Board of Directors

Steven Tregay, Ph.D.

Founder, President and CEO, FORMA Therapeutics

Prior to joining FORMA, Steven Tregay was a Managing Director for the $200M Novartis Option Fund. He led the fund’s investments in and served on the Board of Directors of FORMA Therapeutics, Adenosine Therapeutics (sold: CLDA) and Cequent Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining the venture group, he was the Executive Director and Head of Strategic Alliances-Oncology, Ophthalmology and Technologies at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. He managed a team who were responsible for identification, negotiation and management of collaborations for the oncology and ophthalmology disease areas and all the technology areas. Prior to Novartis, he had roles in business development at Array BioPharma and research. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in organic chemistry from Harvard University and a B.S. from Davidson College.

Michael Foley, Ph.D.

Academic Founder, FORMA Therapeutics, Director, Chemical Biology Platform and Director of Medicinal Chemistry, Broad Institute

Dr. Foley is the Director of the Chemical Biology Platform and Director of Medicinal Chemistry at the Broad Institute, a research collaboration of MIT, Harvard and its affiliated hospitals and the Whitehead Institute. Dr. Foley is one of the scientific founders of CombinatoRx Inc. Dr. Foley is also a founder of Infinity Pharmaceuticals and served as Vice President of Chemistry from 2001-2006. Dr. Foley was a founding scientist of the Harvard Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology (ICCB), a joint academic institute between Harvard Medical School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences which was established to capitalize on the DOS technologies. Dr. Foley served as the Head of Chemical Technology for the ICCB. Prior to his academic appointment, Dr. Foley worked in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 10 years, building up his base of expertise in medicinal chemistry at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Glaxo Wellcome. Michael Foley earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at Harvard University in the laboratories of Dr. Stuart Schreiber, researching the interface of chemistry and Biology.

Alexis Borisy, A.M.

Chairman of FORMA Therapeutics Board of Directors
President and CEO, CombinatoRx, Inc.

Alexis Borisy is a biotechnology entrepreneur. In 2000 he founded CombinatoRx and has since served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a director. Prior to leaving his Ph.D. program to pursue the intersection of science and business, Mr. Borisy came from a science background in chemistry and biology. He was a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellow in life sciences, a Presidential Scholar, and the 2003 MIT Technology Review Innovator of the Year. Mr. Borisy bridged from research science to science business as a strategy consultant, working with senior executives at pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the areas of corporate strategy, portfolio management, and discovery technology. Mr. Borisy holds an A.B. in chemistry from the University of Chicago and an A.M. in chemistry from Harvard University, and has invented and authored numerous patents and scientific publications.

Dr. Reinhard J. Ambros

Global head of the Novartis Venture Funds

He was Managing Director of the Novartis BioVenture Fund in the USA. Previously, he worked with Novartis Corporate Finance where he held the position of Head of Group Strategic Planning for several years. He was responsible for post merger integrations at Novartis Corporate M & A and was global head BD & L cardiovascular and metabolic diseases at Novartis Pharma. Earlier in his career he had global leadership positions for key drug development projects at Novartis and Roche. He trained as a pharmacist, Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry and pharmacology and focused postdoctoral training in clinical pharmacology. Selected board memberships are at Cylene, Genedata, MicroCHIPS, Symetis and ESBATech.

Dr. Thong-Yuen Poon

Investment Director of EDB Investments

Thong-Yuen is an Investment Director of EDB Investments, the corporate venture arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board. He currently manages the investment opportunities in the East Coast of North America for (i) biomedical sciences, (ii) cleantech and (iii) digital media.

Thong Yuen has more than 10 years of experience in investments and research. He joined EDBI/ Bio*One Capital in early 2004, and has been involved in various therapeutics, medtech and CRO investments. Main geographical areas covered include USA and Japan. In addition to Forma, other notable biomedical sciences investments that Thong Yuen is involved in include Artisan, Conformis and Inotek. His previous research experience includes computer-aided drug design, medicinal chemistry, radio-ligand binding assays and animal studies. Thong Yuen also has a good background in community pharmacy and pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. He earned his doctorate in Medicinal Chemistry and honours degree in Pharmacy from the National University of Singapore.

Steven E. Hall, Ph.D.

Venture Partner

Steve brings more than 25 years of pharmaceutical experience from both multinational pharmaceutical companies and biotech organizations to Lilly Ventures. Prior to joining Lilly Ventures, Steve was co-founder and Senior Vice President, R&D of Serenex, Inc. In this role, he recruited and led a team in developing a novel discovery technology that advanced the target program from a novel screen to first patient dosed in just over three years. This novel orally-active Hsp90 inhibitor was the subject of strong interest across the industry and led to the acquisition of Serenex by Pfizer in April 2008.

Before joining Serenex, Steve was Site Director, Sphinx Labs, Eli Lilly where he oversaw lead generation efforts in the areas of combinatorial chemistry, automation, high-throughput screening, biomolecular research, and information technology. He was a key member of a small team that developed and executed a strategy to partner Lilly’s expertise in high-throughput chemistry with three Japanese pharmaceutical companies with an aggregate value of more than $75MM. Steve received his BS in chemistry from Central Michigan University and his PhD in organic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is the author of more than 40 papers and an inventor on greater than 60 patents.

Steve currently sits on the board of Hydra Biosciences, and serves as a board observer at Avid Radiopharmaceuticals and Viamet Pharmaceuticals.