• George Siber, M.D., Executive Chairman
• Mustapha Leavenworth Bakali, Chief Executive Officer
• John M. Sorvillo, Ph.D., VP of Business Development
• Robert E. Farrell Jr., VP of Finance and Administration
• Jane Halpern, Ph.D., VP of Regulatory Affairs
• Jessica Flechtner, Ph.D., Senior Director of Research & Development

George Siber, M.D.
Executive Chairman
Dr. Siber is widely regarded as one of the leading global authorities in vaccines and was previously the Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Wyeth Vaccines. While at Wyeth, Dr. Siber oversaw the development and approval of multiple widely-used childhood vaccines including an acellular pertussis vaccine (Acel-Imune), a meningococcal meningitis vaccine (Meningitec), and a pneumococcal vaccine (Prevnar). Prior to joining Wyeth, Dr. Siber was Director of the Massachusetts Public Health Biologic Laboratories and Harvard Medical School Associate Professor of Medicine at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. During this time, Dr. Siber oversaw research and manufacturing of multiple vaccines and immune globulins including Respigam, a human immune globulin against RSV, which was the precursor of Synagis.

Mustapha Leavenworth Bakali
Chief Executive Officer
Staph Bakali is Chief Executive Officer at Genocea Biosciences. Over the past 20 years, Mr. Bakali has helped create close to $10 billion in value through senior operating and leadership positions at ID Biomedical [acquired by GlaxoSmithKline], PowderJect Pharmaceuticals [acquired by Chiron], Chiron Vaccines [acquired by Novartis], and board membership at Intercell AG [VSE:ICLL]. 

Mr. Bakali is the former Chief Operating Officer of ID Biomedical (IDB), a Vancouver, Canada-based company focused on vaccines for influenza. In this role, Mr. Bakali had full responsibility for profit and loss and global operations, including sales and marketing, research and development, industrial operations, quality operations, environmental health and safety. Mr. Bakali managed a staff of more than 500 employees based in five sites located in the U.S. and Canada. Mr. Bakali played a significant role in transforming the company from an R&D organization into a fully-integrated biotech company, and helping IDB double its market cap within two years. He was significantly involved in the acquisition of Shire Biologics by ID Biomedical and led the efforts to integrate the newly acquired company. In 2005, ID Biomedical was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline for $1.4 billion. 

Prior to ID Biomedical, Mr. Bakali was Chief Operating Officer of Oxford, England-based PowderJect Pharmaceuticals. During his tenure at PowderJect, Mr. Bakali built the commercial and operational organization to over 800 employees in the U.S. and Europe and grew revenue to over $200 million. Mr. Bakali has also been the Director of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Chiron Vaccines and the Director of SmithKline Beecham plc’s Vaccine Business Unit in France.     Mr. Bakali is currently a non-executive Director at Vienna, Austria-based Intercell AG and Director at Canadian mining company Osisko Exploration. Mr. Bakali holds a Masters in Management from London Business School.   

John M. Sorvillo, Ph.D.
VP of Business Development
John Sorvillo is Vice President of Business Development at Genocea Biosciences. Dr. Sorvillo was most recently Vice President of Business Development at Altus Pharmaceuticals from August 2006 where he led all partnering activities. Before joining Altus, Dr. Sorvillo served as Chief Executive Officer of Bionaut Pharmaceuticals. From 1995 to 2005, Dr. Sorvillo acted as Vice President of Business Development at ArQule. He was responsible for establishing many technology and product collaborations with pharmaceutical companies including the negotiation of a $345 million strategic alliance with Pfizer.

Prior to ArQule, Dr. Sorvillo held a variety of positions at OSI Pharmaceuticals (formerly Oncogene Science) leading up to his last position as Vice President and General Manager, Research Products Division. Dr. Sorvillo was a postdoctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and received his Ph.D. in Immunology from the New York University Medical Center, Sackler Institute of Biomedical Sciences. He holds a B.A. in Biology from the City University of New York, Hunter College

Robert E. Farrell Jr., CPA
VP of Finance and Administration
Bob Farrell is Vice President of Finance and Administration at Genocea Biosciences. Bob was most recently Senior Director of Finance at Magen Biosciences where he was responsible for all finance and administrative functions and played a key role in the acquisition of Magen Biosciences by Pharmaceutical Product.

Prior to Magen Biosciences, Bob held senior level financial positions at Oscient Pharmaceuticals and NeoGenesis Pharmaceuticals where he built and directed all financial reporting and treasury efforts including an initial public offering and SEC filings. Bob is a licensed CPA and holds a BS in Accounting from Bentley College.

Jane Halpern, Ph.D.
VP of Regulatory Affairs
Jane Halpern is the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Genocea Biosciences. Dr. Halpern was most recently Director of Regulatory Affairs and Head of Technical Regulatory Affairs, North America for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Biologicals. At GSK, she was responsible for management of the Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls and technical regulatory activities at three North American GSK manufacturing sites. Dr. Halpern also had overall responsibility for submission activities and maintenance of influenza vaccine licenses in Canada.

Prior to GSK, Dr. Halpern was Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs for ID Biomedical Corporation. In 2005, ID Biomedical was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline for $1.4 billion.

Dr. Halpern was formerly Associate Director of Regulatory Affairs at the U.S. office of ERA Consulting. Prior to joining ERA, she had been at the vaccine division of the U.S. FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) for ten years where she was responsible for the scientific and regulatory review of both licensed and investigational products. Dr. Halpern received her Bachelor's degree in Physiology from University of California at Davis and her doctorate in Pharmacology from the University of Rochester.

Jessica Baker Flechtner, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Research & Development
Jessica Baker Flechtner is the Senior Director of Research & Development at Genocea Biosciences, Inc. Dr. Flechtner established the functional laboratory for Genocea and is leading Genocea's research efforts to identify novel T cell antigens for inclusion in vaccines directed against a variety of infectious diseases. Prior to joining Genocea, Dr. Flechtner was an Immunology Consultant at Biovest International, where she guided the development of assays to evaluate the success of their autologous Follicular (Non-Hodgkin's) Lymphoma vaccine in patients. Her industry experience also includes extensive preclinical vaccine development. As a researcher at Mojave Therapeutics, Inc. and Antigenics Inc., which acquired Mojave's intellectual property, Dr. Flechtner developed protein and peptide-based vaccines and immunotherapies relevant to cancer, infectious disease, autoimmunity and allergy. She is an inventor on nine pending or issued patents and has multiple peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Dr. Flechtner performed her post-doctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. Harvey Cantor at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School and holds a Ph.D. in Cellular Immunology and B.S. in Animal Science from Cornell University. She is a member of the American Association of Immunologists and the American Association for Cancer Research.