EXECUTIVE TEAM
Get to Know Us
KARL L METTINGER, MD, PHD
Cofounder, Chair (Interim), President & CEO
​Dr. Mettinger has more than 35 years of experience as an executive in the life science industry, and has been involved with the successful development of new therapeutics, including a number of oncology, hematology, cardiovascular and CNS drugs and biologic products approved by regulatory agencies worldwide. Dr. Mettinger is the Principal and Founder of Progressive Clinical partners and helped accelerate and facilitate approvals of a novel oral breakthrough therapy in lymphoma and leukemia, leading to the USD21B market cap and acquisition. He was also a consultant to Philantropist /Investor Edward Bosarge (Capital Technologies, Houston) and Tissue Genesis LLC, Honolulu) helping establish a franchise in cellular therapeutics/ Regenerative Medicine. He served as Medical Director of Hematology and as Deputy General Manager of the cardiovascular business unit, of Kabi (Pharmacia, now part of Pfizer) in Sweden; as Medical Director/ Executive Director at IVAX Corporation (acquired by Teva); Chief Medical Officer/Senior Vice President at SuperGen, (Astex, acquired by Otsuka); Chief Medical Officer at Oncolytics Biotech Inc, AB ; co-founder and past President of the Swedish Stroke Society, a 10,000-member stroke research and patient support organization. Dr. Mettinger received his M.D. from the University of Lund in Sweden and his Ph.D. in Hematology/Neurology from, and is a former Associate Professor of, the Karolinska Institutet, the home of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in Stockholm.
VINOD KUMAR, MD
EVP, Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Vinod Kumar, MD, is a distinguished clinical scientist with more than 30 years’ experience of clinical drug development in academic medicine and the biopharma industry. He joined Lilly Pharmaceuticals as a Senior Research Physician. During his 16 years tenure at Novartis, Dr. Kumar advanced to become Section Head, and Executive Global Program Medical Director Development and Medical Affairs.Under leadership of its CEO, Vasant Narasimhan, MD, Novartis is today a leader in approved cell and gene therapies. Dr Kumar has a long standing research interest as a KOL in Aging Diseases and Regenerative Medicine. He served for more than 12 years on the NIH funded Steering Committee working with FDA on selecting and validating instruments for approval of new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease. He was Editor in Chief of International Journal of Geriatric Psychopharmacology, and is co-editor of two books, most recently “Exosomes, stem cells and microRNA – Aging, Cancer and Aging Diseases. Biological and Clinical Advances.” Springer 2018. He was a Professor of Neurology/Psychiatry at University of Illinois, where he also oversaw a Stem Cell Laboratory, and at University of Miami. Dr. Kumar received his medical degree from University of Lucknow, India, and post training from Leicester University, Birmingham University, UK and UCLA in US.
HENRIK (HANK) KULMALA, PHD
EVP Regulatory/Product Development
Dr. Kulmala has more than 35 years of life sciences experience He has worked closely with FDA and International regulatory agencies as a principal on numerous marketing applications (NDAs/MAAs) and INDs, involving some 75 drugs in various therapeutic areas. He joined the pharmaceutical industry as a medical/ regulatory writer at Marion Merrell Dow in Cincinnati. He became Manager of Technical Composition at the R&D Operations of Fujisawa USA, Inc. Astellas) in Illinois, where he was responsible for writing and organizing the New Drug Application for Prograf (tacrolimus), a multibillion dollar drug in liver transplantation, and other projects. Dr. Kulmala served as Director of Regulatory Affairs for Curatek Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Vice President Regulatory Affairs Quark Pharmaceuticals and Genix Therapeutics. For more than 20 years he has served as a consultant in areas of Product Development/ Regulatory Affairs, writing/organizing marketing applications in numerous therapeutic areas including Regenerative Medicine, asthma, oncology, diabetes mellitus, infections, and gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and renal disorders. Dr. Kulmala also has extensive translational experience advancing numerous drugs into human trials by preparing INDs and worked on device and drug-device combinations and biotechnology applications in early to late-stage clinical development. After earning a doctorate at The University of Chicago in Pharmacological & Physiological Sciences he served as an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at Northeastern Ohio University College.
BRAD THOMPSON, PHD
Chair SAB, CTO
Dr. Thompson, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder of Wyvern Pharmaceuticals and Kickshaw Ventures, is an experienced and highly respected biotechnology professional for more than 40 years.He is also an inventor of several patents granted or pending in the viral/ gene therapy area and of the proprietary technology platform assigned to Cellastra. He served for many years as Director and the Chairman of BIOTECanada, and as Executive Chairman, CEO and President of Oncolytic Biotech Inc. He started his career in biotech as Head of Biotechnology at The Alberta Research Council where he was responsible for GMP manufacturing for biologics as well held a variety of other positions from 1983 to May 1994. He served, amongst others, as a Director of Signal Gene, Paladin Labs Inc., Transition Therapeutics and Immunovaccine, Inc., and is a current board member of He is a current Direcor Erad Therapeutics Inc. and SolAeroMed Inc. Dr Thompson is also a member of the Advisory Board of Lifeboat Foundation Biosciences Inc. He received a B.Sc. from the University of Alberta and a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Western Ontario.
BRUCE PHILLIPS CPA
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Bruce Phillips has a long and distinguished career in the accounting industry for more than 3o years. After graduating from the College of William & Mary he joined Arthur Young and became an accounting manager for Ernst & Young. In 1992 he became a Founding Partner, and later CEO of HPC (Harshman, Phillips & Company) which for decades operated as a traditional accounting firm in Atlanta. At the annual accounting convention In 2011 he met Rodney Drury, the founder of XERO, the pioneer of the cloud based accounting technology platform, Soon HPC became a Platinum Partner of XERO and a leading cloud based accounting firm and grew to become a full service provider working remotely all over United States, from California to Florida and New Hampshire and with an increasing number of clients all over the globe. After the merger with Aprio Cloud in 2018 Bruce became Managing Director and Partner, Head of Cloud Accounting Solutions in the merged company operating globally.
DANIEL QUINTERO
Secretary, General Counsel
Daniel Quintero has a long and distinguished career in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. He is a Founding Partner and Managing Partner of Prometheus Partners LLP, a diverse group of accomplished former Big Law Partners and Executive In House counsel committed to supporting innovation. Mr. Quintero was previously the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Sony Optiarc America Inc., where he concurrently served as Senior Managing Counsel and Director for Sony Electronics Inc. and managed Sony's Silicon Valley law department operations. His responsibilities included advising executive management and the board of directors of a multi-national corporation, and negotiating and structuring multi-million and multi-billion dollar engagements. Mr. Quintero is largely well respected for his views on innovation and technology and was named one of California’s Top 20 General Counsel by the Daily Journal. Mr. Quintero received his undergraduate degree from the University of San Francisco (USF), and received his law degree from Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall), University of California at Berkeley
Emma Ye, MD Cand.,
Scientific Adviser, Communications
Emma Ye joined Cellastra in August 2023 and has been promoted to Scientific Adviser, Scientific Communications. She completed her undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley in 2018 and co-founded Real Graphene USA in 2019. Emma is currently completing her MD degree at Vanderbilt University and embarking on an MBA program.
