Leadership

DA Gros photo

David-Alexandre C. Gros, MD | Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Gros has served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Eledon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (formerly Novus Therapeutics, Inc.) since September 2020. He joined Eledon Pharmaceuticals from Imbria Pharmaceuticals Inc., where he served as Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Prior to Imbria, Dr. Gros was President and Chief Operating Officer of Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc., Chief Business and Principal Financial Officer of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Chief Strategy Officer of Sanofi, S.A. Before joining Sanofi, Dr. Gros held leadership positions in healthcare investment banking at Centerview Partners, LLC, and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., and in healthcare consulting at McKinsey & Company. He previously served on the Board of Directors of Eliem Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company which he co-founded, and of Saint Jean Groupe, S.A., a leading French manufacturer of pasta products since 1935. Dr. Gros earned his Doctor of Medicine from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, and a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College.

Steve Perrin photo

Steven Perrin, PhD | President and Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Perrin was the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Anelixis Therapeutics, Inc. before joining Eledon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (formerly Novus Therapeutics, Inc.) He has 20 years of drug development experience, having held R&D positions at the Hoechst-Ariad Genomics Center, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Biogen Idec, Inc. Over the past decade, Dr. Perrin has worked with the ALS Therapy Development Institute to develop the world’s largest ALS drug development program, bridging preclinical and clinical programs. Dr. Perrin earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Boston University Medical Center, where he also started his career as Associate Professor of Medicine, and a Bachelor of Science from Boston College.

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Jeff Bornstein, MD | Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Bornstein has served as the Chief Medical Officer of Eledon Pharmaceuticals since April 2021. Prior to joining Eledon, he served as Vice President, Head of Clinical Sciences, Gastroenterology at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and he has previously led development programs at Biogen, Gilead Sciences, Elan Pharmaceuticals, and several early stage biotechs. Dr. Bornstein earned his Doctor of Medicine and completed his residency in internal medicine at McGill University. He also completed a fellowship in gastroenterology at Duke University Medical Center where he subsequently served on the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Medicine.

John Herberger, VP Technical Operations

John Herberger | Vice President, Technical Operations

Mr. Herberger has served as Vice President, Technical Operations of Eledon since May 2022. Prior to joining Eledon, Mr. Herberger served as Senior Director, Manufacturing Science & Technology of Spark Therapeutics. In this role he led the development of platform processes, and technology transfer as key enablers to gene therapy portfolio advancement. Prior to joining Spark Therapeutics, he served 21 years at Amgen where he held numerous leadership roles in drug delivery & formulation, device development, technology transfer and global operations. Mr. Herberger previously served on the University of Rhode Island College of Environmental & Life Sciences Dean’s Advisory Council and Bio Science Leaders Forum. Prior to joining Amgen, Mr. Herberger was a Research Scientist at Alkermes Inc., where he contributed to the development of novel drug delivery systems and authored several publications and patents in the field. Mr. Herberger began his career at the Institute of Molecular Biology where he was a founding member of this start-up biotech company which worked to develop soft tissue, bone and nerve regeneration therapies.

David Hovland

David Hovland, PhD | Chief Regulatory Officer

Dr. Hovland has served as Chief Regulatory Officer of Eledon since April 2021. In this role, he is responsible for Eledon’s Regulatory, Quality, and Safety functions. He has over 20 years of R&D experience in the pharmaceutical industry, and has contributed to the global development and registration of multiple small and large molecule pharmaceutical products. Dr. Hovland joined Eledon from Urovant Sciences, where he served as Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs and Quality. Before Urovant Sciences, Dr. Hovland held leadership roles within the Global Regulatory Affairs organization at Allergan, most recently serving as the Regulatory Affairs Therapeutic Area Head for Neurology, Urology, and Dermatology, with a previous role as Head of the Global Regulatory Operations function. Before Allergan, Dr. Hovland worked in Amgen’s Global Regulatory Affairs and Safety organization, serving as a global regulatory strategy leader on pharmaceutical development teams. Dr. Hovland earned his Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his B.S. in Bioresource Sciences from the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley.
Paul Little, CFO

Paul Little | Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Little has served as Chief Financial Officer of Eledon since March 2021. Mr. Little has over 30 years of financial, operations, business strategy and leadership experience in global public companies.  Before joining Eledon in March 2021, Mr. Little served as Chief Financial Officer of Sientra Inc., where he led finance, investor relations, information technology, and manufacturing.  During his tenure at Sientra, Mr. Little successfully led multiple public financing rounds while strengthening the balance sheet and driving organizational and operational efficiencies to accelerate revenue growth while improving cash flow. Prior to Sientra, Mr. Little served as Chief Operating Officer for Candela Medical (formerly Syneron-Candela) where he led the Company’s global supply chain and service organization and helped lead the execution of the growth strategy culminating in the sale of the company.  Before Candela Medical, Mr. Little served as Vice President, Finance and Commercial Operations for Allergan PLC’s Medical Aesthetics division and as a key member of the senior leadership team, helped build Allergan into the global market leader for medical aesthetics.  In this role, Mr. Little built the commercial finance, commercial operations and customer operations functions from the ground up and led the financial assessment and integration of over $3B in M&A activities.  He joined Allergan from ConAgra Brands, and began his career in public accounting at KPMG.  Mr. Little holds a B.A. in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Dr. Carmen

Carmen Mak, PhD | Vice President, Biometrics

Dr. Mak has served as Vice President, Biometrics of Eledon since April 2022. Dr. Mak holds a Ph.D in Biostatistics from the University of Toronto and has over 20 years of experience in drug development. Prior to joining Eledon, Dr. Mak was the head of the Statistical and Quantitative Sciences for the Vaccines Therapeutic Area at Takeda, where she provided statistical leadership in the submission of dengue vaccine. Previously, she was the head of Biometrics at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals where she oversaw statistical, programming and data management for a portfolio of products including Acthar® gel and Therakos™. She also led the submission and approval of Stratagraft® for deep partial thermal burns, as well as clinical development of adrabetadex for Niemann-Pick disease and l-ornithine phenylacetate for patients with hyperammonemia. Dr. Mak began her career at Schering-Plough/Merck where she directed statistical support of programs through all stages of clinical development and regulatory submission. She also has broad consulting experience for companies such as AbbVie, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline.
Bryan Smith, General Counsel

Bryan Smith | General Counsel

Mr. Smith has served as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer of Eledon since April 2021.  In this role, he is responsible for the Company’s legal, compliance, and corporate governance functions. Prior to joining Eledon, Mr. Smith served as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer of Urovant Sciences.  Before Urovant Sciences, Mr. Smith held leadership roles at Allergan, most recently serving as Associate Vice President and chief counsel to the company’s urology, neurology, aesthetics, and dermatology business units. Prior to joining Allergan, Mr. Smith was a litigator at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Mr. Smith received his B.A. in Political Science from Brigham Young University and his J.D. from the University of Southern California Law School. After graduating from law school, Mr. Smith was a law clerk to the Honorable Cormac J. Carney in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.