Jeremy M. Levin, D.Phil, MB BChir
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
Jeremy Levin, D.Phil, MB BChir, is chairman and chief executive officer of Ovid Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: OVID), a public company developing novel medicines to treat epilepsies and seizure-related disorders. Dr. Levin is concurrently the chairman of Opthea (NASDAQ: OPT). Prior to founding Ovid, Dr. Levin was president and CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., (TLV: TEVA). Before Teva, Dr. Levin was a member of the executive committee Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY). In that capacity, he was the architect, lead and implementer of the String of Pearls Strategy, which transformed Bristol and facilitated the dawn and massive growth of the immuno-oncology revolution in the biopharmaceutical industry. Dr. Levin joined Bristol from Novartis (NYSE: NVS), where he was the global head of strategic alliances. He has previously served as a member of the board of directors of various public biopharmaceutical companies, including Biocon Ltd. (NSE: BIOCON) and Lundbeck (OMX: LUN). Dr. Levin also serves on the board and executive committee of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) as the immediate past chairman.
Dr. Levin was voted as one of the 25 most influential biotechnology leaders by Fierce Biotech, one of the top three biotechnology CEOs by The Healthcare Technology Report and one of the PharmaVoice100 CEOs in 2020 and 2021. He was selected by Endpoints in 2021 as one of the 60 living pioneers of the industry. He is the recipient of the Albert Einstein Award for Leadership in Life Sciences and the B’nai B’rith Award for Distinguished Achievement. In June 2020, he edited and published the best seller “Biotechnology in the Time of Covid-19”. Dr Levin has been widely quoted and interviewed in national and international news outlets and life science industry-related publications. He believes that the role of leaders in business is to take a public stand on public policy matters as a core part of their business strategy and responsibility to shareholders, industry and society. He is committed to a public stance on key aspects of society and industry, including, but not limited to: encouraging immigration; policies that drive innovation; patient access to medicines; the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion; the primacy of medicine and science as the sole determinants to develop medical products; and the democratic right to vote for all citizens.
Dr. Levin has practiced medicine at university hospitals in England, South Africa and Switzerland. Dr. Levin earned a First-Class Bachelor in Zoology, winning the University Prize, and subsequently, was awarded a master’s degree and doctorate in chromatin structure, at the University of Oxford. Thereafter, he earned his medical and surgical degrees from the University of Cambridge, where he won the Kermode Prize for his work on Captopril.
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Karen Bernstein, Ph.D.
Director, Chair of the Compensation Committee, Member of the Audit and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees
Karen Bernstein, Ph.D., is co-founder and chairman of BioCentury Inc. and was Editor-in-Chief from October 1992 to August 2015. She is a director at Ovid Therapeutics Inc., which is focused on developing drugs for orphan diseases of the brain, and at Codiak BioSciences Inc., which is pioneering exosome research and development to create an entirely new class of medicines, exosome therapeutics. She is on the board of trustees of the Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) of the Applied Life Sciences and is a member of the board of advisors of KGI’s School of Pharmacy. She serves on the board of overseers of Scripps Research.
She holds a Doctorate in Political Science from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and History from Brandeis University, where she served for many years as a member of the Brandeis University Science Advisory Council.
In 2005, the annual gathering of biotechnology chief executive officers at The Biotech Meeting in Laguna Niguel, Calif., inducted Karen into their Hall of Fame, citing her lifetime contribution to the biotech community. In 2007, Karen received a Special Recognition award at the American Liver Foundation’s Salute to Excellence, honoring individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to biotechnology and medical innovation. In 2013, she was named as one of the 100 Women of Influence in Silicon Valley by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. In 2015, Scientific American named Karen as one of The WorldVIEW 100 most influential people in biotech today. In 2016, she was named Commentator of the Year by the European Mediscience Awards.
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Barbara G. Duncan, MBA
Director, Chair of the Audit Committee, Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
Barbara Duncan, MBA, has been a member of Ovid’s board of directors since June 2017. She previously was the chief financial officer and treasurer at Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ICPT). Prior to Intercept, Ms. Duncan held various senior leadership roles of increasing responsibility at DOV Pharmaceutical Inc., including chief financial officer, and ultimately, was chief executive officer prior to DOV’s sale to Euthymics Bioscience Inc. in 2010. Ms. Duncan has also held roles in the corporate finance groups at SBC Warburg Dillon Read Inc. and Lehman Brothers Inc. She serves on the board of directors of Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: ADAP), Jounce Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNCE), Area Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVIR), and Fusion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ, FUSN). Ms. Duncan received her Bachelor of Science from Louisiana State University and her Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Bart Friedman, J.D.
Lead Independent Director, Chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, Member of the Audit and Compensation Committees
Bart Friedman, J.D., has been a member of Ovid’s board of directors since November 2015. Mr. Friedman was a partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, a New York law firm, from 1980 through 2017, when he became senior counsel. Mr. Friedman’s practice focuses on corporate governance investigations and advisory and crisis advisory. Earlier in his career, Mr. Friedman worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission and acted as a liaison to other departments in the government. Mr. Friedman has served as chairman of the board of directors of the Sanford C. Bernstein Mutual Funds and as the lead director of the board of directors of Allied World Assurance Company Holdings, AG (NYSE: AWH), a publicly held company. He currently serves as chair of the audit committee of the Brookings Institution, chair of the audit committee of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and as chair of the Guggenheim Museum’s Works and Process Program. Mr. Friedman has also served as vice chair of the Juilliard School and as a member of the Visiting Committee of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Mr. Friedman is an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and serves on the membership committee of the Council. He has also served as a member of Council on Foreign Relations delegations to many countries and institutions, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lybia, Turkey, and NATO among others. He has also served as a member of CFR Task Forces on issues ranging from nonlethal weaponry to resources for foreign aid. Mr. Friedman earned his Bachelor of Arts from Long Island University and his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. He also served as a research associate at Harvard Business School.
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Michael Poole, M.D., FACP
Director, Member of the Audit and Compensation Committees
Robert Michael Poole, M.D., FACP, is a neurologist and internist with a successful career in large and small biotechnology companies developing medicines for diseases of the nervous system.
Dr. Poole served in a series of scientific and senior leadership positions at Parke Davis, Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Wyeth and at AstraZeneca (NASDAQ: AZN), where he led the Neuroscience Innovative Medicines Unit. Most recently, he managed the Office of the President for Global Health at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he focused on external investments and development of technology platforms. He has experience working as a venture partner at both Biomatics Capital and at Arch Ventures, where he helped source innovative investments in neuroscience and served portfolio companies in operating roles. He also serves as an advisor to the Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnostic Initiative for Gates Ventures.
He holds a medical degree from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley. He trained in internal medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester and in neurology at the University of Michigan Medical Center.
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Kevin Fitzgerald, Ph.D.
Director, Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
Dr. Fitzgerald has over 20 years of successful drug discovery experience and currently serves as the Chief Scientific Officer, Senior Vice President and Head of Research at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. He joined Alnylam in 2005 after a seven-year tenure at Bristol Myers Squibb. At Alnylam, Kevin and his teams discovered and clinically validated two different modes of siRNA delivery, and he has been instrumental in the development of a novel pipeline of approved and progressing RNAi therapeutics. Dr. Fitzgerald is a prolific inventor. His co-inventorship responsibility includes many of Alnylam’s marketed and pipeline programs. He has co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed papers, which have been published in prestigious journals including, Nature, Cell, and the New England Journal of Medicine.
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