Shelley Hartman has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Aegle Therapeutics since August of 2014 and became Chairman of the Board in January 2020. Prior to Aegle, Ms. Hartman served for nine years as CEO of LifeSync Corporation, a start-up medical device company developing and marketing wireless medical technology to hospital customers. LifeSync was spun-off from LifeSync Holdings (f/k/a GMP Companies, Inc.), a development company focused on biopharmaceutical and medical device product development. Prior to LifeSync, Ms. Hartman served for more than 18 years in the investment banking industry, most recently as Managing Director in the Healthcare Department of the Investment Banking Division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Ms. Hartman holds a B.A. from Wellesley College.

Aegle’s research team is headed by Dr. Badiavas—a board certified dermatologist and dermatopathologist—whose research has been focused on wound healing, bone marrow, stem cells, bioengineered skin, dermatology, and translational research for more than 30 years. Dr. Badiavas was among the first to describe the trafficking and engraftment of bone marrow cells to wounded skin, and the restoration of skin structures by bone marrow stem cells. He has been the principal investigator on protocols delivering stem cells to wounds for more than 15 years and was the first to describe the delivery of bone marrow stem cells to chronic wounds in humans. Dr. Badiavas has been awarded three IND’s by the FDA for the delivery of stem cells to patients. Having worked in this area for years, he is well versed in all recent regulatory aspects of cell-based therapeutics. His expertise in bone marrow stem cells began as a graduate student in 1982 when he worked on erythroid progenitors under the direction of Alan Erslev, Jaimie Caro and Hideko Kaji. Since then, Dr. Badiavas has completed his PhD, postdoctoral training, medical school, dermatology residency, and dermatopathology fellowship. He is a practicing dermatologist and dermatolopathologist with more than 20 years experience with particular interests in the histologic evaluation of wounds. He has been working with bioengineered skin materials for more than 25 years and has described several key histological features associated with the application of these materials to patients. Dr. Badiavas has also published and presented his findings in several preclinical studies for wounds including rodent and pig models. He has served as a consultant, NIH study section member, and moderator for wound based and stem cell projects. Dr. Badiavas has an extensive and diverse history of close collaboration with several highly regarded stem cell, bone marrow, and wound healing investigators. His unique training and experience allows him to comfortably move between these sometimes-distinct fields.

Heidi Kempinski joined Aegle in 2020 as the Senior Vice President and Head of Operations. She is a seasoned operations executive who brings over 25 years of experience in global drug development, with core experience in strategic planning, product development, program management and R&D and business operations. Her experience includes the development of both large and small molecules, spanning all development stages through to commercialization. Ms. Kempinski has successfully built and led integrated R&D operations for companies of variable size and development maturity.

Prior to joining Aegle, Ms. Kempinski served as VP of Business Operations and Strategic Alliances at GSK after their acquisition of TESARO, where she led the overall integration of TESARO into GSK. At TESARO, she was part of the founding team building R&D operations in parallel to in-licensing and operationalization of the company’s first assets. Ms. Kempinski established pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, quality, regulatory, clinical operations, and program management for the company, ultimately leading to multiple, successful development programs, regulatory approvals in >30 countries and product launches in the US and EU. Heidi also managed all global development and commercialization relationships with licensors and licensees, and collaborators/partners for discovery, clinical development, and diagnostics.

Prior to TESARO, Heidi held executive roles in R&D Operations and Program Management at several biopharmaceutical companies including Abraxis BioScience, Eisai, MGI Pharma, Altus Pharmaceuticals, ZYCOS, and Transkaryotic Therapies. Heidi earned a BS in microbiology and chemistry from Quinnipiac University and an MBA with a specialty in innovation and entrepreneurship from Northeastern University.

Willistine Lenon has more than 27 years of clinical operation experience in the pharmaceutical/ contract research organization (CRO) industries. Ms. Lenon’s global experience includes conducting of trials in the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Australia, and Pan-Asia. Prior to joining Aegle, Ms. Lenon was Vice President of Clinical Operations at Scioderm, a biotech company focusing on rare diseases. Ms. Lenon’s therapeutic expertise in clinical trials is broad in areas including Oncology, Dermatology, Analgesia, Cardiovascular, Genitourinary, hematology, Metabolic Disorders, Neurology, Ophthalmology, Pulmonary/Allergy, and Rheumatology. Ms. Lenon holds a BS in Computer Science from Trinity College.

Hema Gopalan brings over 25 years of experience, managing and leading finance and accounting teams at start-up stage to pre-commercial and publicly traded biotech companies. Her recent experience with several small and large publicly traded biotech companies include Lyra Therapeutics, Astria Therapeutics and Shire Pharmaceuticals PLC. Hema brings corporate governance, capital raising, including filing for an IPO and deep operations expertise to Aegle. Hema started her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, in Boston, where she led and managed audits and is a Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts. She earned her Master of Science Degree from Bentley University.