Management
Maxine Gowen, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Dr. Gowen is the founding President and CEO of Trevena. Prior to this Dr. Gowen held a variety of leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) over a period of fifteen years. As Senior Vice President for the Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD), she developed an innovative new approach to externalizing drug discovery in big pharma. Dr. Gowen was previously President and Managing Partner at SR One, the venture capital subsidiary of GSK, where she led its investments in and served on the board of directors of numerous companies. Until 2002 Dr. Gowen was Vice President, Drug Discovery, Musculoskeletal Diseases at GSK, responsible for drug discovery and early development for osteoporosis, arthritis and metastatic bone disease. Dr. Gowen held a tenured academic position in the School of Pharmacology, University of Bath, UK from 1989-1992. She has authored more than 100 refereed scientific publications.
Dr. Gowen graduated with a B.Sc. in biochemistry from the University of Bristol, UK, received a Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of Sheffield, UK, and received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Gowen is currently serving on the Board of Directors of Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) and the Board of Directors of the biotechnology industry association, Bio. She chairs an advisory board at GSK.
Michael W. Lark, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President and Head, Research
Dr. Lark joined Trevena as Head of Research in February 2008. Prior to this, he was Vice President of Biology at Centocor R&D where he was responsible for the therapeutic discovery strategy and execution in immunology, oncology, tissue remodeling and biomarkers. In this role, Dr. Lark managed a portfolio of approximately 15 drug discovery projects as well as supported the development of 14 new molecular entities (two in late stage clinical development) and one product. He was previously Director of Musculoskeletal Diseases at GlaxoSmithKline, where he managed a portfolio of drug discovery projects targeting osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. Before joining SmithKline Beecham in 1996, Dr. Lark was a Senior Investigator at Merck Research laboratories, where he led a drug discovery team targeting matrix metalloproteinase-3 for the treatment of osteoarthritis. Dr. Lark received his B.S. in Microbiology from the Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from the Case Western Reserve University Medical School. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Pathology at The University of Washington.
David Soergel, M.D.
Vice President and Head, Clinical Development
Dr. Soergel joined Trevena in November 2009 as VP and Head of Clinical Development. Previously, he was Senior Director, Clinical Development at Concert Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for clinical strategy and operations across diverse therapy areas, including infectious diseases and diabetic nephropathy. Prior to Concert, Dr. Soergel was Director of Discovery Medicine at GlaxoSmithKline in the Cardiovascular/Urogenital Center of Excellence for Drug Discovery where he was responsible for leading compounds from the bench to the bedside in the areas of women’s health and urology. At GSK, he served on multiple interdisciplinary working groups, including the Internal Cardiac Safety Panel and Pediatric Network. After completing an NIH-funded post-doctoral fellowship and receiving the Fellow’s Award for Basic Research from the Society for Pediatric Research, Dr. Soergel completed his clinical training in Pediatric Cardiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He underwent additional training in Heart Failure and Transplant at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Dennis Yamashita, Ph.D.
Vice President and Head, Chemistry
Dr. Yamashita joined Trevena in March 2008 as VP and Head, Chemistry. Previous to this appointment, he was a Director in the Oncology Center of Excellence Drug Discovery in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where he was employed for 17 years. While at GSK, he identified clinical candidates and supported programs in oncology, bone and cartilage, inflammation, autoimmune, and endocrine disease areas. His specific research projects included lead optimization of AKT inhibitors, Tie2/VEGFR inhibitors, Calcium receptor antagonists, VR4 agonists, Cathepsin K inhibitors, Cathepsin B inhibitors, Cathepsin S inhibitors, Src SH2 domain antagonists, Steroid 5-alpha reductase inhibitors, rapamycin analogs, and FKBP ligands. Dr. Yamashita obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Yale University, under the direction of Prof. Samuel J. Danishefsky. His thesis research project was on the synthesis of analogs of calicheamicin and esperamicin, members of the enediyne anti-tumor natural products. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986 and conducted undergraduate research in Rick L. Danheiser's group by developing an annulation method of preparing highly substituted furans from allenylsilanes and acyl chlorides.
Rosamond Deegan
Vice President and Head, Finance and Operations
Ms. Deegan joined Trevena in March 2008 as Director of Finance and Operations and was promoted in January 2010 to Vice President. Prior to joining Trevena, Ms. Deegan held a variety of business positions at GlaxoSmithKline over a period of six years, including Director of Business Development, Director of Operations for the Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD), Finance Manager and Marketing Manager for the launch of Boniva(TM) (osteoporosis) in the U.K. Before joining GSK, Ms. Deegan earned her M.B.A. with distinction from INSEAD. Previously, she was a senior management consultant for KPMG, working on pharmaceutical assignments across strategy, corporate finance and operations, both in the U.K. and the U.S. Ms. Deegan graduated from Cambridge University with a M.Phil. from the Department of Medicine and first class B.A. honors degree in Natural Sciences.
Jonathan Violin, Ph.D.
Head of Biology
Dr. Violin joined Trevena as a Research Scientist and co-founder in February 2008 and was promoted to Head of Biology in January 2010. Prior to this, he was a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Lefkowitz at Duke University Medical Center, where he studied biased ligands and beta-arrestin functions for a variety of GPCRs. His research helped establish how biased ligands elicit unique cellular pharmacology with potential to translate into differentiated therapeutics. Dr. Violin holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego, where he developed biosensors to study the spatial and temporal dynamics of kinase signaling. He also received an M.B.A. with a concentration in Health Sector Management from the Fuqua School of Business and a B.S. in Chemical Pharmacology from Duke University.
