Merged into Orchestra BioMed, Inc., ticker now OBIO
HSAQ

Completed

Orchestra BioMed, Inc.

OBIO
First $11.41
Merger $8.48
26%
Merger +6mo $5.59
51%
Merger +1yr $7.50
34%
Recent $4.93
57%

Health Sciences Acquisitions Corp 2

Sponsors: HSAC 2 Holdings
CIK
1814114
SPAC Ticker
HSAQ
Merger
Orchestra BioMed, Inc.
Merged Ticker
OBIO
Focus
Healthcare
External link: SEC Filings

SPAC Team

Leadership

Roderick Wong, MD, our President and Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of our board of directors , has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since June 2020 and on our board since the company’s inception. Dr. Wong has more than 16 years of healthcare investing experience. Since 2009, he has served as Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of RTW, a healthcare-focused investment firm managing $4.4 billion in regulatory assets under management. Prior to forming RTW, Dr. Wong was a Managing Director and sole Portfolio Manager for the Davidson Kempner Healthcare Funds. Prior to joining Davidson Kempner, Dr. Wong held various healthcare investment and research roles at Sigma Capital Partners and Cowen & Company. Dr. Wong served as Chairman of the board of directors of Health Sciences Acquisitions Corporation (“HSAC”) and its Chief Executive Officer from January 2019 until December 2019. Other current and previous directorships include: Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he serves as Chairman, a position he has held since Rocket’s inception in July 2015; Attune Pharmaceuticals, a portfolio company of RTW, where he has served as a director since June 2018; Athira Pharma and C4 Therapeutics, portfolio companies of RTW, where he serves as an observer to the board of directors. Since 2019, Dr. Wong also has served as a director on the boards of Avidity Biosciences and Landos Biopharma. Dr. Wong previously served on the board of directors of Penwest Pharmaceuticals in 2010. He simultaneously received an MD from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and an MBA from Harvard Business School, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BS in Economics from Duke University. We believe that Dr. Wong is qualified to sit on our board due to his extensive experience in evaluating medical and scientific assets in the biopharmaceutical industry and his expansive knowledge of extracting and delivering shareholder value when serving in a board leadership position.

Naveen Yalamanchi, MD, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer , has served as our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and as a member of our board of directors since June 2020. Dr. Yalamanchi has more than 15 years of healthcare investment and research experience. Since 2015, Dr. Yalamanchi has been a Partner and Portfolio Manager at RTW. Prior to joining RTW, Dr. Yalamanchi was Vice President and Co-Portfolio Manager at Calamos Arista Partners, a subsidiary of Calamos Investments, a position he held from 2012 to 2015. Prior to joining Calamos Arista Partners, Dr. Yalamanchi held various healthcare investment roles at Millennium Management and Davidson Kempner Capital Management, where he worked with Dr. Wong. Dr. Yalamanchi graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BS in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received an MD from the Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his surgical internship at UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Yalamanchi served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of HSAC from January 2019 until December 2019. Other prior and current directorships include HSAC, where Dr. Yalamanchi served as a director from January 2019 until December 2019, Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he served as a director since Rocket’s inception in July 2015, and Ancora Heart, and Magnolia Medical Technologies, portfolio companies of RTW, where Dr. Yalamanchi serves as an observer to the board of directors. We believe that Dr. Yalamanchi is qualified to sit on our board due to his years of experience in the healthcare industry, as a clinician as well as an investor who possesses unique insight into medical technology and biotechnology assets, in addition to his strong service to HSAC and Rocket stockholders.

Alice Lee, JD, our Vice President of Operations , has served as our Vice President of Operations and as our Secretary and Treasurer since June 2020. Ms. Lee has served as RTW’s Senior Counsel since October 2017 and Chief Compliance Officer since February 2019 and has more than a decade of experience advising life sciences companies in corporate and transactional matters. Prior to joining RTW, she most recently served as a senior associate in the Life Sciences practice at Ropes & Gray LLP from 2015 to 2017. Prior to that, she worked in the Intellectual Property Transactions and Technology practice at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP from 2010 to 2015, and she began her legal career in the Mergers & Acquisitions practice at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. Ms. Lee served as Vice President of Operations of HSAC from January 2019 until December 2019. Ms. Lee received her law degree from Columbia Law School, where she served as a Senior Editor of Columbia Law Review and was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. She earned an MS from Stanford University in Computer Science (with an emphasis in Bioinformatics), completed two years of pre-clinical coursework at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where she was an MD candidate, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude with a BA in Philosophy from Columbia University. Prior to law school, Ms. Lee worked as a computational biologist at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute at the University of South Florida and co-authored “The promise of gene signatures in cancer diagnosis and prognosis” included in the Encyclopedia of Genetics, Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics and “Fundamentals of Cancer Genomics and Proteomics” included in Surgery: Basic Science and Clinical Evidence. She also worked as a software development engineer intern at Amazon.com. We believe Ms. Lee will be additive to our executive team due to her depth of knowledge across science and the law as it pertains to corporate and financial transactions in the life sciences space.

Stephanie A. Sirota, our Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Corporate Communications , has served as our Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Corporate Communications since June 2020. Ms. Sirota has served as RTW’s Chief Business Officer since 2012 and as a Partner since 2014. Ms. Sirota is responsible for strategy and oversight of RTW’s business development and strategic partnerships with counterparties including limited partners, banks and academic institutions. She is also responsible for shaping the firm’s governance policies underscoring impact and sustainability. Ms. Sirota has more than a decade of deal experience in financial services. Prior to joining RTW, from 2006 to 2010, she served as a director at Valhalla Capital Advisors, a macro and commodity investment manager. From 2000 to 2003, Ms. Sirota worked in the New York and London offices of Lehman Brothers, where she advised on various mergers & acquisitions, IPOs, and capital market financing transactions with a focus on cross-border transactions for the firm’s global corporate clients. She began her career on the Fixed Income trading desk at Lehman Brothers, structuring derivatives for municipal issuers from 1997 to 1999. Ms. Sirota served as Vice President of Corporate Strategy of HSAC from January 2019 until December 2019. Other current directorships include RTW Venture Fund Limited (LSE: “RTW”), where Ms. Sirota has served as a director since October 2019. Ms. Sirota graduated with honors from Columbia University and also received an MS from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She has contributed to Fortune Magazine and ABCNews.com. Ms. Sirota is a supporter of the arts, science, and children’s initiatives. She serves as Co-Chairman of the Council of the Phil at the New York Philharmonic. She also serves as President of RTW Charitable Foundation. We believe Ms. Sirota will be additive to our executive team based on her extensive investor relations, strategic partnerships and corporate development background, and experience with the HSAC team in our prior transaction.

Pedro Granadillo has agreed to serve on our board of directors as of the closing of this offering. Mr. Granadillo has nearly 50 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience with expertise in human resources, manufacturing, quality control, and corporate governance. From 1970 until his retirement in 2004, Mr. Granadillo held multiple leadership roles at Eli Lilly and Company, including Senior Vice President of Global Manufacturing and Human Resources and a member of the Executive Committee. Mr. Granadillo currently serves on the board of directors of Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a position he has held since January 2018. Mr. Granadillo has previously served on the boards of directors at Haemonetics Corporation from 2004 to 2019, Dendreon Corporation, Nile Therapeutics and Noven Pharmaceuticals, as well as NPS Pharmaceuticals, which was sold to Shire for $5.2 billion in 2015. Mr. Granadillo is also a co-founder and board member of Neumentum Pharmaceuticals, a private non opioid pain company. Mr. Granadillo graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering. We believe that Mr. Granadillo’s qualifications to sit on our board include his depth of knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry and his many years of experience serving on the boards of directors of healthcare companies. We especially believe that Mr. Granadillo’s expertise in human resources and corporate governance will be key areas where he will add value.

Carsten Boess has agreed to serve on our board of directors as of the closing of this offering. Mr. Boess currently serves and has served as a director for Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since January 2016, Avidity Biosciences since April 2020, and Achilles Therapeutics since April 2020. Previously, Mr. Boess was the Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. from August 2015 until February 2020. Before Kiniksa, Mr. Boess was the Chief Financial Officer at Alexion Pharmaceuticals from 2004 to 2005 and the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Synageva BioPharma Corp. from 2011 until the company’s acquisition by Alexion Pharmaceuticals in 2015. Previously, Mr. Boess served in multiple roles with increasing responsibility at Insulet Corporation, including Chief Financial Officer from 2006 to 2009 and Vice President of International Operations from 2009 to 2011. Prior to that, Mr. Boess served as Executive Vice President of Finance at Serono Inc. from 2005 to 2006. In addition, he was a member of the Geneva-based World Wide Executive Finance Management Team while at Serono. Mr. Boess also held several financial executive roles at Novozymes of North America and Novo Nordisk in France, Switzerland and China. During his tenure at Novo Nordisk, he served on Novo Nordisk’s Global Finance Board. Mr. Boess received a Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Economics and Finance, specializing in Accounting and Finance from the University of Odense, Denmark. We believe Mr. Boess’ corporate governance, business, and board experience will add value.

Stuart Peltz, PhD has agreed to serve on our board of directors as of the closing of this offering. Dr. Peltz founded PTC Therapeutics in 1998 and has served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors since the company’s inception. Prior to founding PTC, Dr. Peltz was a Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University. Dr. Peltz currently serves as a director of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and serves on BIO’s Emerging Companies Section Governing Board. Dr. Peltz received a Ph.D. from the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin. We believe Dr. Peltz’s expertise as a biotech executive will add value.

Michael Brophy has agreed to serve on our board of directors as of the closing of this offering. Mr. Brophy has served as the Chief Financial Officer of Natera since February 2017. Previously, Mr. Brophy served as Natera’s Senior Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations since September 2016, and prior to that, as Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations since September 2015. Prior to joining Natera, Mr. Brophy served in the investment banking division at Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank where he focused on advising corporate clients in the life science tools and diagnostics sector. Mr. Brophy holds an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the United States Air Force Academy. We believe Mr. Brophy’s expertise in the biopharma industry and investment banking will add value.