Jill C. Milne, Ph.D., is co-founder of our company and has served as a member of our board of directors and as our President and Chief Executive Officer since June 2008. Prior to co-founding our company, Dr. Milne worked as head of discovery biology at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company, from 2004 to 2008, when it was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline. From 1998 to 2004, Dr. Milne worked at Pfizer Global Research and Development, where she served as the worldwide head of the Drug Pfinder Program and head of the Enzyme Target Group at the Pfizer Discovery Technology Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to joining Pfizer, she was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow in the department of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Harvard Medical School from 1995 to 1998. Dr. Milne holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and a B.A. in biological chemistry from Wellesley College.
Noah Clauser has served as our Chief Financial Officer since September 2020. Previously, he served as our Vice President, Finance leading our finance and operations functions since August 2017. Mr. Clauser served as our Senior Director, Finance and Controller from January 2016 to July 2017, and as Controller from April 2011 to December 2015. Prior to joining Astria (formerly Catabasis), Mr. Clauser was at Impress Software, an enterprise software company, where he served as Accounting Manager from 2005 to 2009. Mr. Clauser is a licensed CPA in Massachusetts and holds an M.S. in Accounting and a B.S. in Management from the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
Chris Morabito has served as Chief Medical Officer at Astria since July 2022. Previously, he was Chief Medical Officer at Fulcrum Therapeutics from May 2021 to July 2022. From July 2020 to May 2021, Dr. Morabito served as Chief Medical Officer at Cardurion Pharmaceuticals. From January 2016 until June 2020, Dr. Morabito held several roles at Takeda including Senior Vice President and Head of Research and Development, Plasma Derived Therapies, Vice President and Head, R&D Integration, Vice President and Head, Portfolio Strategy Group, and Vice President and Global Program Leader, Specialty Cardiovascular Disease. Prior to Takeda, Dr. Morabito worked at Sanofi as Senior Director and Global Project Head, Lixisenatide-Family from April 2015 to January 2016, Senior Director and Head of Programs, Sanofi research and Development (ID-TSU) from August 2014 to March 2015, and Senior Director, Global Project Head, Sanofi Research and Development (ID-TSU) from April 2014 to December 2014. He also worked at Merck & Co. from October 2010 to April 2014 as Director, Clinical Research, Cardiovascular Therapeutic Area. Dr Morabito trained at Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco after receiving his M.D. from Penn State University College of Medicine.
Andrew A. Komjathy has served as our Chief Commercial Officer since September 2019. Previously, Mr. Komjathy was the Vice President, Commercial Sales at Alkermes, Inc., a publicly held pharmaceutical company, from May 2014 to November 2018. From 2012 to 2014, he was the Vice President, Sales for the U.S. Multiple Sclerosis Business Unit at Genzyme, a publicly held pharmaceutical company. From 2005 to 2012, Mr. Komjathy held three Vice President positions at Shire Human Genetic Therapies, initially as Vice President and General Manager, Commercial Operations in the North American and Asia-Pacific regions, followed by Vice President, Global Franchise Leader for Fabry/Gaucher in Switzerland, and ultimately as Vice President, Commercial Operations. From 1996 to 2005, Mr. Komjathy held positions of increasing responsibility at Biogen. Mr. Komjathy holds an M.B.A. from New York University Stern School of Business and his B.S. in Business Administration from Bucknell University.
Ben Harshbarger has served as Chief Legal Officer since June 2021. Previously he served as our Senior Vice President, General Counsel since June 2020. Prior to joining Astria (formerly Catabasis), Mr. Harshbarger served as Interim Chief Executive Officer and General Counsel at Novelion Therapeutics Inc. from November 2018 to December 2019. Mr. Harshbarger was General Counsel of Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and subsequently Novelion Therapeutics (following the merger of Aegerion and Novelion) from August 2016 to November 2018, and Acting General Counsel of Aegerion Pharmaceuticals from September 2015 to July 2016. Prior to these roles, he served as the Vice President, EMEA Legal Counsel and the Vice President, Deputy General Counsel at Aegerion from 2012 to 2015, and also served in senior legal roles at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Biogen, Inc.. Mr. Harshbarger received his J.D. from Boston College Law School, and his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Richmond.
Andrea Matthews has served as Chief Business Officer since April 2023, leading the Corporate Strategy, Business Development, Investor Relations, Corporate Communications, and Patient Advocacy functions. Previously, she served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs from October 2020, as Vice President, Corporate Affairs since August 2017, as Executive Director, Corporate Affairs since November 2015, and as Senior Director, Operations and Corporate Development from July 2014 to October 2015. Prior to joining Astria (formerly Catabasis), Ms. Matthews served as Vice President, Operations and Alliance Management/Commercial Operations at Selventa (formerly Genstruct), a biomarker discovery company that collaborated with pharmaceutical and consumer product companies, from February 2010 to July 2014 and as Director, Alliance Management from February 2009 to February 2010. From 2003 to 2009, Ms. Matthews held a series of roles with increasing responsibilities at Genstruct, leading to several managerial positions. Ms. Matthews holds an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management and a B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Boston University.
Keri McGrail has served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources at Astria (formerly Catabasis) since March 2021. Previously, she worked as an HR Consultant for biotechnology companies, including Catabasis, from September 2014 to March 2021. From December 2009 to August 2014, Ms. McGrail served as Director, Human Resources at Takeda Pharmaceuticals (formerly Millennium Pharmaceuticals). Prior to Takeda, she spent more than 11 years at Millennium Pharmaceuticals in a series of roles with increasing responsibilities from 1998 to 2009. Ms. McGrail holds a B.A. in Communications from UC Santa Barbara.
John Ruesch has served as Senior Vice President, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technical Operations at Astria Therapeutics since July 2023. Previously, he was Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development at Surface Oncology from 2021 to 2023. From 2015 to 2021, Mr. Ruesch held several roles at Biogen, Inc., including Vice President, Protein Technical Development, Senior Director, Head of Protein Technical Development, and Senior Director, Drug Product Development. Prior to Biogen, he worked at Pfizer from 2003 to 2015 in positions of increasing responsibility, culminating in his role as Senior Director, Formulation and Drug Product Process Development. Mr. Ruesch holds his B.S. in Biology from Valparaiso University, and his M.B.A. from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.
