Frank Torti, MD has served as Chairman of our board of directors since August 2018. Dr. Torti has served as Vant Investment Chair of Roivant Pharma, a business unit of Roivant Sciences, since August 2018. Dr. Torti joined Roivant from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a leading venture capital firm where he served as partner. At NEA, Dr. Torti managed early and growth-stage investments in numerous healthcare companies that were responsible for the development and commercialization of new drugs and medical devices important to clinical medicine today. Prior to joining NEA in 2007, Dr. Torti was a researcher at the Duke University Center for Clinical & Genetic Economics. Dr. Torti received his M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and his M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School.
Todd Zavodnick has served as our Chief Executive Officer since November 2018 and as a member of our board of directors since May 2019. Mr. Zavodnick has over 20 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Dermavant in November 2018, Mr. Zavodnick served as Chief Commercial Officer at Revance. He previously served in global leadership roles at ZELTIQ Aesthetics prior to the company’s acquisition by Allergan, at Galderma Laboratories where he was President and General Manager of North America, and at Alcon Laboratories. He is a member of the board of directors of the Children’s Skin Disease Foundation. Mr. Zavodnick received a B.S. in Pharmacy from Rutgers University and an M.B.A. from The University of Texas at Dallas.
Kenneth E. Ludlum has served as a member of our board of directors since May 2019. Mr. Ludlum has served on the board of over a dozen companies and currently serves on the board of directors and as Chairman of the audit committee of NATUS Medical, Inc., a medical device and equipment company. Mr. Ludlum also currently serves on the boards of other biotechnology and medical technology companies, including biotechnology company, Personalis, Inc., since 2015 and laser ophthalmic company, IRIDEX Corp., since April 2019. He has served as Chief Financial Officer for other private and publicly traded companies, including CareDx, Inc., a biotechnology company, from 2014 to 2016, and medical technology company, EndoGastric Solutions, Inc., from 2014 to 2015. Mr. Ludlum holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Lehigh University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
Timothy S. Nelson has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2019. Mr. Nelson currently serves on the board of directors of Impel NeuroPharma, Inc. and is Chairman of the Board of XOC Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which are both private biopharmaceutical companies. From 2005 to 2013, Mr. Nelson served as the President and Chief Executive Officer, and member of the board of directors, of MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company acquired by Allergan in March 2013. He also has served on other boards, including Surmodics, Inc., a public medical technology company, from February 2014 to March 2015. Mr. Nelson received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and a Master’s degree in Management with Distinction from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Eric Venker, MD, PharmD, has served as a member of our board of directors since January 2020 and serves as Chief Operating Officer of Roivant Sciences. He previously served as Chief of Staff to Roivant’s Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining RSI in 2017, Dr. Venker was a physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center, where he trained in internal medicine. While there, Dr. Venker served as the Chair of the Housestaff Quality Council and led operational initiatives to improve efficiencies across a large hospital system with $5 billion in annual revenue. Earlier in his career, he was a Clinical Pharmacist at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Venker received his Pharm.D. from St. Louis College of Pharmacy and his M.D. from Yale School of Medicine.
Nancy Beesley has served as a member of our board of directors since March 2022. Ms. Beesley currently serves as President of HCB Health, a full-service healthcare marketing agency. At HCB, Ms. Beesley has helped launch more than 70 products within disease spaces such as ophthalmology, wound care, rare disease, neurology, aesthetics and dermatology. Formerly, with Girgenti Hughes Butler & McDowell (Ogilvy Healthworld), she worked on pharmaceutical and drug-in-device therapies within the respiratory and cardiovascular spheres. Ms. Beesley holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Loyola University and has been named one of Pharma Voice’s Top 100 Most Inspiring People in Healthcare. She is an active member of The University of Texas Center for Health Communication Advisory Council as well as a member of HBA and OWL.