Sue Dillon, PhD, is a co-founder and Chair of the Board of Aro Biotherapeutics, a biotechnology company working to develop potent, targeted short-interfering RNA (siRNA) medicines addressing intractable diseases. 

Dr Dillon’s career has been marked by leading cross-disciplinary teams to discover and develop novel therapeutics.  At Aro, she served as CEO, president and chair of the board from 2018 - 2025, and built the company from start – up mode to a clinical stage company.  Prior to founding Aro, Dr Dillon spent 16 years at Centocor and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a division of Johnson & Johnson,  where she led Immunology R&D, and the global Immunology Franchise Board and achieved numerous regulatory approvals for innovative antibody products for autoimmune diseases including REMICADE®, SIMPONI®, STELARA® and TREMFYA® with sustained multi $B combined sales worldwide.  Multi-disciplinary teams under Sue’s leadership at GlaxoSmithKline and Janssen were twice recognized with the Prix Galien Award for PROMACTA® and STELARA®, each first-in-class medicines.

Sue received her PhD in Immunology from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Immunology at Duke University.   Sue was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from Thomas Jefferson University, and she was named one of the ‘Fierce Women in Biotech’ by Fierce Biotech in 2013 and again in 2022.  Currently she serves on the Board of Directors of Vedanta Biosciences, is a Board Advisor for Uniquity Bio and is the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the prestigious Wistar Institute, in Philadelphia.

Liz McKee Anderson is the former Worldwide Vice President, Infectious Disease and Vaccines at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Liz brings more than 30 years of leadership in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and vaccines. She held senior leadership positions at Johnson & Johnson between 2003 and her retirement in 2014. Liz most recently served as Worldwide Vice President, Infectious Disease and Vaccines for Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a Johnson & Johnson company, where she directed the commercial development of an extensive portfolio of antivirals and vaccines with responsibility for global strategic marketing, market access, and global analytics for that division. She previously served in WWVP roles for Biotechnology, Immunology and Oncology.  Prior to Johnson & Johnson, Liz served as the Vice President and General Manager of Wyeth Lederle Vaccines from 1997 to 2002, where she was responsible for a broad product portfolio and the commercialization and launch of the PREVNAR vaccine. She also previously worked in executive leadership roles at Rhone Poulenc Rorer and the American National Red Cross. Liz serves on the boards of directors of GSK Plc., BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., Insmed, Inc., Revolution Medicines Inc., and is a trustee of the Wistar Institute for Biomedical Research. She also previously served on the boards of directors of Bavarian Nordic A/S and the global marketing and communications company Huntsworth Plc.  Liz holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Rutgers University and a Master of Business Administration from Loyola University Maryland.

Lee Kalowski brings over twenty years of biopharmaceutical experience and has served in multiple leadership and biotech CFO roles. Since 2023, Lee has served as an Interim CFO and a consultant to companies in the life sciences industry. Prior to this, Lee was the former CFO of Bicycle Therapeutics, from 2017-2023, and also the former President of Bicycle Therapeutics, from 2019-2023. In these roles, he led strategic finance and operations to support the company’s transition to a public clinical-stage biotech company and helped raise $1 billion in capital, consisting of over $700 million in private, public, and non-dilutive financings including the company’s 2019 IPO and all subsequent financings. Prior to Bicycle, Lee was Chief Financial Officer of Tokai Pharmaceuticals where he helped lead the company’s IPO in 2014. Prior to Tokai, Lee served in global biotechnology equity research as a Senior Analyst at Credit Suisse, where he covered companies in the biopharmaceutical industry. Lee received a B.A. in biology and economics from Union College and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Brett Blackman is Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Business Officer at Valo Health, where he leads corporate operations and strategy, business development, alliance management, portfolio program management, and legal affairs. He brings a rare combination of scientific depth and executive acumen — built over 25 years at the intersection of drug discovery, engineering, and business strategy — that makes him equally fluent in the science of drug discovery and the demands of corporate strategy.

Brett’s career began at the bench, where he pioneered a breakthrough cardiovascular surrogate platform technology during his training at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Medical School, and later as a tenured faculty member at the University of Virginia. That foundational research produced more than ten human disease models for some of medicine’s most intractable conditions, ultimately becoming the core technology underpinning HemoShear Therapeutics, the company he founded in 2008.

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From 2016 until joining Valo, Brett served as co-founder, operating Chief Scientific Officer, and strategic executive advisor across a portfolio of Flagship Pioneering biotechnology companies — including Cogen Therapeutics (now Repertoire Immune Medicines), Omega Therapeutics, Kintai Therapeutics (now Senda Therapeutics), Ohana Biosciences, and Evelo Biosciences. This tenure reflects both his scientific credibility and his capacity to shape organizations from inception through scale.

Brett holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics from Drexel University, a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship in Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He holds multiple patents and has contributed to the field as both inventor and institution-builder.

During his more than 40 year career in biotechnology, Bruce Peacock has held numerous senior leadership positions, including President and Chief Executive Officer of Adolor Corporation, Alba Therapeutics and Orthovita, Inc., and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Business Officer of Ophthotech. For over 10 years, he served as Venture Partner with SV Life Sciences Health Investors. Previously, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Cephalon Inc. and prior to this, he was CFO at Centocor, Inc. He is a cofounder of Carisma Therapeutics, Interius Biotherapeutics and Vittoria Therapeutics, companies focused on novel cell therapies for cancer. Bruce holds a BA in Business Administration from Villanova University.

Chris Picariello is the President of Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC.  Chris is responsible for leading the JJDC Investment Team and is a member of the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Senior Leadership Team.    

Chris joined Johnson & Johnson in 1995 in the Finance Leadership Development Program progressing through a stellar career in corporate Finance.  Chris was most recently Vice President, Finance, North America Consumer and responsible for leading the NA Finance team and a member of the North America Consumer Leadership Team as well as the Global Consumer Finance Leadership Team. His strong business leadership and focus on long term, sustainable growth proved vital as he led his team through developing and implementing strategic initiatives to restructure the business to pivot for profitable growth. His approach as a servant leader is well recognized, creating a culture of agility, end-to-end leadership, prioritization and investment optimization which has enabled the NA Consumer business to outpace competition and substantially improve profitability.

Prior to that Chris was Chief Financial Officer and Global Head of Procurement, Government Grants Office and Project Management Office for Janssen Research & Development. As a member of the Pharmaceutical R&D Senior Leadership Team and chair of the R&D Investment Committee, Chris played an instrumental role in shaping and advancing the Janssen 2020 strategy, External innovation model, Global Public Health, Janssen Global Grants Office and several transformational efficiency programs to enable medical innovation for patients.  He helped execute and integrate many acquisitions and R&D collaborations including advancing alternative funding structures to support externalizing of key portfolio assets.  In addition, Chris has championed innovative approaches to advance the Pharmaceutical R&D model creating an external R&D CFO Forum, helping implement TransCelerate, the first JLABS, WAVE development, Janssen Incubator, Disease Interception Accelerator and Disease Area Strongholds models.  Under his leadership, Janssen R&D has developed one of the strongest and most productive pipelines in the industry.

Chris has been in roles of increasing complexity and scope across the enterprise in global and multi-region Finance leadership roles, including Vice President, Finance and CFO for the Global Baby Franchise, Supply Chain, US Selling and Customer Development within the J&J Consumer Sector;  Vice President, Finance and CFO for Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development (J&J PRD), LLC; CFO for Tibotec-Virco; Finance Director of Janssen R&D in Belgium; and, Finance Manager of International Operations Control.  Chris has successfully established Finance teams and has played a key leadership role in developing strategic plans and improving organizations’ abilities to deliver on key financial targets.   Chris has also championed the GEI Next Frontier process focusing on JLABS and the Innovation Centers, connecting sectors and external partners with the best science and technology.

Prior to Johnson & Johnson, Chris was a Staff Accountant with the City of Philadelphia. Chris holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from LaSalle University. 

Kevin Raidy is a Managing Director at Blue Owl and the Head of Healthcare Opportunities. In this role, he oversees all private and public investment activity related to Healthcare Opportunities and sits on the Fund’s Investment Committee. 

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Previously, Kevin was a founder and Managing Partner of Cowen Healthcare Investments, the predecessor to Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities. Prior to his role at Cowen Healthcare Investments, Kevin was Cowen’s Head of Investment Banking and prior to that he was Co-Head of Cowen’s Equity Capital Markets Group. Before that Kevin was a Managing Director at Ramius LLC where he was responsible for direct investments and convertible bonds. Kevin’s sell side experience includes ten years at Shipley Raidy Capital Partners, a boutique investment banking firm which he co-founded. Prior to founding Shipley Raidy, Kevin was an associate at Philadelphia First Group. He started his career at Cantor Fitzgerald before moving to Merrill Lynch as an analyst in the municipal finance group. 

He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of NodThera Ltd, Escient Pharmaceuticals, Neuron23, and Aro Biopharmaceuticals, while also a Board Observer at Delfi Diagnostics, Aktis Oncology and Evox Therapeutics.

Kevin received a BS in Economics with a concentration in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.