Our Board consists of:
Wayne B. Weisman
Chairman of the Board
Wayne B. Weisman has been a director of the Company since 2019. He has been a member and the chairman of the Recro Board since 2008. Since 2007, Mr. Weisman has been a director of the corporate general partner of the common general partner of SCP Vitalife. He has also served as a managing member of SCP Vitalife Management Company, LLC, which by contract provides certain management services to the common general partner of SCP Vitalife. He has also led the activities of SCP Private Equity Partners II, L.P., a venture capital fund of which he and Mr. Churchill are principals, in the life sciences area; these activities include investments in the United States and Israel. He has also led several other technology investments for SCP Private Equity Partners II, L.P. He has been a member of the investment committee of the Vitalife Life Sciences funds since their inception in 2002 and has worked closely with these funds since then. Mr. Weisman has been a member of the board of directors of CIP Capital L.P., a small business investment company licensed by the U.S. Small Business Administration since its inception in 1991. From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Weisman was executive vice president and member of the board of directors of a public drug delivery technology company. In addition, he also operated a management and financial advisory firm focusing on the reorganization and turnaround of troubled companies and began his career practicing reorganization law at a large Philadelphia law firm.
Mr. Weisman possesses extensive experience in venture capital investing, particularly in the life sciences area. Mr. Weisman serves on the board of ReWalk Robotics Ltd. and on a number of private company boards including the boards of DIR Technologies, EndoSpan Ltd., Ivenix, LLC, and Echo360 Inc. He is the chairman of the boards of trustees of Young Scholars School, Young Scholars Frederick Douglass and Young Scholars Kenderton. He is also an advisory board member of the Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce and Mid-Atlantic Diamond Ventures, the venture forum of Temple University. Mr. Weisman holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
William L. Ashton
Director
William L. Ashton has served as a director since 2019. He has been a director of the Recro Pharma since 2009. Since the beginning of 2013, Mr. Ashton has been a principal at Harrison Consulting Group, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical consulting firm. From August 2009 to June 2013, Mr. Ashton was the senior vice president of external affairs reporting to the president and an assistant professor at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From August 2005 to August 2009, Mr. Ashton was the founding Dean of the Mayes College of Healthcare Business and Policy. Mr. Ashton has 29 years’ experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. From 1989 to 2005, Mr. Ashton held a number of positions at Amgen Inc., a biotechnology company, including vice president of U.S. sales and vice president of commercial and government affairs. Mr. Ashton currently serves on the boards of directors of Galena Biopharma, Inc. and Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He is also a member of the board of directors of the National Osteoporosis Foundation and Friends of the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. Mr. Ashton holds a B.S., Education, from the California University of Pennsylvania and an M.A., Education, from the University of Pittsburgh.
Arnold Baskies, M.D.
Director
Dr. Arnold Baskies has served as director since August 2020. From 2007 to 2010, Dr. Baskies served as the Chief Medical Officer for the American Cancer Society of New York and New Jersey, as well as sitting on the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors and was elected as President of the American Cancer Society for New York and New Jersey in September 2010. Dr. Baskies is the recipient of major awards in cancer research from the Society of Surgical Oncology, the American Radium Society, the Society of Head and Neck Surgeons, and the American Cancer Society. In addition, Dr. Baskies has received the EPIC Award from the NJ Institute of Nursing and the Silver Chalice Award from the American Cancer Society, for his role in providing leadership in cancer prevention and treatment for the citizens of New Jersey. Dr. Baskies has maintained a medical practice in southern New Jersey for 37 years, as well as holding major state and national leadership roles in cancer prevention and treatment. He has personally treated over 3,000 patients with various types of cancer and performed over 10,000 surgical procedures.
Dr. Baskies received his Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude at Boston University, graduated from the Boston University School of Medicine, and completed his surgical residency at Boston Medical Center. He received his fellowship in surgical oncology at the National Cancer Institute.
Winston J. Churchill
Director
Winston J. Churchill has been a director of the Company since 2019. He has been a director of the Recro Pharma since 2008. Since 2007, Mr. Churchill has been a director of the corporate general partner of the common general partner of SCP Vitalife. He has also served as a managing member of SCP Vitalife Management Company, LLC, which by contract provides certain management services to the common general partner of SCP Vitalife. Mr. Churchill has also served since 1993 as the President of CIP Capital Management, Inc., the general partner of CIP Capital, L.P., an SBA-licensed private equity fund. Prior to that, Mr. Churchill was a managing partner of Bradford Associates, which managed private equity funds on behalf of Bessemer Securities Corporation and Bessemer Trust Company. From 1967 to 1983, Mr. Churchill practiced law at the Philadelphia firm of Saul Ewing, LLP, where he served as Chairman of the Banking and Financial Institutions Department, Chairman of the Finance Committee and was a member of the Executive Committee. Mr. Churchill is a director of Griffin Land & Nurseries, Inc., Innovative Solutions and Support, Inc., Amkor Technology, Inc. and various SCP Vitalife portfolio companies. In addition, he serves as a director on the boards of several charities and as a trustee of educational institutions including the Gesu School and Scholar Academies and is a Trustee Fellow of Fordham University. From 1989 to 1993, Mr. Churchill served as Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System.
He was awarded a B.S. in Physics, summa cum laude, from Fordham University followed by an M.A. in Economics from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Andrew Drechsler
Director
Andrew Drechsler has served as director since August 2020. Mr. Drechsler has served as Chief Financial Officer of Provention Bio, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to intercepting and preventing immune-mediated disease, since September 2017. From 2012 to April 2017, Mr. Drechsler was the Chief Financial Officer at Insmed Incorporated, a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the lives of patients with orphan pulmonary disease. Prior to that, Mr. Drechsler was Chief Financial Officer at VaxInnate, a privately held biotechnology company in Cranbury, NJ that is pioneering a breakthrough technology platform for use in developing novel and proprietary vaccines, where he played a critical role in securing approximately $200 million in U.S. government funding for the company’s vaccine programs. From 2005 to April 2007, Mr. Drechsler served as Chief Financial Officer for Valera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he helped Valera raise funding through an initial public offering.
Mr. Drechsler received a B.S. in Accountancy from Villanova University, graduating Magna Cum Laude. He obtained his Certified Public Accountant license in the State of New Jersey and actively raises funds for and awareness of juvenile diabetes via the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Gerri Henwood
President & Chief Executive Officer
Gerri Henwood has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Company since November of 2019. From 2008 to December 2020, Ms. Henwood was the President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Recro Pharma, Inc. (REPH), a company she founded in 2008. From 2006 to 2013, Ms. Henwood served as the President of Malvern Consulting Group, Inc., or MCG, a pharmaceutical incubator and consulting firm. Before founding MCG, Ms. Henwood was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (formerly AUXL), or Auxilium, a biopharmaceutical company she founded in late 1999. From 1985 to 1999, Ms. Henwood was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of IBAH, Inc., or IBAH, a contract research organization listed on NASDAQ. Ms. Henwood began her career with Smith Kline & French, now part of GlaxoSmithKline plc. She rose through the ranks to be a brand manager, then the head of Regulatory and Medical Affairs for the U.S. business and then to the position of Group Director—Marketing in the International Pharmaceutical Division.
Ms. Henwood previously served on the board of directors of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, from 2015 until its acquisition by La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company in June 2020. Before that, she served on the board of directors of Alkermes, Inc. and its successor company, Alkermes, plc, a global biopharmaceutical company, from 2003 until March 2015, and on the board of directors of MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceuticals company, from 2004 until its acquisition by Allergan, Inc. in March 2013. Ms. Henwood also served on the compensation committee of the board of directors of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Ms. Henwood holds a B.S. in Biology from Neumann University.