Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors has a broad range of expertise, including public company management, financial acumen and product development.

David Hung, M.D.

Chairman, Board of Directors

Dr. Hung founded Nuvation Bio in 2018 and serves as President and Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. Dr. Hung founded Medivation, Inc., in 2003, raising a total of $440 million in public offerings over the life of the company to reach a market cap of more than $14 billion, providing investors with a return on investment of 21,000%. In 2016, Medivation was sold to Pfizer for $14.3 billion in an all-cash deal, one of the largest biopharma sales ever by a founding Chief Executive Officer. For his role in creating Medivation, Dr. Hung was named the Life Sciences category winner and Overall U.S. winner across all categories of the 2014 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Dr. Hung identified, in-licensed and led bench-to-bedside development of enzalutamide (XTANDI®) for advanced prostate cancer. At Medivation, XTANDI was taken from first in vitro laboratory experiment to FDA approval in seven years, one of the fastest development timelines in pharmaceutical history. XTANDI, approved in 60+ countries, reached blockbuster drug status, reaching nearly $6 billion in global annual sales in 2023. At Medivation, Dr. Hung identified, in-licensed and developed talazoparib, a potentially best-in-class PARP inhibitor, which was approved by the FDA in October 2018, and the immune-oncology agent, pidilizumab, which demonstrated robust effects in Phase 2 studies and is now a promising Phase 3-ready asset.

Between Medivation and founding Nuvation Bio, Dr. Hung served for 10 months as Chief Executive Officer at Axovant Sciences before tendering his resignation. Prior to founding Medivation, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of ProDuct Health, Inc., a venture-backed startup medical device company founded in 1998 that developed, manufactured and commercialized a breast microcatheter – that he invented – for breast cancer risk assessment. ProDuct Health was acquired in 2001 for $168 million by Cytyc Corporation. Dr. Hung currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of T-Therapeutics and as a member of the Board of Directors of Novocure.

Dr. Hung received an A.B. summa cum laude in biology from Harvard College and an M.D. Alpha Omega Alpha from the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. He completed simultaneous clinical fellowships in hematology, oncology and transfusion medicine as well as two basic science research fellowships in molecular biology at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine.

Robert Bazemore

Lead Independent Director, Board of Directors

Mr. Bazemore has spent his career of 30+ years on the development and commercialization of novel medicines.  From 2015 to 2021, he served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Epizyme, Inc., developing and launching TAZVERIK® for patients with Follicular Lymphoma and Sarcoma while building on the company’s pipeline of promising epigenetic candidates in oncology.  Prior to joining Epizyme, Mr. Bazemore served as Chief Operating Officer of Synageva BioPharma Corp., where he established the company’s global commercial and medical organization to support the first product launch, helping lead the broader transition to a sustainable commercial enterprise through the company’s acquisition by Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in July 2015.  Prior to Synageva, he held several senior leadership positions at Johnson & Johnson, including President of Janssen Biotech, where he led the successful launches of numerous products and indications, including the US launches of the oncology therapies ZYTIGA® and IBRUVICA®, and guided the company’s worldwide immunology portfolio strategy.  Prior to Johnson & Johnson, he served for over 11 years at Merck & Co. Inc., where he held numerous roles including supporting the launch of SINGULAIR® in the U.S.

Mr. Bazemore is currently a Director for Ardelyx, Inc. and was previously a Director for Neon Therapeutics prior to its acquisition by BioNTech and Board Chairman for Pennsylvania BIO.  He earned his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Georgia.

Kim D. Blickenstaff

Board of Directors
Mr. Blickenstaff is the Executive Chairman and Director of Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc., and previously served as the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to that, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Biosite Incorporated, a provider of medical diagnostic products, from 1988 until its acquisition by Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. in 2007. Mr. Blickenstaff previously served as a Director of Medivation, Inc., until its acquisition by Pfizer in 2016, and a Director of DexCom, Inc., a provider of continuous glucose monitoring systems. Mr. Blickenstaff was formerly a certified public accountant and has more than 20 years of experience overseeing the preparation of financial statements. He held various positions in finance, operations, research management, sales management, strategic planning and marketing with Baxter Travenol, National Health Laboratories and Hybritech Incorporated. He received a B.A. in political science from Loyola University Chicago and an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business, Loyola University Chicago.

Min Cui, Ph.D.

Board of Directors

Dr. Cui is the Founder and Managing Partner of Decheng Capital. 

At Decheng Capital, Dr. Cui has been focusing on partnerships with entrepreneurs and building biotechnology and medical technology companies globally. He is currently a board member of Alpine Immune Sciences, Bioheng, Harton Therapeutics, ImmPACT Bio, Mammoth Biosciences, Mirvie, and Shape Therapeutics. He previously served on the boards of AnHeart Therapeutics (acquired by Nuvation Bio), ARMO BioSciences (acquired by Eli Lilly), China Biologic Products, Cirina, Cue Health, GeneWEAVE Biosciences (acquired by Roche), GenturaDx (acquired by Luminex), GRAIL (acquired by Illumina), Ion Torrent Systems (acquired by Life Technologies), Sino Medical, and Velos Biopharma (acquired by Merck). 

Prior to founding Decheng Capital in 2011, Dr. Cui spent five years at Bay City Capital, a leading international life science venture capital firm in San Francisco. He was previously Director of Strategic Investment for the Southern Research Institute, an organization that discovered and developed six anti-cancer drugs that were approved by the U.S. FDA. Prior to that, Dr. Cui co-founded Pan Pacific Pharmaceuticals and Hucon Biopharmaceuticals, where he led efforts in the discovery and development of several key technologies in the fields of oncology, cardiology, infectious diseases, and inflammatory diseases.

Dr. Cui received his B.S. and M.S. in Molecular Biology from Peking University, and his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Stanford University. Dr. Cui is currently on the board of trustee at Western University of Health Sciences.

Kathryn Falberg

Board of Directors
Ms. Falberg currently serves as a member of the Board and Chair of the Audit Committee for several companies in the life sciences and technology industries, including Arcus Biosciences, UroGen Pharma, Tricida and The Trade Desk. Throughout her career, she has held several Chief Financial Officer roles in the biotechnology and technology industries, including for Applied Magnetics, Amgen and, most recently, Jazz Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Ms. Falberg served on the Board of Medivation until its acquisition by Pfizer, as well as other Boards including Aimmune Therapeutics, Halozyme Therapeutics, BioMarin Pharmaceutical and Human Genome Sciences. Ms. Falberg received a B.A. in economics and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Robert Mashal, M.D.

Board of Directors

Robert currently serves as a consultant to the life sciences industry. Previously, he was the Global Head of Strategy for the Immunology and Oncology franchises at Sanofi. Robert has worked as CEO of NKT Therapeutics and Alinea Pharmaceuticals, two venture capital backed life sciences firms. He was a partner at Boston Millennia Partners, a private equity firm, where he was on the Board of Directors of Glycofi, Cardiomems, and Sapphire Therapeutics. He served as a Program Executive at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he was on the Joint Steering Committee for the Vertex-Novartis kinase collaboration. He was also a consultant at McKinsey and Company. Prior to McKinsey, Dr. Mashal was a board-certified medical oncologist and received his training in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and in oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Mashal received his B.A. and M.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins University.

W. Anthony Vernon

Board of Directors

Mr. Vernon previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Kraft Foods Group, Inc., from 2012 until December 2014, and as President, Kraft Foods North America from 2009 to 2012. He also served as a senior advisors to the Board of Directors of Kraft Foods Group, Inc. until May 2015. Prior to joining Kraft, he was the healthcare industry partner of Ripplewood Holdings LLC, a private equity firm. Mr. Vernon spent 23 years at Johnson & Johnson where he ran independent business units and led several successful consumer brands. He currently serves as a Director on the Boards of NovoCure Limited and McCormick and Co., and on the Global Advisory Board of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He previously served as a Director of Intersect ENT, Inc., until 2021, and Medivation, Inc., until its acquisition by Pfizer in 2016.

Junyuan Jerry Wang, Ph.D.

Board of Directors

Dr. Wang joined Nuvation Bio in 2024. Dr. Wang serves as Chief Executive Officer of AnHeart Therapeutics, a Nuvation Bio company, and is a member of Nuvation Bio’s Board of Directors.

Dr. Wang co-founded AnHeart in 2018 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer. Over five years, Dr. Wang led the in-license and development of AnHeart’s two lead, potentially best-in-class, investigational medicines, taletrectinib and safusidenib. He built AnHeart into a late-stage clinical organization that gained Breakthrough Therapy Designations for taletrectinib, progressed taletrectinib into pivotal clinical trials, and progressed safusidenib into a global Phase 2 trial. AnHeart was acquired by Nuvation Bio in April 2024. 

Dr. Wang has more than 20 years of leadership experience in global clinical development and medical research across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, cardiovascular, neuroscience, and immunology. He previously worked at Merck Serono, Bristol Myers Squibb, Wyeth/Pfizer, The Medicines Company, and Merck & Co. He made key contributions to the successful NDAs of Bosulif and Eliquis, and the latter became a multi-billion-dollar blockbuster drug. Dr. Wang has extensive experience with global health authorities including FDA, EMA, PMDA, and NMPA. He has served in leadership roles for professional societies, including serving on the Executive Committee of the Biopharmaceutical section of the American Statistical Association, and on the programming committee of leading scientific conferences. Dr. Wang earned his B.S. from the University of Science and Technology of China and Ph.D. in Statistics from Iowa State University.