About Us

President & Chief Executive Officer

Steven Everett is a seasoned biotechnology executive and scientific leader with 25 years of experience in managing drug discovery and development programs as well as business development opportunities in world-renowned academic institutions and biotech companies, with deep experience in oncology, venture capital financing, and strategic partnership generation. His passion is in the exploitation of cutting-edge academic research, novel drug discovery paradigms, and translational science to progress groundbreaking drug treatment options to patients suffering from cancer. He has held numerous roles including CEO, CSO, entrepreneur-in-residence, strategic advisory, and business development in private and public biotech companies where he has successfully led Series A and B rounds of financing, and strategic partnership deals in Europe, China, and the US.

Steve has held professorships at world-class academic institutions in both the US and UK including the University of California San Francisco in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, the University of Dundee College of Life Sciences as Head of Drug Discovery and Translational Research, and the University of Oxford, CRUK/MRC Oxford Institute for Radiation Oncology (formerly the Gray Cancer Institute). Steve was awarded funding by Cancer Research UK for 14 years to project and program grant level through internationally peer-reviewed science.

He was awarded an MBA from the University of London and a double doctorate from the University of Ulster and the Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin in Radiation Chemistry and Biology. He is the lead and co-author of over 100 scientific publications and 50 issued patents and patent applications including licensed intellectual property and patent families now owned by MaveriX.

Chief Technical Officer

Rick Panicucci, Ph.D., is Co-founder of MaveriX Oncology and has been involved with the company since incorporation in 2016. Rick currently holds the position of Senior Vice President of CMC at BridgeBio and has held a number of senior leadership roles in drug and business development in the pharmaceutical industry over the past 25 years. Rick was formerly Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development at STA Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (A WuXi AppTec Company). At STA Rick was responsible for providing scientific leadership in the areas of Developability, Formulation Development and GMP Manufacturing. Prior to STA Rick was Global Head of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Profiling (CPP) at Novartis from 2004 to 2015. Responsibilities included analytics, solid state chemistry, formulation development and drug delivery of the entire Novartis early R&D portfolio. He worked closely with Novartis BD&L and Venture Fund on many external deals. Other Previous positions include the Director of Formulation Development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Director of Research and Development at Symbollon Pharmaceuticals and Senior Scientist at Biogen. He started his career at Bausch & Lomb in the pre-formulation lab and was promoted to Manager of Process Development. His education includes two post-doctoral fellowships at University of California at Santa Barbara and the Ontario Cancer Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from the University of Toronto.

Chief Business Officer

Kimberly Nearing has over 20 years of international biotechnology industry and financial services experience in a broad range of senior roles in venture capital, investment banking, and operations (business and corporate development/strategy/marketing/commercialization/investor relations) in Fortune 100 companies and startups. Kim is currently a Venture Partner at the Bioveda China Fund (BVCF) Management, LTD., with offices in Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong. Prior to joining BVCF, for 10 years she was Managing Director, Head of Life Sciences at Cedrus International Management, Ltd., a global boutique investment firm, focused on driving international and business between Europe, the US, Greater China, and broader Asia regions. Kim is also on the board of Ethismos Research, Inc., (Cambridge, MA), BayHelix (China/US), the Rostropovich-Vishnesvskaya (RVF) Foundation for the Health of Children. Kim holds a Master of Science with Honors from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with Distinction from the University of Michigan.

Vice President of Operations

Chris was originally a Strategic Advisor to MaveriX from 2018 to 2021 then promoted to VP Strategic Operations in 2022. Prior to joining MaveriX Chris was the Chief of Staff and General Manager of Corporate Services at Applied Materials, a multinational firm, where he resolved challenging business and operational issues necessitating the restructuring of a portfolio of corporate functions resulting in successful acquisition integration. Prior to Applied Materials, Chris spent 5 years at Philips Electronics, a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation working closely with the then CEO on operational and organizational initiatives that led to a fundamental repositioning of the business. Chris’ deep operational exposure and leadership skills are grounded in his combat experience leading covert operations with the Elite UK Special Forces. Chris is a cancer survivor and as Chair and Chair Emeritus of the Stanford Cancer Council has led the philanthropic outreach for the Stanford Cancer Institute, an NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, raising hundreds of millions of US dollars to fund the mission, strategy, and development of the Institute. He received his MBA from the Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK.

Co-Founder

Steven Everett is a seasoned biotechnology executive and scientific leader with 25 years of experience in managing drug discovery and development programs as well as business development opportunities in world-renowned academic institutions and biotech companies, with deep experience in oncology, venture capital financing, and strategic partnership generation. His passion is in the exploitation of cutting-edge academic research, novel drug discovery paradigms, and translational science to progress groundbreaking drug treatment options to patients suffering from cancer. He has held numerous roles including CEO, CSO, entrepreneur-in-residence, strategic advisory, and business development in private and public biotech companies where he has successfully led Series A and B rounds of financing, and strategic partnership deals in Europe, China, and the US.

Steve has held professorships at world-class academic institutions in both the US and UK including the University of California San Francisco in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, the University of Dundee College of Life Sciences as Head of Drug Discovery and Translational Research, and the University of Oxford, CRUK/MRC Oxford Institute for Radiation Oncology (formerly the Gray Cancer Institute). Steve was awarded funding by Cancer Research UK for 14 years to project and program grant level through internationally peer-reviewed science.

He was awarded an MBA from the University of London and a double doctorate from the University of Ulster and the Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin in Radiation Chemistry and Biology. He is the lead and co-author of over 100 scientific publications and 50 issued patents and patent applications including licensed intellectual property and patent families now owned by MaveriX.

Co-Founder

An accomplished research and development leader with 30 years of experience. 2017 American Chemical Society Hero of Chemistry. Inventor of Merck’s HCV NS5A replication complex inhibitor Elbasvir (MK-8742) and responsible for the nomination and development of multiple clinical compounds that span the cardiovascular, neuroscience, oncology and infectious disease therapeutic areas.

Built, developed and motivated a highly successful team of external chemistry/biology collaborators while directing US-based project teams consisting of cross-functional scientists. Established the western based program manager model within big Pharma and later at a CRO with a focus to provide discovery knowledge-based solutions necessary to execute integrated medicinal chemistry projects in China to drive virtual discovery organizations.

Formerly Senior Vice President of Chemistry at Gossamer Bio, Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Silverback Therapeutics and Wuxi AppTec, Senior Investigator at Merck Research Laboratories, and National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in the Danishefsky group. Co-author of > 40 publications and inventor of > 100 issued patents and patent applications.

Co-Founder

Rick Panicucci, Ph.D., is Co-founder of MaveriX Oncology and has been involved with the company since incorporation in 2016. Rick currently holds the position of Senior Vice President of CMC at BridgeBio and has held a number of senior leadership roles in drug and business development in the pharmaceutical industry over the past 25 years. Rick was formerly Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development at STA Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (A WuXi AppTec Company). At STA Rick was responsible for providing scientific leadership in the areas of Developability, Formulation Development and GMP Manufacturing. Prior to STA Rick was Global Head of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Profiling (CPP) at Novartis from 2004 to 2015. Responsibilities included analytics, solid state chemistry, formulation development and drug delivery of the entire Novartis early R&D portfolio. He worked closely with Novartis BD&L and Venture Fund on many external deals. Other Previous positions include the Director of Formulation Development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Director of Research and Development at Symbollon Pharmaceuticals and Senior Scientist at Biogen. He started his career at Bausch & Lomb in the pre-formulation lab and was promoted to Manager of Process Development. His education includes two post-doctoral fellowships at University of California at Santa Barbara and the Ontario Cancer Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from the University of Toronto.

Clinical Development Advisor

Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D., F.A.C.P. FASCO, FAACR is a Distinguished Professor at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Arizona. He holds the Virginia G. Piper Distinguished Chair for Innovative Cancer Research at HonorHealth Clinical Research Institute and the Margaret Givan Larkin Endowed Chair in Developmental Cancer Therapeutics at Hoag Hospital and Medical Director of Research at McKesson Specialty Health and the Chief Scientific Officer for US Oncology Research specializing in phase I clinical trials. He is also Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona and at the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ and Senior Consultant of Clinical Investigation at the City of Hope.

Dr. Von Hoff’s major interest is in the development of new anticancer agents, both in the clinic and in the laboratory. He and his colleagues were involved in the beginning of the development of many FDA approved agents we now use routinely, including: mitoxantrone, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, irinotecan, nelarabine, capecitabine, lapatinib, vismodegib, nab-paclitaxel, nal-IRI, pexidartinib and others.

Dr. Von Hoff has published more than 741 papers, 143 book chapters and over 1186 abstracts. Dr. Von Hoff received the 2010 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology for his outstanding contributions to cancer research leading to significant improvement in patient care and most recently the AACR Distinguished Public Service Award in recognition of his extraordinary clinical research career and leadership in establishing the AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop to educate and train young clinical investigators.

Dr. Von Hoff was appointed to President Bush’s National Cancer Advisory Board in 2004-2010. Dr. Von Hoff is the past President of the American Association for Cancer Research, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a member and past board member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Von Hoff is founder and the Editor Emeritus of Investigational New Drugs – The Journal of New Anticancer Agents; and, past Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

Discovery Chemistry Advisor

An accomplished research and development leader with 30 years of experience. 2017 American Chemical Society Hero of Chemistry. Inventor of Merck’s HCV NS5A replication complex inhibitor Elbasvir (MK-8742) and responsible for the nomination and development of multiple clinical compounds that span the cardiovascular, neuroscience, oncology and infectious disease therapeutic areas.

Built, developed and motivated a highly successful team of external chemistry/biology collaborators while directing US-based project teams consisting of cross-functional scientists. Established the western based program manager model within big Pharma and later at a CRO with a focus to provide discovery knowledge-based solutions necessary to execute integrated medicinal chemistry projects in China to drive virtual discovery organizations.

Formerly Senior Vice President of Chemistry at Gossamer Bio, Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Silverback Therapeutics and Wuxi AppTec, Senior Investigator at Merck Research Laboratories, and National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in the Danishefsky group. Co-author of > 40 publications and inventor of > 100 issued patents and patent applications.

Clinical Development Advisor

Dr Michael S. Gordon is one of the greater Phoenix area’s leading medical oncologists and cancer researchers is the Medical Director for the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials program at Scottsdale Healthcare. Dr. Gordon oversees the center’s internationally recognized Phase I clinical trials program, which is known for its leadership in first-in-human studies of new cancer therapies.

Dr Gordon is a medical oncologist who serves as CEO of Pinnacle Oncology Hematology, a division of Arizona Center for Cancer Care, in Scottsdale, focusing on translational research and the care and management of cancer patients seeking phase I and phase II clinical trials. He is a Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix, and is actively engaged in the education of medical students as co-director of the Oncology Block.

Dr Gordon’s principal research interests are in development of new cancer therapies with a focus on targeted and immunologic therapies as well as drugs that affect angiogenesis (tumor blood vessel supply). Avastin^®, Perjeta^® and Neumega^® are among the drugs Dr. Gordon has helped validate for FDA approval. His disease focuses include kidney cancer, melanoma, prostate cancer, lung cancer, gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) and ovarian cancer.

Dr Gordon received his medical degree from University at Buffalo and has been in practice for more than 20 years.

Intellectual Property Advisor

John Kendall, Ph.D., is a senior patent agent in the Boston office of Fish & Richardson P.C. Dr. Kendall has extensive experience working with clients in industry and academia on intellectual property matters, including for example, patent portfolio planning, implementation, and management; patent validity analyses, and intellectual property due diligence and clearance investigations.

Dr. Kendall has an extensive technical background in organic chemistry, and he has worked with clients in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries in areas such as small molecule therapeutics; drug formulation and drug delivery technologies; and chemical process technologies. His work includes developing and implementing strategies to procure patent protection in the U.S. and abroad; assisting with patent validity, freedom to operate, and due diligence investigations; and performing patentability studies.

Prior to joining Fish, Dr. Kendall was a science advisor at Goodwin Procter. He also worked as a senior research scientist at Wyeth (1997-2002); a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1993-1996); and a visiting Lecturer at Bates College (1992).

Dr. Kendall has authored or co-authored a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of Organic Chemistry, Tetrahedron, Journal of Labelled Compounds and Radiopharmaceuticals, Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, and Industrial Biotechnology. He is also named as an inventor on two U.S. patents.