Management Team

Kenneth C. Carter, Ph.D.

Executive Chairman

Dr. Ken Carter has led several biotechnology companies including NexImmune, Inc., an immuno-oncology company which he helped spin out from John Hopkins University and served as CEO from inception in 2011 until 2017. He also co-founded and is currently Chairman of the Board of Noble Life Sciences, Inc, a pre-clinical contract research organization that enables translational science and product development for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Earlier, Dr. Carter was co-founder and CEO of Avalon Pharmaceuticals from inception in 1999 until the Company’s merger with Clinical Data in 2009 and led Avalon’s initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2004. Under Dr. Carter’s leadership, Avalon developed a pipeline of cancer drug candidates based on a novel high-throughput genomic screening technology and successfully secured R&D partnerships with Merck, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis and MedImmune. Dr. Carter has served on numerous corporate and advisory boards including the National BIO Industry Organization, Antidote Therapeutics, Inc., Iterion Pharmaceuticals and the Maryland BioHealth Initiative (BHI). He is also an adjunct faculty member at John Hopkins University.

David Recker, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. David Recker is the founding manager of JJK Consulting, a group that advises on pharmaceutical development, with an emphasis on global implementation of small molecule clinical trial design as well as a therapeutic focus on cell therapy. Dr. Recker serves as the Chief Medical Officer of Vericel Corporation, where he has been responsible for clinical development, regulatory affairs, medical and scientific affairs, pharmacovigilance, statistics and data management. Previously, Dr. Recker was Senior Vice President, Clinical Sciences with Takeda's Global Research and Development division, where he implemented global clinical development strategies for several pharmacologic agents in multiple therapeutic areas. Dr. Recker completed his M.D. with distinction at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Thomas Hazel, Ph.D.

Senior Vice President, Research

Dr. Thomas Hazel has held senior leadership positions in biotechnology companies for nearly 20 years and has over 25 years’ experience in the stem cell field. He joined Neuralstem in 1998 and led efforts to develop and optimize the company’s proprietary technology for isolating and manufacturing human neural stem cells. Dr. Hazel has served in senior leadership positions within Neuralstem for 15 years and has led the development of the company’s platform technology, preclinical research efforts, and stem cell CMC activities in the US and China during this time. He has expertise in stem cell biology, translational research, and scale-up manufacturing processes. From 2004-2008 Dr. Hazel served in senior leadership positions at Innovative Biosensors, a startup biotechnology company focused on the development of cell-based assays, where he played a key role in technology development and corporate fund-raising activities. Dr. Hazel received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago and did post-doctoral research at the National Institutes of Health.