Management

Christopher Posner

Mr. Posner has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since November 2021 and has served as a member of our Board since August 2018. He has broad experience in commercial and marketing operations and product management at both large and specialty pharmaceutical companies, where he has focused on products for autoimmune, inflammatory and pain conditions, including Xeljanz® and Enbrel®. From July 2017 to October 2021, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of LEO Pharma, Inc. US, a subsidiary of LEO Pharma A/S, a global healthcare company specializing in dermatology and critical care, including such conditions as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. Prior to joining LEO, he was the Head of Worldwide Commercial Operations at R-Pharma-US, LLC, a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on oncology and chronic immune disorders, from 2014 until 2017. Previously, Mr. Posner held a variety of senior management positions in commercial and marketing operations at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Pfizer Inc., Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Endo Pharmaceuticals plc. Mr. Posner holds an M.B.A. from Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and a B.A. in Economics from Villanova University.

Frédérique Menzaghi, Ph.D.

Dr. Menzaghi, one of our founders, and has been with the company since 2004, leading our preclinical research and pruritus clinical programs. Dr. Menzaghi has over 25 years of drug development and management experience in biotechnology in the field of ion channels and GPCRs. Her expertise ranges from exploratory non-clinical research through clinical development. She has a successful track record in leading numerous drug discovery programs in the areas of pain, inflammation, obesity, psychiatric, cognitive and neurological disorders. She guided numerous compounds to late Phase clinical trials, including one compound approved by the FDA in 2013 for the treatment of obesity. She has led or contributed to the filing of numerous INDs and CTAs and has led successful interdisciplinary teams spanning the entire drug development process from the validation of novel receptor targets to novel chemical entity formulated for oral, parenteral or transdermal routes of administration. From 2003-2004, she served as VP Pharmacology and Business Development at Psychogenics Inc., a preclinical CRO.

From 1999 to 2003, she was the Research Director of In Vivo Pharmacology at Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARNA) leading a multidisciplinary research team. Prior to that, Dr. Menzaghi established and directed a preclinical research laboratory at SIBIA Neurosciences (acquired by Merck). Her research expertise ranged from the development of small molecules to small peptides. She has extensive experience with corporate partnering with large US and Asian pharmaceutical companies including Eli Lilly, Merck and J&J. Dr. Menzaghi received her Ph.D. in Neurosciences from the University of Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France and a M.Sc. in clinical psychology from the University of Nancy, France, after which she conducted her post-doctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, California. She has over 55 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, 100 international meeting presentations and is listed as an inventor on numerous patents.

Joana Goncalves, M.D.

Dr. Goncalves brings more than 17 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry to Cara. Most recently, she served as Vice President, Medical Affairs for Dermatology and Neurology at Celgene Corporation where she was instrumental in planning and executing medical support activities for a number of programs, including OTEZLA® for psoriasis. Previously, Dr. Goncalves held the position of Vice President, Medical Strategy and Scientific Affairs at LEO Pharma Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of LEO Pharma A/S. She began her pharmaceutical career at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, working on a range of products across various therapeutic areas. Dr. Goncalves received her M.D. from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Ryan Maynard

Mr. Maynard has served as our Chief Financial Officer since September 2022. He has over 20 years of experience in leading finance organizations at both public and private biopharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Cara, Mr. Maynard served as the Chief Financial Officer of LetsGetChecked, a global healthcare solutions company, and Blade Therapeutics, a development stage biotechnology company. From 2001-2017, he held various leadership roles at Rigel Pharmaceuticals including Chief Financial Officer from 2007-2017. During his tenure at Rigel, Mr. Maynard was a key member of the executive team that successfully discovered, developed, and launched Tavalisse for the treatment of chronic immune thrombocytopenia. He started his career at Ernst & Young, LLP where he earned his CPA. Mr. Maynard has been a member of the Board of Directors of Iovance Biotherapeutics since 2015. Mr. Maynard earned his B.S. in Commerce – Accounting from Santa Clara University.

Scott Terrillion

Mr. Terrillion joined Cara in 2016 as the company’s General Counsel. Scott oversees Cara’s legal and compliance functions and serves as company Secretary.

Mr. Terrillion brings over 20 years of diverse pharmaceutical industry experience from varying legal and business roles in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Mr. Terrillion spent 15 years at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he served as Vice President, Associate General Counsel. At Boehringer, Mr. Terrillion built and led the legal team supporting the global company’s US human pharmaceutical business during a period of rapid, industry-leading growth. Mr. Terrillion also spent two years at Mesoblast, Inc., a publicly traded emerging biotech, as the company’s Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Head of Compliance. Mr. Terrillion began his legal career at Nixon, Hargrave, Devans & Doyle (now Nixon Peabody), a large general practice law firm, where he was an associate in the Health Care and Technology/Intellectual Property Practice groups. A licensed pharmacist, Mr. Terrillion began his professional career as a community pharmacist and later served as Director of Pharmacy for Preferred Care, Inc., a HMO insurance provider.

Mr. Terrillion received his B.S. in Pharmacy from the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, where he serves on the Board of Trustees, and a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Albany Law School. He is a member of the New York bar.

Iris Francesconi, Ph.D.

Iris has over 10 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience both in the United States and abroad. Most recently, Iris served as the head of marketing, market research, and commercial assessments at BioXcel Therapeutics. Prior to BioXcel, Iris led multiple U.S. therapeutics franchises including neurology, cardiology, gastro-enterology, and infection diseases at Allergan (now Abbvie). Before transitioning to the US organization, she also oversaw the regional and country level portfolio strategy for all regions globally. Iris transitioned to the biopharmaceutical industry via two years in strategy consulting. Iris started her professional career in the investment industry where she spent 10 years initially as a sell-side equity analyst and subsequently as a buy-side portfolio manager always focused on U.S and international biotechnology and life sciences platform companies of all market capitalizations.

Iris holds an M.B.A from Cornell University, a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Georgia State University, and an M.S. and B.S. in Technical Chemistry from the University of Technology Graz, Austria.

Eric Vandal

Mr. Vandal has served as our Sr. Vice President of Commercial since June 2014. He has more than 25 years of executive and commercial leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Cara Therapeutics, Eric was the Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Nuvo Research Inc, a specialty pharmaceutical company specializing in topical pain products. At Nuvo Research, Eric built and lead a commercial team of 25 employees in re-launching SYNERA® Patch into the interventional pain physician segment as well as pioneering its efforts to establish SYNERA® Patch in large corporate health care companies.

Prior to joining Nuvo Research, Eric was Senior Director, Marketing for King Pharmaceuticals where he led the company’s hospital business unit. At King Pharmaceuticals, he oversaw the company’s hospital franchises, including their hemostasis portfolio (Thrombin-JMI®) and launched their pain franchise into the hospital segment.

Prior to working at King Pharmaceuticals, Eric was at Alpharma Pharmaceuticals where he was Senior Director, Marketing as well as the Regional Business Director for the Northeast Region. At Alpharma, he was the head of the marketing department that successfully launched the first topical NSAID in the United States, FLECTOR® Patch, and significantly grew the KADIAN® Capsule business.

Eric previously worked for Endo Pharmaceuticals where he took on roles of increasing responsibility within its commercial organization, including leadership over the launch of PERCOCET® line extensions, OPANA® and OPANA® ER franchise as well as FROVA® Tablets.

Eric began his career working in a variety of sales and marketing roles for Schering-Plough and SmithKline Beecham. Eric holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University.

Beth Weinberg, RPh

Beth Weinberg is a Pharmacist with over 27 years of drug development experience. She began her career at Eli Lilly and Company in Clinical Development and had roles of increasing responsibility in Clinical Operations/Development and Medical Affairs. She found her passion in Regulatory Affairs and spent 13 years there before retiring from Lilly in 2018. She joined Metavant Sciences as VP and Head of Regulatory Affairs and Quality, moved to Roivant as VP and Head of Regulatory and to Angion Biomedica as VP of Regulatory Affairs. Beth has strong therapeutic expertise in diabetes, metabolism, cardiovascular disease, renal diseases, and inflammation/autoimmune disorders. She has led or been involved in more than 20 INDs, NDAs, BLAs and ex-US regulatory submissions and has led dozens of regulatory authority interactions. Beth holds a BA in Liberal Arts from Bradley University and a BSPharm from Butler University.