Our leadership team brings deep operating and leadership experience across all critical disciplines — science, technology, business development, marketing, people and finance — and is dedicated to building Agios into a top biopharmaceutical company.
Management
Dr. Schenkein joined Agios in August 2009 as the Chief Executive Officer and has been a hematologist and medical oncologist for more than 20 years. He currently serves as an adjunct attending physician in hematology at Tufts Medical Center and is a member of the board of directors for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). Prior to joining Agios, Dr. Schenkein was the senior vice president, clinical hematology/oncology, at Genentech, Inc., where he was responsible for leading the medical and scientific strategies for their BioOncology portfolio. While at Genentech, he served as an adjunct clinical professor of medical oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Prior to joining Genentech, he served as the senior vice president of clinical research at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, overseeing the clinical development of Velcade, a first-in-class cancer therapy now approved to treat multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Dr. Schenkein spent 17 years in academic and clinical medicine as an attending physician in hematology oncology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, where he was an associate professor and held the position of director of the Cancer Center. Dr. Schenkein holds a B.A. in chemistry from Wesleyan University and an M.D. from the State University of New York Upstate Medical School.
Mr. Higgons joined Agios in May 2009 as the Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Agios, Mr. Higgons worked at Archemix Corporation from 2006 – 2009 where he most recently served as president, chief operating officer and interim chief executive officer. Prior to Archemix, he worked as the chief commercial officer at TransForm Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson Company. Mr. Higgons has also held positions at Alkermes, Inc., including senior vice president of business development and marketing; Eli Lilly & Co., where he served in a variety of senior sales and marketing functions; and Baxter International. He holds a B.Sc. in mathematics from King's College University of London and an M.Sc. in economics from London Business School.
Dr. Biller joined Agios as Chief Scientific Officer in 2010, with more than 25 years of drug discovery and development experience. Most recently, he was vice president and head of global discovery chemistry at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR). Prior to that, Dr. Biller held the positions of vice president, pharmaceutical candidate optimization at the Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) Pharmaceutical Research Institute and executive director of drug discovery chemistry for the BMS research site in Lawrenceville, NJ. Among his other key leadership positions at BMS, Dr. Biller was the executive director of metabolic diseases chemistry. He contributed to robust pipelines at both BMS and Novartis, culminating in one medicine launched worldwide (Onglyza for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes) and three additional drugs reaching Phase 3 clinical development. Dr. Biller earned a B.S. degree in chemistry at MIT, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at Caltech and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University in natural product synthesis.
Dr. Su brings more than 20 years of organization, project management and scientific experience in the biotechnology industry to Agios and is one of the company's founding scientists. Most recently, he served as general director and vice president of the biomedical engineering research laboratory (BEL) at ITRI in Taiwan. Prior, he spent 14 years in a number of roles, concluding his tenure as program executive and vice president of the Novartis Kinase collaboration for Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Su earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry at Duke University and was a Helen Hay Whitney Fellow at Harvard University.
Mr. Goddard joined Agios in July 2010 and brings more than 10 years of experience in emerging private and public platform-based biopharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Agios, Mr. Goddard worked from 2004 – 2010 at Archemix, a privately held biopharmaceutical company, where he most recently served as the vice president of finance. During his time at Archemix he oversaw all aspects of financial operations. Prior to Archemix, he was the corporate controller of ImmunoGen, Inc., a publicly traded oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company. During his time at ImmunoGen, Mr. Goddard was responsible for external financial reporting, financial planning and tax compliance, and initiated the company's SOX compliance efforts. Earlier in his career, he was an audit supervisor within the Technology, Communication and Entertainment group of Ernst & Young and an audit manager at Feeley & Driscoll. Mr. Goddard is a graduate of Bentley College, where he earned a B.S. in accountancy, and a certified public accountant in the state of Massachusetts.
Mr. Evans joined Agios in September 2009. He brings 10 years of biopharmaceuticals industry experience across a wide range of business functions. Prior to joining Agios, Mr. Evans served as director of product development at Infinity Pharmaceuticals where he led the company's most advanced oncology programs targeting Hsp90. He also established Infinity’s program management, new product planning and investor relations functions. Before Infinity, Mr. Evans held positions in the pharmaceuticals practice of McKinsey & Company, at MedImmune and at Bayer Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Evans earned an MBA in healthcare management from Wharton, a Masters in biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in english from Yale University.
Dr. Henderson joined Agios in 2010 and brings over 12 years of experience in human resources and organizational development. Her expertise lies in her ability to assess organizational systems and develop strategic responses that improve people practices, promote innovation and build strong corporate culture. Before joining Agios, Dr. Henderson worked for Genentech designing and implementing human resources strategies. She was also a member of the organizational development group at the City of Hope National Medical Center and founded the Henderson Consulting Group, which specializes in organizational culture, talent management and diversity strategies for companies such as Wegman’s. Dr. Henderson received her Ph.D. in history with a focus on change management and race theory from the University of Chicago.