Our Team

Andy Busch, PhD

Chief Innovation Officer

Our Chief Innovation Officer, Andy Busch, PhD, has extensive R&D and portfolio leadership experience across a broad range of therapeutic categories, including significant expertise in rare and orphan diseases and in the discovery and development of sGC stimulators. Andy leads Cyclerion’s Innovation Center, the company’s novel leadership model that gathers research, development, customer insights and external innovation together in one team. In this role, Andy is primarily focused on delivering the greatest possible patient impact and shareholder value creation from Cyclerion’s current pipeline of five sGC stimulator programs. Before joining Cyclerion, Andy led R&D at Shire Plc as executive vice president, head of R&D, chief scientific officer and a member of the executive committee. Previously, Andy spent 13 years at Bayer, where he was most recently executive vice president, head of drug discovery and a member of the executive committee. Prior to Bayer, Andy served as global head of cardiovascular research at Hoechst and Sanofi-Aventis, where he started his work with sGC modulators and brought the first sGC stimulator to the clinic.

Mark Currie, PhD

President and Chief Scientific Officer

Our President and Chief Scientific Officer, Mark Currie, PhD, has made critical scientific contributions over the last 40 years that have greatly advanced understanding of the pharmacology of nitric oxide, guanylate cyclases and cGMP signaling. Mark has led the characterization and discovery of three hormones that regulate cGMP, atrial natriuretic peptide, guanylin and uroguanylin. These discoveries played a role in the creation of novel treatments for a broad range of diseases including congestive heart failure, acute and chronic pain conditions associated with arthritis, and, more recently, a novel approach to treat patients with painful gastrointestinal conditions. Mark is the primary inventor of LINZESS^®, a market‑leading treatment for irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation. Prior to joining our team, Mark led R&D at Ironwood where, in addition to developing LINZESS, his team created the sGC platform that enabled the creation of Cyclerion. Prior to Ironwood, Mark led the discovery group at Sepracor and discovery pharmacology at Monsanto/Searle, which produced several important medicines, including LUNESTA^® and CELEBREX^®.

Christopher Wright, MD, PhD

Chief Medical Officer

Our Chief Medical Officer, Christopher Wright, MD, PhD, has two decades of medical research and drug development experience in orphan and specialty diseases, including cystic fibrosis, hepatitis C, rheumatoid arthritis, epilepsy and dementia. While at Vertex, Chris oversaw the development of ORKAMBI^® through Phase 3, and the successful development and rapid approval of KALYDECO^®, a life‑changing cystic fibrosis therapy, by the FDA, EMA and other health authorities. He also played an important role in the global development and approval of INCIVEK^® for hepatitis C. Prior to joining our team, Chris led the global development organization at Ironwood, including responsibility for advancing the late‑stage and life‑cycle gastrointestinal programs as well as the five sGC programs that now underlie Cyclerion’s strategic core. Chris is also a practicing neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA.

Cheryl Gault

Head of Strategy

Our Head of Strategy, Cheryl Gault, has over 15 years of marketing, sales, new product planning and commercial strategy experience in various therapeutic areas from her time at both Ironwood and Genzyme, and played a significant role in the creation of the brand strategy that led to the successful launch of LINZESS^®.

Mark Gaffney

Head of External Innovation and Corporate Development

Our Head of External Innovation and Corporate Development, Mark Gaffney, has over 12 years of experience structuring and negotiating license arrangements, partnerships and acquisitions, and collaborating with partners to optimize their relationships and maximize value creation. Before joining Cyclerion, Mark held leadership positions for ten years on Ironwood’s corporate development and legal teams.  Mark is trained as a lawyer and previously worked as an attorney at Ropes & Gray.  Mark started his career by serving as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force for five years.

Craig Dunbar, PhD

Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development

Our Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development, Craig Dunbar, PhD, has over 25 years’ industry experience, having held Pharmaceutical Development leadership positions at Ironwood, Alkermes, AIR, Tarveda, and Vertex where Craig contributed to the development and commercialization of KALYDECO^® and INCIVEK^®.

Mary Christian, PharmD, MBA

Vice President, Global Quality, Regulatory, and Safety

Our Vice President, Global Quality, Regulatory and Safety, Mary Christian, PharmD, MBA, brings more than two decades of biopharma experience to Cyclerion, transforming regulatory organizations, building innovative teams and capabilities across R&D and transforming approaches to drug development. Before joining Cyclerion, Mary held positions of increasing responsibility in Regulatory and R&D at Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb prior to Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, where she led the global regulatory team.

Peter Hecht, PhD

Chief Executive Officer

Peter Hecht, PhD, is the Chief Executive Officer of Cyclerion Therapeutics, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stimulators for the treatment of serious and orphan diseases. Under his leadership, Cyclerion spun out from Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in April 2019, raising $175 million in a private placement. The company is advancing its portfolio of five differentiated sGC stimulators, including three clinical programs and two late-stage discovery programs. He also serves on the Cyclerion Board of Directors. Prior to Cyclerion, he served as co-founder, chief executive officer and director of Ironwood from 1998 to 2019. During his tenure, Ironwood grew from nine PhD scientists to a commercial biotechnology company that discovered, developed and is now commercializing LINZESS® – the branded prescription market leader in its class. Additionally, the company pioneered new areas of science, including the sGC platform that is now the basis of Cyclerion’s research and development efforts.

Daryn Lewis

Head of People

Our Head of People, Daryn Lewis, has over 12 years of experience in talent strategy and operations and has led organizational growth and transformation initiatives for science, technology, engineering and math‑centric businesses across the technology, energy and management consulting industries.

William Huyett

Chief Financial Officer

Our Chief Financial Officer, William Huyett, has extensive experience in pharmaceutical and medical device corporate strategy, capital allocation, finance, product development and commercialization, and corporate leadership gained during his 30‑year career at McKinsey and Company, Inc. He joins us from Ironwood, where he served as Chief Operating Officer, and led the efforts to spin our portfolio of sGC stimulator programs into Cyclerion. Bill serves on several not-for-profit boards, including The Rockefeller University and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole.

Larry Miller

General Counsel

Our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Larry Miller has nearly 20 years of experience in the life sciences and consumer products industries, providing strategic counsel on a wide range of business and legal issues, including business and corporate development, intellectual property strategy, compliance, and corporate governance. At Cyclerion, Larry has global responsibility for all legal, intellectual property, compliance, and corporate governance matters. Prior to Cyclerion, Larry was Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Blue Buffalo, an international consumer products company. Previously, he held positions of increasing responsibility at Pfizer, most recently as Chief Counsel, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare.

Brian Cali, PhD

Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

Our Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Brian Cali, PhD, co‑founded Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in 1998. From then until joining Cyclerion in 2019, he served in various enterprise leadership roles, including responsibility for discovery and early development activities, program leadership and portfolio management, R&D strategy, assessment and in-licensing of external innovations, and corporate communications and investor relations.

Anjeza Gjino

Vice President, Finance

Our Vice President of Finance, Anjeza Gjino, has over 13 years of finance experience leading and supporting capital allocation and business transformation initiatives that she brings to Cyclerion. During her time at Ironwood and PerkinElmer she provided financial advice and business partnering to all functions across the organization, including strategic planning, portfolio optimization, business development valuations and commercial execution.