Board of Directors

Peter Greenleaf currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of Aurinia. From March 2018 to April 2019, Peter served as the CEO of Cerecor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now Avalo Therapeutics, Inc.). From March 2014 to February 2018, Peter served as CEO and Chairman of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Sucampo was focused on the development and commercialization of medicines to meet major unmet medical needs of patients worldwide and was sold in February 2018 to UK pharmaceutical company, Mallinckrodt PLC. From June 2013 to March 2014, Peter served as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of Histogenics Corporation, a regenerative medicine company. From 2006 to 2013, he was employed by MedImmune LLC, the global biologics arm of AstraZeneca, where he most recently served as President. From January 2010 to June 2013, Peter also served as President of MedImmune Ventures, a wholly-owned venture capital fund within the AstraZeneca Group. Prior to serving as President of MedImmune, Peter was Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations of the company, responsible for its commercial, corporate development, and strategy functions. He has also held senior commercial roles at Centocor, Inc. (now Janssen Biotechnology, Johnson & Johnson) from 1998 to 2006 and at Boehringer Mannheim (now Roche Holdings) from 1996 to 1998. Peter previously partnered with Governor Martin O’Malley to chair the Maryland Venture Fund Authority, whose vision was to oversee the implementation of Invest Maryland, a public-private partnership to spur venture capital investment in the state. In addition, he has extensive public and private board experience and has served in leadership roles on both BIO and PhRMA throughout the years. Peter earned an MBA from St. Joseph’s University and a B.S. from Western Connecticut State University. Peter’s significant executive management, leadership, corporate development, and commercial operations experience in the biopharmaceutical industry enables him to provide valuable insight to our Board of Directors.

Richard Baxter is Senior Vice President of Investment Operations and a member of the Investment Committee at Ligand. He has worked across the healthcare landscape and brings to the firm decades of commercialization and investment experience, including control equity and minority equity investments, senior secured debt financings, royalty financings, public bank debt and bond transactions. Mr. Baxter is a co-founder of the healthcare group for the Drawbridge Special Opportunities Fund at Fortress Investment Group, which invested approximately $1 billion in emerging life sciences companies. He also previously served as co-head of the healthcare team at Hayfin Capital Management LLP, which deployed $1.4 billion in capital over four years. Before starting his investment career, he held senior roles in the pharmaceutical industry as Head of Sales, Marketing, and Business Development at PathoGensis Corp., ViroPharma Inc., and Marketing leadership at SmithKline Beecham. He earned an AB (cum laude) from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Todd Davis is Chief Executive Officer of Ligand and has served on the company’s Board of Directors since 2007. He has more than 30 years of operational and investment experience and has been involved in more than $3 billion in healthcare financings over his career. Before joining Ligand, Mr. Davis was a Founder and Managing Partner of HealthCare Royalty Partners, a global healthcare investment firm which grew from zero to approximately $4 billion in capital commitments during his tenure. He previously served as a partner responsible for biopharmaceutical growth equity investments at Apax Partners. Mr. Davis began his career in sales at Abbott Laboratories and later held leadership roles at Elan Pharmaceuticals in corporate development and general management. Mr. Davis is a navy combat veteran and holds a BS from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He currently serves on the boards of Palvella Therapeutics Inc. and ViroCell Biologics—both privately held companies. He is a former board member of the Harvard Business School Healthcare Alumni Association.

Mr. Pauls has served as Chair of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Savara since 2020. He is also currently Lead Independent Director at Soleno Therapeutics, a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company focused on rare diseases and serves on the Board of Directors of Pelthos Therapeutics, a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company focused on dermatologic infectious diseases. Mr. Pauls also serves on the board of Amplo Biotechnology, a private gene therapy company focused on rare neuromuscular disorders. From 2014 to 2019, Mr. Pauls was President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Strongbridge Biopharma plc., a publicly traded rare disease focused biopharmaceutical company that he took public via IPO on the NASDAQ. Prior to 2014, he served as Chief Commercial Officer of Insmed, Inc., where he led both the global Commercial and Technical Operations organizations. Prior to Insmed, Mr. Pauls worked at Shire Pharmaceuticals, most recently as Senior Vice President, Head of Global Commercial Operations, and earlier in his career held senior commercial leadership positions at Bristol Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson. In addition to his other Board positions, Mr. Pauls has also served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Mast Therapeutics and was a member of the Board of Directors of Zyla Life Sciences, both publicly traded biopharma companies. Mr. Pauls holds B.S. and M.B.A. degrees from Central Michigan University and a J.D. from Michigan State University College of Law.