SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ESCAPE Bio Inc., a clinical stage company developing novel, precisely targeted therapeutics for genetic neurodegenerative diseases, announced that Edward Owens and Scott Morrison have been appointed to the Board of Directors.
“Ed brings an unparalleled perspective of our industry based on over four decades of outstanding performance investing in healthcare companies,” said Julie Anne Smith, CEO. “We are delighted to have his insight on business fundamentals, industry insights and shareholder value.”
“Scott is a well-respected industry leader who brings over 40 years of financial experience helping life science companies grow from start-up, through initial product launch, to global expansion,” said Tony Rimac, CFO. “We look forward to his financial acumen and corporate insight as we advance our pipeline of Precision Neurology medicines.”
Mr. Owens is a retired partner of Wellington Management, where he was a portfolio manager and global industry analyst from 1974 to 2012. At Wellington, he was the founding manager of the Vanguard Health Care Fund, which during his 28-year tenure was the best performing US mutual fund and became the largest industry sector fund. Mr. Owens serves on the board of directors of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and Stealth BioTherapeutics. He was previously on the boards of the Marine Biological Laboratory, the Wellington Management Foundation and the UVa College Foundation. He served in the US Navy as a nuclear submarine officer. He has a B.S. in Physics from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Mr. Morrison began serving life sciences companies in 1980 and was a partner at Ernst & Young (EY) from 1996 until his retirement in 2015. He served as EY’s U.S. Life Sciences Leader from 1996 to 2015. During his tenure at EY he worked on hundreds of public and private financings, M&A transactions, and corporate collaborations. Mr. Morrison served on the Board of Directors and chairs the Audit Committee of Audentes, Inc. (through its sale to Astellas in January 2020), Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT) and Ideaya Biosciences. He also serves as a member of the Compensation Committee for GBT and Corvus and is a member of the GBT’s Commercial Committee. Mr. Morrison has also served as a director on several life sciences industry boards including the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) ECS board, the Bay Area Biosciences Board (now CLSA), the Life Sciences Foundation, and the Biotechnology Institute. Mr. Morrison was awarded the CLSA Pantheon 2016 Life Sciences Leadership Award. Mr. Morrison holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School at University of California, Berkeley and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).
(All bios available at https://www.escapebio.com/company/#board-directors)
About ESCAPE Bio
ESCAPE Bio is a clinical stage, privately held biopharmaceutical company developing novel, precisely targeted therapeutics for genetically defined neurodegenerative diseases. ESB1609 is in a Phase 1 multiple ascending dose study in healthy volunteers. ESCAPE has advanced a mutant-selective LRRK2 G2019S kinase inhibitor for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients to IND-enabling studies. A pharmacologic structure corrector of Alzheimer's patients carrying the ApoE4 risk allele is in Discovery. For additional information, please visit www.escapebio.com.