Our Executive Team

Collaboration that drives innovation
Our Executive Team brings proven experience and expertise in building innovative pipelines, driving the development and commercialization of safe and effective treatments and forging value-driven collaborations. Employing a collaborative approach, FORUM Pharmaceuticals is dedicated to delivering groundbreaking medicines in support of all those who are affected by or caring for people with brain disease.

Deborah Dunsire, MD

President and Chief Executive Officer

Biography: Deborah Dunsire is an industry leader who brings more than 25 years of scientific, clinical, operational, and commercial experience, and proven leadership in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

Prior to joining FORUM Pharmaceuticals in 2013, she served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., now Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, from 2005 to 2013. During that period, she transformed the company into a biotechnology industry leader by focusing R&D, driving the development pipeline, fostering a culture of employee engagement, increasing the commercial mind-set across the organization, and crafting highly effective partnerships to drive the company’s growth. Millennium was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited in 2008 for $8.8 billion, one of the largest biotech acquisitions at that time.

Deborah was the first woman appointed to the board of Takeda Pharmaceuticals Limited in Japan. Prior to this, Deborah led the Novartis Oncology Business in North America, playing a critical role in the broad development and successful launch of a number of products, increasing revenues from $50 million to more than $2.2 billion.

Currently, Deborah is a board member of Allergan, Inc., and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). She is a trustee of the Museum of Science (Boston) and a member of the Massachusetts General Hospital Research Advisory Council. She has received numerous awards, including the 2001 American Cancer Society Excalibur Award, the 2009 Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association’s “Woman of the Year,” the 2011 MassBIO Innovator Award, and the 2013 Boston CEO Conference Lifetime Achievement Award.

Education: Deborah received her medical degree from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

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Christopher L. Burnley

Senior Vice President and
Chief Business Officer

Biography: Chris Burnley brings to FORUM Pharmaceuticals more than 25 years of broad industry experience focused on business operations, finance, strategy development, and corporate development. Previously, Chris was a founder and CEO of VetRx, a biotechnology startup to develop human biologics for use in companion animals.

Before forming VetRx, Chris served as Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer and then Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Phenomix Corporation, where he was responsible for business strategy, corporate development, and finance, and negotiated a number of research and development collaborations, including partnerships with Forest Laboratories and Genentech. He also was Vice President, Business and Operations, of genomics at Monsanto Company, where he structured and managed a network of research and development collaborations.

Prior to joining Monsanto, Chris worked at Boston Consulting Group, where he assisted corporate clients on a wide range of topics and opened the firm’s Dallas office.

Education: Chris holds BS degrees magna cum laude from Southern Methodist University in economics and political science and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Christine A. Carberry

Vice President, Technical Operations;
Program and Alliance Management

Biography: Christine Carberry is a biopharmaceutical executive with extensive experience in all phases of drug development. Prior to joining the company in 2012, Christine was Vice President, Program and Alliance Management, at Biogen Idec for several years, advancing the company from a biotechnology pioneer to a Fortune 500 company with more than $4 billion in revenue. Her role spanned global co-development/co-commercialization alliances, strategic planning, R&D operations, and program management.

Christine previously held many positions in technical operations, including the start-up of Biogen’s first European manufacturing facility. Christine is a Certified Strategic Alliance Professional (CSAP).

Education: Christine holds an MS in innovation and technology management from Boston University, certificates in Management and Biotechnology Strategy from Harvard University, and a BS in biochemistry from University of New Hampshire.

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Todd Shegog

Senior Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer

Biography: Todd Shegog has 20 years of financial experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Prior to his arrival at FORUM Pharmaceuticals in 2014, Todd served most recently as Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., now Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, where he was responsible for the effective management of the company’s financial resources, corporate planning, financial reporting, and compliance. During his 1998 to 2014 tenure, Todd held key leadership roles supporting the early evolution of the company and its transformation from a genomics company to a fully integrated drug developer, the approval and launch of its flagship oncology product, VELCADE, and the $8.8 billion acquisition of Millennium by Takeda Pharmaceuticals. As a leader in the Executive Committee, he helped drive the company into the top 20 among FORTUNE magazine’s 2013 listing of 100 Best Companies to Work For in the United States. Todd began his career in healthcare at Genetics Institute (now Pfizer) in a variety of financial positions supporting its Research and Development organizations, and was a member of the Commercial Operations team that supported the launch of BeneFIX®. He is an active member of the Association of Bioscience Financial Officers, a forum designed to foster education and development of fellow bioscience financial officers.

Education: Todd received an MBA from the Tepper School of Management, Carnegie Mellon University and a BS degree in electrical engineering at Lafayette College.

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Dana C. Hilt, MD

Senior Vice President, Clinical Development and
Chief Medical Officer

Biography: Dana Hilt has served as Senior Vice President, Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer at FORUM Pharmaceuticals since 2007 and brings more than 20 years of drug development experience to the company.

Prior to joining FORUM Pharmaceuticals, Dana held senior development and management positions as Chief Medical Officer at various pharmaceutical companies, including Guilford Pharmaceuticals, Ascend Pharmaceuticals, and Critical Therapeutics. During this time, Dana was involved in the development of a variety of potential therapeutics, including drugs for Parkinson’s disease, ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, oncologic diseases, including malignant glioma, chronic pain, metabolic disorders, and inflammatory conditions.

Earlier in his career, he worked at Amgen, establishing a clinical neuroscience group that focused on the potential therapeutic applications of neurotrophic factors in degenerative neurologic diseases. Prior to his work at Amgen, Dana was on the faculty of the Neurology and Molecular Biology Departments at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Before that, he served on the staff of the NIH for 5 years, conducting both basic molecular neurobiology research and clinical studies at the NIH clinical center.

Dana has co-authored more than 75 publications and book chapters in basic and clinical neuroscience and has participated in, chaired, or organized a number of national and international symposia.

Education: Dana earned his MD from Tufts University School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine at Harvard and Neurology at Johns Hopkins University.

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Maiken Keson-Brookes

Vice President, General Counsel

Biography: Maiken Keson-Brookes brings 15 years of broad legal experience to FORUM Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining the company in 2010, Maiken was Associate General Counsel at Biogen Idec, first in Switzerland and then in the United States. Before that, she was General Counsel and Company Secretary at Cims Limited, a financial services company located in the United Kingdom. After university, Maiken worked in the public sector, focusing on international law.

While at Biogen Idec in Switzerland, Maiken provided support to all parts of the international business, including being the dedicated lawyer for the approval and launch of Avonex® in Japan and the construction of a $750 million biologics manufacturing facility in Denmark.

Maiken has extensive international experience in areas such as negotiation and documentation of strategic transactions, corporate governance and compliance, management of outside legal counsel, negotiation and completion of routine corporate agreements, and other general business matters. She is also admitted as an attorney in New York and as a solicitor in England and Wales.

Education: Maiken holds an LLB and an LLM from King’s College London.

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Gerhard Koenig, PhD

Senior Vice President, Research and
Chief Scientific Officer

Biography: Gerhard Koenig joined FORUM Pharmaceuticals in 2003 and serves as Chief Scientific Officer. He has more than 17 years of research and development experience, focusing on drugs for neurodegeneration, specifically Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, as well as cognition enhancers in general.

Gerhard came to FORUM Pharmaceuticals from Fidelity Biosciences Group, the lead investor for FORUM Pharmaceuticals. Before working with Fidelity Biosciences as the Vice President of Scientific Evaluations and Programs, Gerhard spent more than 10 years at Bayer Corporation in West Haven, Connecticut, and at Bayer AG, Germany, in various functions, including director of the dementia research department at Bayer AG. In this last role, he was responsible for the preclinical CNS research pipeline with a focus on neurodegenerative diseases. That work resulted in the introduction of several small-molecule compounds into early clinical development.

Gerhard has co-authored major scientific publications, patents, and reviews of new research findings in prestigious journals.

Education: Gerhard received his PhD and MS degrees in molecular and cellular neurobiology, graduating summa cum laude from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

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Elaine S. Ouellette

Vice President, Human Resources

Biography: Elaine Ouellette has served as the head of Human Resources (HR) at FORUM Pharmaceuticals since 2008. Elaine has more than 20 years of broad HR experience in high technology and life sciences, covering all areas of HR, including talent acquisition and management, compensation, benefits, mergers and acquisitions, employee relations, training, and organizational development. She has advised, built, and managed the HR function for companies of all types, stages, and sizes, both public and private, international and domestic.

Prior to her work as an HR consultant, Elaine served as Vice President, Human Resources, at Navisite, Inc., and Inso Corporation. She has held various management and senior HR management positions at International Data Group, Data General Corporation, and two consulting firms.

Education: Elaine holds a BA in psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and has completed advanced coursework at the School of Management at Boston University.

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