Our management team is comprised of experienced executives with long track records of success in the development of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology drugs and medial affairs.
Mr. Barach recently retired from Doubleline Capital, a $150 billion money management firm, where he was President and Co founder. He has over 43 years of experience in money management and finance in both the private and public sectors. He specialized in fixed income and his career spanned the highest and lowest interest rates in U.S. history.
Mr. Barach has substantial board experience. He served as vice chairman for Doubleline Funds since its inception in 2010 as well as Chief Executive Officer and vice chairman of Apex Mortgage Capital (AXM, NYSE).
Prior to founding Doubleline Mr. Barach spent 20 years at Trust Company of the West (TCW) where he was group managing director and CIO. He also was principal investment officer for the California Public Employees Retirement System ( PERS).
Mr. Barach is currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vista Investment Group, a privately held real estate investment firm.
Mr. Gordon is Équilibre BioPharmaceuticals Corp.’s Chief Operating Officer; Chief Legal and Compliance Officer; and Corporate Secretary. Prior to joining Équilibre, Mr. Gordon co-founded Kadmon Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: KDMN) and served as its Executive Vice President; General Counsel; Chief Administrative, Legal and Compliance Officer; and Corporate Secretary.
Mr. Gordon worked as an Assistant District Attorney for the City of New York (Bronx County) before working at several NYC law firms and founding his own firm, which handled complex litigation for a broad spectrum of individual and corporate clients.
Mr. Gordon earned his B.A. in Economics and Business Administration from Bar Ilan University, and his J.D. from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center. He is admitted to practice law before the state bars of New York and New Jersey, the District of Columbia, the United States Supreme Court and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Mr. Thorn is Chief Accounting Officer of Équilibre Biopharmaceuticals Corp where he leads the company’s financial reporting, accounting, and related internal controls functions. Prior to Équilibre, Mr. Thorn served as Corporate Controller for Dragados USA Inc., a leading construction brand of the ACS Group. Previously, Mr. Thorn served as Controller of Turing Pharmaceuticals and Vice-President and Controller of Kadmon, both biopharmaceutical organizations with commercial and research operations. Mr. Thorn began his career with KPMG in the audit practice, serving clients in the consumer and industrial markets.
Mr. Thorn received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master’s of Business Administration in Public Accounting from St. John’s University and is a certified public accountant in the State of New York.
Debra L. Maierhofer is Vice President of Pharmacovigilance and Medical Affairs at Équilibre Biopharmaceutical Corp. Prior to joining Équilibre, Ms. Maierhofer founded, built and developed the Pharmacovigilance and Medical Affairs departments for Kadmon Corporation, LLC.
In addition to leading the Pharmacovigilance and Medical Affairs departments, at Équilibre, Ms. Maierhofer collaborates with management to develop the leading quality management systems, including the development of vendor qualification, procedural documents and the implementation of validated quality systems.
Ms. Maierhofer graduated from Gannon University which she earned her B.S.B.A.; Management and Marketing. She later continued her education to pursue a career as a Registered Nurse, advancing into Management. Ms. Maierhofer has been working in the field of Pharmacovigilance for over 20 years for pharmacovigilance organizations (GlaxoSmithKline and Kadmon Corporation) and Clinical Research Organization, PPD.
Dr. Mandel-Portnoy is Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations and Data Management at Équilibre Biopharmaceuticals Corp. Prior to this role, Dr. Mandel-Portnoy founded Cardea Sciences, a Mount Sinai company, that developed novel technologies to risk-stratify Atrial Fibrillation patients and served as aspecial forces paramedic in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for four years.
Dr. Mandel-Portnoy is an expert in Cardiac Physiology and Electrophysiology with research interest and vast experience in Heart Rate Variability, Heart Rate Volatility and other cardiac-related physiological phenomenon to risk stratify cardiac patients. Presently, Dr. Mandel-Portnoy holds a faculty appointment and serves as adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Mandel-Portnoy holds a Ph.D. degree from the Clinical Research Ph.D. program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, a Master’s degree in Physiology and Biophysics from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and a B.A. in Emergency Medicine from Ben-Gurion University.
Dr. Melsaether is Senior Vice President of Clinical Research at Équilibre Biopharmaceuticals Corp. Prior to joining Équilibre, Dr. Melsaether served as faculty in the Departments of Radiology at Mount Sinai Hospital from 2018-2021 and at NYU from 2010-2018 as an Associate Professor. In these roles, she designed and led clinical research, published extensively, and cultivated a national and international speaking record.
Dr. Melsaether graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with her B.S. in biochemistry, molecular biology, and English, completed medical school at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, was awarded an NIH/Howard Hughes research fellowship, and completed residency and fellowship at NYU and Northwestern University, respectively.
Dr Stebbing is Editor-in-Chief of Oncogene and a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He has published over 650 papers and during the Covid-19 pandemic his work starting with artificial intelligence led to an FDA EUA for baricitinib, now a full approval. Dr. Stebbing has combined his medical career with healthcare investing and has worked with Atticus capital, Lansdowne and Vitruvian partners as well as previously chairing the board of BB Healthcare Trust. Dr. Stebbing originally gained a first-class medical degree from Trinity College Oxford prior to a residency at Johns Hopkins hospital. He is a Visiting Professor of Cancer Medicine at Imperial, London, having previously been an NIHR Research Translational Professor there.
Dr. Zanin-Zhorov is Senior Vice President of Translational Medicine at Équilibre Biopharmaceutical Corp. Prior to joining Équilibre, Dr. Zanin-Zhorov was a Vice President, Head of Immunology at KadmonHoldings, Inc.,where she established a new research group and managed activities across research, clinical, regulatory, and business development. Dr. Zanin-Zhorov led the successful bench-to-bedside development of the selective ROCK2 inhibitor, REZUROCK, for a variety of inflammatory and fibrotic diseases including Psoriasis, Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and significant contributed to the REZUROCK FDA approval for patients with chronic Graft Versus Host Disease.
Prior to Kadmon, Dr. Zanin-Zhorov was a postdoctoral fellow at NYU School of Medicine where she led research efforts in defining signaling pathways that control immune cell function during disease state. Over her research career in both academic and industrial settings, Dr. Zanin-Zhorov published more than 30 scientific papers in high-profile journals including Science, PNAS, JCO and she is a co-inventor on 13 patents.
Dr. Zanin-Zhorov holds a Ph.D. degree in Immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Master’s degree in Tumor Immunology and B.Sc. degree from Life Sciences Faculty at Tel-Aviv University in Israel.