Executive Management

Kevin Koch, Ph.D., has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors since 2017 and has been in the life science industry for over 30 years with a focus on drug discovery, translational medicine and clinical development. Since 2016, he has also served as a Venture Partner with OrbiMed. Dr. Koch previously served as the Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery, Chemical and Molecular Therapeutics at Biogen where he managed global drug discovery and biomarker development. Dr. Koch was a co-founder of Array BioPharma, serving as President, Chief Scientific Officer and board member from the company’s inception in 1998 to 2013. While there, he built a fully integrated research and development team that oversaw the invention of over 20 clinical development candidates across multiple therapeutic areas, several of which are now marketed medicines. Prior to Array, Dr. Koch held senior positions at Amgen and Pfizer Central Research. Dr. Koch received a B.S. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from State University of New York, Stony Brook, and his Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from University of Rochester.

Alan Russell, Ph.D., serves as our Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer and a member of our board of directors. Previously, Dr. Russell served at GlaxoSmithKline as VP and Head of the Muscle Metabolism Discovery Performance Unit, leading a broad discovery and development effort focused on patients for whom muscle function is compromised. Prior to this, he worked at Cytokinetics Inc. and is the co-inventor of Tirasemtiv and Reldesemtiv, direct muscle sensitizers in clinical trials for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Dr. Russell received a B.Pharm. in Pharmacy and Pharmacology and Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Gene Therapy from the University of Bath in the UK and Postdoctoral training at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Michael Carruthers has served as our Chief Financial Officer since September 2020. Mr. Carruthers has over 20 years of experience serving as Chief Financial Officer for publicly-traded biopharmaceutical companies, with extensive experience across corporate finance and strategic planning including IPOs, secondary offerings and M&A transactions. Most recently, Mr. Carruthers consulted as Chief Financial Officer for several private and public companies. Previously, Mr. Carruthers served as Interim President of Nivalis Therapeutics, a publicly traded company acquired by Alpine Immune Sciences, in 2017 and Chief Financial Officer and Secretary from 2015 to 2017. From 1998 to 2015, he served as Chief Financial Officer for Array BioPharma Inc., a publicly traded company acquired by Pfizer Inc. Prior to this, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Sievers Instruments, Treasurer and Controller for the Waukesha division of Dover Corporation and Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand. Mr. Carruthers serves on the boards of Elevation Oncology (Nasdaq: ELEV) and OnKure, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company. Mr. Carruthers received a B.S. in accounting from the University of Colorado and a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Behrad Derakhshan, Ph.D. has served as Chief Business Officer since September 2020 and leads Edgewise’s efforts in strategic planning, business development, capital formation, investor relations, commercial and competitive intelligence. Prior to joining Edgewise, Dr. Derakhshan was Chief Business Officer at VectivBio after having served as the Head of Business Development at Therachon, until its acquisition by Pfizer Inc. in 2019 for $810 million. Prior to Therachon, Dr. Derakhshan was responsible for Business Development and Strategic Evaluation at Alexion. Earlier in his career, Dr. Derakhshan worked in management consulting with a focus on rare disease drug development. Dr. Derakhshan serves on the board of Innoskel, a private biotechnology company developing therapies for rare bone diseases. Dr. Derakhshan conducted his postdoctoral training at the Yale School of Medicine and received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from a joint program between Weill Cornell Medicine, New York and the University of Surrey, UK.

Joanne M. Donovan, M.D., Ph.D., has served as our Chief Medical Officer since 2021. Most recently, Dr. Donovan served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, Clinical Development at Catabasis Pharmaceuticals. Since 1989, she has been a staff physician at the VA Boston Healthcare System, where she was formerly Chief of Gastroenterology. Dr. Donovan has held an appointment at Harvard Medical School since 1990, most recently as associate clinical professor of medicine. From 1998 to 2011, Dr. Donovan served in positions of increasing responsibility, ultimately as vice president of clinical development, at Genzyme, a biotechnology company, which she joined through its acquisition of GelTex Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Donovan holds a Ph.D. in medical engineering and medical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and an S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She completed residency training in internal medicine and a fellowship in gastroenterology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital.

John Moore has served as our General Counsel since September 2020. He has many years of experience as General Counsel for small molecule biopharmaceutical companies working in a range of therapeutic areas. Mr. Moore was most recently General Counsel and Secretary at Peloton Therapeutics, where he led the legal aspects of the company’s initial public offering efforts and advised on its acquisition by Merck on the eve of its planned IPO. Prior to Peloton, Mr. Moore served for 15 years as General Counsel and Secretary at Array BioPharma, Inc. and for 5 years on the board of directors of Nivalis Therapeutics. Prior to Array, he was an attorney in private practice with Wilson Sonsini. Mr. Moore holds a B.S. in chemistry from the University of North Carolina, an M.S. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina.

Marc Semigran, M.D. has served as Chief Development Officer since 2022.  Dr. Semigran brings considerable clinical development and translational medicine experience to Edgewise, having most recently served as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at Renovacor through its acquisition by Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and previously served as CMO and Senior Vice President of medical science at MyoKardia through its acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2020 for $13.1 billion. During his tenure at MyoKardia, Dr. Semigran built and expanded his research and development team in order to execute successful translational and development programs including the advancement of mavacamten for patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Dr. Semigran oversaw the execution of Phase 1 and 2 studies, the design of registrational studies, interactions with global regulatory authorities, and also participated in the filing of the mavacamten New Drug Application following the acquisition of MyoKardia.  In April 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Camzyos (mavacamten) for the treatment of adults with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Prior to entering the biotechnology industry, Dr. Semigran led the Massachusetts General Hospital Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Program as Section Head and Medical Director. In addition, he led the Harvard Regional Clinical Center of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Heart Failure Network and was a Principal Investigator of a multicenter heart failure trial sponsored by the NHLBI. Dr. Semigran was a member of the internal medicine and cardiology faculty of Massachusetts General Hospital for more than 30 years and was an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Semigran earned A.B., A.M., and M.D. degrees from Harvard University. He completed his internal medicine residency, cardiology, and heart failure fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital.