors, from Colgate University and is a member of the Omnicron Delta Epsilon Honor Society in economics.

Todd Davis

Todd Davis is Chief Executive Officer of Ligand and has served on the company’s Board of Directors since 2007. He has more than 30 years of operational and investment experience and has been involved in more than $4 billion in healthcare financings over his career.

Before joining Ligand, Mr. Davis was a Founder and Managing Partner of HealthCare Royalty Partners (now HCRx), a global healthcare investment firm which grew from zero to approximately $4 billion in capital commitments during his tenure. He previously served as a partner responsible for biopharmaceutical growth equity investments at Apax Partners. Mr. Davis began his career in sales at Abbott Laboratories and later held leadership roles at Elan Pharmaceuticals in corporate development and general management.

Mr. Davis is a navy combat veteran and holds a BS from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He currently serves on the boards of Palvella Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: PVLA), ViroCell Biologics, and Benuvia Holdings, LLC. He is a former board member of the Harvard Business School Healthcare Alumni Association.

Nancy R. Gray, Ph.D.

Nancy R. Gray, Ph.D., has served as a member of our board since August 2017. Dr. Gray has served as the President and CEO of Gordon Research Conferences (GRC), a non-profit organization focused on organizing international scientific conferences, since 2003. In her capacity as CEO of the GRC, she is dedicated to mentoring scientists at all stages of their careers by developing forums that promote meaningful conversations about barriers to career advancement and strategies to support professional growth and success. From December 1997 until August 2003 she served as the Director of Membership for the American Chemical Society. Prior to that, Dr. Gray worked as a Senior Research Scientist at Exxon/Mobil Research and Engineering, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation focused on researching oil and gas. Dr. Gray is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Chemical Society. She was a Research Fellow at the Foundation on Matter Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam and completed the Harvard Executive Education Finance for Senior Executives program. She has also authored or co-authored numerous scientific articles. Dr. Gray received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Notre Dame in 1981 and her Ph.D. in Fuel Science from The Pennsylvania State University in 1985.

Jason Haas

Jason Haas has served as a member of the board since June 2022. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Odyssey Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. Prior to joining Odyssey, Mr. Haas was the Chief Financial Officer of Syros Pharmaceuticals, a Nasdaq-listed biotech company focused on developing oncology therapeutics, from October 2021 to November 2024. Prior to Syros, Mr. Haas spent over 25 years in healthcare investment banking, where he executed many strategic transactions and supported companies through equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, divestures, and spin-offs. Mr. Haas served as Co-Head of Americas Healthcare Banking at Barclays, Head of Healthcare Investment Banking, Americas at Deutsche Bank and Managing Director of Healthcare Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs. Mr. Haas holds an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia Business School and an A.B. in International Relations and Economics from Colgate University.

John L. LaMattina, Ph.D.

John L. LaMattina, Ph.D., has served as a member of our board since February 2011. He spent 30 years at Pfizer Inc. with his last position starting in 2004 as President, Pfizer Global R&D. Dr. LaMattina began his career at Pfizer as a medicinal chemist in 1977. During his career, he was appointed to various positions of increasing responsibility for Pfizer Central Research, including Vice President of U.S. Discovery Operations in 1993, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Discovery Operations in 1998, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Development in 1999. Dr. LaMattina graduated with cum laude honors from Boston College with a B.S. in Chemistry. He received a Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire in Organic Chemistry and subsequently was at Princeton University in the National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship program. Dr. LaMattina is currently a senior advisor and board member at PureTech Health and serves on the boards of directors of Immunome, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, and several privately held biopharmaceutical companies. From 2013 until May 2020, Dr. LaMattina served on the board of directors of Zafgen, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company, until its acquisition by Chondrial Therapeutics, Inc. and subsequent name change to Larimar Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. LaMattina also served on the scientific advisory board of Frequency Therapeutics, a publicly traded biotechnology company, which effected a reverse merger with Korro Biosciences in 2023. Dr. LaMattina is a contributing writer to Forbes magazine.

Stephen L. Sabba, M.D.

Stephen L. Sabba, M.D., has served as a member of our board since August 2008. Dr. Sabba has been a leading Bio/Pharma Analyst and Fund Manager for Knott Partners, L.P., an investment fund company, since November 2006. Previously, he was a Partner and Director of Research with Kilkenny Capital Management, a Chicago-based healthcare hedge fund. Prior to that, Dr. Sabba was Director of Research at Sturza’s Medical Research and previously was a gastroenterologist and internist in private practice at Phelps Hospital in North Tarrytown, New York. He received his M.D. from the New York University School of Medicine and completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in gastroenterology at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in New York City. He earned a B.S. with honors from Cornell University. Dr. Sabba previously served on the Board of Directors of Novelion Therapeutics Inc., a leading Canadian biotech company from June 2012 to January 2020.

Martine Zimmermann, Pharm.D.

Dr. Zimmermann has extensive expertise in regulatory affairs at both small and large pharmaceutical organizations, having worked in the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Throughout her career she has been involved in all phases of drug development and in several therapeutic areas, interacting with relevant regulatory authorities in key markets, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Japanese Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA). Dr. Zimmermann is currently the Senior Vice President, Head of Regulatory Affairs and R&D Quality at Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals, a global biopharmaceutical company. Prior to Ipsen, Dr. Zimmermann spent 13 years at Alexion Pharma International where she held several positions including Senior Vice President and Head of Global Regulatory Affairs. She is an active member of several life-sciences trade associations and was a member of the Board of Directors of Caelum Biosciences from 2019 until its acquisition by AstraZeneca in 2021. She has been a board member of France-based Inventiva (Euronext Paris and Nasdaq: IVA) since 2021. Dr. Zimmermann received her Doctorate in Pharmacy (PharmD) with a specialty in immunology from the Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg in France.