Leadership team

Jerry has over 30 years of biotechnology leadership, scientific innovation, creative deal-making, and financing experience. With broad disease-area expertise and a specialty in oncology therapeutics, Jerry has held scientific, pharmaceutical and venture capital positions and has been the CEO or President of multiple biotechnology companies leading novel therapeutic programs from discovery, development to drug approvals for internal and in-licensed products.

From 2016 to late 2021 Jerry was President and CEO of NASDAQ listed Harpoon Therapeutics building the Company from early stage through to IPO, follow-on financings, and development collaborations. Prior to that he held multiple positions, including President and CEO of Kolltan Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Celldex, Innovative Medicine Head of Oncology and SVP at AstraZeneca-Medimmune, managing a more than $1 billion global R&D budget and President at SUGEN/Pfizer where he was instrumental in invention and full development of several ground-breaking protein kinase inhibitors including sunitinib (Sutent^®).

Jerry has also held academic appointments at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center at Yale University, Tufts University School of Medicine, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his BS in biology and PhD in the field of biochemistry and genetics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has authored over 100 scientific and medical publications and is an inventor on over 60 US patents.

Oliver has overall responsibility for developing STORM’s target discovery platform and for the delivery of small molecule drugs from its emerging drug discovery pipeline. Oliver worked closely with scientific founders Professors Tony Kouzarides and Eric Miska to secure the initial £12m series A investment that launched STORM, and subsequently joined the company full time in October 2016.

Prior to STORM, Oliver was Programme Director at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), where he led the Translational Research Partnerships (TRPs) initiative and other industry-focused collaboration programmes in experimental medicine and early drug development. He served as Vice President Biology at Cellzome until the company’s acquisition by GSK in 2012, and as Director of Biology at UCB Pharma until 2008.

Oliver has over 15 years’ drug discovery experience in inflammation, neurology and oncology. He holds a degree in Biochemistry from the Free University Berlin and a PhD in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the Institute of Cancer Research in London.

Josefin-Beate joined STORM Therapeutics as Chief Medical Officer in June 2020. Josefin-Beate has over 25 years’ experience in pharmaceutical drug development in Europe and North America. She has held executive managerial positions at international pharmaceutical & biotech companies Ablynx, GPC-Biotech, Gilead Sciences, Bristol-Myers Squibb and LEO Pharma. Josefin-Beate has worked on more than 50 disease targets at various stages of clinical validation across oncology, immunology and other indications.

Josefin-Beate is a medical advisor to the European Commission and is member of various medical associations such as ASCO, ESMO and SITC. She provides clinical advice and part-time CMO support for SMEs and biotech companies. Dr. Holz received her PhD in Haematology Oncology from the University Marburg, Germany in 1995.

Matthew Fyfe has over 20 years’ experience in drug discovery and development, having formerly held Senior Leadership positions at Sitryx (Oxford), TopiVert (London), Oryzon (Barcelona) and Prosidion (Oxford). Matthew has successfully led multiple research programs in several therapeutic areas, delivering clinical candidates that have reached Phase 2 or further in oncology, immunology, metabolic disease, neurology and ophthalmology. Matthew obtained degrees from the University of Glasgow (BSc), Columbia University (MA) and the University of Birmingham (PhD) prior to postdoctoral studies at UCLA with Nobel prize winner Sir Fraser Stoddart. He is a Chartered Chemist, a Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry, an author of more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and an inventor on over 90 patent applications. Matthew will work with the leadership team to progress STORM’s pipeline while working with functional heads and project leaders to define medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, DMPK, PK–PD, CMC and preclinical development strategies.

Beth Thomas has over 20 years of experience in medicinal and computational chemistry and joined STORM Therapeutics in 2016. Beth is responsible for medicinal chemistry strategy to enable the discovery and progression of clinical candidates from Storm’s project portfolio. Beth has experience in industrial, academic and not-for-profit roles, leading inter-disciplinary drug discovery teams at Celltech, UCB, BioFocus, University of Cambridge and the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre. Beth has a BSc in Chemistry from the University of St Andrews and a PhD in polyketide biosynthesis with Professors Staunton and Leadlay at the University of Cambridge.

Marguerite has over ten years’ extensive experience in leading licensing agreements and collaborations with large, high profile healthcare companies as well as experience in legal and strategic operations. She was previously the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of Plexxikon Inc., a member of the Daiichi Sankyo Group, establishing and managing collaborations with Roche, Merck, AstraZeneca, Array and Cancer Research UK. She played a pivotal role in the out-licensing of bezuclastinib to Cogent Biosciences and plixorafenib to Fore Biotherapeutics, securing upfront payments and additional developmental milestones, and royalty payments. She was instrumental in the Phase 3 development and approval of TURALIO^® (pexidartinib), a prescription medicine which is the first and only oral therapy for tenosynovial giant cell tumor. In addition, Marguerite successfully pursued the patent infringement case Plexxikon v. Novartis, resulting in a significant jury verdict award and ongoing royalties from dabrafenib sales.

Marguerite joined STORM from Tatara Therapeutics, where she was Chief Executive Officer, a UCSF spin-out which she set up and raised seed financing. Prior to this, Marguerite was Chief Business Officer at Frontier Medicines Corporation where she oversaw and led all business development activities including a collaboration with AbbVie.

Marguerite received a B.A. from Harvard University and a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law and is based in US.

Leadership team

Jerry McMahon, PhD

Oliver Rausch, PhD

Josefin-Beate Holz, MD

Matthew Fyfe, PhD

Beth Thomas, PhD

Marguerite Hutchinson, J.D.