Guo-Liang Yu
PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Guo-Liang Yu is a co-founder of Apollomics, Inc. He is a venture partner at Orbimed Venture LLC and the Executive Chairman of Crown Bioscience Inc. Dr. Yu co-founded Epitomics Inc., an antibody-based Biotechnology Company recently acquired by Abcam at $170 M. He served as Chairman, President and CEO of Epitomics Inc. for 10 years. Dr. Yu’s success is driven by his scientific curiosity and a passion for translating scientific discovery to real products. His challenge is to balance his time between science and business, fun and work, family and community.
He moved from China to the US to pursue advanced training after graduating from Fudan University in 1984. He obtained his PhD from UC Berkeley where he contributed to the discovery of telomerase and its mechanism of action in Dr. Blackburn’s lab. Drs. Blackburn and Greider received the Nobel Prize in 2009 for their discovery. After graduating, Dr. Yu joined Dr. Frederick Ausubel’s lab at Harvard to pursue the question of how plants defend themselves against pathogens without an immune system. He identified the first plant disease resistance gene.
President
Dr. Sanjeev Redkar is a co-founder of Apollomics, Inc. that was started as a spin-off in early 2016. In his previous role, Dr. Redkar was the Senior Vice President of Product Development at Astex Pharmaceuticals, a member of the Otsuka Group, where he was responsible for pharmaceutical development, technical operations and manufacturing. Dr. Redkar has been closely involved in preclinical and clinical development as well as global launches of several drugs including decitabine (Dacogen) and pentostatin (Nipent).
Dr. Redkar has over 24 years of oncology drug development experience with over 25 peer-reviewed publications and 150 patents. Dr. Redkar earned his doctorate from the University of Colorado, Boulder, his Master of Business Administration from St. Mary’s College of California, and his undergraduate degree at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is a member of the Industrial Advisory Board at the University of the Pacific School of Pharmacy in Stockton, California, and a member of the EPPIC Board of Directors, a pharmaceutical professional’s network.
Chief Financial Officer
Wilson W. Cheung joined Apollomics in 2019 and brings over 25 years of experience in finance, compliance, and corporate leadership at both public and private companies. Prior to Apollomics, Mr. Cheung was CFO of KBP BioSciences, a clinical stage biotechnology company, and an Independent Director of SciClone Pharmaceuticals International Limited, a China-based US-listed specialty pharmaceutical company. At SciClone, Mr. Cheung was Senior Vice President and CFO where he helped turn around the company’s compliance culture and drove the company’s growth and profitability which led to a successful sale.
Previously, he served in various positions at Velti plc, a global mobile marketing software-as-a-service provider, and led their Nasdaq Initial Public Offering as CFO. Prior to Velti, Mr. Cheung served as CFO at AXT, Inc., a California-based, publicly traded manufacturer of high-performance semiconductor substrates with heavy China operations. As a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he began his career in public accounting with KPMG LLP and Deloitte LLP. Mr. Cheung holds a B.A. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and is a Certified Director of Corporate Governance from UCLA’s Executive Program. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and he is a California CPA (inactive).
Senior Vice President Clinical Operations
Scott Houston joined Apollomics, Inc in July 2020 and brings over 30 years of experience in clinical operations. Prior to Apollomics, Mr. Houston was an independent clinical development consultant. Prior to consulting, he was Head of Clinical Operations for over the past 10 years at several clinical stage biotechnology companies in San Francisco and Seattle. Most recently, he was VP of Clinical Operations at Rakuten Medical and LSK Biopharma (now Elevar), both companies focusing on oncology drug development.
Mr. Houston began his clinical operations career as a clinical research intern supporting data analysis at Cetus Corporation in 1985 of IL2/HIV treatment given to patients at San Francisco General Hospital and went on to become a patient care coordinator in the Hematology/Oncology Clinic at Seattle Children’s Hospital. After working at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centers’ Southwest Oncology Group Statistical Center, he joined industry as a Clinical Research Associate. Scott has supported evolving clinical operations with large Pharma organizations such as Novartis and Sanofi and with small biotech such as Rakuten Medical, LSK Biopharma, Immune Design and Omeros. Scott created and successfully defended his individual major in Environmental Science to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Wisconsin.
Interim Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Michelson brings over 22 years of hematology and oncology drug development experience to Apollomics. He has extensive experience in translational medicine and medical affairs, having managed numerous clinical programs from IND through Phase 3. Before joining Apollomics, Dr. Michelson was consulting for a number of biotech and pharma companies. Prior to consulting, Dr. Michelson was the Vice President of Clinical Development at Cytomx, Inc, and previously was the Vice President of Clinical Development at Portola. Prior to this, he was a Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Plexxikon, responsible for Clinical, Regulatory, and Operations. He also served as senior director of clinical development for Portola Pharmaceuticals, where he was the clinical lead for Phase 1/2 studies of cerdulatinib for oncology. Prior to that, Dr. Michelson was a senior director of medical affairs for Genentech, and the Vice President of Clinical Strategy at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, where he led the development of vosaroxin for solid tumors and AML, and led the global AML study, VALOR. He has also held various clinical research positions at Chiron and Cell Therapeutics. Dr. Michelson began his pharma career at Pfizer, where he was the senior associate director of oncology. He received his M.D. from the University of Louisville, and completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Pittsburgh, and a hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Chicago.
China General Manager
Head of Science
Dr. Qian Shi is Head of Science and is the General Manager for our operations in China bringing vast knowledge and expertise in cancer pharmacology and drug discovery to the Company. He has spent over 7 years at Crown Bioscience where he was most recently Vice President of Oncology leading the in vitro and in vivo Cancer Pharmacology, as well as the PDX groups, and also the General Manager of Crown’s Taicang site. Dr. Shi has years of cancer research experience from academia as a Professor and Principal Investigator at Shanghai Fudan University and, previously, as an investigator at ArQule, Inc.
Dr. Shi has authored more than thirty peer-reviewed publications, edited two books in biopharmaceutical sciences, and has been the senior author of publications in leading journals such as Molecular Cell. He has contributed to five patents, is a distinguished speaker, and has received numerous honors and awards. Dr. Shi earned his PhD in oncology and cancer biology from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and pursued his post-doctoral training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees with majors in genetics from Fudan University in Shanghai, China.