Leadership

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.

Meg Alexander serves as Ovid’s chief strategy officer, in which she oversees and supports the Company’s corporate strategy and planning, performance measurement, and risk mitigation. She also oversees the Company’s Corporate Affairs function with a focus on engaging Ovid’s stakeholders across: patient and caregiver communities, policymakers, press and investors.

Ms. Alexander has worked in the biopharmaceutical industry for two decades and has played a key role in launching more than 25 new medicines for many intractable and devastating conditions including: rare epilepsies, ALS, HIV, multiple sclerosis, Batten’s disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer. She has advised and led campaigns for large healthcare organizations, including: Pfizer, Novartis, Amgen, Janssen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, BioMarin, Nestle, Coca-Cola and many others.

Prior to Ovid, she founded and led the Reputation & Risk Management Group, a consultancy within Syneos Health, one of the world’s largest clinical research organizations. She increased the practice from one to 25 employees. Ms. Alexander was named a “Disruptor” and a “Rising Star” in her industry by PM360 and the Healthcare Business Women’s Association, respectively.

Jason Tardio is chief operating officer and joined Ovid in November 2019 as chief commercial officer. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Tardio served as vice president, head of the multiple sclerosis franchise at Novartis (NYSE: NVS). There, he was responsible for developing and managing all aspects of the U.S. commercial plan, brand P&L, strategy development and go-to-market modeling. Before Novartis, Mr. Tardio held roles of increasing responsibility at Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB), where most recently he served as general manager, managing director for Biogen’s Latin America South affiliate. Earlier at Biogen, Tardio held a wide range of sales and marketing roles of increasing responsibility, including positions in global commercial strategy, the U.S. business unit and the international affiliates. He has two decades of commercial experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, which began at Wyeth and Sepracor, with roles in sales, sales training and marketing. Mr. Tardio holds a Bachelor of Science from The College of New Jersey and a Master in Business Administration in Pharmaceutical Marketing from St. Joseph’s University.

Thomas Perone joined Ovid in March 2019, and is the Company’s general counsel, corporate secretary and chief compliance officer. He brings more than 20 years of legal and pharmaceutical industry experience. He was most recently at Celgene Corporation where, for 12 years, he held positions of increasing levels of responsibility, including vice president, assistant general counsel and assistant corporate secretary. While at Celgene, Mr. Perone was responsible for corporate securities matters; transactional matters including mergers, acquisitions and licensing opportunities, and contracting matters for North and South America, including support for Celgene’s clinical, manufacturing and commercial teams. Prior to joining Celgene, he was a senior legal director at ImClone Systems Inc. and began his legal career as an associate attorney at Proskauer Rose LLP in New York City. Mr. Perone received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Rutgers University, a Master of Business Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a Juris Doctor with honors from Seton Hall University School of Law.

Julia Tsai, Ph.D., is the senior vice president of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at Ovid, where she develops, leads, and drives the clinical development strategy of Ovid’s clinical pipeline. She joined Ovid in 2020 as vice president of Clinical Development-Epilepsies and led the transition of soticlestat from Phase 2 to 3 in a joint development program with Takeda. Prior to joining Ovid, Dr. Tsai held roles of increasing responsibility through her tenure at Marinus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MRNS) and was part of the founding clinical development team, which led the strategic growth of the company from inception through its IPO and beyond. She left Marinus as the vice president of Clinical Development, head of the epilepsy franchise, which included experience in rare and general epilepsy programs. Dr. Tsai brings more than 17 years of central nervous system development and regulatory experience from multiple indications within neurology and psychiatry, including: resistant epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder and orphan diseases (behaviors in Fragile X syndrome, West syndrome, Status Epilepticus, CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder, PCDH19 female-related Epilepsies, Dravet syndrome, Lennox Gastaut syndrome and Dup15q syndrome). Dr. Tsai holds a Doctorate in Physiology and Biophysics from the Neuroscience and Physiology program at New York University School of Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Cornell University.

Simon Kelner is the chief human resources officer at Ovid Therapeutics. He is responsible for leading Ovid’s talent and organizational strategy and overseeing the company’s Human Resources function. Mr. Kelner joined Ovid in 2022, bringing more than 25 years of global HR and talent management experience across both small biotech and large pharmaceutical companies.

Mr. Kelner has a passion for building businesses with purpose. He was most recently CHRO of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RYTM), where he developed and implemented the company’s HR strategy to secure the talent, culture, and organizational capabilities needed to grow from the clinic to regulatory approval and through commercialization. Mr. Kelner has held a wide range of HR leadership roles around the world for Merck, Teva, and General Motors, living and working in the UK, Israel, Switzerland and the USA. He also established a successful talent advisory practice, helping early-stage life sciences companies scale effectively and build strong, sustainable cultures.

Mr. Kelner has an International Executive MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, a bachelors honors degree in Management Sciences from the University of Manchester (UK), and is a graduate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (UK).