Neonatologist Karin Potoka, MD, FAAP, joined Noveome as their new Chief Medical Officer in 2023. Dr. Potoka earned her Medical Degree at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She competed her residency in General Pediatrics and fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She has a bachelor’s degree of science in Nursing, also from the University of Pittsburgh. During her fellowship and following completion of her training she joined the Vascular Medicine Institute at the University of Pittsburgh, under the mentorship of Mark Gladwin, MD. There she was active in translational research in vascular molecular biology. Her scientific focus was on the use of small molecules to treat Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Sickle Cell Disease. Dr. Potoka is currently a clinical assistant professor of Pediatrics at Northeast Ohio Medical University and attending Neonatologist at Akron Children’s Hospital of Mahoning Valley. Prior to joining Akron Children’s, Dr. Potoka was an attending Neonatologist at UPMC Children’s Hospital where she was the Director of Neonatal Pulmonary Hypertension and was involved in various neonatal clinical trials.
Mr. Nemiroff has been an analyst at MAK Capital, the New York-based investment advisory firm, since 2016. He has been in the investments business since 2008. Previously, Mr. Nemiroff was a Director of Business Development at student lender MRU Holdings and a Manager of Corporate Development at Capital One Financial. Mr. Nemiroff was a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and practiced corporate law at the firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. Mr. Nemiroff graduated from Yale Law School and from Princeton University with a degree in economics.
Mr. Kaufman is the Chief Executive Officer of MAK Capital, an investment advisory firm based in New York, New York, which he founded in 2002. He is director and Chairman of the Board of Agilysys, Inc., and serves as a director for Yatra Online, Inc., Trailhead Biosystems and Metal Recovery Holdings, LLC, (formerly AZP, LLC and American Zinc Recycling). Mr. Kaufman holds a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Chicago, where he also received his M.B.A. degree. He also earned a law degree from Yale University.
Eric Keller is a proven business and legal executive with nearly 30 years of experience in life sciences-based companies. He is Founder and CEO of Redux Therapeutics, LLC, a clinical-stage small molecule drug development company; Co- Founder and Head of Strategy at C2Sense, an MIT-based medical diagnostic company; Executive Vice President of SGH2 Energy Global, a developer and operator of waste to green hydrogen projects; and Strategic Advisor and Chief Business Officer of SipNose, Ltd., a pioneering Israeli company delivering drugs direct nose-to-brain to treat a variety of CNS and other brain-related disorders.
Houman Hemmati is a board-certified ophthalmologist and leader in translational and late-stage drug development. He is presently Chief Medical Officer of Vyluma, Inc., which is developing a pharmacologic treatment for nearsightedness (myopia). He is also Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of aesthetic medicine company Levation Pharma and retina therapeutics company Optigo Biotherapeutics, which is developing long-acting intravitreal drugs for wet macular degeneration and diabetic eye disease. Additionally, he is on the Board of Directors of Trailhead Biosystems (stem cells) and MediPrint Ophthalmics (contact lens drug delivery) and advises a handful of companies in ophthalmology drug development. He previously served as Director, Clinical Development at Allergan, as Clinical Scientist in the Ophthalmology Therapeutic Area on several Phase 1, 2, and 3 studies, including the Phase 2 study for the program that led to the approval of Vuity to treat presbyopia.
Mr. Welch formed WeGo Consulting, LLC in Loudon, TN in 2014 after almost 27 years with Allergan, Inc. At Allergan, he was Vice President Sales and Marketing for the U.S. Retina Business Unit, and Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Allergan Medical Dermatology while continuing in his role with U.S. Retina. Outside the U.S., he was Vice President/Managing Director of Allergan Asia Pacific Region for Medical Aesthetics and Neuroscience, as well as President & Managing Director of Allergan Korea. Mr. Welch was also U.S. Director of Marketing, Glaucoma, directing the entire Glaucoma portfolio, and managed the pre-approval planning of RESTASIS® and LUMIGAN®. Mr. Welch was also Vice President of the U.S. Managed Healthcare Reimbursement Division and created the initial Government Affairs Operation for Allergan.
Ms. Urling joined Noveome in 2019 with over 24 years of clinical research and global trial management experience with large pharmaceutical and biotech corporations. She started her clinical research career at the University of Pittsburgh conducting trials in the Medical Intensive Care Unit which eventually led her to transition to a career within industry. She comes to Noveome having held clinical site management and study project management roles at companies such as Merck, Amgen, Abbott/AbbVie and Pfizer. Her expertise involves direct planning and successful execution of phase 1-4 clinical trials and will be driving the development of Noveome’s clinical pipeline. Ms. Urling holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh in Communication Science and Disorders in association with a strong scientific background.
Dr. Poropatich is an experienced Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine physician-scientist who serves as the Director of the Center for Military Medicine Research (CMMR), Health Sciences and Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. The Pitt CMMR has been instrumental in building collaborative multi-disciplinary and multi-organizational research teams to improve the health and well-being of service members, veterans and their families that has led to significant DoD medical research collaboration with Pitt. Dr. Poropatich has also been on the faculty at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science (USUHS) since 1985 and currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Medicine. Dr. Poropatich served 30 years on active duty in the U.S. Army retiring in 2012 at the rank of Colonel with extended assignments at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (1985 to 2012) and the US Army Medical Research and Development Command (2006-2012).
Dr. David Hackam is the Garrett Professor and Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Johns Hopkins University and Pediatric Surgeon in Chief and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. He received his M.D. from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, both his PhD in Cell Biology and General Surgery training at the University of Toronto, followed by a Pediatric Surgery fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Hackam’s clinical expertise is in the management of complex surgical disorders in newborns, including patients with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), which is the leading cause of death from gastrointestinal disease in premature infants. Dr. Hackam’s research is focused on understanding the pathogenesis and developing novel therapies for NEC, and his laboratory has identified a unifying theory that explains its development, which has led to multiple patents which focus on novel therapeutics. Hackam has been funded by the National Institutes of Health continuously for the past 20 years, as well as many vital industry partners. He is the past president of the Society of University Surgeons, past chair of the Research Committee at the American Pediatric Surgery Association, and past Secretary-Treasurer of the Surgical Biology Club. As Pediatric Surgeon-in-Chief at Johns Hopkins, Hackam oversees all pediatric surgical services, which allows him to help build programs that serve a growing number of vulnerable children, and to help to train the next generation of investigators.
Dr. Poropatich is an experienced Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine physician-scientist who serves as the Director of the Center for Military Medicine Research (CMMR), Health Sciences and Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. The Pitt CMMR has been instrumental in building collaborative multi-disciplinary and multi-organizational research teams to improve the health and well-being of service members, veterans and their families that has led to significant DoD medical research collaboration with Pitt. Dr. Poropatich has also been on the faculty at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science (USUHS) since 1985 and currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Medicine. Dr. Poropatich served 30 years on active duty in the U.S. Army retiring in 2012 at the rank of Colonel with extended assignments at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (1985 to 2012) and the US Army Medical Research and Development Command (2006-2012).
