Leadership

Julie McHugh joined our board of directors in February 2014 and became chair of our board in April 2019. Ms. McHugh most recently served as chief operating officer for Endo Health Solutions, Inc., or Endo, from 2010 through 2013, where she was responsible for the specialty pharmaceutical and generic drug businesses. Prior to joining Endo, Ms. McHugh was the chief executive officer of Nora Therapeutics, Inc. Before that she served as company group chair for the worldwide virology business unit of Johnson & Johnson, or J&J, and previously she was president of Centocor, Inc., a J&J subsidiary. While at J&J, Ms. McHugh oversaw the development and launches of several products, including Remicade® (infliximab) and she was responsible for oversight of a research and development portfolio including compounds targeting autoimmune diseases, HIV, hepatitis C, and tuberculosis. Prior to joining Centocor, Inc., Ms. McHugh led marketing communications for gastrointestinal drug Prilosec® (omeprazole) at Astra-Merck Inc. Ms. McHugh currently serves on the board of directors of Lantheus Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: LNTH), a public company, and Xellia Pharmaceuticals ApS, a privately held company. She also serves on the strategic advisory board for HealthCare Royalty Partners and the board of visitors for the Smeal College of Business of Pennsylvania State University. She previously served on the board of directors for Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Trevena, Inc., ViroPharma Inc., Epirus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., Evelo Biosciences, Inc., the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association and the New England Healthcare Institute. Ms. McHugh received her M.B.A. degree from St. Joseph’s University and her B.S. degree from Pennsylvania State University.

Mark Currie joined our board of directors in April 2019. Dr. Currie has been a partner of Iaso Ventures, LP, an early-stage healthcare venture capital firm, since January 2024. Dr. Currie was previously the chair of the scientific advisory board of Cyclerion Therapeutics, Inc., or Cyclerion, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, from January 2021 to September 2023. Prior to that, Dr. Currie served as Cyclerion’s president and chief scientific officer from April 2019 to December 2020. Prior to joining Cyclerion, Dr. Currie served as senior vice president, chief scientific officer and president of research and development at Ironwood from 2002 to April 2019. Prior to joining Ironwood, Dr. Currie directed cardiovascular and central nervous system disease research as vice president of discovery research at Sepracor, Inc. and initiated, built and led discovery pharmacology and also served as director of arthritis and inflammation at Monsanto Company. Dr. Currie currently serves on the board of directors of Antag Therapeutics ApS, Science Exchange, Inc. and Sea Pharmaceuticals, LLC, each of which is a privately held company. Dr. Currie also chairs the scientific advisory boards of Wild Bioscience Ltd. and Tisento Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Currie earned a B.S. in biology from the University of South Alabama and holds a Ph.D. in cell biology from the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University.

Alexander Denner joined our board of directors in October 2020. Dr. Denner is a founding partner and the chief investment officer of Sarissa Capital Management LP, or Sarissa, a registered investment advisor, where he has been since 2011. Prior to joining Sarissa, Dr. Denner served as a senior managing director at Icahn Capital LP, an investment advisory firm, from 2006 to 2011. Prior to that, he served as a portfolio manager at Viking Global Investors, a private investment fund, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management, a global asset management firm. Dr. Denner serves on the board of directors of Attralus, Inc., a privately held company. In the last five years, Dr. Denner has served as chair of the board of directors of The Medicines Company and Sarissa Capital Acquisition Corp., as well as a member of the board of directors of Biogen Inc. Dr. Denner earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.S. and M.Phil. in mechanical engineering from Yale University and an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from Yale University.

Andrew Dreyfus joined our board of directors in April 2016. Mr. Dreyfus most recently served as president and chief executive officer for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, or BCBSMA, one of the largest Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plans in the country, from 2010 to 2022. From 2005 to 2010, Mr. Dreyfus served as the executive vice president of healthcare services of BCBSMA. Prior to joining BCBSMA, he served as the first president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation. Mr. Dreyfus also previously served as executive vice president of the Massachusetts Hospital Association and held a number of senior positions in Massachusetts state government, including undersecretary of consumer affairs and business regulation. Mr. Dreyfus serves on the board of directors and as member of the audit committee and the compensation and management development committee of Alto Neuroscience, Inc. (NYSE: ANRO), a public company. Mr. Dreyfus also serves on the board of directors of Octave Health Group Inc., a privately held company and the Joint Commission, the National Quality Forum and BCBSMA Foundation, all of which are non-profit organizations. He is a member of the advisory boards of Ariadne Labs, Vanna Health and the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care. He previously served on the board of directors for BCBSMA, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and RIZE Massachusetts. Mr. Dreyfus received a B.A. in English from Connecticut College.

Jon Duane joined our board of directors in April 2019. Mr. Duane is senior partner emeritus at McKinsey & Company, or McKinsey, an international management consulting company. Before his retirement in December 2017, Mr. Duane had served as a partner at McKinsey since 1992. At McKinsey, Mr. Duane founded and led the firm’s biotech practice. In that role, Mr. Duane advised both private and public companies in the pharmaceutical, medical device and life science industries, as well as academic research centers, on various strategic initiatives. Mr. Duane serves as the executive chair on the board of directors of Nashville Biosciences, LLC, a privately held company. Mr. Duane graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in government and received an M.B.A from Harvard Business School.

Marla Kessler joined our board of directors in April 2019. Ms. Kessler most recently served as chief marketing officer of Datavant, Inc., or Datavant, a health IT company, from October 2022 to April 2024. Prior to joining Datavant, Ms. Kessler served as chief customer officer of Aetion, Inc., or Aetion, a health care technology company, from September 2021 to October 2022, and prior that, as an advisor to the chief executive officer of IQVIA Holdings Inc., or IQVIA (formerly IMS Health and Quintiles), a global analytics and technology company, from October 2020 to February 2021. Prior to that, Ms. Kessler had been the senior vice president for strategy, marketing and communications for IQVIA since October 2016. Previously, Ms. Kessler served in various roles for IQVIA, including vice president for global services marketing and knowledge management from 2013 to 2016, regional leader of the IMS Consulting Group in Europe from 2011 to 2013, location manager for the London IMS Consulting Group from 2009 to 2011 and senior principal from 2008 to 2009. Before joining IQVIA, Ms. Kessler led several marketing efforts for Pfizer Inc. from 2004 to 2007 and worked in consulting for McKinsey & Company from 1996 to 2004. Ms. Kessler received a B.S. in economics from Arizona State University and an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Tom McCourt joined Ironwood in 2009 as senior vice president of marketing and sales and chief commercial officer, advancing to hold the roles of president and interim chief executive officer before becoming chief executive officer and member of the board of directors in 2021. He has played an instrumental role in the success of the company’s blockbuster product, LINZESS™, and in advancing the company’s scientific pipeline with potential treatments that address GI areas of high unmet need.

Mr. McCourt joined Ironwood after having led the U.S. brand team for denosumab at Amgen Inc. Before that, Mr. McCourt worked for Novartis AG for seven years, where he directed the launch and growth of ZELNORM™ for the treatment of patients with IBS-C (irritable bowel syndrome with constipation) and CIC (chronic idiopathic constipation) and held several senior commercial roles, including vice president of strategic marketing and operations. He was also part of the founding team at Astra Merck Inc., leading the development of the medical affairs and science liaison group and then serving as brand manager for PRILOSEC^® and NEXIUM^®.

Mr. McCourt serves on the board of directors and as a member of the compensation committee of Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLRX) and on the board of trustees for the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). Mr. McCourt recently served on the board of directors of Acceleron Pharma Inc., serving as Chairman of the Nomination and Governance committee and as a member of the Audit and Compensation committees. He received the 2023 UW–Madison School of Pharmacy Citation of Merit, the 2023 PM360 Uber ELITE Award, the 2024 ASGE Industry Service Award, and the 2022 ASGE President’s Award. Mr. McCourt holds a degree in pharmacy from the University of Wisconsin.

Catherine Moukheibir joined our board of directors in April 2019. Ms. Moukheibir most recently served as chief executive officer of MedDay Pharmaceuticals, or MedDay, a biopharmaceutical company that focused on nervous system disorders, from July 2019 to January 2021. She was also the chair of the board of directors of MedDay from April 2016 to January 2021. Prior to that, Ms. Moukheibir served as the senior advisor for finance and a member of the executive board of directors at Innate Pharma SA, an oncology company, from 2011 to 2016, and as the chief financial officer for Movetis N.V. from 2008 to 2010, when it was acquired. Ms. Moukheibir previously served as the director of capital markets for Zeltia Group S.A. from 2001 to 2007. Ms. Moukheibir currently serves on the board of directors of MoonLake Immunotherapeutics AG (Nasdaq: MLTX), a public company. Ms. Moukheibir also serves on the board of directors of Asceneuron SA, Noema Pharma AG and CMR Surgical, all of which are privately held companies. She held past directorships on the boards of directors of Ablynx NV, Biotalys NV, Cerenis Therapeutics SA, Creabilis S.A., DNA Script SAS, GenKyoTex S.A., Kymab Group Limited, Orphazyme A/S, Oxford Biomedica plc and Zealand Pharma A/S.Ms. Moukheibir has an M.A. in economics and an M.B.A. from Yale University.

Jay Shepard joined our board of directors in December 2020. Mr. Shepard is an advisor at Caralys Pacific, a venture group focused on licensing drug programs and creating new companies in the U.S. and Japan.

Mr. Shepard previously was president and chief executive officer of Aravive, Inc. (formerly Versartis, Inc.), a clinical-stage oncology company, from May 2015 to January 2020, when he retired. From 2013 to 2015, Mr. Shepard was executive chairman of Versartis, Inc. From 2008 until May 2015, Mr. Shepard was an executive partner at Sofinnova Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on the healthcare industry. From 2010 to 2012, Mr. Shepard served as president and chief executive officer and was a member of the board of directors of NextWave Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pediatric pharmaceutical company. From 2005 to 2007, Mr. Shepard served as interim president and chief executive officer of Relypsa (Ilypsa, Inc.’s spin-out company, which was acquired by Galencia), a pharmaceutical company. Mr. Shepard was also vice president of commercial operations at Telik and oncology business unit head of Alza Pharmaceuticals (acquired by J&J). Mr. Shepard has over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and drug delivery arenas. Mr. Shepard has participated in or led over 16 product launches by preparing markets and establishing sales and marketing operations. Mr. Shepard also currently serves on the board of directors of Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: INO), Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESPR), Aculys Pharma, LLC, Cessation Therapeutics, LLC and Pathalys Pharma, Inc. Mr. Shepard also serves as the chairman of the board of directors of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Within the past five years, Mr. Shepard also served on the boards of directors of Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Durect Corporation. Mr. Shepard holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Arizona.