Mel Spigelman President and Chief Executive OfficerMel Spigelman
President and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Spigelman is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), and a Member of its Board of Directors. Prior to being appointed President and CEO in 2009, Dr. Spigelman served for five and a half years as the Director of Research & Development at TB Alliance. He was instrumental in forging key organizational partnerships and building the pipeline of TB drug candidates. Notably, Dr. Spigelman was a leader in developing a regimen-based paradigm of TB drug development – a faster and more efficient approach, which is emerging as the gold standard within the TB drug research field.Dr. Spigelman spent a decade managing drug R&D at Knoll Pharmaceuticals (a division of BASF Pharma) prior to joining TB Alliance. As Vice President of R&D at Knoll for eight years, Dr. Spigelman supervised all R&D activities from basic discovery to regulatory approval and Medical Affairs. He established global R&D processes as part of Knoll's senior R&D management team, oversaw a marked increase in US regulatory filings and approvals, and supervised joint R&D programs with multiple other pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Spigelman received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and his medical degree from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine where he specialized in Internal medicine, Neoplastic Diseases and Preventive Medicine. Dr. Spigelman holds board certifications from the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board's Subspecialty Board of Medical Oncology, and the American Board of Preventive Medicine and was the recipient of the American Cancer Society Clinical Oncology Career Development Award (1985-1988).
Presently, Dr. Spigelman serves as Co-Chair of the Working Group on New Drugs of the WHO Stop TB Partnership and as a member of the Board of Directors of AN2 Therapeutics.
Maria Beumont Vice President, Chief Medical OfficerMaria Beumont
Vice President, Chief Medical Officer
As Vice President, Chief Medical Officer for the TB Alliance, Dr. Maria Beumont will develop and lead the clinical strategy and provide oversight of clinical trial planning and execution of promising anti-tuberculosis drugs and regimens.
Dr. Beumont joined the TB Alliance in January 2022 with more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical development from early to late stage. She was previously Senior Medical Director at Janssen where she was deeply involved in the development and approval of compounds for the treatment of hepatitis C, and most recently held the role of Hepatitis Franchise Medical lead. Before joining Janssen Pharmaceuticals in 2006, she was Medical Director at Chiron corporation working primarily on the application of IL-2 in the treatment of HIV, and prior to that she served as the Director of HIV Services for the City of Philadelphia at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.
Maria received her MD degree from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, the moved to the United States where she completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Abington Memorial Hospital followed by a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Pennsylvania.
Nader Fotouhi Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific OfficerNader Fotouhi
Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer
As Chief Scientific Officer for the TB Alliance, Dr. Nader Fotouhi guides and oversees the organization’s research and preclinical development activities.Dr. Fotouhi has 24 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with significant research and early development expertise in a variety of therapeutic areas. Prior to joining the TB Alliance, Dr. Fotouhi held various leadership positions at Hoffmann-La Roche, including the head of the Discovery Chemistry group at the Nutley New Jersey site, the global head of Discovery Technologies, and served as the Nutley New Jersey Pharma Research and Early Development Site Leader.
Dr. Fotouhi holds a Ph.D. and Post Doctoral fellowship in Organic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Fotouhi has authored or co-authored more than 50 articles and presentations and holds 20 patents.
Sandeep Juneja Senior Vice President, Market AccessSandeep Juneja
Senior Vice President, Market Access
Sandeep Juneja joined TB Alliance in May 2018 as Senior Vice President of Market Access. In this role, he leads the organization’s efforts to design and implement strategic market interventions that facilitate the adoption and uptake of new TB treatment regimens worldwide, with a focus on high-burden countries.
With a passion for reducing the time between R&D and the availability of innovative medicines, particularly in developing nations, Mr. Juneja brings over two decades of experience in pharmaceutical access and business development.
Before joining TB Alliance, he served as Head of Business Development at the Medicines Patent Pool in Geneva, where he forged alliances with pharmaceutical companies, research institutions, and public health organizations to improve access to treatments for TB, HIV, and HCV. Earlier in his career, he spent 17 years in the pharmaceutical industry in various leadership roles in marketing, M&A, and investor relations, and built an HIV and Malaria franchise that enabled access to HIV medicines in over 60 countries and resulted in the development of an innovative, improved treatment for Malaria.
Mr. Juneja has contributed his expertise to several high-level advisory boards and panels focused on global health and access to medicines, providing strategic guidance on improving drug accessibility in low- and middle-income countries.
An engineer by training, he holds a Bachelor's degree in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA in International Business from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
Robert C. Lorette Senior Vice President, Business DevelopmentRobert C. Lorette
Senior Vice President, Business Development
Robert C. Lorette, Esq. is Senior Vice President of Business Development for the TB Alliance. In this role,Mr. Lorette helps lead the TB Alliance’s efforts to establish agreements and strategic alliances within the context of the product development partnership (PDP) business model, and thus play an integral role in achieving the portfolio development and related resource mobilization goals of the TB Alliance.
Before joining the TB Alliance, Mr. Lorette founded and was President and CEO of Boston Life Science Advisors, a corporate development consulting firm dedicated to serving biotech, medical device and other life science organizations. He also co-founded and served as Managing Director of Transform Ventures LLC, a firm that brings capital, executive leadership, and engineering and manufacturing resources together to rapidly advance medical device technologies to a significant value inflection point.
Before founding these two companies, Mr. Lorette served as Chief Business Officer and Senior Vice President of Dynogen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage drug development company focusing on gastrointestinal and genitourinary disorders. Earlier in his career, Mr. Lorette served in various management, corporate development, and legal roles for organizations such as Boston Healthcare Associates, Inc., UroMed Corporation, and Bausch & Lomb Incorporated.
Mr. Lorette received his law degree from Syracuse University College of Law and is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. Additional accreditations include a Masters in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and a Bachelor’s degree in economics from the College of the Holy Cross. Mr. Lorette also attended the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School.
Colleen Pero Chief Administrative OfficerColleen Pero
Chief Administrative Officer
Colleen Pero is Chief Administrative Officer for the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development.In this role, she ensures operating effectiveness and management for the organization, and has specific oversight for cross-cutting strategies such as the TB Alliance pediatric initiative. Ms. Pero also serves as management liaison to the Board of Directors and corporate secretary. Additionally, Ms. Pero oversees internal operations, contracts administration, human resources, and information technology, among other areas, and is a member of the Senior Management Team.
An accomplished health care executive, Ms. Pero has a diverse professional background that includes over twenty years in the healthcare sector in both for-profit and not-for-profit environments. Before joining the TB Alliance, Ms. Pero was Senior Vice President, Corporate Administration at $2B specialty pharmaceutical and healthcare company Endo, where she built organizational capabilities to enable rapid growth, and participated in six-fold expansion of the market capitalization over five years. As a member of the executive team, Ms. Pero contributed to the establishment and execution of corporate strategy for the business, and she had direct responsibility for a wide range of areas including organizational planning, information technology, communications, company affairs, procurement, human resources and organizational development.
Since 2005, Ms. Pero has served as a Trustee for Christiana Care Health System, a $1.5B integrated healthcare system. She serves on the Executive Compensation Committee, which is responsible for executive and physician compensation, leadership development, and succession planning. Ms. Pero holds an MA in Management and a Bachelor of Science degree.
Kathleen Schostack Senior Vice President, Program and Alliance ManagementKathleen Schostack
Senior Vice President, Program and Alliance Management
Dr. Kathleen Schostack is Senior Vice President, Program and Alliance Management. In this role, Dr. Schostack applies project management principles to develop comprehensive, integrated plans and track execution to best assure successful completion and support decision-making. Dr. Schostack also leads alliances with pharmaceutical partners to facilitate joint planning and alignment on deliverables to achieve program goals.
Dr. Schostack has more than 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical development, from early through late stage, registration, launch, and post-approval. Prior to joining the TB Alliance, Dr. Schostack held leadership positions at Hoffmann-La Roche and Bayer HealthCare in CMC, Regulatory and Project Management in a variety of therapeutic areas with a focus on Oncology.
Dr. Schostack earned her Ph.D. and MS in Chemistry at Stevens Institute of Technology and a BS from Penn State University.
Eugene Sun Senior Vice President, Research and DevelopmentEugene Sun
Senior Vice President, Research and Development
As Senior Vice President, Research and Development for the TB Alliance, Dr. Eugene Sun guides and oversees the organization’s research and development activities.
Dr. Sun joined the TB Alliance in June, 2019. He was previously Senior Medical Advisor to BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority) within the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Prior to that, he served as the Chief Executive Officer for Melinta Therapeutics from 2015 to 2017 and as its Executive Vice President from 2013 to 2015. Prior to joining Melinta, Dr. Sun held senior positions during a 17-year career at Abbott Laboratories, most recently as Corporate Vice President, Global Pharmaceutical Clinical Development. From 2001 to 2007, Dr. Sun served on the FDA Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee.
He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, medical degree from New York University School of Medicine, and completed an internship and residency in internal medicine, and a fellowship in infectious diseases, at the University of California, San Francisco. During his fellowship, Dr. Sun received a National Research Service Award and a Physician Scientist Award from the NIH.
Rajneesh (Raj) Taneja Vice President, Pharmaceutical Product DevelopmentRajneesh (Raj) Taneja
Vice President, Pharmaceutical Product Development
Rajneesh (Raj) Taneja joined TB Alliance in April 2013 as Senior Director, Pharmaceutical Product Development. His responsibilities include designing and developing drug products for supporting preclinical and clinical programs, pediatric product development, and formulating combination drug products for enhancing dose compliance. Prior to joining TB Alliance, Raj was working at Takeda pharmaceuticals as Director of Product Development. There, he supported the development of numerous compounds from early development through obtaining regulatory approval. Raj is also a licensed pharmacist and he has 9 years of clinical pharmacy experience at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore MD.Raj received his undergraduate degree in Pharmacy from Delhi University, India and he earned his Ph.D. in Biopharmaceutics & Industrial Pharmacy from the University of Maryland at Baltimore, MD. He is also an office holder at American Association of Pharmaceutical scientists (AAPS)
Pietro Turilli Senior Vice President, External Affairs Pietro Turilli
Senior Vice President, External Affairs
Pietro Turilli joined the TB Alliance in 2022. As the Senior Vice President of External Affairs, he provides strategic leadership for the TB Alliance’s fundraising, advocacy and policy, and community and stakeholder engagement work.
Prior to joining the TB Alliance, Mr. Turilli served as the Director of Resource Mobilization at the International Potato Center (CIP, a CGIAR Center) where he identified and pursued opportunities for global partnerships and agricultural research funding. His career encompasses developing, negotiating, and overseeing implementation of investment loans and project financing for international poverty alleviation and agricultural development initiatives.
Mr. Turilli brings his experience and passion to leading global partnership strategies and resource mobilization efforts with non-profits and international financial institutions to affect positive change on global challenges. He has had the opportunity to work throughout the world, with experience spanning South America, Europe, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Africa and Asia.
Mr. Turilli received his Master of International Affairs degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York and his undergraduate degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Angela Vanderploeg Chief Financial OfficerAngela Vanderploeg
Chief Financial Officer
Angela Vanderploeg joined the TB Alliance in July 2018. As Chief Financial Officer, she oversees all aspects of the organization’s finances, including the development and management of budgets, preparation of financial statements and reporting to the Board. Ms. Vanderploeg brings 25 years of experience in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors with a focus on improving productivity and financial sustainability. Before joining TB Alliance, Ms. Vanderploeg served in various leadership roles for other nonprofits such as New Leaders, the Jewish Board of Family and Children Services and Atlantic Philanthropies.
Ms. Vanderploeg earned her Bachelors degree from Miami University and her Masters of Business Administration from New York University.