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Team

Executive Management

Portrait

David Rosenberg, Chairman of the Board & Co-Chief Executive Officer

David Rosenberg brings over 20 years of investment banking experience focused on growth companies. Since December 2011, Mr. Rosenberg has been Co-President and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., a leading underwriter of blank check companies or SPACs. Mr. Rosenberg is also a member of Board of Directors of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. From 2006 to 2011, Mr. Rosenberg was a Managing Director and Co-Chief Operating Officer of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. Since joining Ladenburg Thalmann in 2006, Mr. Rosenberg has managed more than 1,000 public offerings including but not limited to initial public offerings and follow-on offerings raising in excess of $75 billion for small and mid-cap companies, as well as advising on numerous merger and acquisition transactions. Mr. Rosenberg also serves as member of the Board of Directors of Dianomi Therapeutics. Prior to joining Ladenburg Thalmann, from 2004 to 2006, Mr. Rosenberg was co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of BroadWall Capital, LLC, an investment banking firm. Mr. Rosenberg received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Portrait

David Strupp, Co-Chief Executive Officer & Director

Mr. Strupp has worked as a dedicated healthcare investment banker for over 27 years at various investment banks. Mr. Strupp has served as a Managing Director and Head of Healthcare Investment Banking at Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. since May 2012. In his role leading the firm’s healthcare investment banking practice at Ladenburg Thalmann, Mr. Strupp has overseen the execution of numerous transactions across a range of products, including M&A advisory, equity and equity-linked offerings, private placements and fixed income transactions. During his tenure at Ladenburg Thalmann, Mr. Strupp has helped the firm establish a market-leading practice advising biotechnology companies in reverse merger transactions. Prior to joining Ladenburg Thalmann, Mr. Strupp worked as a senior member of the healthcare groups at boutique investment banks, including ThinkEquity Partners from 2002 to 2007, Canaccord Adams (now Canaccord Genuity) from 2007 to 2008, the Maxim Group from 2008 to 2009, and Rodman & Renshaw from 2009 to 2012. He began his career on Wall Street working in the healthcare groups at UBS Securities from 1993 to 1998, NationsBanc Montgomery Securities from 1998 to 1999, and Citigroup from 1999 to 2002. Mr. Strupp received a B.A. in Economics from Bates College and an M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Portrait

Steven Kaplan, Chief Financial Officer & Director

Mr. Kaplan joined Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. as a Managing Director in September 2004 and was promoted to Head of Capital Markets in December 2011. Mr. Kaplan co-heads the investment banking group at Ladenburg Thalmann which focuses on blank check companies or SPACs. Prior to joining Ladenburg Thalmann, Mr. Kaplan had substantial experience advising companies in the healthcare services industry. From 1999 to 2004, Mr. Kaplan was a Co-Founder and a Partner of River Capital Partners, a healthcare services focused M&A advisory firm. From 1996 to 1999, he was a Vice President in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group of Prudential Securities. From 1993 to 1996 he was an associate at Jefferies & Company, primarily focused on Healthcare M&A. He previously worked at auditing firms Pricewaterhouse and Deloitte & Touche. Over the course of his career, Mr. Kaplan has managed over 500 public offerings including but not limited to IPOs and follow-on offerings as well as advising on numerous merger and acquisition transactions. Mr. Kaplan received a BSBA from Babson College and an MBA from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Board of Directors

Cheryl Cohen, Director

Ms. Cohen has more than 25 years of leadership experience within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Ms. Cohen currently serves as President of CLC Consulting, a pharmaceutical and biotechnology consulting firm which she founded in July 2008. From September 2011 to July 2014, Ms. Cohen served as Chief Commercial Officer of Medivation, Inc., a publicly traded bio-pharmaceutical company. Prior to joining Medivation, Ms. Cohen spent over 10 years at Johnson & Johnson. From November 2007 to September 2008, she served as the Vice President, strategic commercial group, of Health Care Systems, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, and from October 1998 to November 2007, she worked at Janssen Biotech, Inc. (formerly Centocor Biotech, Inc.), a Johnson & Johnson company, in a variety of senior executive roles including Vice President, rheumatology franchise. Ms. Cohen began her career at Solvay Pharmaceuticals in a variety of management and sales positions. In addition, Ms. Cohen currently serves on the board of directors of Aerpio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARPO), a public pharmaceutical company, since 2018 and NantKwest (NASDAQ: NK), a public pharmaceutical company, since June 2019 and MEI Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: MEIP), a public pharmaceutical company since June 2020. She previously served on the boards of directors of Novus Therapeutics, Inc. (reverse merger of Tokai Pharmaceuticals, Inc) from April 2015 to June 2020, Vital Therapies, Inc., a therapeutics company, from 2015 until 2019, Cytrx Corporation, a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company from June 2015 through October 2016, and Protein Sciences Corporation, a privately held bio-pharmaceutical company from October 2014 to August 2017. Ms. Cohen received a B.A. from Saint Joseph College.

Chuck Wilson, Ph.D., Director

From 2014 to 2020, Dr. Wilson served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Unum Therapeutics Inc. (now named Cogent Biosciences, Inc.), a company developing novel therapies for the treatment of cancer. From 2008 to 2014, Dr. Wilson served as Vice President, Global Head of Strategic Alliances for the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), the research and early development division of Novartis. In this role he was responsible for leading partnering efforts across all disease areas up through clinical proof-of-concept. His efforts included academic and biotech collaborations, equity investing in early stage companies, in-licensing of compounds, and spin-out of assets/technologies to start ups. In 2001, Dr. Wilson co-founded Archemix, a Cambridge, MA biotech company focused on the development of aptamers as therapeutics, and served as its Chief Technology Officer where he was responsible for both developing the company’s technology platform and managing its drug discovery efforts. As part of the senior management team, Dr. Wilson helped the company raise over $100 million in equity financing and advance multiple programs into clinical development. Before moving into industry, Dr. Wilson was a professor in the Markey Center for the Molecular Biology of RNA at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 1994 to 2001. Trained in structural biology and molecular biology, Dr. Wilson received a PhD with David Agard (UCSF, HHMI) and received his postdoctoral training with Nobelist Jack Szostak (Havard University / Massachusetts General Hospital). He currently serves as Board Chair for the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council and as a member of the Board for GigaGen, Inc. He received a B.A. and M.A. from Boston University.

John Boockvar, M.D., Director

Since 2015, Dr. Boockvar has served as the Vice Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital and Director of the Brain Tumor Center, and the Pituitary/Neuroendocrine Center of the Department of Neurosurgery and the New York Head and Neck Institute at Lenox Hill and Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospitals. Dr. Boockvar has also been a Professor of Neurological Surgery and Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at the Zucker School of Medicine since 2014. He has also been an investigator at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research since 2014 where he directs the Laboratory for Brain Tumor Biology and Therapy. Dr. Boockvar is internationally known for his surgical expertise and for providing patients with safe, effective, and minimally invasive treatment for brain tumors, skull base disorders, and disorders of the spine. Dr. Boockvar’s surgical expertise is in benign and malignant brain tumors, skull base and endoscopic pituitary surgery, spinal and peripheral nerve tumors, minimally invasive spinal surgery, and complex spinal disorders. Dr. Boockvar has been recognized for his novel research in brain tumors and stem cell biology. Dr. Boockvar has been repeatedly named to the lists of New York Magazine’s Top Docs, Best Doctors in New York-Castle Connolly, New York Super Doctors (2020), America’s Top Surgeons, America’s Best Doctors, and America’s Best Doctors for Cancer. His research has been widely published and he has received numerous national awards including the Eric Lichtenstein Humanitarian Award from Voices Against Brain Cancer for his compassionate work in treating patients with brain cancer. In 2016, Dr. Boockvar was elected to the Academy of Neurological Surgeons. In 2017, he was elected to the Senior Society of the American Board of Neurological Surgery. Dr. Boockvar is the star in Netflix’s nine-part docuseries, Lenox Hill, and has been featured on special episodes of the Dr. Oz Show on brain tumors. Medical Mysteries, Good Morning America and the Today Show with Megyn Kelly. He also founded and hosts his own interactive webinar, “ByTheBoock” featuring special guests ranging from CEOs of major companies, authors, biotech experts and more. Dr. Boockvar is also an honorary surgeon of the NYPD and the New York State Troopers. He received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Richard Rosenstock, Director

Since 2006, Mr. Rosenstock has served as managing member of Encore Atlantic Fund, LLC, a hedge fund he founded that invests primarily in SPACs. From May 2001 until December 2002, he served as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc., a formerly publicly traded financial services company, and served as its President from August 1999 until May 2001. He also served on its board of directors from 1999 to March 2015. Mr. Rosenstock received a B.S. from Northeastern University.