Merged into Renovacor Inc, ticker now RCOR
CHAQ

Completed

Renovacor Inc

Chardan Healthcare Acquisition 2 Corp.

CIK
1799850
SPAC Ticker
CHAQ
Merger
Renovacor Inc
Merged Ticker
RCOR
Focus
Healthcare
External link: SEC Filings

SPAC Team

Leadership

Dr. Gbola Amusa, 45, has been our Executive Chairman since June 2018 and Chief Science Officer since March 2020. Dr. Amusa was the Executive Chairman of Chardan Healthcare Acquisition Corp. from March 2018 until its merger in October 2019 with BiomX, Ltd. (NYSE: PHGE). Dr. Amusa is currently a director of BiomX. Dr. Amusa has served as Partner, Director of Research, and Head of Healthcare Equity Research at Chardan Capital Markets since December 2014. At Chardan, he has established the firm’s healthcare vision by focusing on disruptive healthcare segments, such as gene therapy/genetic medicines that have the highest potential for significant investment returns. Dr. Amusa was previously Managing Director, Head of European Pharma Research, and Global Pharma & Biotech Coordinator at UBS (from 2007 to 2013), where he oversaw 25 analysts. Prior to UBS, Dr. Amusa was a Senior Research Analyst and Head of European Pharma research at Sanford Bernstein. He started his career in finance at Goldman Sachs as an Associate in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group, where he worked on large transactions including the Amgen/Immunex merger. Additionally, Dr. Amusa was previously a Healthcare Finance & Strategy Consultant working with governments, companies, leading foundations and think tanks. He holds an M.D. from Washington University Medical School, an M.B.A. with High Honors (GPA 4.0/4.0) from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a B.S.E. with Honors from Duke University. We believe Mr. Amusa’s long-running healthcare finance experience as well as his previous company board positions make him well qualified to serve as a director for the Chardan Healthcare Acquisition 2 Corp.

Jonas Grossman, 45, has been our Chief Executive Officer since June 2018. Mr. Grossman was the Chief Executive Officer and President of the SPAC Chardan Healthcare Acquisition Corp. from March 2018 until its merger in October 2019 with BiomX (NYSE: PHGE). Jonas is currently a director of BiomX and since March 2020 is also a director of LifeSci Acquisition Corp. Mr. Grossman has served as Partner and Head of Capital Markets for Chardan Capital Markets, LLC, a New York headquartered broker/dealer, since December 2003. Mr. Grossman has served as President of Chardan Capital Markets, LLC since September 2015. Since 2003, Mr. Grossman has overseen the firm’s deal origination and syndication, execution, secondary market sales and trading and corporate access initiatives. He has extensive transactional experience having led or managed more than 400 transactions during his tenure at Chardan. Since December 2006, Mr. Grossman has served as a founding partner for Cornix Advisors, LLC, a New York based hedge fund. From 2001 until 2003, Mr. Grossman worked at Ramius Capital Group, LLC, a global multi-strategy hedge fund where he served as Vice President and Head Trader. Mr. Grossman served as a director for China Broadband (NASDAQ: IDEX) from January 2008 until November 2010. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from NYU’s Stern School of Business. We believe Mr. Grossman’s long-running capital markets experience as well as his previous company board positions make him well qualified to serve as a director for the Chardan Healthcare Acquisition 2 Corp.

George Kaufman, 42, has been our Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategy since June 2018. Mr. Kaufman was the Chief Financial Officer, Head of Strategy and a director of Chardan Healthcare Acquisition Corp. from March 2018 until October 2019. Mr. Kaufman has served as Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking for Chardan Capital Markets, LLC since January 2006. Mr. Kaufman established the investment banking, brokerage and marketing protocols and standards at Chardan since joining the firm in 2004. Mr. Kaufman has extensive experience with SPACs, M&A transactions and financings especially in association with emerging growth companies. Mr. Kaufman founded Detroit Coffee Company, LLC, a national roaster, wholesaler and retail distributor of high-end specialty coffees in January 2002 and currently serves as its chief executive officer and has been a director of Prime Acquisition Corp. a European real estate company, since May 2014. Mr. Kaufman received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Vermont.

Guy Barudin, 59, has been our Chief Operating Officer since December 2019. Since February 2019, Mr. Barudin, has been a Director at Chardan Capital Markets, LLC where he supports general investment banking and was a member of the Chardan Healthcare Acquisition Corp. transaction team. Prior to joining Chardan, from 2007 to February 2019, Mr. Barudin was Managing Director at Terrapin Partners, LLC, a private equity investment firm. From June 2014 to December 2016, Mr. Barudin served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Terrapin 3 Acquisition Corp. until that SPAC merged with Yatra Online, Inc. Prior to serving with Terrapin 3, Mr. Barudin was a member of the management team of Aldabra 2 Acquisition Corp. until that SPAC merged with certain paper and packaging businesses of Boise Cascade. At Terrapin Partners, Mr. Barudin also managed a portfolio of alternative assets including real estate, energy, private equity, venture capital, hedge funds and fund of funds. Prior to Terrapin, from 2000 to 2007, Mr. Barudin was Senior Director at Medco Health Solutions, where he held various business development and finance positions and concentrated on strategic transactions related to healthcare information technology and pharmacy benefit strategy. Prior to Medco, Mr. Barudin was Vice President for Alliances and New Ventures at MasterCard International where he focused on payments and financial technology strategic transactions. Prior to Mastercard, he held positions in corporate finance at Merrill Lynch, PaineWebber Group Inc., and Dillon Read & Co., Inc. Mr. Barudin received an MS from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management and a BSE from Princeton University.

Isaac Manke, 42, will serve as director following the completion of this offering. Dr. Manke has more than 15 years of experience in the life science industry as an investor, research analyst, consultant and scientist. Dr. Manke joined New Leaf Venture Partners, or NLV, in 2009 as an associate, and was a General Partner at NLV from 2017 to 2019. Dr. Manke’s investment activities with NLV started with a focus on venture investments in the biopharmaceutical sector. Dr. Manke led the firm’s public investment activities initially with the public portfolio within NLV-II, and from 2014 through December 2019 had included day-to-day management and oversight responsibility for the NLV Biopharma Opportunities Funds. Dr. Manke has been a board member or observer for several companies, including the boards of True North Therapeutics (acquired by Bioverativ) and Karos Pharmaceuticals (acquired by an undisclosed company). Prior to joining NLV, Dr. Manke was an Associate in the Global Biotechnology Equity Research group at Sanford C. Bernstein. Previously, Dr. Manke worked as an Associate in the Biotechnology Equity Research group at Deutsche Bank and was a Senior Analyst at Health Advances, a biopharmaceutical and medical device strategy consulting firm. Dr. Manke received a B.A. in Biology and a B.A. in Chemistry at Minnesota State University (Moorhead), and a Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry and Molecular Structure at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT. Dr. Manke’s discoveries led to several publications in top journals, including Science and Cell, and were selected by Science as one of the “2003: Signaling Breakthroughs of the Year.” These discoveries also resulted in four issued patents. We believe Mr. Manke’s long-running life science investment experience as well as his previous company board positions make him well qualified to serve as a director for the Chardan Healthcare Acquisition 2 Corp.

Michael Rice, 53, will serve as director following the completion of this offering. Mr. Rice has experience in portfolio management, corporate management, investment banking and capital markets. Mr. Rice has been the co-founder of LifeSci Advisors and LifeSci Capital since March 2010. From December 2018 until October 2019, Mr. Rice was a director of Chardan Healthcare Acquisition Corp. Since March 2020, Mr. Rice has been a director and the COO of LifeSci Acquisition Corp. From April 2007 to November 2008 Mr. Rice was the co-head of health care investment banking at Canaccord Adams, where he was involved in debt and equity financing. Mr. Rice was also was a Managing Director at Think Equity Partners from April 2005 to April 2007, where he was responsible for managing Healthcare Capital Markets. Prior to that, from August 2003 to March 2005 Mr. Rice served as a Managing Director at Bank of America serving large hedge funds and private equity healthcare funds. Previously, he was a Managing Director at JPMorgan/Hambrecht & Quist. Mr. Rice has been a Director of RDD Pharma Ltd. since January 2016 and Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Inc. since May 2016. Mr. Rice received his BA from the University of Maryland. We believe Mr. Rice’s long-running healthcare advisory experience as well as his previous company board positions make him well qualified to serve as a director for the Chardan Healthcare Acquisition 2 Corp.

Richard Giroux, 46, will serve as director following the completion of this offering. Mr. Giroux was a director of Chardan Healthcare Acquisition Corp. from December 2018 to October 2019. Mr. Giroux is a Founder and has been the Chief Operating Officer of MeiraGTx (NASDAQ:MGTX) since the company’s formation in 2015. He brings more than 20 years of leadership and capital markets experience in finance and healthcare to his position. Prior to joining MeiraGTx, Rich was a partner at Sarissa Capital Management LP, an activist healthcare hedge fund, from 2014 to 2015. In 2010, Mr. Giroux helped launch and operate Meadowvale Partners, a multi-strategy hedge fund, where he was a founding partner and healthcare portfolio manager from 2009 to 2013. Prior to Meadowvale, he was a partner at Sivik Global Healthcare (formerly Argus Partners) from 2001 – 2008, a long/short global equity healthcare fund. From 1996 to 2001, he worked in the equity derivative divisions of Goldman Sachs and Salomon Smith Barney where he structured, marketed and traded derivative and cash products for domestic and international hedge funds and asset allocators. Mr. Giroux received his BA in Economics from Yale University. We believe Mr. Giroux is well qualified to serve as a director based on his biotechnology industry leadership and capital markets experience from founding through private capital raising and public offering.

Matthew Rossen, 41, will serve as director following the completion of this offering. Mr. Rossen was a director of Chardan Healthcare Acquisition Corp. from December 2018 to October 2019. Mr. Rossen has 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech arena, working across multiple therapeutic categories including Anti-Infectives, Alzheimer’s, Cardiovascular, Hematology, Solid Tumor, and Sleep Science. Since April 2019, Mr Rossen has been Vice President, Marketing at QED Therapeutics, a subsidiary of BridgeBio. From January 2018 until March 2019, Mr. Rossen was a Senior Director of Business Development for Jazz Pharmaceuticals. Prior to working in business development, from 2012 to 2017, Mr. Rossen had been leading the commercial efforts of the Hematology Oncology division at Jazz Pharmaceuticals. Prior thereto, from 2001 to 2010 Mr. Rossen worked at Pfizer Inc., where he spent 10 years in positions of increasing responsibility across a number of functions including Operations and Manufacturing, US and WW Marketing and Commercial Development. He holds a B.S. in Kinesiology and Applied Human Physiology from the University of Colorado and received his MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business. We believe Mr. Rossen is well qualified to serve as a director due to his deep understanding of and appreciation for the investments needed to ensure development and commercial success in the Biosciences sector.

R.A. Session II, 41, will serve as director following the completion of this offering. Mr. Session has been Chief Business Officer of the gene therapy subsidiaries of BridgeBio since January 2019. Previously, he was Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development from March 2017 at AveXis until its $8.7 billion acquisition by Novartis in July 2018. From June 2013 to March 2017, Mr. Session served in various roles for PTC Therapeutics, Inc., most recently as the vice president of commercial development. He also served in various roles at Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc., most recently as the senior director of strategic planning and finance. Prior to Reata Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Session worked at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals as senior manager of commercial portfolio and post deal analytics in the managed markets group. He began his career in the pharmaceutical division of Johnson & Johnson, where he served in several positions including senior financial analyst in the strategic business group. Mr. Session currently serves on the board of directors for Lung Therapeutics, ReCode Therapeutics, and Sandhill Therapeutics. Mr. Session is a member of the Kauffman Fellows Society. Mr. Session received a B.S/B.A. in finance from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a M.S.F. in finance from Texas A&M University-Commerce and an MBA from Texas A&M University-Commerce. We believe Mr. Session is well qualified to serve as a director due to his extensive experience in biotech business development, mergers and acquisitions.