Company Overview

Management Team

CHARLES HOMCY, M.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Portola Pharmaceuticals

Charles Homcy has served as president and chief executive officer since he co-founded Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 2003. Previously, he was president, research and development at Millennium following Millennium’s acquisition of COR Therapeutics in 2002. Dr. Homcy joined COR in 1995 as executive vice president, research and development, and he served as a director of the company from 1998 to 2002. He has been a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School, and attending physician at the San Francisco VA Hospital since 1997. He was previously president of the Medical Research Division of American Cyanamid-Lederle Laboratories, a division of Wyeth. Dr. Homcy serves on the Board of Directors of Geron Corporation. Dr. Homcy received his A.B. and M.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins University.

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DAVID R. PHILLIPS, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer

David Phillips is senior vice president, biology, and a co-founder of Portola. He was previously a founder of COR Therapeutics, which was started in 1988. Following COR’s acquisition by Millennium Pharmaceuticals in 2002, he was a principal research scientist at Millennium. His prior experience was in academia, at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis TN, and at Gladstone Research Institutes at the University of California - San Francisco. His laboratory was instrumental in the discovery, cloning and characterization of GP IIb-IIIa and other platelet proteins.

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WILLIAM LIS
Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Lis has over 17 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry in commercial, business development, and operations. He joined Portola in 2008. In his current role as Chief Operating Officer he oversees clinical and pharmaceutical development, manufacturing, and corporate development. Prior to his current position he was Sr. Vice President, Corporate Development where he was responsible for corporate development and corporate strategy. He led the execution of world wide licensing agreements with Merck and Novartis for Portola’s two Phase II development candidates, elinogrel and betrixaban. Prior to joining Portola, from 2005 until 2008 he was Vice President, Business and New Product Development, Scios, Inc. (A Johnson and Johnson Company) where, most recently, he was responsible for cardiovascular business licensing strategies and activities and commercial operations. He led successful in-licensing and pre-commercialization activities for Xarelto® (rivaroxaban). Prior to joining Scios, he was Director of Marketing and New Products, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (previously COR Therapeutics, Inc.) where he held positions of increasing leadership, including the management of marketing activities for Integrilin® (eptifibatide). Previously, at Ethicon Endo Surgery and Rhone Poulenc Rorer he was involved in the commercial launch of several products, including Lovenox® (enoxaparin). He holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Maryland.

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MARDI C. DIER
Chief Financial Officer

Mardi Dier has served as chief financial officer since August 2006.Previously, she served as vice president of investor relations at Chiron Corporation from 2003 until it was acquired by Novartis Pharmaceuticals in April 2006. Prior to joining Chiron, she served as a director in the west coast investment banking practice at Prudential Securities, where she focused on client development, equity underwriting, and mergers and acquisitions for biotechnology and other life sciences companies. Ms. Dier was previously at KPMG Peat Marwick in the audit department. Ms. Dier holds an M.B.A. from The Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.S. in biology from Stanford University.

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DANIEL D. GRETLER, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer

Dan Gretler has served as chief medical officer since September 2009 and as vice president, regulatory and clinical development since January 2004. Prior to joining Portola, Dr. Gretler served as vice president, clinical development at Millennium. From 1995 to 2002, he served as senior medical director and medical director at COR. From 1992 to 1995, Dr. Gretler was assistant and associate medical director in the clinical pharmacology group at Syntex (Roche Bioscience in 1995). Since 2001, Dr. Gretler has been clinical associate professor of medicine, Stanford University (clinical assistant professor from 1994 to 2001) and, since 1994, an attending physician at the Palo Alto VA Hospital. From 1990 to 1992, Dr. Gretler was on the faculty at The University of Chicago, Cardiology Section and Committee on Clinical Pharmacology (assistant professor from 1991 to 1992 and clinical instructor from 1990 to 1991). Dr. Gretler is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology. Dr. Gretler holds an M.D. from the University of Bern in his native Switzerland and received his graduate medical training at the University of Southern California and the University of Chicago.

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JOSEPH LAMBING, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development

Joseph Lambing has served as senior vice president, pharmaceutical development since September 2009 and as vice president, pharmaceutical development since November 2003. Prior to joining Portola in 2003, Dr. Lambing most recently was director of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) at Millennium. Prior to Millennium, he served as director of DMPK and toxicology at COR. During his tenure at COR Therapeutics, Dr. Lambing built the bioanalytical, drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics and toxicology groups. Prior to joining COR Therapeutics, Dr. Lambing was responsible for management of the purification and analytical groups at Chiron Mimotopes Peptide Systems in San Diego, California. Dr. Lambing holds a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Missouri, Rolla and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, after which he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Biology Department at the University of California, San Diego.

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JANICE CASTILLO
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs

Janice Castillo has served as vice president of regulatory affairs since September 2007. She brings with her 30 years of broad-based regulatory experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, which includes recombinant proteins, monoclonal antibodies, small molecules and gene therapy. Ms. Castillo served as a consultant to the industry before coming to Portola. From 2003 to 2006 she was vice president of regulatory affairs and GLP/GCP compliance at Abgenix, Inc., providing regulatory guidance for several development and research projects and collaboration projects. Prior to Abgenix, she was vice president of regulatory affairs and quality assurance at Avigen, Inc. From 1998 to 2000, Ms. Castillo served as vice President of regulatory affairs and compliance at Elan Pharmaceuticals. From 1983 to 1998 Castillo held positions of increasing responsibility in regulatory affairs at Genentech, Inc. Ms. Castillo started her career in regulatory affairs at Ortho Pharmaceuticals in New Jersey in 1977, working in both the small molecule and immunobiology divisions. She has a Bachelor of Science Degree in biology from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pa.

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PAMELA CONLEY, Ph.D.
Vice President, Research Biology

Pamela Conley has served as vice president, research biology since joining Portola in November 2003. Dr. Conley most recently was a director in biology at Millennium, responsible for the basic research and drug discovery efforts for the P2Y12 program, as well as identification of novel platelet targets through expression profiling studies. Dr. Conley joined COR Therapeutics in 1991, where she initially worked on platelet integrins, and then initiated the program to identify novel inhibitors of platelet ADP receptors, and study their signaling pathways. Dr. Conley’s group was responsible for cloning and identification of the P2Y12 receptor, published in Nature in 2001. She is the author of over 35 scientific publications and reviews, as well as an inventor on several patents. Dr. Conley received her B.A. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin, and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. Afterwards, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University at both the Carnegie Institute for Plant Biology and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Stanford Medical School.

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STANLEY HOLLENBACH, J.D.
Vice President, Pharmacology

Stanley Hollenbach has served as vice president, pharmacology since joining Portola in November 2003. Mr. Hollenbach most recently was the senior director of in vivo sciences at Millennium. Prior to Millennium, he had worked for 12 years at COR and for five years at Genentech. In his 20 years working in biotechnology, he has participated in advancement of several successful preclinical development programs (thrombolytic agents, thrombin, Factor Xa and GP IIb-IIIa inhibitors) to an IND or NDA status. Over the 14 years with COR Therapeutics and then Millennium, Mr. Hollenbach built and established an in vivo pharmacology program with extensive capacity to evaluate the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, toxicology, and efficacy profile of new therapeutic agents in multiple large and small animal species with a specialty in venous and arterial thrombosis models. Mr. Hollenbach holds a B.S. from University of North Carolina, Charlotte and a J.D. from Peninsula University.

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ANJALI PANDEY, Ph.D.
Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry

Anjali Pandey has served as vice president, chemistry since joining Portola in November 2003. Dr. Pandey most recently was the director, chemistry at Millennium. Prior to Millennium, Dr. Pandey was with COR, working in the area of oral GP IIb-IIIa antagonists, Receptor Tyrosine Kinase inhibitors and ADP receptor antagonists and rose to the rank of director, chemistry at COR Therapeutics. Her efforts along with her team resulted in three drugs that are currently in clinical trials, one for leukemia and two for cardiovascular indications. Dr. Pandey has published over 20 scientific articles and reviews and is a named inventor on over 15 issued U.S. patents. Dr. Pandey holds an M.S. from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India and a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University. Dr. Pandey completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Organic Chemistry at the Stanford Research Institute. She then continued on as Organic Chemist at Stanford Research Institute, where she was Principal Investigator on grant funded from National Cancer Institute.

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UMA SINHA, Ph.D.
Vice President, Translational Biology

Uma Sinha has served as vice president, translational biology since January 2004. Dr. Sinha has 20 years of experience in biotechnology research. Prior to joining Portola in 2004, she was most recently senior director, cardiovascular at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Millennium, Dr. Sinha was with COR Therapeutics from 1989 through 2002. During her tenure at COR, Dr. Sinha and her team were responsible for initiation and progression of the coagulation inhibitor programs that have led to the development of betrixaban, which is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials. Prior to joining COR, she started her biotechnology career at Genencor International. Dr. Sinha has published over 50 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and is a named inventor on 10 issued U.S. patents. She holds a PhD in Biochemistry from University of Georgia and received her post doctoral training in Pathology and Chemistry at State University of New York, Stony Brook.

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