Meet the Team

Paul B. Manning is the president and CEO of PBM Capital Group based in Charlottesville, VA. An entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry, in 2010 Paul founded PBM Capital Group, a private equity investment firm in the business of investing in health care and life-science related companies. Paul directs all investment decisions and sits on the Board of Directors for many of PBM Capital’s investments including: Avexis (NASDAQ:AVXS), Dova Pharmaceuticals, Verrica Pharmaceuticals, and PBM Pharmaceuticals.

Paul has successfully founded several companies that developed and distributed prescription and over the counter products to major chains in the United States. In 1997, Paul founded PBM Products, which became the largest private label producer of infant formula and baby/toddler food in the world. PBM Products was sold to Perrigo Corporation in 2010. Paul served on Perrigo Corporation’s Board of Directors after the sale.

Paul is an active member of the University of Virginia community, having served on the Board of UVA Strategic Planning Committee, the Board of UVA Health Foundation, and the Board of the President’s Advisory Committee. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a B.S. in Microbiology. He was named Virginia Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young in 2002. Paul has been married for 34 years to his wife Diane and has 3 children, Bradford, Kaity and Bryan.

Diem Nguyen has more than 25 years of experience and extensive expertise in the pharmaceutical industry. She is currently the CEO of SIGA Technologies, a public commercial stage pharmaceutical company focused on anti-viral treatments.  Prior to SIGA, she was the CEO of Xalud Therapeutics, a clinical stage non-viral gene therapy biotechnology company in the field of inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases.   She also served as Executive Vice President of Biopharma for PPD, Inc. a leading global clinical research organization.  Dr. Nguyen joined PPD from Pfizer in 2018, where she served as Global President, Americas, Pfizer Essential Health and Global Sterile Injectables, responsible for commercial businesses in the Americas. In that role, she had P&L responsibility with more than $11 billion in annual revenues and commercial responsibilities across multiple therapeutic areas in solid oral drugs, sterile injectables, biosimilars and devices, overseeing over 5,000 Pfizer employees.

Dr. Nguyen currently serves on the board of Verrica Pharmaceuticals, Vitara, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Virginia, as well as an M.B.A. from UVA’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

After 16 years, Dr. Edward J. Benz, Jr. retired as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2017. He is now currently president and CEO Emeritus, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and a member of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Board of Directors. Edward is also the Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics, Professor of Pathology, and Faculty Dean, Oncology, at Harvard Medical School, as well as a member of the Governing Board of Dana-Farber/Children’s Cancer Center.

Prior to his role at Dana-Farber, Edward served as the Chairman, Department of Medicine and Sir William Osler Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as well as Physician-in-Chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital. During the course of his career, Edward was an Associate Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, has authored more than 300 articles, books, chapters, reviews and abstracts, and has co-edited several standard medical texts.

Edward has served as President of the American Society of Hematology, the Association of American Cancer Institutes, the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the American Clinical and Climatological Association. Over the years Edward has received numerous awards including the Margaret L. Kripke Legend Award, the American Society of Hematology Mentoring Award in Basic Science, and the Leon Resnick Award for Research. Edward maintains an active research program at Dana-Farber examining the molecular basis and genetics of inherited blood disorders.

Joseph Papa has more than 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, health care and specialty pharmaceutical industries, including more than 20 years of branded prescription drug experience. In July 2022, he stepped down as chair of Bausch + Lomb’s Board and will remain CEO until his successor is appointed. Prior to Bausch + Lomb, Mr. Papa had led various organizations, including Bausch Health formerly known as Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Perrigo, and the Cardinal Health PTS business, as Chairman and CEO separately during the period of two decades. In 2014, he was ranked 47 on Harvard Business Review’s “Best Performing CEOs in the World”. His track record for leadership continued as he served as President and Chief Operating Officer for Watson Pharmaceuticals (2001-2004), President of Global Country Operations for Pharmacia’s North American business (2000-2001), and President of Searle’s US Operations (1997-2000).

During his 15-year career at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, he and his teams successfully launched the pharmaceutical products Lotrel ® , Divovan ® , and Celebrex ® . Mr. Papa currently serves on the Board of Prometheus Biosciences and had been a previous member of the Boards for the UConn Foundation and Smith & Nephew.

Paul Peter Tak, M.D., Ph.D., FMedSci, has served as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the board of directors of Candel since September 2020; he oversaw the IPO process on the Nasdaq in 2021.

He received his medical degree cum laude from the Amsterdam University Medical Center and was trained as an internist, rheumatologist, and immunologist at Leiden University Medical Center, where he also received his Ph.D. Dr. Tak has been Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Diego. Next, he served as Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the Amsterdam University Medical Center. Dr. Tak has pioneered preclinical and clinical research on the role of the vagus nerve in chronic inflammation. This work provided a platform from which to explore bioelectronics as a therapeutic approach in autoimmune disease.

He has published ~600 papers in peer-reviewed journals (H-index 142) and received numerous awards. He has been elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (U.K.). At GlaxoSmithKline he served as Senior Vice President, Chief Immunology Officer, and Global Development Leader from 2011 to 2018. In his role as Global Head of a cluster of Therapy Area Units at GSK (Dermatology, ImmunoInflammation, Infectious Disease, and Oncology), he oversaw the creation of a portfolio of new medicines, including anti-CCL17 antibody, gepotidacin, belimumab sc (approved in 2017 [Benlysta® sc]), mafodotin (approved in 2020 [Blenrep®]), cabotegravir/rilpivirine (approved in 2021 [Cabenuva®]), and tapinarof (acquired by Dermavant Sciences; approved in 2022 [VTAMAR®]). Dr. Tak was the Chair of the Scientific Review Board, the governing body accountable for the scientific assessment of GSK’s R&D portfolio. He was also the President and CEO of Tempero Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GSK). From 2018 to 2020, Dr. Tak served as venture partner at Flagship Pioneering and also as President and CEO of Kintai Therapeutics (merged with Senda Biosciences). In addition, he has served as board director of Galvani Bioelectronics, ViiV Healthcare, and Omega Therapeutics. Currently, he is also on the Board of Sitryx Therapeutics (co-founder), Levicept, and he is the Chair of the Board of Citryll. He is a 2021 PharmaVOICE100 honoree (100 most inspiring people in life sciences), was included in ‘The Medicine Maker Power List 2023’, and ranked #120 in the 2023 Edition of the World Ranking of Top 1000 Scientists in the area of Immunology.

Renee Gaeta currently serves as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Eko Devices, a privately held cardiopulmonary digital health company. Before joining Eko, she served as CFO and member of the executive team at Establishment Labs Holdings, Inc. There, she successfully led the organization to an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and through a significant growth and value creation stage. Mrs. Gaeta has played integral roles across the financial sector including during her role as Vice President, Corporate Controller, and executive team member at publicly traded company, Sientra, Inc., where she guided the company during its pre-IPO period, as well as continued financing following their IPO. Before leading the finance department of Sientra, she exceled in multiple roles within KPMG over a decade with her most recent role having been Advisory Director in the Transactions and Restructuring Group. Mrs. Gaeta currently serves on the Board of SeaSpine Holdings Corporation as Audit Committee Chair and is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of California.

After 16 years, Dr. Edward J. Benz, Jr. retired as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2017. He is now currently president and CEO Emeritus, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and a member of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Board of Directors. Edward is also the Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics, Professor of Pathology, and Faculty Dean, Oncology, at Harvard Medical School, as well as a member of the Governing Board of Dana-Farber/Children’s Cancer Center.

Prior to his role at Dana-Farber, Edward served as the Chairman, Department of Medicine and Sir William Osler Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as well as Physician-in-Chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital. During the course of his career, Edward was an Associate Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, has authored more than 300 articles, books, chapters, reviews and abstracts, and has co-edited several standard medical texts.

Edward has served as President of the American Society of Hematology, the Association of American Cancer Institutes, the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the American Clinical and Climatological Association. Over the years Edward has received numerous awards including the Margaret L. Kripke Legend Award, the American Society of Hematology Mentoring Award in Basic Science, and the Leon Resnick Award for Research. Edward maintains an active research program at Dana-Farber examining the molecular basis and genetics of inherited blood disorders.

Harvey Cushing Professor of Neurosurgery at The Johns Hopkins University, Director of the Department of Neurosurgery, Neurosurgeon-in-Chief, Professor of Oncology, Ophthalmology, and Biomedical Engineering and co-leader of the Brain Cancer Program for the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

Ensign Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and Professor of Pharmacology, Chief of Medical Oncology, Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, Associate Cancer Center Director, Translational Science.

Dana and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli Professor of Oncology, Deputy Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, and Co-Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancers Program.

Dr. June is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on various mechanisms of lymphocyte activation that relate to immune tolerance and adoptive immunotherapy for cancer and chronic infection.

Former Chairman of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Professor of Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College.

Gary Nabel, M.D., Ph.D., a renowned virologist and immunologist, currently serves as Chief Innovation Officer of OPKO and President/CEO of ModeX Therapeutics that merged as a subsidiary of OPKO Health in May 2022. Before this, Dr. Nabel served as Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President at Sanofi, where he oversaw the Breakthrough Laboratory that worked to create the first trispecific antibodies for HIV, cancer immunotherapies, and novel vaccines. Prior to Sanofi, Dr. Nabel spearheaded progressive research on HIV, influenza, SARS, Ebola, Chikungunya, and Epstein-Barr virus while he served as founding director at the NIH’s Vaccine Center for more than a decade.

His honors include being elected to the Institute of Medicine for the National Academy of Science and the Amgen Scientific Achievement Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, following his countless accomplishments across virology, immunology, gene therapy, and molecular biology.

Dr. Pulendran is the Violetta L. Horton Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and Director of the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection at Stanford University and a Fellow at ChEM-H (Chemistry, Engineering and Medicine for Human Health). He received his Ph.D. from the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute under Sir Gustav Nossal. His groundbreaking research has had a transformative impact on human immunology and vaccinology, including the discovery that dendritic cells consist of multiple functionally distinct subtypes and the mechanisms by which microbial stimuli program dendritic cells to modulate immune responses.

His research has been published in leading journals including Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Medicine, and Nature Immunology and is listed on Thomson Reuters’ list of Highly Cited Researchers, recognizing the world’s most influential researchers, demonstrated by the production of multiple, highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations.