Linda S. Higgins, Ph.D., is the President & CEO at InteKrin Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Higgins joined InteKrin in 2007 and has over 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Previously she was with Scios, Inc. where she was most recently Head of Research holding responsibility for drug discovery, preclinical development, and translational medicine. She has led multiple teams for programs in discovery through early clinical development focused on CNS, inflammatory, oncology, cardiovascular, hematology and fibrotic disorders which were advanced internally as well as in partnership with major pharmaceutical companies. During her tenure at Scios, it grew from a discovery organization, to a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company marketing a product discovered in house, to an operating company owned by Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Higgins has authored over 50 original peer reviewed scientific papers and invited reviews, and is inventor on over a dozen patents. She earned an AB in Behavioral Physiology with High Honors and Distinction from Kenyon College, Gambier Ohio; a PhD in Neurosciences from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine; and postdoctoral training in Molecular Genetics at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. DePaoli joined InteKrin Therapeutics Inc. after more than 16 years of experience in the diabetes and obesity field. He trained in Clinical and Molecular Endocrinology at the University of Chicago with Dr. Kenneth Polonski and in the laboratory of Dr. Graham Bell. His clinical and research interests in diabetes and obesity were focused during his work at the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute with Dr. Lois Jovanovic, which led him to join Amgen and play a major role in the development of a Metabolic Disease Therapeutic Area. His work at Amgen has been pivotal in enabling multiple clinical applications of Leptin. Dr. DePaoli has gone on to work on a broad array of cardio-metabolic disease targets with a focus on translating novel pathways into the clinic. These pathways include: 11 Beta HSD-1, Myostatin, RANK Ligand, IL-1 receptor, Calcium Sensing Receptor, PPAR-gamma modulation, DPP-4, and MCH-R1. His accomplishments at Amgen that will bring value to InteKrin include extensive involvement in the Business Development activities, including in-licensing (Biovitrum), out-licensing (Amylin and InteKrin), and acquisitions (Tularik and Alantos).

Dr. Skowronski has over 15 years of experience in the clinical research & development of small molecules and biopharmaceutics delivered through a broad range of modalities including oral, transdermal, inhalation, and implants. Prior to joining InteKrin Therapeutics, Dr. Skowronski was Vice President of Clinical Development at AcelRx, an emerging specialty pharmaceutical company.

His previous experience includes serving as a Global Clinical Leader at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development, working in the CNS and pain management therapeutic area. As Director of Clinical Development he headed clinical development activities at Alexza Pharmaceuticals, executing “proof of concept” and first in humans trials, as well as contributing to the development of the Company’s product portfolio in CNS therapeutic area.

Dr. Skowronski began his pharmaceutical career at ALZA Corporation. During his 7 year tenure there he led the clinical development of several programs in a variety of therapeutic areas including endocrinology, urology, oncology, reproductive medicine and pain management. He was responsible for the clinical development and successful NDA approval and commercialization of the Viadur^TM implant for the palliative treatment of prostate cancer. He also contributed to the approval and commercialization of Jurnista® (EU), and IONSYS^TM (EU).

Dr. Skowronski received his MD and PhD degrees from the Medical University Gdansk, Poland. He completed his postdoctoral fellowships conducting basic and clinical research focused on clinical pharmacology, metabolism and diabetes in the Departments of Medicine at the University of California San Diego under the sponsorship of Dr. Darrell Fanestil and at Stanford University under the direction of Drs. David Feldman and Gerald Reaven.

Kathleen M. Lee, Ph.D., MBA, is Vice President, Pharmaceutics at InteKrin.  Dr. Lee joined InteKrin in 2007 with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.  She was most recently at Scios, Inc., where her last position was Senior Director of Pharmaceutical Development with responsibility for the formulation development and manufacture of dosage forms from preclinical through commercialization.  She previously held positions at Syntex, Roche and Oread with diverse CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls) responsibilities of analytical chemistry, formulation development, drug delivery, project management and outsourcing management.  She has led CMC teams for small and large molecules.

Dr. Lee holds a B.S. in Chemistry with Honors and an MBA in Finance from the University of California, Berkeley,  and an M.S. in Mathematics and M.S. and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Carmen R. Rodriguez joined InteKrin Therapeutics, Inc. as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality. In this role, she is responsible for defining and leading the company’s regulatory strategy and for the compliance and quality activities associated with InteKrin’s programs.

Prior to joining InteKrin, Carmen served as Vice President Regulatory Affairs and Quality at Cambridge Antibody Technology, Inc. Previously, she held various senior regulatory leadership positions with Genencor, Roche Global Development and Syntex.  She brings over 25 years of regulatory and drug development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry to InteKrin. Ms. Rodriguez has managed the preparation of multiple INDs, NDAs and BLAs in various therapeutic areas leading to global regulatory approvals of various products including the blockbusters Cellcept®, Naproxen® and Cytovene®.

Carmen earned her Bachelor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Honors) and her Master in Medicinal Chemistry from Universidad Nacional de Mexico in Mexico City.

Mr. Nazak joined InteKrin Therapeutics in 2008 as Director of Finance and Accounting. He has over 20 years of experience in the area of finance and accounting operations in both public and private companies. Most recently Mike was the Corporate Controller at Reliant Technologies, Inc., a developer and manufacturer of medical laser devices. Prior to Reliant, Mike served as the Sr. Director of Finance and Corporate Controller for Connetics Corporation, a public company that develops topical and oral drugs used in the treatment of various skin diseases. He also held Corporate Controller and other finance and accounting positions at Cygnus Solutions (a Red Hat company), Rachem Corporation and Mips Computer Systems and was an auditor with Coopers and Lybrand LLP.