Senior Management
John M. Krayacich. - President & Chief Executive Officer
Stephen Bloch, M.D. - Chairman
Kenneth R. Shaw, Ph.D. - Executive Vice President, Research & Development
Julia Tsai, Ph.D. - Director of Clinical Operations

John M. Krayacich
President & Chief Executive Officer
John Krayacich joined Marinus Pharmaceuticals in 2008 as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director after serving as the global head of neuroscience project management at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. As part of his role at Novartis, Mr. Krayacich acted as vice president and global program head of agomelatine, the first melatonergic antidepressant, and led the neuroscience drug development teams in the areas of major depressive disorder, general anxiety disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and bipolar disorder.

Prior to joining Novartis in 2003, Mr. Krayacich was VP of Worldwide Marketing (neurology) at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for global marketing strategy and new product development.

Mr. Krayacich has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry with an emphasis on neurology product development and marketing. He started his career with Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert Canada and advanced through a series of assignments in sales, North American and worldwide marketing, business development and global drug development. His work has included the development and commercialization of Lipitor®, Neurontin®, Lyrica®, Accupril®, Exelon® Patch, Focalin XR® and several neuroscience new chemical entities currently in development.

Mr. Krayacich previously held board positions with the Epilepsy Foundation of America and the New Jersey Epilepsy Foundation.


Stephen Bloch, M.D.
Chairman
Stephen Bloch joined Canaan Partners in June 2002, initially as a Ewing Marion Kauffman Fellow. His investment targets include biopharmaceuticals (therapeutics and diagnostics), medical devices and healthcare infrastructure. Dr. Bloch currently serves on the Board of Directors for Advanced Biohealing, Amicus Therapeutics, Marinus Pharmaceuticals, OmniSonics Medical Technologies and Viacor.

Prior to joining Canaan, Dr. Bloch was a medical entrepreneur and practicing physician. He founded and was CEO of Radiology Management Sciences, a risk manager of diagnostic imaging services for health plans and provider networks. As medical director, he helped start Omnisonics Medical Technologies which is developing breakthrough products using acoustic energy for the treatment of vascular occlusive diseases. Additionally, he co-founded TeleRad, a teleradiology services company, and was an initial investor in OpenAir.com, an enterprise software company for professional services firms. Dr. Bloch started his business career as a strategic consultant with Arthur D. Little focused on pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Dr. Bloch received his medical training as a radiologist at The Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and in internal medicine at The Lenox Hill Hospital/Cornell Medical School. He received his medical degree from the University of Rochester. He also received a M.A. in history of science and public policy from Harvard University and an A.B. degree in history from Dartmouth College.

Dr. Bloch became Chairman of the Marinus Pharmaceuticals board in October 2007.


Kenneth R. Shaw, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President, Research & Development
Kenneth Shaw is a co-founder of Marinus and heads all non-clinical research and development operations at the Company. Dr. Shaw has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. For the fifteen years prior to joining Marinus, he was a primary force in growing Neurogen Corporation from 5 to over 200 employees. At Neurogen, he was Senior Vice President of Chemistry and Preclinical Development. In this position, Dr. Shaw was responsible for managing all prescription activities involving chemistry (medicinal, process and high speed synthesis), drug metabolism, toxicology, analytical chemistry and manufacturing. He served as project leader on many of Neurogen’s collaborative programs. Through multiple collaborations, he has been a member on internal prescription committees at Pfizer, Merck, Aventis and Schering-Plough.

Dr. Shaw began his career in 1983 at Ciba-Geigy after obtaining a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Columbia University. At Ciba-Geigy, Dr. Shaw co-invented SelfotilÆ the first competitive NMDA antagonist which reached Phase 3 clinical trials and was instrumental in unifying Ciba-Geigy’s world-wide molecular modeling effort. He was also the youngest member appointed to the research and development oversight group for U.S. projects.


Julia Tsai, Ph.D.
Director of Clinical Operations
Julia Tsai joined Marinus Pharmaceuticals in September 2004 and is responsible for daily drug development operations.

Prior to her doctoral training, she conducted scientific research in Alzheimer’s disease with Dr. Norman Relkin in the Department of Neurology at Weil School of Medicine of Cornell University, New York Presbyterian Hospital, and Dr. Paul Greengard at Rockefeller University. Dr. Tsai was also Clinical Study Coordinator for clinical drug trials in Alzheimer’s disease in the Department of Neurology.

Dr. Tsai received her B.A. at Cornell University and her Ph.D. in neuroscience and Physiology at the Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, New York University School of Medicine. She conducted her doctoral thesis on the synaptic pathogenesis associated with Alzheimer’s disease and explored potential therapies. She has co-authored numerous scientific papers and abstracts and has presented her work at several scientific meetings.