Board of Directors
Edmundo Muniz, M.D., Ph.D.
Non Executive Chairman of the Board
Dr. Muniz brings over 20 years of drug development experience in oncology, cardiovascular, and infectious disease. Since September 2005, Dr. Muniz is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Tigris Pharmaceuticals. Tigris has successfully in-licensed multiple novel cancer molecules from major research centers such as the National Cancer Institute.
Prior to joining Tigris, Dr. Muniz was Vice President for Lilly Research Laboratories at Eli Lilly and Company. In that position, he was responsible for global cancer clinical development.
Under Dr. Muniz's leadership, Lilly achieved 9 major oncology submissions worldwide, with all 9 of those already having gained approval in the US, Europe and Japan. Such projects include Dr. Muniz's extensive involvement in the development of approved oncology therapeutics Alimta® and Gemzar®.
Dr. Muniz completed a Master’s of Science in Population Planning and graduated with a PhD in International Health from the University of Michigan, receiving the Leslie Corsa Memorial Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement.
Dr. Muniz completed a residency in Preventive Medicine and a Fellowship in Epidemic Intelligence with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. He is also a graduate from the Executive Development Program, Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.
Elisabet de los Pinos, Ph.D.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. de los Pinos has over ten years of experience in Oncology and Translational Research in Biotech and Big Pharmaceutical settings. Prior to founding Aura, she was Marketing Manager at Eli Lilly Oncology Business Unit. At Lilly, she was responsible for Gemzar (pancreatic, lung, breast and ovarian cancer) and the successful launch of Alimta (for mesothelioma and 2nd line NSCLC), achieving double digit growth sales for the drugs under management.
Dr. de los Pinos received a magna cum laude doctorate in Molecular Biology at the University of Barcelona. She completed part of her training at Mount Sinai School of Medicine Institute of Molecular Medicine (NY-USA) and at Georgetown School of Medicine (Washington DC). Following that, she worked as a post-doctoral Researcher at the Institute of Cancer Research London (UK).
Dr. de los Pinos has received 5 different scholarships as a result of her academic achievements by the Spanish Government and the University of Barcelona and has several publications in peer-reviewed journals.
She later obtained a MBA at IE Business School and also completed the Entrepreneurship Development Program at the Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT).
Lawrence C. Best
Director
Mr. Best is Chairman, Founder of OXO Capital LLC. Between 1992 and 2007, Mr. Best served as Executive Vice President, Head of Strategic Build and CFO for Boston Scientific, a global leader in medical device technology. Previously, Mr. Best was a partner at Ernst & Young, specializing in serving multinational companies in the high technology and life sciences fields. From 1979 to 1981, Mr. Best served a two-year fellowship at the Securities and Exchange Commission and one-year term as White House-appointed Presidential Exchange Executive.
Currently, Mr. Best serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Biogen Idec, Inc., and Haemonetics Inc. Mr. Best is also a Founding Director of and serves on the President's Council of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Pedro Granadillo
Director
Mr. Granadillo served as Senior Vice President for Eli Lilly and Company ("Lilly") until 2004 when he retired after 34 years of service. He was a member of Lilly's Policy Committee, which was comprised of its top seven executives.
As Lilly's top human resources, manufacturing and quality executive, he was responsible for policies affecting a global workforce of more than 45,000 employees, as well as a broad network of manufacturing facilities for its extensive line of products. Mr. Granadillo led initiatives that brought Lilly wide recognition as a progressive employer. He also oversaw more than 20 sites and 13,000 employees involved in the manufacturing of Lilly's conventional "small-molecule" pharmaceuticals and "large-molecule" biotech therapies.
Mr. Granadillo serves as a Director of Haemonetics Corporation of Braintree, MA; Noven Pharmaceuticals, Miami FL; Tigris Pharmaceuticals, Miami FL; and Nile Therapeutics, San Francisco, CA. Mr. Granadillo received his B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University.
Salvador García-Atance Lafuente
Director
Salvador García-Atance is currently the President of the non for profit Foundation “Lealtad”. Between 1980 and 1984 he held the technical Secretariat of the Ministry of Economy in Spain and worked in the ministry of Economics Finance and Trade and spent one year with the Bank of England in London. Dr. García-Atance was the founder of AB Stock Advisors and President of the company until 1999 leading to his successful acquisition by Morgan Stanley in 2000, and was President of Morgan Stanley in Spain until 2004.
He has an Economic degree from The University Complutense, Madrid, where he later obtained a Doctorate in Economics. He later obtained a Master Degree in Economics at Northwestern University, Chicago, USA and a B. Phil in Economics at Oxford University, in the UK. He is a Technical State Economist in Madrid, Spain.
Between 2002 and 2004 he was the President of the Spanish Geographic Society and after that in 2004 he was elected President of the Global Compact Network of the United Nations in Spain. He is also a Director of the Board of Aguirre-Newman.