Halley Gilbert Email Address

Board Member; Chair, Nominating and Governance Committee; Member, Audit Committee

Achaogen, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. The Company is engaged in the discovery, development and commercialization of antibacterials to treat multi-drug resistant (MDR) gram-negative infections. The Company is developing plazomicin, its lead product candidate, for the treatment of serious bacterial infections due to MDR Enterobacteriaceae, including carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE). Plazomicin is an aminoglycoside designed to overcome clinically relevant aminoglycoside resistance mechanisms. In addition, its research and development pipeline includes two programs that specifically target Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Acinetobacter baumannii infections: a program to discover and develop small molecule inhibitors of LpxC, which is an enzyme essential for the synthesis of the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria, and a therapeutic antibody program. Its development plan for plazomicin includes over two Phase III clinical trials.

I am taking a short career break to focus on caring for my family, volunteering, and board service. I currently serve on 3 public company boards, chair 2 Nominating & Governance Committees, and serve on 3 Audit Committees. I was most recently Chief Legal Officer of NeoGenomics, a cancer diagnostics company. Prior to NeoGenomics, I was the Chief Operating Officer of Adagio Therapeutics (now known as Invivyd) and was its first full-time employee. Invivyd is focused on developing broadly neutralizing antibodies for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19 and future coronavirus outbreaks. In under 14 months, we went from day 1 to IPO, raising over $700M over a series of financing rounds, moved our lead antibody into Phase 2/3 clinical trials, hired 70+ team members, and prepared the company for a seamless transition to public company status. Prior to Adagio/Invivyd, I led Ironwood’s corporate development function which was responsible for a full range of corporate transactions, including M&A, licensing and collaborations. I also managed Ironwood’s legal, compliance and commercial regulatory functions. I joined Ironwood in 2008 and helped lead the organization through dramatic growth and transformation, including its evolution from a privately-held, research-based organization to a publicly-traded, fully-integrated and very successful commercial biotechnology company. I have two decades of experience navigating biopharmaceutical companies through similar transformational changes, as well as expertise in corporate transactions, governance, and the operational issues relevant to launching new medicines into specialty and primary care markets. I started my career as an M&A associate with Skadden Arps, and have loved managing complex transactions ever since.