Jay P. Shepard
President and CEO

Jay joined NextWave Pharmaceuticals in 2010 as President and CEO. He has more than 25 years experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and drug delivery arenas.  In addition to his responsibilities as CEO to NextWave Pharmaceuticals Jay maintains a strategic advisor relationship with Sofinnova Ventures (NextWave Pharmaceuticals is a Sofinnova portfolio company).  Jay joined Sofinnova in 2008, as an Executive in Residence.

Prior to Sofinnova Ventures, Jay was President and CEO of Ilypsa, a nephrology therapeutics company acquired by Amgen for $420 million.  He then helped with Ilypsa's spin-out of Relypsa, serving as interim President and CEO.  Before Ilypsa, Jay served as Vice President, Commercial Operations at Telik, where he was responsible for all activities relating to market preparation toward the launch of the company's lead oncology compounds.  He was also Vice President of ALZA Pharmaceuticals' Oncology Business Unit, having held leadership positions of increasing responsibility in the establishment and operation of ALZA's specialty pharmaceutical sales and marketing group.  Jay began his career in pharmaceutical sales and marketing at Ortho Pharmaceutical and Syntex Laboratories.

Jay holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Arizona.

Cynthia M. Butitta
SVP and Chief Financial Officer

Cindy joined NextWave Pharmaceuticals in 2011 as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.  Cindy brings more than 25 years of fiscal and operational experience in both the biotechnology industry and high technology industry.

Prior to joining NextWave, Cindy was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Telik, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on oncology drug discovery and development.  Cindy was responsible for the management of operations, finance and administration.  She raised over $500 million in public capital markets as CFO for Telik, Inc. and previously as CFO for Connetics, Inc.

Cindy holds a B.S. in Business and Accounting from Edgewood College and M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Wisconsin, Madison

Craig Chambliss
SVP and Chief Business Officer

Craig joined NextWave Pharmaceuticals in 2010 as Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer.  He has more than 18 years invested in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and drug delivery arenas, with significant experience in diseases of the central nervous system (CNS).

Prior to joining NextWave, Craig co-founded and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Neurelis, Inc., a development-level CNS start-up focused on epilepsy treatments.  Craig began his career in pharmaceutical sales at Bristol-Myers Squibb and joined ALZA Pharmaceuticals upon the launch of their commercial efforts.  He served in various sales and marketing roles prior to joining Elan Pharmaceuticals and serving as Director of Business Development.  Along with other Elan executives, Craig launched Xcel Pharmaceuticals, a CNS start-up focused on epilepsy, and led commercial operations until its acquisition by Valeant Pharmaceuticals in 2005 for $280 million.  Craig then joined Questcor Pharmaceuticals to lead the commercial operations and transition their efforts to the current CNS-focus.

Craig holds a B.S. in Finance and a B.S. in Accounting from Missouri State University.

Michael Burdick
Vice President, Product Development

Mike joined NextWave Pharmaceuticals in 2010 as Vice President of Product Development.  He has more than 25 years of research and development experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.

Prior to joining NextWave, Mike was the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, QA, and Project Management at Ilypsa and Relypsa companies from 2005 to 2009.  Mike began his career in the pharmaceutical industry at The Upjohn Company, and has held a variety of Regulatory Affairs and Drug Development positions of increasing responsibility at Upjohn, Pharmacia, Pfizer, CV Therapeutics, Ilypsa, and Relypsa.  He has successfully supported more than 30 global NDA and IND applications.

Mike holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from Michigan State University.

Tracy Woody
Vice President, Sales and Marketing

Tracy joined NextWave Pharmaceuticals in 2010 as Vice President of Sales and Marketing.  She has more than 15 years in pharmaceuticals and biologics, with experience in CNS, Allergy and Asthma.

Prior to joining NextWave, Tracy was Vice President of Business Development for Greer Laboratories, a biologics company focused on Allergy Immunotherapy.  While at Greer, Tracy was also Vice President of Sales and Marketing for 6 years, directing the marketing and sales strategies for the company and its' four business units.  Prior to Greer, Tracy was with ALZA Pharmaceuticals where she led all sales and marketing launch efforts for Concerta until its acquisition by Johnson and Johnson.  Tracy was recruited by ALZA from Healthworld, a small healthcare agency located in lower Manhattan.  Tracy began her career at Pfizer, where she worked for 10 years, primarily focused in the CNS arena as Product Manager/Director of Zoloft.

Tracy holds a B.S. in Applied Physiology and Business from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

Leon Ku
Executive Director, Pharmaceutical Operations

Leon joined NextWave Pharmaceuticals in 2010 as Executive Director of Pharmaceutical Operations.  He has more than 20 years experience in supply chain, manufacturing operations, and project management in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry working for companies in early development to those with full commercial operations.

Prior to joining NextWave, Leon was Director of Global Supply Chain and Logistics for Onyx Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for building a global supply chain organization to support activities related to corporate procurement, vendor relations management, manufacturing operations, global clinical studies and commercial launch activities.  Over the course of his career he has held multiple positions with increasing responsibilities at Proteolix, Telik, and at ALZA/J&J Pharmaceutical Sourcing Group Americas.  At ALZA/J&J PSGA, Leon had direct oversight of R&D/Commercial Production Planning Operations for multiple product lines with combined annual revenues well over $700 million.  Leon began his career as a Chemist at Advanced Polymer Systems, now AP Pharma.

Leon holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California at Riverside and a M.B.A. in Operations and Materials Management from the California State University, Hayward.

R. Alan Birtchet
National Sales Director

Alan joined NextWave in 2011 as National Sales Director.  He has more than 30 years of experience in Sales, Marketing and general management roles with life sciences companies on both the service and manufacturing sides.

Prior to joining NextWave, Alan was Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Sales, and VP Commercialization at inVentiv Health, a leading provider of outsourced Sales and Marketing services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.  Before inVentiv, Alan helped to create a US commercial organization for ALTANA Pharma where he was VP of Sales.  At ALTANA, Alan led 2 sales forces of over 600 representatives and built all Sales support functions, including Operations and Training.  Alan has held staff and line management roles within Sales and Marketing for pharmaceutical manufacturers including Merck, Centocor and US Bioscience.

Alan holds a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Washington.

Sally A. Berry, M.D., Ph.D
Medical Advisor

Sally was appointed as Medical Advisor to NextWave Pharmaceuticals in July 2011.  She joined the company in 2008 and served as the Chief Medical Officer.

Prior to joining NextWave, Sally held various positions of increasing responsibility in CNS Clinical Development at J&J PRD from 2002-2008. She was Medical Director of CNS Medical Affairs at Janssen Pharmaceuticals from 2000-2002.  Prior to Janssen, she was a member of the full time faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine.

Sally holds B.S./M.S. degrees in Neurobiology from Purdue University and received her M.D./Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Case Western Reserve University where she also completed her psychiatric residency and postdoctoral training in Molecular Pharmacology.  Sally is a Diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.