About

Tahir co-founded AMT, where he has overseen the company’s growth from concept to clinical trials in patients through multiple equity financing rounds. He was closely involved in the early development of the technology and also led the company’s partnering and corporate development activities.

With a career that has straddled science and business, Tahir previously led the US West Coast Life Sciences consulting practice at Booz Allen Hamilton and was Managing Director at Lake Sherwood Partners. As a consultant, he advised executives across the spectrum of life sciences, healthcare provider, private and public equity investment, and global health organizations.

Tahir is also co-founder and director of MiNDERA, a non-invasive skin genomics company with a technology platform he co-invented and developed as an investigator at The Scripps Research Institute. He served as Principal Business Analyst at Amgen, supporting business development, M&A and strategic venture fund transactions. Earlier, he was at Chienna (acquired by OctoPlus) and IsoTis S.A. (acquired by Integra Life Sciences). Tahir has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and is inventor on issued and pending patents. He received BASc and MSc degrees from the University of Toronto. He holds a PhD in Chemical & Biomedical Engineering from a collaborative program between the University of Twente (The Netherlands) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Shawn is the president and chief operation officer of AMT where he leads company strategy and operations. Shawn joined AMT as chief financial officer in 2020. He brings over 20 years of biopharmaceutical strategic advisory and capital market experience. Prior to joining AMT, Mr. Cross was at JMP Securities where he served as managing director and co-head of healthcare investment banking. Previously, Shawn held various investment banking roles at top financial institutions in New York, London, and San Francisco including managing director in healthcare investment banking at Deutsche Bank Securities, managing director and head of biopharmaceutical investment banking at Wells Fargo Securities, amongst others. He also brings operational experience from his time on the executive management team at GT Biopharma, a targeted immunotherapies company. Shawn holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Earl joins AMT with over 30 years of experience as an attorney, serving as legal counsel for publicly traded biotech and medical device companies as well as start-ups.  In these roles, Earl advised management and Boards on a wide range of legal and strategic matters, including corporate governance, SEC filings, commercial transactions, intellectual property strategy, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, litigation, and compliance programs.

Most recently, Earl served as general counsel at Kiverdi.  He also served as general counsel and corporate secretary at BioMimetic Therapeutics (acquired by Wright Medical Group), Spinal Dynamics (acquired by Medtronic), and OPX Biotechnologies (acquired by Cargill). He also previously served as Counsel with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and earlier in his career practiced as an associate with Weil, Gotshal & Manges.  Earl holds a Juris Doctor from Columbia University School of Law and a BS in Chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Brandon is the chief financial officer of AMT where he leads the company’s finance strategy and oversees financial operations. Brandon brings over twenty years of biotechnology experience in various disciplines from both large and small companies. He has held roles in Financial Planning & Analysis, Accounting, Financial Systems, Treasury, Operations Finance, Supply Chain, and Manufacturing. In addition to providing leadership for the Finance and Accounting functions, Brandon oversees all administrative operations for the company. Prior to joining Applied Molecular Transport, Brandon served as Chief Financial Officer at Singulex, an immunodiagnostics company with businesses in life science research, a clinical laboratory and IVD instrumentation. Prior to Singulex, he worked in Business Planning & Analysis at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics managing manufacturing and supply chain finance for the diagnostics side of the business. Prior to his time at Novartis, Brandon started his career at Genentech where he held various roles in finance, accounting, and product operations functions. Brandon earned his Bachelor’s degree in Cell and Developmental Biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of San Francisco.

With more than 26 years of experience in the biopharma industry, Mr. Rich brings deep operations and quality experience across the entire product lifecycle. He has served in leadership roles responsible for the development and commercialization of both biopharmaceuticals and small molecules. Mr. Rich most recently served as Senior Vice President Operations at UNITY Biotechnology where he led Technical Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, and Portfolio/Project/Alliance Management.  Prior to UNITY, he was Senior Vice President Operations at Kythera Biopharmaceuticals Inc., acquired by Allergan PLC. Prior to Kythera, he was Vice President Quality at Boehringer-Ingelheim working in both the Biopharmaceutical and Prescription Medicine Business Units. Earlier in his career, Mr. Rich also spent over 18 years at Amgen Inc., in various roles within Operations including Global Operations Strategy, Manufacturing, Quality Control, and Site Quality Head.

Andy leads AMT’s preclinical biology and translational activities. A cell biologist by training, Andy brings over 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development in autoimmune/inflammatory, oncology, and rare diseases. Andy was most recently VP, Biology at BridgeBio and some of its subsidiary companies.

Andy previously spent nine years at Gilead, most recently as leader of Gilead’s Inflammation and Oncology research and translational groups. He has led multiple programs in IBD and other indications through IND filing and nonclinical support through Phase 3 trials. He has also served as site head for Gilead in Seattle and Connecticut. He was previously one of the earliest staff at CGI Pharmaceuticals where he led the Inflammation and Autoimmune Disease, Biology and Informatics, and Bioinformatics teams for eleven years until its acquisition by Gilead.

He was a NSF postdoctoral fellow at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, where he studied the biology of intracellular membrane traffic. Andy holds a AB in Biochemistry from Harvard and PhD in Cell Biology from Yale School of Medicine (with Prof. Ira Mellman).