About Us

Our goal is to bring new therapy to cancer’s most frequently mutated oncogenic target.

Global New Cancer Cases1
0 m+
U.S. New Cancer Cases2
> 0 m
KRAS Mutations in Cancer3
> 0 %

KRAS Inhibitor Discovery Strategy:
Focus on Potency, Durable OFF and ON State Inhibition, and Selectivity

Precise. Swift. Lethal.

Exploiting oncogene addiction has been the foundation of extraordinarily fruitful efforts to precisely drug mutated cancer targets and eliminate the malignant cells that carry them. At Kestrel Therapeutics our aspiration is to extend the methodologies and successes of this field to targeting KRAS and then to other significant targets. We have created a foundation of unique science that employs a physical understanding of the drug-target interaction, funded by thought-leading investors, to build a lead program  designed to potently address all KRAS mutations in all tumor types. The prospect of patient benefit through the application of these approaches is profound.

GMPPNP bound to KRAS G12D

Leadership Team

Our experienced leadership team has a proven track record of combining innovation and entrepreneurship to bring transformative technologies to the world of healthcare.

Frank Haluska, MD, PHD

Founder, President & CEO

Mark Bilodeau, PHD

SVP, Chief Scientific Officer

Ashwin Gollerkeri, MD

SVP, Chief Medical Officer

Ross Pettit

SVP, Chief Development Officer

Tom Phair

Chief Financial Officer

Ron Knickerbocker, PHd

SVP, Biometrics & Clinical Development Strategy

Aleksandra Franovic, PHD

VP, Head of Translational Research & Medicine

Omar Ahmad, PhD

VP, Head of Chemical Sciences & DMPK

Shyam Karki, PhD

VP, Head of CMC

Board of Directors

Denis Patrick, PhD

Pfizer Ventures
Vice President, Pfizer WRDM and Head of Partnering Innovation, and Managing Partner of Pfizer Ventures. Currently has responsibility for a number of Pfizer’s investments.

Omar H. Khalil

Santé Ventures
Partner, Santé, has managed and led businesses ranging from early clinical development to commercial stage. Previously held leadership roles with Baxter International, Baxalta, and Kaléo.

Andrew Phillips, PhD

Aleksia Therapeutics &
Nexo Therapeutics
President and CEO of Aleksia Therapeutics & Nexo Therapeutics. Previously, Managing Director at Cormorant Asset Management, CEO & CSO of C4 Therapeutics, Senior Director at the Broad Institute, Professor at Yale and University of Colorado.

Nick A. Saccomano, PhD

Formerly ARRAY
An experienced research and development leader with a nearly 35 years track record in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, most recently Chief Science Officer and Site Head at Pfizer R&D, Inc.

Barbara Sosnowski, PHD

Formerly Pfizer
Previous Vice President & Global Head, Emerging Science & Innovation Leads, WWRDM at Pfizer; President, CEO & COO at Tissue Repair Company; and other senior leadership positions in the health care industry.

Frank G. Haluska, MD, PhD

Kestrel Therapeutics
Founder, President & CEO, Kestrel Therapeutics, previously CEO of Anchiano Therapeutics, CMO of Ariad Pharmaceuticals, and faculty at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Casey Cunningham, MD
(observer)

Santé Ventures
 Partner and CSO, Santé Ventures, faculty at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Previously, Associate Director Mary Crowley Cancer Research Center.

Christopher O'Donnell, PHD (observer)

Pfizer Ventures
Vice President and Partner at Pfizer Ventures with 25 years of drug discovery and development leadership. Experienced biotech investor and board member for companies ranging from early stage to IPO.

Scientific Advisory Board

Andrew Aguirre, MD, PhD

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Medical oncologist at DFCI, Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, and Institute Member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Leads a research laboratory that studies RAS signaling and pancreatic cancer biology.

D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD

University of Colorado
Director of Thoracic Oncology; Joyce Zeff Chair in Lung Cancer Research.

Sharon Campbell, PhD

University of North Carolina
Liebscher Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair; Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina; PHD, Chemistry, Yale University; Formerly, Senior scientist at DuPont CRD and DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals.

Channing Der, PhD

University of North Carolina
Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Julian Downward, PHD

Francis Crick Institute
Associate Research Director at the Francis Crick Institute and Senior Group Leader at the Institute of Cancer Research. Formerly Head of the Signal Transduction Laboratory at the London Research Institute. Member of the Editorial Board for Cell.

William C. Hahn, MD, PHD

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
EVP and COO at DFCI, William Rosenberg Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

1Globocan 2022 citation.

2SEER citation.

3US NCI citation.

Frank Haluska, MD, PhD

Founder, President & CEO

Frank is a recognized leader with a long record of success in cancer investigation and drug development. Formerly an academic researcher, he was Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute faculty, and Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center program leader. At Anchiano Therapeutics, as CEO he led the acquisition of the RAS program subsequently acquired by Kestrel. Previously, As the Chief Medical Officer at Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Frank led a global research team and programs resulting in multiple oncology drug approvals. He holds an AB magna cum laude from Harvard University, MD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the MIT Center for Cancer Research. An Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and in multiple military leadership positions, he is also a distinguished graduate of the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine and an excellent graduate of Air War College.

Mark Bilodeau, PhD

SVP, Chief Scientific Officer

Mark has extensive leadership experience in drug discovery, medicinal chemistry and drug development having guided numerous compounds from the bench through IND to the clinic. Formerly Chief Scientific Officer at Tarveda Therapeutics, he led the development of novel drug conjugates through IND filings to phase 2 clinical trials for oncology indications. Prior to that role, he led chemistry, including discovery leading to the first IND and out-licensing efforts at Blend Therapeutics, before it became Tarveda. Earlier he led 7 lead-optimization programs that progressed into clinical testing in oncology, neuroscience, and cardiovascular medicine at Merck Research Laboratories. While there, he also directed the establishment of and led an exploratory chemistry group based in West Point. Mark holds a BS summa cum laude from Boston College, PhD from Harvard University, and post-doctoral training on an NIH fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Ashwin Gollerkeri, MD

SVP, Chief Medical Officer

Ashwin has nearly 25 years of drug development experience in both big pharma and biotech across a range of therapeutic modalities. He has had roles of increasing responsibility in both early-stage and late-stage development at Bristol Myers-Squibb, Novartis, Pfizer, Array BioPharma, and most recently at Kymera Therapeutics where he was SVP and Head of Clinical Development. Ashwin’s experiences include successful NDAs for Braftovi ®, Mektovi ®, and Sprycel ®, and multiple sNDA and IND filings. Ashwin is board certified/eligible in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. He graduated from Northwestern University and University of Kansas School of Medicine and subsequently trained in Internal Medicine at The Miriam Hospital-Brown University School of Medicine, where he was Chief Resident, and in Medical Oncology at Yale University School of Medicine.

Ross Pettit

SVP, Chief Development Officer

Ross is a leader in oncology portfolio development, with over 35 years of extensive experience in drug development and operational management within the biotech sector. He has a proven track record in building high-performance teams and advancing new drugs to market. His expertise spans multiple therapeutic areas and includes forging strategic development alliances and partnerships. Ross’s international experience covers the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and he has held leadership roles at prominent companies such as Charm Therapeutics, H3 Biomedicine, Otsuka, EMD Serono, Coley, ARIAD, Infinity, and Beigene. He holds an MBA in Health Care Management from the University of Phoenix and a ScB (Hons) from Kingston University, London.

Tom Phair

Chief Financial Officer

Tom has over 25 years of experience in financial management in the life science industry. He is currently a Senior Director at Danforth Advisors, LLC, a financial consultancy firm that specializes in working with life science companies. He began his career at Price Waterhouse, and before joining Danforth held senior management positions at several public and private companies in various stages of development, including PAREXEL, ArQule, Altus Pharmaceuticals, Acton Pharmaceuticals, Boston Biomedical, and Telcare. Tom is a CPA and has a BBA in Accounting from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst.

Ron Knickerbocker, PhD

SVP, Biometrics & Clinical Development Strategy

Ron is a leader in oncology development, with over 30 years of extensive experience in biostatistics, clinical trial design, and data strategy. He has a proven track record in building high-performance teams and advancing new oncology products.  He has held leadership roles at prominent companies such as Anchiano, Ariad, Eli Lilly, EQRx, Genzyme, Parke-Davis/Pfizer, and Theseus.  Ron has a PhD in in Statistics from Texas A&M University.

Aleksandra Franovic, PhD

VP, Head of Translational Research & Medicine

Lex is an established leader in drug discovery and translational research who has contributed substantially to multiple successful IND filings and global drug approvals of small molecule oncology therapeutics. She has held roles of increasing responsibility in discovery biology and translational development groups at Kinnate Biopharma (exarafenib, KIN-3248), Celgene / Bristol Myers Squibb (IDHIFA®, INREBIC®), Cardiff Oncology (onvansertib), and Ignyta (RXDX-105, RXDX-106). She holds a BS, BAS and PhD from the University of Ottawa, and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Moores Cancer Center at University of California San Diego.

Omar Ahmad, PhD

VP, Head of Chemical Sciences & DMPK

Omar has extensive experience in small molecule drug discovery having led several projects from hit-finding campaigns through clinical candidate nomination. Formerly Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Roivant Discovery, he built a chemistry team and led efforts to set up the discovery pipeline for the company while also heading project teams for several small molecule and degrader targets. Prior work at Blueprint Medicines and Pfizer involved leading programs and teams working on small molecule discovery in oncology, immuno-oncology, immunology, and neuroscience as well as antibody drug conjugate discovery. He holds an ScB magna cum laude from Brown University and a PhD from MIT.

Shyam Karki, PhD

VP, Head of CMC

Shyam has over 25 years of work experience in the pharmaceutical industry supporting drug product development and CMC of small molecules and biologics, spanning from discovery to NDA filing and transfer to manufacturing. He has held leadership positions in several large and mid-sized pharmaceutical companies: Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Biogen, Celgene, and Bristol Myers Squibb.  Shyam helped build the small molecule Drug Product groups in Biogen and then again in Celgene by adding facilities, talent and processes. He received his BS in Chemistry from Davidson College and his PhD in Physical Organic Chemistry from the University of Rochester, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the NSF center for Photo Induced Charge Transfer.