Leadership

Christian Itin joined Autolus as Chairman of the Board of Directors at the inception of the company and subsequently also took on the role of Chief Executive Officer. In April 2021, a new Chairman was appointed with Christian remaining as Chief Executive Officer.

Previously he was Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cytos Biotechnology Ltd, a public biotechnology company that merged with Kuros Biosurgery Holding Ltd, and until May 2019 he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the merged entity, renamed Kuros Biosciences Ltd.

Prior to joining Cytos, Christian was President and Chief Executive Officer of Micromet Inc., a formerly Nasdaq-listed biopharmaceutical company which was acquired in March 2012 by Amgen, Inc. for USD 1.2 billion in cash. Micromet pioneered T-cell engaging antibodies and with blinatumomab developed the first approved product in this field.

After serving in senior management roles at Micromet, Christian was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2004. Prior to joining Micromet in 1999, Christian co-founded Zyomyx, Inc., a protein chip company based in Hayward, CA, USA.

He received a diploma in biology and a PhD in cell biology from the University of Basel, Switzerland. In addition, he also performed post-doctoral research at the Biocenter of Basel University and at Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA.

Edgar Braendle joined Autolus as Chief Development Officer in July 2021. Previously he served as Chief Medical Officer and Global Head of Development at Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Oncology (SDPO), where he was responsible for leading the global oncology development programs of Sumitomo Dainippon.

At SDPO, he led the full range of development functions spanning from early and late-stage clinical development, medical affairs, clinical operation, project management, CMC, regulatory affairs, quality, bio-statistics, data management, PV & drug safety, and clinical pharmacology. Prior to that, he held the role of Executive VP, Head of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at Boston Biomedical Inc.

Previously, Dr. Braendle served as President and CEO of ARUP Laboratories, a national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory. Prior to this, he spent more than a decade at Novartis, where he served as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Companion Diagnostics leading the company's precision medicine approach.

In an earlier role as Vice President, Global Head of Oncology Biologics, Dr. Braendle led the development of oncology biologics in early to late stages. He started his industry career at Schering AG.

Dr. Braendle received a medical degree and training in hematologic malignancies and solid tumor oncology, pharmacology and urology at the University of Aachen, University of Bonn, and the University of Ulm in Germany.

David Brochu joined Autolus from Kedrion USA, where he was the vice president of technical operations and program head for Kedrion SpA’s next generation IVIG development and industrialization effort. In this position, David also established various operations functions for the company, including manufacturing, supply chain, engineering, quality, regulatory, program management, and development in support of this effort. Prior to this, he was the vice president of plasma collection operations for Talecris Biotherapeutics (formerly Bayer HealthCare LLC), where he led the operations buildout in the Western United States.

Earlier in his career, David was the senior director of process development and technology at Talecris leading the preparation and implementation of the technology, process development, and facilities investment strategy for the plasma products business.

In this role he led teams of scientists, engineers and technicians in the development of new protein therapeutics from research to commercial launch. Prior to Talecris, he held engineering and technical operations leadership roles at Bayer and Warner Lambert in the US, EU and South America.

David has over 30 years of operational and development experience. He received a B.S. in chemical engineering from Northeastern University.

Rob Dolski joined Autolus as Chief Financial Officer in August 2023. He previously served as Chief Financial Officer at Checkmate Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for investor relations and the Company’s financial strategy and management. Prior to that he served as Vice President, Finance at Akcea Therapeutics, acquired by Ionis Pharmaceuticals in 2020, where he held similar finance responsibilities and supported the development and commercialization of several rare disease programs. He has also held senior finance positions at Moderna Therapeutics, Forum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Human Genome Sciences, Inc., prior to its acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline. Mr. Dolski started his career at Amgen, Inc. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a BSc in civil engineering and strategic management from the University of Pennsylvania.

Martin Pule is Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Dept. of Haematology at UCL Cancer Institute and Honorary Consultant in Haematology at University College London Hospital. His research is focused on many aspects of genetic engineering of T-cells for cancer treatment, with a particular focus on CARs.

He entered the T-cell engineering field in 2001 as a travelling Fulbright Scholar at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston. Here, Martin Pule was the first to describe third generation forms of CARs and described one of the first clinical studies of CARs, which showed efficacy in a solid cancer. Martin Pule is Director of the UCL Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) programme.

He holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from University College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists.

Alexander Swan serves as Chief Human Resources Officer. Alec joined Autolus prior to the IPO in 2018 as VP, Human Resources. Prior to that he was EMEA Head of Human Resources for Kite where he was responsible for all aspects of HR, ranging from talent management, organization development, policy and procedure development and compensation and benefits. This was within a small team preparing for pre and commercial launch.

Previously Alec was involved in a number of start-up companies, Amryt Pharmaceuticals, Taiho Oncology and Aegerion Pharmaceuticals. In these roles he specialized in start-up strategies and processes for HR, preparing and enabling these companies for success.

From 2004 to 2012 Alec was responsible for developing and leading all HR associated activities for Celgene in EMEA. He was part of a team that saw a successful launch across Europe bringing lifesaving therapies to patients in need. He has also held a number of positions within local government and NHS, helping strategically with talent acquisition and organization development.

Alec holds a Master’s degree in Law and is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Christopher Vann leads commercial activities for Autolus. An industry veteran with 30 years’ experience in both development and business roles, he joined Autolus from Hoffmann-La Roche’s Swiss headquarters, where he was latterly responsible for leading the lung cancer commercial team and general management of the Tarceva brand.

He has extensive experience of global lifecycle management of oncology products as well as implementing marketing strategy at a regional and national level. This includes launching several oncology, immunology and transplant products in countries such as China, Japan, Romania, Russia, South Africa, the UK and the USA.

He gained his degree in toxicology and pharmacology from the School of Pharmacy, University of London.

Dr. Veronica Hersberger joined Autolus as Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs in 2023. Previously she served as Chief Medical Officer at TargImmune Therapeutics AG. Prior to that she was at AstraZeneca, as Global Product Leader for the cancer therapies Calquence and Lumoxiti. She also had a long career at F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG where she was Medical Affairs Franchise Head Hematology and was involved in the development and delivery of a number of significant cancer therapies, including Herceptin SC, Kadcyla and Perjeta across the full range of clinical development from early stage through to commercialization. She was responsible for the first in human Perjeta studies and was involved in the regulatory interactions for filing Herceptin in adjuvant breast cancer, gastric cancer, and 1-weekly dosing and for Kadcyla in metastatic breast cancer. She has broad experience across many aspects of oncology including most solid tumors and various hematological malignancies, plus experience in non-malignant diseases such as hemophilia. Dr. Hersberger holds a medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires. She is a board-certified dermatologist and brings more than 20 years of industry experience in oncology and hematology.

Miranda Neville joined Autolus in 2018 from the consulting firm AllianceBio where she spent 4 years as a Partner and supported several clinical stage CDMO and commercial biopharmaceutical companies. Following her BS at West Virginia University, she started her career at Human Genome Sciences, Inc. She spent 10 years at HGS in a variety of roles including Manufacturing, Engineering & Program Management, prior to its acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline.

Brent Rice joined Autolus in 2018 and serves as SVP, Chief Commercial Officer & Site Head (US). He is an industry veteran with over 25 years of broad cross-functional leadership experience in biotech/pharmaceutical sales, marketing, operations, and reimbursement. He is skilled in building scalable commercial organizations, customer facing teams, strategic planning, marketing, product launch strategies, and negotiation of multi-million dollar ($100M-$1B) customer agreements that enhance patient access and profitability across all channels. Brent joined Autolus from Juno Therapeutics, where he was the Head of Managed Markets and responsible for building their Payer, Access and Reimbursement strategy and capability. Prior to joining Juno Therapeutics, Brent spent 18 years with Amgen where he was recognized as a strong cross-functional leader supporting Amgen’s portfolio of products through innovative partnerships and life cycle management.
Brent also co-founded Building Employee Ownership, a financial services company focused on maximizing employee participation within their employer sponsored ESPP. He served on the Board of ACTION (Area Christians Taking Initiative On Needs), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that connects volunteers with meaningful projects to serve seniors, foster children, veterans, disabled individuals and low income families.
Brent received his undergraduate degree in Russian Studies from the University of California at Los Angeles and his Master of Business Administration from the University of Denver.

In October 2021 Dr Chris Williams was promoted to SVP, Corporate Development. Chris was part of the team that founded Autolus in 2014 and he initially served on the Company’s board as a Non-Executive Director. In 2016, Chris transitioned into the Company to establish Autolus’ business development function.

Previously he worked at UCL Business where he led the establishment of strategic collaborations, licensing deals, new companies, and financing transactions across a portfolio of cell and gene therapies in oncology and rare diseases. Prior to that he served as non-executive director of Orchard Therapeutics, another company he founded during his tenure at UCL Business, and has worked in business development roles at Thiologics, Canbex and Eli Lilly.

He has also worked in research roles at GSK, Inpharmatica and Imperial College London and holds a PhD in Biochemistry from Imperial College London.