Joshua Boger, Ph.D

Chair Of The Board

Dr. Joshua Boger serves as CervoMed's Non-Executive Chair and is the Executive Chairman of Alkeus Pharmaceuticals, a private biotech company bringing through development a novel, oral therapy for intractable eye diseases. He was the Founder of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: VRTX) and retired as Vertex’s Chief Executive Officer in May 2009, after over 20-years with the company. He continued to serve on the Vertex Board and Chaired its Science & Technology Committee, stepping off the board in June 2017, after more than 28 years. Prior to founding Vertex in 1989, Dr. Boger was Senior Director of Basic Chemistry at Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in Rahway, N.J., where he headed both the Departments of Biophysical Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry of Immunology & Inflammation. During his ten years at Merck, Dr. Boger developed an international reputation in the application of computer modeling to the chemistry of drug design and was a pioneer in the use of structure-based rational drug design as the basis for drug discovery programs.

Dr. Boger holds a bachelor-of-arts degree in Chemistry and Philosophy from Wesleyan University (Connecticut) and a master's and doctorate degrees in Chemistry from Harvard University. His postdoctoral research in molecular recognition was performed in the laboratories of the Nobel-prize winning chemist, Jean-Marie Lehn in Strasbourg, France. He is the author of over 50 scientific publications, holds 32 issued U.S. patents in pharmaceutical discovery and development, and has delivered over 120 invited lectures, in the United States, in Europe and in Asia, on various aspects of drug discovery and development. He was named one of forty “Technology Pioneers” worldwide for the 2003 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He was named in 2009 to the Biotech Hall of Fame, received in 2012 the Chemical Heritage Foundation & BIO 13th Annual Biotechnology Heritage Award, was given an All-Stars Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 from the Boston Business Journal, and, in 2018, received the Othmer Gold medal - their highest award - from the Science History Institute and a Doctor of Science honorary degree from Wesleyan University. He received the Distinguished Community Leadership Award in 2009 from the Jewish Alliance for Law & Social Action (JALSA), the Heroes in Health Award in 2012 from the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston, the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus’ Good Guys Award in 2015, and the Colonel Francis T. Colby Award from the Boston Museum of Science in 2023.

Dr. Boger is Chair of the Board of the Celebrity Series (Boston’s premier performing arts presenter). He serves on several additional non-profit Boards, including the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School (where he is Chair Emeritus), the Science Advisory Council of WGBH (public broadcasting’s leading station, Boston), and the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee to the Institute for Medical Engineering & Science (IMES). He served for over ten years as Vice-Chair of Boston’s Museum of Science and continues as a Trustee Emeritus. He is a former member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, co-founded and served for fifteen years as Vice-Chair of the Alliance for Business leadership (a Boston-based, non-partisan coalition of progressive business leaders), served on the boards of the Hastings Center for Bioethics (the world’s oldest independent bioethics research institute, Garrison, NY) and the Whitehead Institute (Cambridge, MA), was a founding Director of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (the quasi-public overseer of a $1Billion state-funded development initiative), was a Trustee and Chair of the Board of Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT), chaired the Harvard Medical School’s $750M Campaign for Harvard Medicine, was founding Chair of the Board of MassChallenge (the world’s largest startup business incubator), and, while a member of the Board of the ACLU of Massachusetts Foundation, where he co-founded their ongoing Technology for Liberty and Justice for All Projects.

Sylvie Grégoire, PharmD

Co-Founder

Dr. Grégoire is EIP’s co-founder and has served as EIP’s Executive Chair and as a member of EIP’s board of directors since April 2018. From May 2013 to May 2019, Dr. Grégoire served as a director for Vifor Pharma AG (SIX: VIFN), a global pharmaceutical company focused on treatments for renal disease. From September 2007 to May 2013, Dr. Grégoire served as President of the Human Genetic Therapies division of Shire plc, a global biopharmaceutical company recently acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. From 2005 to 2008, she served as a director of IDM Pharma, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company that now operates as a subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceuticals Company Limited, including serving as its Executive Chair from August 2006 to October 2007. From 2004 to 2005, Dr. Grégoire served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Member of the board of directors of GlycoFi, Inc., a private biotechnology company now part of Merck and Co., Inc. Prior to that, Dr. Grégoire held various leadership positions at Biogen, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB), including Vice-President (head) of Regulatory Affairs, Vice-President (head) of Manufacturing, and as Executive Vice President of Technical Operations. Dr. Grégoire also served at Merck and Co., Inc. in the US and internationally in clinical research and regulatory affairs.

Dr. Grégoire serves on the board of directors of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO), a global pharmaceutical company, where she sits on the audit committee, the nomination committee and the research and development committee. Dr. Grégoire has also serves on the board of directors of Revvity Inc (NASDAQ: RVTY) (previously PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE: PKI)), a publicly traded company and a provider of products, services and solutions for the diagnostics, life sciences and applied markets, since February 2015. At Revvity, she also serves on the compensation and benefits committee and the nominating and corporate governance committee. In addition, Dr. Grégoire served as chair of the board of directors of Corvidia Therapeutics, Inc., from 2016 to 2020, a private company focused on treatments for cardiorenal diseases. Corvidia was sold to NovoNordisk in 2020. Dr Gregoire serves on the board of F2G Ltd, a privately held company developing treatments for severe rare mold infections since December 2021 where she is also the chair of the Commercial Committee.

Dr. Grégoire received a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from Laval University and a doctoral degree in Pharmacy from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

John Alam, MD

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

John Alam serves as the Chief Executive Officer at CervoMed, co-founding the company (formerly known as EIP Pharma) in 2014. John is an industry leader in translational medicine with over 30 years of experience creating value to help build companies through clinical development success.

Until May 2014, he was therapeutic area head for diseases of aging at Sanofi, where he led all discovery and development activities directed at Alzheimer’s disease, as well as a number of other age-related diseases including sarcopenia/frailty, osteoarthritis, chronic pain and many others. From 1997 to 2008, he held positions of increasing responsibility at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, including Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President, Medicines Development. At Vertex, he played major roles in the development of novel innovative medicines for HIV, Hepatitis C and Cystic Fibrosis. Prior to Vertex, Alam led clinical development of Avonex (interferon beta-1a) for multiple sclerosis at Biogen from 1991 to 1997.

John is a member of the board of directors of the Alliance for Aging Research (AAR), a Washington, D.C. based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting innovation to address the healthcare needs of older Americans. He received a MD from Northwestern University School of Medicine and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, he completed an internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a post-doctoral fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Jeff Poulton

Mr. Poulton has been a member of EIP’s board of directors since April 2018. Since July 2019, Mr. Poulton has served as Chief Financial Officer at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY), a global biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. From January 2018 to April 2019, Mr. Poulton served as chief financial officer at Indigo Agriculture, a plant microbiome company. From September 1998 to December 2017, Mr. Poulton held various roles of increasing responsibility at Shire plc, a biotechnology company, culminating in his service as chief financial officer from July 2014 to December 2017 and a member of Shire’s executive committee and board of directors from January 2015 to December 2017. During his tenure at Shire, Mr. Poulton also lead Shire’s rare disease US/APAC and LATAM commercial operations, as well as Shire’s rare disease business unit. Prior to his tenure at Shire, Mr. Poulton led corporate finance and business development initiatives in both the gas and electric utilities industry and the materials manufacturing sector, serving in financial leadership positions at Cinergy Corporation and PPG Industries, Inc. Mr. Poulton also served as a U.S. Navy Commissioned Officer aboard the USS Peoria.

Mr. Poulton holds a B.A. in Economics from Duke University and an MBA in Finance from the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University.

Jane H. Hollingsworth

Ms. Hollingsworth has served as a director of Diffusion and as Chair of Diffusion’s board of directors since September 2020. She currently serves as the founding Managing Partner of Militia Hill Ventures, an organization that creates, builds, and invests in life sciences companies, a role she has held since 2013. While at Militia Hill, Jane co-founded and currently serves as Executive Chair of Eliksa Therapeutics, a regenerative medicine company, co-founded and served as Executive Chair of Spirovant Sciences, a gene therapy company sold to Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, and served as Executive Chair and CEO of Immunome Inc. (NASDAQ: IMNM), a cancer immunotherapy company. Prior to founding Militia Hill, Ms. Hollingsworth co-founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of NuPathe, Inc., a neuroscience focused biopharmaceutical company. She also co-founded and served as EVP of Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, a urology and rare disease focused biopharmaceutical company.

Ms. Hollingsworth also currently serves on the boards of the life science companies Afimmune Ltd. And Ribonova, and various industry and community organizations, including the University City Science Center, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and Breastcancer.Org.

Ms. Hollingsworth received her B.A. from Gettysburg College and her J.D. from Villanova University.

Frank Zavrl

Mr. Zavrl has been a member of EIP’s board of directors since April 2018. From September 2017 to March 2018, Mr. Zavrl served as a member of the board of directors of EIP Pharma, LLC. Prior to that, Mr. Zavrl has served on the board of directors of Puma Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ: PBYI), a publicly traded company focused on the treatment of cancer, from September 2015 to July 2020. From 2002 to 2011, Mr. Zavrl served as a Partner at Adage Capital Management, L.P., an asset management company, where Mr. Zavrl specialized in biotechnology investments. From 1999 to 2002, Mr. Zavrl served as a Portfolio Manager at Merlin BioMed Group, a healthcare investment firm. Previously, Mr. Zavrl served from 1998 to 1999 as an analyst at Scudder Kemper Investments Inc., focusing on biotechnology investments.

Mr. Zavrl received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Marwan Sabbagh, MD

Dr. Sabbagh has been a member of EIP’s board of directors since November 2021. Since October 2021, Dr. Sabbagh has served as a professor in the Department of Neurology and recently became Vice Chairman for Research at the Barrow Neurological Institute and is board certified in neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. Previously, from May 2018 to October 2021, Dr. Sabbagh was a neurologist and director at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. Prior to his time at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Sabbagh was a director and neurologist at the Banner Sun Health Research Institute from 2000 to 2015. Dr. Sabbagh served on the board of directors of Quince Therapeutics, Inc. (f/k/a/ Cortexyme, Inc.) (NASDAQ: QNCX) from March 2022 to September 2022.

Dr. Sabbagh earned his medical degree from the University of Arizona College of Medicine and his undergraduate degree from the University of California Berkeley. He completed his neurology residency at Baylor College of Medicine and a geriatric neurology and dementia fellowship at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

Robert J. Cobuzzi, Jr., Ph.D

Robert Cobuzzi serves as the Chief Operating Officer at CervoMed, joining the company in August 2023. Robert has over 25 years of cross-functional leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries across the areas of corporate development, research & development, and operations. Previously, Robert served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of Diffusion Pharmaceuticals from 2020 until 2023. From 2005 until 2018, he held a variety of senior roles in corporate development, R&D and operations at Endo International Plc, including most recently as President, Endo Ventures Limited in Dublin, Ireland. Prior to Endo, he was with Adolor Corporation from 2001 until 2005. Robert began his career in 1995 at AstraMerck in clinical operations before joining Centocor (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) in Worldwide Regulatory Affairs from 1999 to 2001.

Robert also currently serves as a Venture Partner for Sunstone Life Science Ventures and also is Chairman of Sunstone’s Business Development Board. He was previously a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Health/Science Products and Services, and served as a board member for two development-stage medical device companies. Robert holds an AB in Biochemistry and Art History from Colby College and a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from Loyola University Chicago. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y.