John Smither is currently serving as Arcutis’ Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Mr Smither brings more than 40 years of professional experience, over 25 years of which is in the life science industry, including five CFO roles. He has an unsurpassed understanding of both private and public equity markets for biotechnology companies and has overseen multiple private and public financing rounds and initial public offerings (IPOs). As Arcutis’ first CFO from May 2019 to March 2021, John led the successful IPO in 2020, and built the finance function from the ground up. Prior to Arcutis, Mr Smither served as CFO for Sienna Biopharmaceuticals from January 2016 to March 2017 and again from March 2018 to April 2019. From October 2017 to April 2018, he was interim CFO for Kite Pharma during its integration with Gilead, and prior to that, was CFO at Unity Biotechnology from January 2016 to 2017. Earlier, he served as CFO of Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. from November 2007 until it was acquired by Allergan in October 2015 for $2.1 billion. From 1998 to 2007, Mr Smither held various positions at Amgen, including vice president of finance and administration for Amgen’s European Division, where he was responsible for financial operations in 28 European countries, head of internal audit, and executive director of corporate accounting. Mr Smither began his career at Ernst & Young where he was an audit partner and held certification as a Certified Public Accountant (inactive). He also serves on the Board of Directors of eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Applied Molecular Transport Inc. and NewAmsterdam Pharma Company NV. He holds a BS in accounting, with honors, from California State University at Los Angeles.
Prior to becoming the chief of staff and head of ESG, Mr Plummer served as executive director, R&D chief of staff and clinical integration. He joined the Company in April 2021. Mr Plummer spent the previous 20 years working both in the civilian sector supporting clients in the pharmaceutical, legal, and technology industries and military sector where he continues as a Naval reserve SEAL officer where he holds the rank of Rear Admiral. Prior to Arcutis, Mr Plummer was a consultant to several small biotech companies focused on strategy and organizational design. Prior to that, he was managing director at Williams Lea Tag, a services outsourcer for marketing and back-office services. There, he managed a portfolio of Fortune 100 clients with P&L responsibility of over $100m, moving from NY, to DC, to LA as he continued in roles with greater responsibility. Prior to that, he worked for Dendrite (now IQVIA) where he worked on their sales force automation platform for pharmaceutical sales reps, technical support and setup for global electronic clinical trials, and data analytics. Throughout his career, Mr Plummer has maintained his military commission in the reserves, having the distinction of six command tours, and four overseas deployments since 9/11 that included Iraq, Afghanistan, Kenya, Djibouti, and Somalia. Mr Plummer graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in international relations and an MBA from the Naval Postgraduate School.
Prior to becoming vice president of human resources in March 2022, Mr Tucker served as Arcutis’ executive director and head of human resources since joining the Company in July 2020. Prior to Arcutis, Mr Tucker was the senior director of total rewards at Atara Biotherapeutics, where he led the compensation and benefits department. Prior to Atara, Mr Tucker was the senior director and head of human resources at Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, where he established and led the human resources function as the company transitioned from a private to a publicly traded company. Prior to Sienna, Mr Tucker was the associate director of human resources at Kythera. In his role at Kythera he was instrumental in building out the sales force for the company’s launch of Kybella®. He has also held roles in non-profit management where he oversaw all administrative functions, including human resources, information technology, bookkeeping and budgeting, and facilities. Mr Tucker started his career in Amgen’s human resources department, where he held roles of increasing responsibility. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with an option in human resource management, from California State University, Northridge.
Mr Matsuda joined Arcutis in January 2022 as general counsel and corporate secretary. He is responsible for all legal and compliance for the company, as well as serving as secretary of the board of directors. Mr Matsuda previously served as senior vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and corporate secretary at Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to Halozyme, Mr Matsuda worked at Amgen for 18 years in positions of increasing responsibility with his last role serving as vice president, Law, Global Commercial Operations, where he was responsible for strategic commercial legal support to the US Commercial Operations organization, as well as Medical Affairs, Compliance, Global Value, Access & Policy, Global Marketing, and Biosimilars divisions. Mr Matsuda received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a dual emphasis in Corporate Finance and International Finance from the University of Southern California, and a Juris Doctorate from University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Mr Madan brings over 20 years of digital transformation and innovation experience to the Arcutis team. Prior to joining Arcutis, Mr Madan served as the vice president of digital, data/analytics and innovation for consumer healthcare technology at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where, in partnership with the chief digital officer, he was responsible for driving significant elements of their digital and tech transformation globally. Before GSK, Mr Madan was with Novartis where he was responsible for managing and delivering global, regional, and localized digital solutions and services across 3 business units and in more than 80 countries. In addition to healthcare, Mr Madan has experience in the consumer goods sector, having spent 14 years at L’Oreal in various roles, including managing the digital tech function for L’Oreal Americas. Mr Madan holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and master’s degrees in both business administration and information systems from New York University Stern School of Business.
Ms Barton joined Arcutis in February 2021 as chief compliance officer, bringing over 17 years of corporate and healthcare compliance experience to our growing team. Prior to joining Arcutis, Ms Barton served as vice president, commercial excellence & chief compliance officer at Cipla Therapeutics, a division of Cipla, USA. Ms Barton has broad, global compliance and ethics expertise, having begun her compliance and ethics career at Winn-Dixie Stores, Incorporated before transitioning to roles in the pharmaceutical and medical device sector with Bausch + Lomb, Allergan, Kythera, Anacor, and MannKind Corporation. She has also held positions with Merrill Lynch and Janus, including an appointment overseas. A graduate of Syracuse University, Ms Barton holds bachelor’s degrees in political science and international relations, both magna cum laude, and is a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional (CCEP) and Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP US/E).
Matthew Moore joined Arcutis as chief business officer in January 2021. Mr Moore has over 20 years of strategy, transaction, and operations experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Most recently, he served as vice president, corporate business development and alliance management at Allergan, where he led worldwide strategy and business development for the company’s $4 billion+ medical aesthetics business unit.
During his tenure at Allergan and its predecessor companies, Actavis and Forest Labs, Mr Moore was responsible for creating and executing business development growth strategies across multiple therapeutic areas including medical aesthetics, neuroscience, anti-infectives, and hospital products. In addition, Mr Moore served as a key deal team member in Actavis’ transformational acquisition of Allergan and Allergan’s ultimate sale to AbbVie. Prior to Allergan, Mr Moore held executive roles at DOV Pharmaceutical and he started his career in the healthcare investment banking group at CIBC Oppenheimer. Mr Moore earned his BA in psychology from Trinity College.
Patrick Burnett has served as Arcutis’ chief medical officer since August 2020. Prior to that, Dr Burnett was the chief medical officer at Verrica Pharmaceuticals since April 2018. Prior to that, Dr Burnett was at Sun Pharmaceuticals where he was associate vice president of clinical development from September 2015 to March 2018, with oversight of the dermatology and rheumatology pipeline. Prior to Sun, Dr Burnett was at Novartis from 2010 to August 2015, most recently as global program medical director. He is a board-certified dermatologist and was a member of the medical faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center as an assistant professor of dermatology from 2004 to 2010. Dr Burnett holds an MD and PhD in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a BS in biology and biochemistry from the University of Iowa.
Ayisha Jeter is currently serving as Arcutis’ Chief Commercial Officer. She joined Arcutis in June 2020 as our vice president of market access since June 2020. Prior to joining Arcutis, Ms Jeter held multiple access leadership roles, culminating in the position of vice president of managed markets and access marketing at Assertio (formerly Depomed, Inc.) from 2015 to 2020. Before that, Ms Jeter was associate director, payer market (portfolio strategy), at Purdue Pharma from 2013 to 2015. Previously, Ms Jeter held the position of senior analyst, market access marketing, at Vivus, Inc. from 2012 through 2013. Prior to that, Ms Jeter held a variety of sales roles at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Genzyme, Inc., and Pfizer, Inc. Ms Jeter received her BA in American studies from the University of California at Berkeley and her MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Ms Turney has served as our senior vice president, operations since January 2020. She previously worked at Amgen, Inc. from 1996 to 2019 in roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as vice president, external supply, where she managed more than 50 contract manufacturing sites supporting clinical programs and commercial products. Prior Amgen roles included: executive director, medical device and direct materials; site operations head for Amgen’s Netherlands site; executive director, global facilities operations; and director, R&D strategic operations. Prior to joining Amgen, Ms Turney was a Federal Aviation Administration certified instructor, and earlier, a naval aviator in the United States Navy. She holds a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from the United States Naval Academy and a Master of Business Administration from the Anderson School, University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr Osborne is one of the co-founders of Arcutis, and is a prominent expert in pharmaceutical product development, specializing in the topical, transdermal, transmucosal, and subcutaneous delivery of active pharmaceutical ingredients through creams, gels, and ointments. Prior to Arcutis, he was chief scientific officer at Tolmar, and before that, vice president of product development at Dow Pharmaceutical Sciences, and earlier, ViroTex/Atrix. He started his career as a formulation group leader at The Upjohn Company and then a Merck subsidiary.
Dr Osborne has 29 issued US patents, is a named inventor on 4 FDA-approved topical products, and led the development of Eligard®, Clobex® Spray, MetroGel® 1%, and 15 generic topical products. He has 58 publications, primarily in the areas of surfactants, formulations, and skin delivery, and edited 2 books on topical drug development. He was the 1992 chairman of the ACS Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry, and founding North American editor of the journal Colloids and Surfaces: Biointerfaces. He received his BSc in chemistry from Missouri State University, and a PhD in physical chemistry from Missouri Science and Technology.
Mr Watanabe has been the president of Arcutis since 2016, and chief executive officer since 2017. Prior to joining Arcutis, he was co-founder and chief operating officer of Kanan Therapeutics, a cardiovascular drug development company, and before that, was vice president of strategy and corporate development at Kythera Biopharmaceuticals.
Mr Watanabe was an executive at Amgen, Inc. from 2005 to 2013, where he was involved in the development of Repatha® for hyperlipidemia and Aimovig® for migraine, and worked on the US marketing of Enbrel® in both dermatology and rheumatology. Previously, he was an executive with Eli Lilly and Company, and an official in the US government. He was also a commissioned officer in the US Navy Reserves for 25 years. He formerly served on the board of Amunix Pharmaceuticals. Mr Watanabe earned his MA in national security studies, and his BA in international relations, both at Georgetown University.
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