A New, Transformational Neuropsychiatric Company

Rhonda Chicko

Rhonda M. Chicko, C.P.A. is a consultant to Cyclerion and has served as our Chief Financial Officer since January 2024. Ms. Chicko has been consulting as a chief financial officer to various life science companies since October 2019. Ms. Chicko previously served as chief financial officer of Scholar Rock from April 2018 through October 2019 and vice president of finance at Editas Medicine from September 2015 through March 2018. From 2005 to 2015, Ms. Chicko worked at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in financial roles of increasing responsibility, culminating as senior director, finance and tax. Earlier in her career, Ms. Chicko held a range of positions at investment management and accounting firms, including Wellington Management Company, LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. Ms. Chicko holds a M.S.T. from Bentley University and a B.S. in accounting from Le Moyne College.

Errol De Souza, PhD, Chair

Errol B. De Souza, Ph.D. has served as a member of our Board of Directors since April 2021 and is our current Chairman of the Board of Directors. Dr. De Souza was the executive chairman of Neuphoria Therapeutics Inc. (formerly known as Bionomics Limited) from November 2018 to December 2022, non-executive chairman from January 2023 to June 2023 and a member of its board of directors until November 2023. Previously, Dr. De Souza served as president, chief executive officer, and member of the board of directors of several companies, including Neuropore Therapies, Inc. from January 2017 to December 2019, Biodel, Inc. from March 2010 to January 2016, Archemix Corp from April 2003 to March 2009 and Synaptic Pharmaceutical Corporation from September 2002 to March 2003. From September 1998 to September 2002, Dr. De Souza held senior vice president roles at Hoechst Marion Roussel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He was also founder, chief scientific officer and member of the board of directors at Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. from October 1992 to August 1998 and head of CNS Diseases Research at DuPont Merck from May 1990 to October 1992. Dr. De Souza is currently a member of the board of directors of Alector Inc. and Royalty Pharma, Inc. He has previously served on the board of directors of Catalyst Biosciences, Inc., Targacept, Inc., IDEXX Laboratories, Palatin Technologies, Inc. and a number of private company boards. Dr. De Souza received a B.A. in physiology and a Ph.D. in endocrinology from the University of Toronto. Dr. De Souza brings to our Board of Directors extensive strategic and CNS experience as an executive in the bio-pharmaceutical industry, having founded companies and served as executive chairman, president, and chief executive officer of several private and public bio-pharmaceutical companies.

Peter Hecht, PhD

Peter M. Hecht, Ph.D. has been a member of our Board of Directors since we commenced operations as an independent company in April 2019 and was our Chief Executive Officer from April 2019 to November 2023. Dr. Hecht presently serves as the chief executive officer of Tisento Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company and as a member of its board of directors. Previously, he served as the chief executive officer of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and as a member of its board of directors from its founding in 1998 to March 2019. Under Dr. Hecht’s leadership, the Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. team built a robust pipeline and grew it into a commercial biotechnology company that discovered, developed, and is now commercializing  LINZESS^®– the blockbuster branded prescription market leader in its class. Prior to co-founding Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc, Dr. Hecht was a research fellow at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Dr. Hecht also serves on the boards of directors of Kallyope Inc. and Mythic Therapeutics, both privately held biotechnology companies. Dr. Hecht earned a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.S. in biology from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Hecht’s experiences as the founder of several innovative biotechnology companies, his tenure as the chief executive officer and a board member of each of Microbia, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Company and Tisento Therapeutics, Inc., and his extensive scientific background make him a valuable member of our Board of Directors. 

Michael Higgins

Michael J. Higgins has been a member of our Board of Directors since November 2023. Mr. Higgins was appointed chairman of the board of directors of Voyager Therapeutics, Inc., in June 2019 and also served as Voyager Therapeutics, Inc.’s interim president and chief executive officer from June 2021 to March 2022. Mr. Higgins has served as chairman of the board of directors of Pulmatrix, Inc., since April 2020, and has served as a member of the boards of directors of Nocion Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company, since September 2020; Camp4 Therapeutics Corporation, since October 2017; Sea Pharmaceuticals, LLC, a privately held pharmaceutical company, since October 2016; and KinDex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company, since March 2016. Mr. Higgins previously served as a member of the board of directors of Genocea Biosciences Inc. from February 2015 to May 2022. Mr. Higgins is a serial entrepreneur who has helped launch and build numerous companies during his career. He served as entrepreneur-in-residence at Polaris Partners, an investment company, from 2015 to 2020. From 2003 to 2014 he served as senior vice president, chief operating officer at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to 2003, Mr. Higgins held a variety of senior business positions at Genzyme Corporation, including vice president of corporate finance and vice president of business development. Mr. Higgins earned a B.S. from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Mr. Higgins’ financial and business expertise, including his diversified background as an executive officer in public pharmaceuticals companies, qualifies him to serve as a member of the Board of Directors.

Steven Hyman, MD

Steven E. Hyman, M.D. has served as a member of our Board of Directors since July 2022. Dr. Hyman is a Distinguished Service Professor and Harald McPike Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University and a Core Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard where he directs the Broad Program in Brain Health. Dr. Hyman also serves as chairman of the board of directors of the Charles A. Dana Foundation (NY). In the private sector, Dr. Hyman is founder of Emugen Therapeutics, a director of Voyager Therapeutics, Q-State Biosciences and Vesalius, and serves on the scientific advisory boards of Janssen and F-Prime Capital.

From 2001 to 2011, Dr. Hyman served as Provost (Chief Academic Officer) of Harvard University, and from 1996 to 2001, as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a component of the US National Institutes of Health. Dr. Hyman has served as Editor of the Annual Review of Neuroscience (2002-2016), founding President of the International Neuroethics Society (2008-2013), President of the Society for Neuroscience (2015), and President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2018). Dr. Hyman is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Hyman received his B.A. from Yale College, an M.A. from the University of Cambridge, which Dr. Hyman attended as a Mellon fellow studying history and philosophy of science, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hyman brings to our Board of Directors a deep expertise as a world-renowned leader in neuroscience leading large-scale, collaborative research programs aimed to discover and develop novel biomarkers and therapeutics for neuropsychiatric diseases.

Dina Katabi, PhD 

Dina Katabi, Ph.D. has been a member of our Board of Directors since November 2023. Dr. Katabi is the cofounder and president of Emerald Innovations, a health analytics company that specializes in digital health solutions for passive, contactless in home monitoring. Dr. Katabi is also the inaugural Thuan and Nicole Pham Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing. Dr. Katabi is a MacArthur Fellow and a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and the American Association of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). Dr. Katabi’s research focuses on advanced wireless sensing, applied machine learning, and digital health. Several start ups have been spun out of Dr. Katabi’s lab. Dr. Katabi has received 8TABLE OF CONTENTS three honorary degrees from the American University of Beirut, the American University of Cairo, and the Catholic University of America. Dr. Katabi received her Ph.D. and M.S. in computer science from MIT and her B.S. from Damascus University. Dr. Katabi’s scientific background and experiences qualify her to serve as a member of the Board of Directors.

Husseini Manji, MD, FRCPC

Development leader; Yale, Oxford, J&J, Director NIMH, UK Govt​

Linda Carpenter, MD​

Neuropsychiatry leader; Brown, Director of Brain Research and Interventional Neurotherapeutics (BRaIN) program at Butler Hospital​

Laeben Lester, MD

Anesthesiology leader; Johns Hopkins​

Erika De Boever, DDS, MPH, PhD​

Clinical Development; University of Michigan​

Lawrence Olanoff, MD, PhD​

R&D; MUSC, Forest Laboratories, Celsion​

Lisa Loram, PhD​

Regulatory Affairs; University of Colorado, Boulder

Andy Parratt

New Product Planning & Commercialization; Karuna, AlgavitaBio​

Jessica Duda

Business Development Advisor; Red Sky​ Partners

Michael Madden​

Medical Device Development Advisor; Mountain Medical​