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About DARA > Executive
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Biographies
 Founder and Co-Chairman of the Board
Nationally featured by such renowned publications as The Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine as an authority on his industries, Mr. Gorlin founded several highly successful biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the last 25 years. Those companies include Hycor Biomedical, Inc., Theragenics Corporation, CytRx Corporation, Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation, EntreMed, Inc., Surgi-Vision, Inc., DARA BioSciences, Inc., and Medivation, Inc.
Mr. Gorlin also founded a number of nonmedical-related companies, including Perma-Fix, Inc., Pretty Good Privacy, Inc., and Judicial Correction Services, Inc., as well as The Touch Foundation, a nonprofit organization for the blind.
He currently serves as Chairman of the Board for SpineMedica Corp. and MiMedx, Inc. and is a member of the boards of Cardiovascular Solutions, Inc., NTC China, and Surgi-Vision, Inc.
Mr. Gorlin served for many years on the Business Advisory Council to The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and currently sits on the board of The Johns Hopkins Alliance for Science and Technology Development. He also is a member of the board of the Mercy and Sharing Foundation, an organization that provides hospital care and orphanages for children in Haiti, and is a principal financial contributor to the founding of Camp Kudzu for diabetic children.
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 Co-Chairman of the Board
With more than 20 years of pharmaceutical executive experience, Mr. D’Alonzo formerly served as president and COO of Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc., a publicly traded drug discovery and development services company, and President and CEO of GENVEC, Inc., a company focusing on gene therapy biotech. He began his executive career at Glaxo, Inc. (currently GlaxoSmithKline), eventually serving as that organization’s president.
He is currently a director of three publicly traded companies: Salix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; BioDelivery Sciences Inc.; and Amarillo BioSciences, Inc. Additionally, he serves on the board of a private biotech company, Plexigen, Inc.
Mr. D'Alonzo received his Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Delaware and his law degree from the University of Denver College of Law.
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 President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Didsbury is a highly qualified executive manager with over 18 years of experience within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He most recently served as president and CEO for Nuada Pharmaceuticals Inc., where he transformed the company from a chemistry database/service company to a highly successful drug development company in under 14 months.
Formerly of GlaxoSmithKline, Inc., Dr. Didsbury’s achievements include creating and leading a new rheumatoid arthritis disease research program area, setting disease area strategies in metabolic and musculoskeletal diseases, and eventually serving in an executive management role determining the strategic direction of drug discovery efforts in metabolic, musculoskeletal and viral diseases and overseeing operational planning for the drug discovery unit in RTP, N.C. His positions included head of strategy and operations, drug discovery; disease strategy director; disease program leader; and senior research investigator.
Dr. Didsbury has worked as associate director biology for Macronex, Inc.; assistant professor at Duke University Medical Center; and as a scientist with Genentech, Inc.
A co-author of several patents and a published writer and researcher, Dr. Didsbury earned his Bachelor of Arts in biology/chemistry at University of Connecticut in 1977 and his Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology at University of Vermont Medical College in 1982.
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 Chief Financial Officer and Secretary
Mr. Thomas has spent more than two decades as a chief financial officer for numerous medical, biopharmaceutical and other start-up companies, including:
- Surgi-Vision, Inc., a private research company involved in MRI technology;
- MiMedX, Inc., a private research company involved in biomaterial-based products for connective and soft tissue repair;
- GMP Companies, Inc., a private medical research company;
- EntreMed, Inc., a publicly held biopharmaceutical research and development company;
- Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation, a publicly held dermatological company;
- Biopool International, Inc., a publicly held company engaged in the sale of pharmaceutical diagnostic test kits; and
- CytRx Corporation, a publicly held pharmaceutical research and development company.
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Mr. Thomas is also a certified public accountant and a trustee and chairman of the Finance Committee of The Walker School, a private Pre-K through 12 grade school.
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![Picture Coming Soon]() Board Director
Dr. Drutz's career spans 36 years in clinical medicine and patient care, basic and clinical research, pharmaceutical and biotechnology operational and research management and venture capital.
Dr. Drutz is a General Partner with Pacific Rim Ventures Co., Ltd., an international venture capital investment firm focused on life sciences with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. In addition, he is Chairman of the Board of Tranzyme, Inc. located in Research Triangle Park, NC and Tranzyme Pharma Inc., Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
Dr. Drutz's past experiences include Professor of Medicine and Microbiology and Chief Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas; Vice President, Biological Sciences and Vice President, Clinical Investigation for Smith Kline & French Laboratories, Ltd.; and Vice President and Director, Daiichi Pharmaceutical Corporation.
He has also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of two drug discovery and drug development companies, Sennes Drug Innovations Inc., Houston, Texas; and Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISPH), Durham, North Carolina.
Dr. Drutz holds a B.A. and M.D. from the University of Louisville.
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 Board Director
Mr. Eichler is executive vice president of LCOR, a real estate investment and development company, in charge of operations in the metropolitan New York region.
A principal of the company and member of the executive committee, Mr. Eichler has spent 25 years leading the acquisition, development, management and sale of millions of square feet of real estate, including urban and suburban office properties, multifamily rental communities, and a $1.4 billion airline terminal redevelopment project at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Among his major developments are 101 Hudson in Jersey City, New Jersey (a 1.2-million-square-foot, 42-story office tower), and the Foley Square Federal Office Building in New York City (a 974,000-square-foot, 34-story office tower) for the U.S. Attorney’s office, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service.
Previously, Mr. Eichler worked for Merrill Lynch, Hubbard in the Real Estate Debt and Equity Finance Group.
Mr. Eichler earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Wyoming. He is a member of various real estate organizations, including the Urban Land Institute.
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 Board Director
Mr. McWhorter is a founder and managing partner of Clayton Associates of Franklin, Tennessee, a private equity firm that invests in early stage growth companies and selected real estate ventures, holding over $100 million in committed capital in four funds.
Prior to founding Clayton Associates, he was a founder and vice president of acquisitions for OrthoLink Physicians Corp., a physician services and surgery center management company.
He currently serves on the board of directors of Censis Technologies, Inc.; HCCA International; Attentus Healthcare Company; SpineMedica, Inc.; Tenvera, Inc.; and Discovery Life Sciences, L.P., each of which are companies in the Clayton Associates Portfolios.
Mr. McWhorter earned his Bachelor of Science degree in management from Clemson University and a Master of Business Administration degree from The University of Alabama-Birmingham.
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![Picture Coming Soon]() Board Director
Mr. Cochrane has over 20 years of healthcare experience in executive and senior management positions, including Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Roche Biomedical Laboratories, President and Chief Executive Officer of Allied Clinical Laboratories and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Laboratory Corporation of America.
Presently, he serves as Vice Chairman and a Director of I-Trax, Inc. (AMEX: DMX), a publicly traded, total population health management and productivity company. Mr. Cochrane joined I-trax when I-trax acquired CHD Meridian Healthcare where he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. Cochrane earned an A.B. degree in Political Science from The University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill where he was a Morehead Scholar.
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![Picture Coming Soon]() Board Director
In February 2008, Dr Geert Cauwenbergh founded Phases123 LLC, a company focused on identifying high potential health care technology platforms and emerging health care companies. Phases123 provides the necessary support structures around these platforms and companies to allow for accelerated growth, by building management teams, by facilitating product and business development and by providing access to capital and geographical expansion.
Before founding Phases123 Llc, Dr. Cauwenbergh founded Barrier Therapeutics Inc in September of 2001 as a biopharmaceutical company with emphasis on research and development of novel patented therapeutic agents for treatment of skin diseases. He attracted private financing for the company in May of 2002 and took the Company public with a listing on the NASDAQ (Symbol: BTRX) in April of 2004. Through capital raises for a total of $250 million, he developed Barrier Therapeutics from a pure R&D organization into a commercial company with 3 products in the US market with expected revenues of $46 - $50 million in 2008, and a broad and deep pipeline of innovative treatments in development.
Prior to founding Barrier Therapeutics, Dr. Cauwenbergh was Vice President of Technology of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Consumer and Personal Care Products Companies. In this capacity, he created technology platforms based on intellectual property and know-how owned by Johnson & Johnson, and developed business plans around these platforms as the basis for new companies or new businesses within J&J.
Previously, Geert served as Vice President of Research & Development of the J&J Consumer Companies Worldwide, managing a global organization of over 100 people, and he was a member of the J&J Business Development Council. In 1994, Dr. Cauwenbergh moved from Europe to the USA, and became Vice President of Product Development and a member of the Management Board of the US Johnson & Johnson Consumer Company, while also being the Director of the Corporate Skin Care Council of J&J, coordinating the skin care activities in the different operating groups of the Corporation.
Geert joined the R&D organization of the Janssen Research Foundation in Belgium in 1982, where he held positions of increasing global responsibility and oversaw development of drugs such as Sporanox®, Nizoral® Shampoo, Terazol®, and topical Sufrexa®. His R&D activities have also involved him in the fields of psoriasis, acne, wound healing, atopic dermatitis, protozoal infections, and HIV. Earlier in his career, starting in 1979, in Janssen Pharmaceutica in Belgium, he held positions in sales, national and international marketing, and he was responsible for the successful global introduction of Nizoral® (ketoconazole).
Between 2003 and 2005, Dr. Cauwenbergh served on the Board of Directors of Intercept Inc, a small privately held biotechnology firm with focus on liver diseases. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees, and current Vice Chairman of Bio New Jersey and, between 2004 and 2006 served as a member on the Board of Trustees of the New Jersey Center of Life Sciences. In 2004, Dr Cauwenbergh was appointed Official Trade Advisor for Health Care in North America to the Belgian Government, a function which was renewed in 2007. In 2007, Geert was named on the Board of Ablynx NV, a biotechnology company in Europe with a novel delivery technology for a variety of antibodies as well as small molecules. He joined the Board of Upstream Biosciences, a small biotechnology company in Vancouver, Canada, using computational chemistry for the development of drugs in neglected diseases in March of 2008, and remains as a Director on the Board of Barrier Therapeutics.
Dr. Cauwenbergh has authored over 100 publications and co-authored several books. He received his Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the Catholic University of Leuven, Faculty of Medicine, where he also completed his Masters and undergraduate work.
In 2004 Dr. Cauwenbergh was inducted in the New Jersey High Tech Hall of Fame.
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