CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Compass Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company targeting the human immune synapse with a new generation of monoclonal and multispecific antibody therapeutics, today announced the appointment of biotechnology investor Julie Sunderland to its Board of Directors.
Julie is co-founder and managing partner of Biomatics Capital Partners. She served as interim CEO of biotechnology company eGenesis from December 2017 through January 2019. Prior to co-founding Biomatics in 2016, she was the director of program-related investments for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she led the foundation’s $1.5 billion strategic investment pool and funded over 50 investments. She also chaired the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations’ investment committee. Earlier in her career Julie advised foundations, development finance institutions and governments on venture capital, SME financing and technical assistance programs. Julie holds a B.A. from Harvard University, an MBA from Wharton Business School and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
“Compass’ research is defining a new era for antibody therapeutics, bringing hope to patients worldwide, and I’m proud to help advance this important cause,” said Julie. “I look forward to working with my fellow Board members to push these novel therapies forward.”
Julie will succeed Errik Anderson, MBA, co-founder of Compass Therapeutics and chief executive officer of Ulysses Diversified Holdings, as a member of the Board. Errik co-founded Compass in 2014 and has been with the company in both operational and Board roles since that time.
“As Compass has grown from an early-stage drug discovery company to a clinical-stage company with a robust and promising pipeline, Errik has been a torchbearer for our work to transform care for patients with cancer or autoimmune diseases. We are grateful for his service over the years,” said Thomas Schuetz, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder and chief executive officer of Compass Therapeutics.
“Errik has been an important partner to Biomatics in the antibody therapeutics space and first introduced us to the Compass team and story. As Errik takes on a new CEO role, I am excited to be succeeding him on the Compass Board to support the company as it continues to progress its robust pipeline of antibody therapeutics,” said Julie Sunderland.
About Compass Therapeutics
Compass Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company targeting the human immune synapse with a new generation of monoclonal and multispecific antibody therapeutics. Compass has broadly drugged the immune system by generating epitopically diverse antibody panels to more than 40 targets across all immune cell types and is leveraging its proprietary StitchMabsTM and common light-chain based multispecific platforms to empirically identify combinations and multispecifics with optimized activity. The company’s lead product candidate, CTX-471, is a fully human agonistic antibody of CD137, which is in a Phase 1 study in patients with inadequate responses to PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors. Compass is also progressing several preclinical assets including a novel class of NK cell engaging bispecifics targeting NKp30 and multiple bispecific checkpoint programs. The company’s offices and labs are based in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Mass.
