Ralph Rivero Ph.D., is an accomplished and passionate “drug hunter” with over 31 years of pre-clinical drug discovery experience in large pharma. He earned his B.S. in Biochemistry from Lehigh University and received a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, under the direction of Professor Amos B. Smith III. After 8+ years at Merck Research Labs in Rahway NJ, where Dr. Rivero began his industrial career as a medicinal chemist in the Department of Discovery Chemistry, he joined Johnson & Johnson where he established a high throughput chemistry unit and helped with the establishment of high throughput screening and the subsequent medicinal chemistry follow-up. In 1999, he moved to SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, which became GlaxoSmithKline in 2000, where he rose through the ranks to senior director of medicinal chemistry. He worked for GSK for 20+ years prior to retiring in 2019. A common theme throughout his career has been the application of new technologies to reduce discovery cycle-times. His credentials include:

• A strong background in synthetic, high throughput and medicinal chemistry – over 60 publications in peer-reviewed journals; 20 presentations at conferences and symposia; inventor or co-inventor on 45 patents

• Experience in multiple therapeutic areas, including antibacterial, antiviral, cardiovascular, dermatology, inflammation, immunology, neuroscience, and oncology

• Experience prosecuting a variety of target classes, including kinases, proteases, ion-channels, GPCR, epigenetic enzymes, and transcription factors

• Experience devising and implementing novel drug discovery modalities – PROTAC and ARMS

• Extensive due diligence activity experience – evaluation of drug discovery and technology opportunities, analysis of drug discovery strategies, analysis of small molecule lead series and research programs

• Well-established track record for successfully advancing initial screening hits to viable lead molecules, and for identifying innovative solutions to complex drug discovery challenges

• Expertise analyzing and decision-making from large volumes of screening data

• Strong program leadership experience – directing the research of internal and external R&D activities, including medicinal chemistry, scale-up chemistry, biology and DMPK toward a clinical asset

• Designing molecules for oral, intravenous and topical routes of administration