Team

Bobby is a world-renowned scientist and physician and accomplished strategic and organizational leader with more than 25 years of experience in medicine and biotechnology. As one of Orchard’s principal scientific founders, Bobby serves as chief executive officer of the company, and also sits on Orchard’s board of directors. Bobby has been a pioneer in gene therapy and the evolution of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) technology – including some of the first studies in patients with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) – bringing it from some of the first studies in patients to potential regulatory approvals. His unparalleled expertise and deep relationships with key physicians and treatment centers around the world are integral to Orchard’s efforts to identify patients with metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) and other diseases through targeted disease education, early diagnosis and comprehensive newborn screening.

Bobby is a professor of pediatrics and immunology at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and has led multiple clinical trials that have shown that gene therapy can successfully correct the genetic defect in immune deficiencies. He studied medicine and surgery at Kings College in London before completing his Ph.D. at the UCL Institute of Child Health.

John brings over 25 years of human resource (HR) leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry building high growth, high performance, mission-driven and entrepreneurial companies. Most recently, John served as vice president of human resources and administration for Agenus, where he led the HR function through periods of rapid growth, transformation and global expansion. John played a key role in leading the acquisition and integration of 4-antibody AG and the build-out of the company’s R&D and technical operations capabilities responsible for generating and advancing an immuno-oncology portfolio of over a dozen clinical candidates. Prior to Agenus, John was vice president of global HR for PerkinElmer Life Sciences, during which time the company more than doubled in size and annual sales and significantly expanded its commercial business and operations in the U.S., Europe and APAC regions. Earlier in his career, he spent nearly 10 years with Bristol-Myers Squibb in a series of progressively responsible HR leadership roles including director of HR for corporate staff, director of organizational development for U.S. medicines and head of HR for the oncology and immunology division.

John earned his B.S. in industrial and labor relations from Cornell and his M.A. in organizational psychology from Columbia with a concentration in organizational development. He also completed the global leadership development program at the London Business School.

Anne has 25 years of experience tackling R&D, clinical and regulatory challenges for global development within medtech and biotech companies. Anne joined Orchard Therapeutics in 2016 to lead global regulatory strategy and devise innovative and expedited pathways for the development and the registration of Orchard’s HSC gene therapies. She built and manages an international, highly-trained and experienced regulatory team. Prior to joining Orchard Therapeutics, she was executive vice president at Voisin Consulting Life Sciences (VCLS), an international consulting firm highly experienced in orphan drug development. In her leadership role, Anne was actively involved in the design, preparation and management of a high number of successful regulatory submissions at all stages of product development. Anne had a pioneering role in the field of advanced therapies and managed over 50 different tissue, cell and gene-based therapy development programs. Over the years, Anne has established strong communication links with regulators, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Member States’ medicine agencies. Bringing together scientific and regulatory expertise in the Advanced Therapies Medicinal Products (ATMPs) area, Anne actively participated in the elaboration of the European ATMP Regulation through industry associations and worked closely with the EMA on related guidelines. Before joining VCLS, Anne co-founded the regulatory consulting firm Meditest International. Anne began her career as a research & development project manager for Medtronic Sofamor-Danek.

Anne earned a joint Ph.D. in biomaterials and artificial organs from the University of Dental Surgery in Nantes, France, the Free University of Berlin, Germany, and the University of Medicine of Leiden, Netherlands, working on the development and evaluation of drug-device combination products aimed at bone substitution.

John brings broad expertise in corporate, commercial and IP law to Orchard. He has extensive experience in legal, compliance and corporate secretarial roles in international biopharmaceutical and life sciences companies. Prior to joining Orchard Therapeutics, John was a non-executive director at Oxular Limited and group general counsel & company secretary at Consort Medical plc. He held senior legal affairs roles at several companies operating in the rare disease space including Synageva, BioMarin and Oxford GlycoSciences.

John is a qualified solicitor. He received his bachelor of law degree in business law from City of London, his postgraduate diploma in EC competition law from King’s College, London, and a postgraduate diploma in intellectual property law from Queen Mary University of London.

Adrien brings nearly 20 years of experience creating value for pharma and biotech companies. His responsibilities at Orchard Therapeutics include overseeing business development, program management, program leadership and portfolio strategy for the company. Since joining Orchard in October 2016, he has led the build-out of Orchard’s industry-leading gene therapy pipeline through multiple in-licensing deals, notably the acquisition of GSK’s gene therapy portfolio in April 2018. Prior to joining Orchard, Adrien was executive director, corporate strategy and development at AstraZeneca where he led M&A activities as well as successful out-licensing, divestments and new company spinoff projects. He also served as a member of Corvidia Therapeutics’ board of directors. Prior to AstraZeneca, Adrien spent nine years at GSK; his most recent role was strategy & operations director in the rare disease unit, working in particular on GSK’s ex vivo autologous HSC gene therapy portfolio. He was a member of the advisory committee for Kurma BioFund II, a venture capital fund with a special focus on rare diseases. His experience at GSK also encompasses European and global roles of increasing seniority in R&D portfolio strategy and commercial analysis. He started his career as a strategy consultant at Alcimed in Paris, France, supporting the development of biotechnology startup companies. 

Adrien holds an engineering degree from Supélec in Paris and a M.Sc. in engineering and physical science in medicine from Imperial College in London.

Katie brings nearly 20 years of communications, stakeholder engagement and health policy expertise to Orchard Therapeutics as senior vice president of corporate communications and external affairs. Her responsibilities at Orchard include directing the company’s internal and external communications, patient advocacy, investor relations and government relations functions. Katie joined Orchard from AMAG Pharmaceuticals, where she served as senior vice president of corporate affairs, overseeing all communications, public affairs and advocacy activities. During her time at AMAG, Katie led the internal and external communications strategy for six significant corporate and business development transactions and played a key role in the company’s efforts to collaborate with healthcare experts and advocacy groups to advance public health and achieve key public affairs outcomes. Her expertise includes stakeholder engagement, issues and crisis management, media relations and corporate identity. Prior to AMAG, Katie spent a decade at a global communications and public affairs firm where she developed and implemented U.S. and global communications programs for a wide variety of companies and organizations in the healthcare and biopharmaceutical field. She also served in communications roles at The World Bank in Washington, D.C. and Forrester Research.

Katie graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with high honors from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in writing and business management and a master’s degree in communications. She currently serves as a member of the MassBio board of directors and is also a member of the board of directors of the Boston-Manchester March of Dimes chapter.

Andrea brings extensive experience and expertise in the development and execution of all aspects of clinical development, particularly in pediatric rare diseases. Prior to co-founding Orchard Therapeutics, Andrea served as vice president and medicine development leader at the GSK rare diseases unit, and before that as senior medical director at the immune inflammation discovery performance unit. Before GSK, Andrea was global medical director R&D at Takeda in the metabolic and cardiovascular area and in charge of the pediatric developments for Takeda Europe R&D. She previously worked as a research physician at Hammersmith Medicines Research. Before moving to the pharmaceutical industry, Andrea practiced as a pediatrician for 12 years in Argentina, Spain, and the UK. Andrea was recognized as one of 2018’s “Fiercest Women in Life Sciences” by FiercePharma and as one of BioBeat’s “50 Movers & Shakers in BioBusiness” in 2017. 

Andrea obtained her medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and completed residency in pediatrics and postgraduate training in pediatric immunology at the Dr. Elizalde Children’s Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Andrea also obtained a specialist in pharmaceutical medicine degree from University of Basel, Switzerland. She is a fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (FFPM) in London.

Frank brings nearly 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry as an accomplished financial and business executive, with a proven track record of success in leading operations and strategy, corporate finance and commercialization at publicly traded biotechnology companies. Frank joined Orchard in 2018 as chief financial officer. Since that time, his role has expanded to president and chief operating officer of Orchard. In this capacity, Frank creates and drives strategies for overall value-creation and long-term growth of the company. He currently oversees key functional areas for the business, including but not limited to, finance, commercial operations, corporate affairs and quality.

Frank previously served as president and chief operating officer of AMAG Pharmaceuticals, where he helped develop the business from a single product company in 2011 to one with a portfolio of commercial and development-stage products that generated more than $600 million in sales in 2017. During that time, Frank raised more than $1.8 billion in new capital to support AMAG’s growth strategy. Before joining AMAG, he served as chief operating officer and chief financial officer for Molecular Biometrics, Inc. Earlier in his career, Frank also served as chief executive officer for Critical Therapeutics and chief financial officer for Esperion Therapeutics. Each company completed its initial public offering in the U.S. during his tenure. Frank currently serves on the board of directors of Zafgen and Spero Therapeutics.

Frank received his B.B.A. in business administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Ran Zheng brings more than 25 years of experience in technical operations to Orchard Therapeutics. She oversees multiple related functions for Orchard, including process development, manufacturing, quality, facilities and engineering, supply chain and CMC program management. Prior to joining Orchard, Ran spent 16 years with Amgen in roles of increasing responsibility in operations. Most recently, she served as vice president of development supply chain, overseeing development labs and pilot plants, end-to-end supply chain and manufacturing operations across multiple geographic locations to enable Amgen’s global clinical development, product launch, commercial supply and technology innovation. Before her tenure with Amgen, Ran held various leadership positions in process development and process engineering at Diosynth and Genzyme.

Ran holds a B.S. from Beijing Forestry University and an M.S. in microbial engineering and chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota.