About Us

Greg Ciongoli is the Founder and Managing Partner of Adiumentum Capital Management, a Boston-based investment firm. Prior to Adiumentum, he was a Partner at the Baupost Group (2007–2024), where he worked on a broad range of public and private equity investments. Mr. Ciongoli is Chair of the Advisory Board for the James Madison Institute of American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, and he is actively involved in a number of local not-for-profit organizations. Mr. Ciongoli graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Carol Gallagher, Pharm.D. is an experienced public company director with over 30 years of biopharma experience. From 1989 through 2011, she held roles of increasing responsibility in commercial, drug development, and business development in both large and small biopharma companies including Eli Lilly, Amgen, Pfizer and IDEC Pharmaceuticals.  Her last operational role was CEO of Calistoga Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Gilead in 2011.  From 2014 through 2023, she held Partner and Advisor roles in biopharma venture capital investing at New Enterprise Associates.  She currently serves as an independent director on both private and public biopharma companies.  She has served as a Director at Atara since 2013.

Carol studied chemistry at Vanderbilt University and then pursued a clinical background, attaining Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky.

Matthew Fust is an advisor to life sciences companies. He was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Onyx Pharmaceuticals from January 2009 through its acquisition in October 2013. From May 2003 to December 2008, Matthew served as Chief Financial Officer of Jazz Pharmaceuticals. From 2002 to 2003, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Perlegen Sciences. Previously, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of ALZA Corporation, where he was an executive from 1996 until 2002. From 1991 until 1996, Matthew was a member of Andersen Consulting’s healthcare strategy practice. He received a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Heiden is an experienced pharmaceutical and biotechnology executive. He joined AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMAG) in May 2012 as president and chief executive officer. Mr. Heiden is also a member of AMAG’s board of directors. Prior to joining AMAG, Mr. Heiden served as president and chief executive officer of GTC Biotherapeutics, Inc. since June 2010. Prior to joining GTC Biotherapeutics, Mr. Heiden was the president and chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of Elixir Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, from September 2004 until December 2008.

Prior to joining Elixir Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Heiden served as president and chief operating officer of Praecis Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (which was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline plc), from 2002 to 2004. From 1987 to 2002, Mr. Heiden progressed through various positions of increasing responsibility at Schering-Plough Corporation (now Merck & Co.), including managing a number of businesses in the United States, Europe and Canada. Mr. Heiden served on the board of directors of GTC Biotherapeutics, Inc., rVEO Biologics and LFB Biotechnologies S.A.S., a private French biotechnology company. Mr. Heiden holds an M.B.A. from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, a M.I.M. degree from the University of Louvain and a B.A. degree from the University of Florida.

Nachi Subramanian is a Managing Director at Redmile Group, a healthcare-focused investment firm based in San Francisco and New York. He joined the firm in December 2021. Prior to Redmile, Nachi spent fourteen years at J.P. Morgan, where he held senior roles across the Private Markets and Global Cash Equities businesses. He began his career in Institutional Equities at Bear Stearns. Nachi holds a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from the University of California, Irvine.

James Huang has over 30 years of biotech experience and has served as the Founder and Managing Partner of Panacea Venture since 2018. Prior to Panacea Venture, Mr. Huang was a Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins (KPCB) China where he focused on the firm’s life sciences practice, and a managing partner at Vivo Ventures where he led numerous investments in China. He was also the president of Anesiva, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on pain-management treatments. Earlier in his career, he held senior roles in business development, sales, marketing, and research and development with Tularik Inc. (acquired by Amgen), GlaxoSmithKline LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb and ALZA Corp. (acquired by Johnson & Johnson). Additionally, Mr. Huang serves as a member of the board of directors of a number of companies, including Kindstar Globalgene Technology, Inc., Connect Biopharma Holdings Limited, Lee’s Pharmaceutical Holdings Limited and several private companies.

He received an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Cokey Nguyen was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer and named to the Board of Directors in September 2024. Dr. Nguyen is a leader in the fields of cell therapy and oncology with significant experience in research and development of cell therapies as well as oncology drug discovery and development in biotech. Dr. Nguyen joined Atara in May 2021 as Chief Scientific Officer, where he focused on leading the development of next-generation allogeneic cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. With his passion for delivering transformative therapies to patients, Dr. Nguyen helped advance Atara’s existing programs and further expanded the pipeline through pioneering science, teamwork, and a commitment to excellence.

Prior to joining Atara, Dr. Nguyen was at Fate Therapeutics, where, as Vice President, Innovation, Research and Development, he directed strategy for discovery and innovation efforts, and spearheaded the corporate collaboration program with ONO Pharma. Prior to that, he was leader of the targeted immunotherapy group on the Oncology R&D team at Pfizer, producing bispecific antibodies for solid tumors and hematological malignancies and bringing them into the clinic.

Dr. Nguyen’s bench science experience includes work in tumor metabolism, gene expression and molecular biology. He holds numerous patents for iPSC and immune effector cells and has been published in various peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Nguyen has also been active in successful business development activities, including, while at Janssen, evaluating Legend’s BCMA-directed CAR T program and supporting the Janssen/Legend partnership.

Dr. Nguyen received his undergraduate degree in biology from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in Immunology from Washington University in St. Louis. He was a Postdoctoral Associate at the Center for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he focused on the identification and characterization of BRCT domains as novel phosphor-binding domains in DNA damage pathways.

In his free time, Cokey is an avid reader, is a fan of motorsports and enjoys cycling.