Mark Smith is a Co-Founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Finch Therapeutics. Mark is a recognized leader in the microbiome field, with over 50 peer-reviewed publications focused on the microbiome. Previously, Mark served as President and Research Director of OpenBiome, a nonprofit organization he co-founded for the purpose of expanding safe access to microbiota transplantation and catalyzing research into the human microbiome. He currently serves on the board of directors of Freya Biosciences, a privately-held biotechnology company.

Mark has a BA in biology from Princeton University and a PhD in microbiology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Marc is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive with more than 20 years of experience building and leading companies and critical business functions including operations, business development, program management, and manufacturing. Prior to joining Finch, Marc consulted as the Head of Business Development for Guide Therapeutics, which was acquired by Beam Therapeutics in 2021. Prior to Guide Therapeutics, Marc was the Chief Executive Officer of NED Biosystems and co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Akashi Therapeutics. Before founding Akashi, he served in various leadership positions across several biotechnology companies, including Senior Vice President of Manufacturing, Process and Commercial Operations at Dyax Corp. (now Takeda), where he led the development of Kalbitor^®. Prior to Dyax, he held business development and management roles at Alkermes, where he initiated and led the development program for Vivitrol^®. Prior to Alkermes, he worked in business development at Genetics Institute (now Pfizer). Marc began his career in management consulting, first at Mercer Management Consulting, and then as a founding partner of Northbridge Consulting.

Marc received his master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University and bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

Dr. Batycky has more than 20 years of international biopharmaceutical industry experience, spanning from early discovery to product approval. She has led development teams across a broad range of therapeutic areas including oncology, CNS disorders, inflammatory diseases and reproductive health, utilizing multiple modalities including small molecules, biologics, devices and combination products. Dr. Batycky most recently served as Chief Development Officer at Ohana Biosciences, where she oversaw regulatory, manufacturing, quality and clinical operations. Previously, she held leadership roles at Akashi Therapeutics, Warp Drive Bio, and AMAG Pharmaceuticals. Prior to this, she held increasing responsibilities at CombinatoRx, Synta Pharmaceuticals, Alkermes and GSK. Her accomplishments include supporting the successful development of Feraheme^®, Inbrija^®, and Vivitrol^®.

Alka earned a bachelor’s degree in Toxicology and Pharmacology and a PhD in Toxicology from the School of Pharmacy, University of London, UK.

Dr. Franklin has more than 20 years of experience as a general surgeon and biopharmaceutical executive, with deep expertise spanning clinical development, regulatory strategy, medical affairs, and product commercialization. He most recently served as Chief Medical Officer at Salix Pharmaceuticals, where he provided leadership and expertise to program teams focused on the development of GI therapeutics, including amiselimod, next generation Xifaxan^® formulations, ENVIVE^™, and other GI and microbiome focused programs. Previously, he held leadership roles within early-stage biotechnology companies as well as large pharmaceutical companies, including Icon Bioscience, Oceana Therapeutics, The Medicines Company, and Esprit Pharma. Prior accomplishments include supporting the regulatory submission and FDA approval of PLENVU^®, DexyCu^®, and Solesta^®. Prior to entering industry, Dr. Franklin served as a general surgeon in private practice.

Howard earned his BS from Lehigh University, his MD from Drexel University College of Medicine, and his MBA from La Salle University.

Joseph has over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, including experience providing companies with strategic guidance on initial public offerings, equity and debt financings, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures and complex collaboration arrangements. Previously, Joseph held several positions at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, including most recently serving as its Executive Vice President, Chief Business Officer, and General Counsel & Corporate Secretary. Prior to this, he served as Vice President of Legal Affairs and a member of the Management Committee at Flexion Therapeutics. He also served as General Counsel and Secretary of AVEO Pharmaceuticals, and as Director of Corporate Legal Affairs at Oscient Pharmaceuticals Corporation. He began his career as a corporate associate at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC where he represented public biotechnology and technology companies in numerous areas, including securities, M&A and healthcare licensing collaborations. He currently serves on the American Cancer Society’s Eastern New England Board of Directors and is on the Board of Advisors for Life Science Cares.

Joseph has a BA in international relations from Tufts University and a JD from Northeastern University School of Law.

Sonia is an expert at designing NGS-based algorithms for applications in microbial genomics, immunogenomics, and evolution. Prior to joining Finch, she built and managed AbVitro's computational algorithms and infrastructure, supporting high throughput single-cell immune phenotyping and repertoire sequencing technology. This technology platform was acquired by Juno Therapeutics, where Sonia led a multidisciplinary team to harness native adaptive immune responses for developing engineered cell therapies in oncology.

Sonia graduated from Caltech with a B.Sc in Molecular Biology and received her Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from MIT.

Mr. Gillis has more than 20 years of experience across operations management, supply chain, global program leadership, strategic product and portfolio life cycle management, and global product quality management in the biotechnology industry. He most recently served as Vice President of Manufacturing and Supply at Rubius Therapeutics, where he led the development and execution of the company’s supply chain strategy with a focus on commercial launch. Previously, Mr. Gillis held manufacturing and company leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Alexion, Sanofi (Genzyme), Lonza, and Amgen. Prior accomplishments include supporting development programs and regulatory submissions for Replagal^® & VPRIV^®.

Bryan earned a BS in Biology from Eastern Nazarene College and an MBA from Boston University.

Michelle has over 20 years of experience working in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry as both in-house regulatory support for companies and as a consultant in all phases of the drug development process from discovery through clinical research to licensing. Michelle has extensive experience with rare disease development programs as well as FDA’s Expedited Programs for Serious Diseases and Conditions including Fast Track Designation, Accelerated Approval, Breakthrough Therapy designations, and Priority Review. Prior to joining Finch, Michelle served as an independent regulatory consultant, advising more than 20 companies on strategic regulatory matters across a broad range of therapeutic areas and product modalities, including cell therapy and microbiome-based products. She has assisted clients with successful global development, NDA/BLA approvals, MAA approvals, and regulatory due diligence for investors and/or potential partners interested in acquiring a financial interest in pharmaceutical assets. Prior to becoming a consultant, Michelle served as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Chimerix, where she held various positions of increasing responsibility and most recently held the title of Vice President of Regulatory Affairs. She was responsible for building the regulatory affairs and operations function from a department of one overseeing a single first in-human clinical trial to a global department conducting global Phase 3 clinical trials and preparing for simultaneous NDA and MAA submissions. Prior to her time with Chimerix, Michelle served as a Regulatory Authority Liaison at Biolex Therapeutics and EMD Pharmaceuticals, where she was the regulatory submission lead for global development projects, including one of the first products approved by the FDA under the Animal Efficacy Rule.

Michelle has a BS in biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University and a PhD in toxicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jim has more than 28 years of experience in drug development. At Genzyme, he and his team brought Carticel, the first biologic therapy of its type, from academia all the way through FDA submission, inspection, licensure, and commercialization. At Reprogenesis, he and his team executed a crash re-formulation and pre-clinical model development effort that resulted in the resumption of a Phase III trial less than nine months after suspending the trial. At Acceleron, he and his team completed in-house manufacture of the first clinical drug substance for the company, and the outside manufacture of clinical drug product, less than two years after the company’s initial financing and barely seventeen months after board approval to build the in-house capability.

Jim received his BS in Biology/General Studies from Cornell University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

James is a co-founder of Finch Therapeutics. James is also a co-founder and the former Executive Director of OpenBiome, a stool bank and research institute focused on enabling access to microbiota transplants for C. difficile patients and catalyzing research in the human microbiome. James oversaw the growth of OpenBiome from a tiny lab at MIT to a large-scale operation supplying 1,000 treatments per month across the country and enabling dozens of clinical trials in the microbiome field.

James has a BA in Mathematics from Princeton University and briefly attended the MBA program at MIT Sloan before dropping out to launch OpenBiome. James is a Draper Richards Kaplan fellow, and has previously worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GE, and Bain & Company.

Irina has over 15 years of experience leading translational medicine and biomarker strategy across the drug development pipeline including; candidate identification, clinical development, registration, approval and life cycle management. Prior to joining Finch, Irina lead translational medicine and companion diagnostics strategies in support of a fast growing pipeline in rare diseases, cancer and autoimmune diseases at Rubius Therapeutics. Until 2018, Irina held translational and biomarker leadership positions at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research where she supported multiple discovery and development programs ultimately leading to the successful regulatory submission and approval of Cosentyx® (Secukinumab)‎ for the treatment of Psoriasis, Psoriatic Arthritis, and Ankylosing Spondylitis.

Irina has a PhD from the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Russia and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences Research Center. She then continued as a research scientist working on gene discovery. In 1998 Dr. Koroleva relocated to the University of Iowa where she headed the functional genomics group in the Department of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine.

David has over 15 years of experience in academia and 17 years of experience in industry. Prior to joining Finch, David headed the formulation and analytical effort for a commercial recombinant influenza vaccine at Protein Sciences (now Sanofi). He then led a team at Genocea focused on product and process development for a late-stage therapeutic vaccine for genital herpes and an early stage immune-oncology program, and worked at Rhythm, a virtual company focused on rare genetic disorders of obesity. In his academic career, he was Assoc. Professor of Biotechnology at UConn School of Pharmacy, with a focus on drug-membrane interactions and oligonucleotides.

David has a B.S. in Physics from Bucknell and a Ph.D. in physical biochemistry from UConn. His postdoctoral work in structural biology at UConn Health Center transitioned to an in-residence faculty role and serving as Associate Director of the Biomolecular Structure Analysis Center.

Anne Marie brings over 30 years of clinical development experience in rare diseases (enzyme replacement and gene & cell therapies) along with academic nursing research experience in gastroenterology, neurology, and oncology. Most recently, Anne Marie was Clinical Head of Biologics at PTC Therapeutics where she led the clinical development team for AGIL-AADC gene therapy leading to an MAA submission. Prior PTC, Anne Marie was VP of Clinical Operations at Agilis Biotherapeutics responsible for clinical development operations and pharmacovigilance. Before joining Agilis, Anne Marie founded AMC Consulting, LLC which provided clinical development support to companies. Anne Marie also worked at Shire Human Genetic Therapies (HGT) and Transkaryotic Therapies (TKT) where she held increasingly senior leadership roles including VP of Clinical Development Operations. At HGT, she managed cross-functional teams that submitted four biologic license/new drug application filings with subsequent approvals. Prior to joining TKT, she worked at Tufts Medical Center where she served as the Clinical Trials Manager for the Division of Gastroenterology and as a staff nurse. Anne Marie is a Lecturer at Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School teaching a graduate course on Healthcare Innovation.

Anne Marie holds a BS in Nursing from Boston University and a Master’s in Healthcare Administration from Suffolk University.

Rozanna has over 22 years of global experience in life sciences with expertise in quality and regulatory strategies and drug development life-cycle processes, spanning from clinical development to product launch and commercialization. Prior to joining Finch, Rozanna was in the regenerative medicine, cell and gene therapy space for almost a decade holding senior leadership roles at Incysus Therapeutics, Axogen, Inc. and uniQure, Inc., where she helped achieve major strategic business, regulatory and technical product development milestones. Earlier in her career, Rozanna founded BioCompass, Inc. a consulting firm specializing in program management, quality and regulatory compliance for eight years where she helped companies such as Genzyme and Shire HGT. Across her career, Rozanna has played key roles in the development, scale-up and/or commercialization of products including Glybera, VPRIV, Replagal, Elaprase, Cerezyme, Taxus Paclitaxel-Eluting Stents, and OP-1 Putty.

Rozanna holds a BS in Chemistry from Boston College and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Dr. Jones joins Finch with more than 14 years of experience in discovery and clinical development of novel therapeutics. Most recently, Dr. Jones provided leadership for translational and clinical development within the Precision Medicine group at Progenity, developing novel oral biotherapeutics and modified release oral combination products to treat metabolic disease and disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. Prior to that, Dr. Jones founded and served as the CMO of Interface, acquired by Progenity, where he was responsible for developing a novel platform sampling technology and multi-omics approach to develop therapeutics acting at the host-microbiome interface. Prior to that, Dr. Jones founded and served as the CSO of Micropharma, acquired by UAS Labs followed by Chr Hansen, where he was responsible for discovery and clinical development of microbiome-based therapeutics for metabolic and inflammatory disease. Dr. Jones has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications and abstracts and has been an inventor on over 70 patent families and 190 individual applications. He has initiated and directed numerous therapeutic clinical studies in the human-microbiome space, as well as other studies involving orally-delivered combination products.

Dr. Jones received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering, with a focus on developing human-microbiome therapeutics, as well as his MD from McGill University in Quebec, Canada.

Dr. Pugatch brings over a decade of leadership experience to Finch in the clinical development of novel therapeutics. Most recently, he served as Vice President, Clinical Development and GI Therapeutic Area Head at Protagonist Therapeutics where he developed orally-administered GI-restricted peptide therapies for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Prior to that, Dr. Pugatch held clinical development positions of increasing responsibility at Gilead Sciences, PPD and then AbbVie, where he co-developed Mavyret, a curative hepatitis C therapy, across early and late phases of development and subsequent agency approvals from the FDA, EMA and Japan’s PMDA.

Dr. Pugatch has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles and abstracts in infectious diseases and GI therapeutics. Prior to entering industry, he was an NIH-funded independent investigator at the Brown University Center for AIDS Research. He is a board-certified pediatrician with sub-specialty training in infectious diseases and a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Stephen is current serving as Vice President of Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance at Finch Therapeutics. He has previously held positions with Sorrento Therapeutics, Mesoblast Ltd, Bayer HealthCare Consumer Care Division, Johnson and Johnson, and AstraZeneca. Prior to entering industry, Steve worked in medical and administrative positions in occupational and environmental medicine for several US hospitals. Steve also previously served as a primary care physician and flight surgeon with the US Air Force, and as an Epidemiologic Intelligence Officer with the Centers for Disease Control.

He received his BA from McGill University, his medical degree from Des Moines University, his Master in Public Health from the Medical College of Wisconsin and his JD from Widener University. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School Program for Leadership Development.

Matt has over 15 years of finance experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, holding both accounting and finance roles, spanning early-stage companies through mature commercial companies. Prior to joining Finch, Matt held various leadership roles at several biotech companies including Casebia Therapeutics, Inotek Pharmaceuticals, Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, AVEO Pharmaceuticals, and Genzyme Corporation.

Matt has a BSBA from Stonehill College and an MBA from Curry College.