Michael D. Taylor, Ph.D. – Chief Executive Officer

Picture of Michael TaylorMike joined Ensemble Discovery as President and CEO in July of 2007 with more than 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry.  Recently, Mike was Senior Vice President for Pfizer’s Global R&D division responsible for global project and portfolio management.  In other positions with Pfizer (and previously Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis), Mike led early and late-stage development projects across multiple therapeutic areas, including Lipitor and Neurontin.  His career includes extensive experience in drug discovery, licensing and business development, and managing R&D alliances with pharmaceutical and biotech partners.  In addition to his R&D experience he is active in investor development, government affairs and public policy affecting the pharmaceutical industry. Until 2003 he was Adjunct Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Michigan, where he was active in teaching medicinal chemistry and biopharmaceutics. Mike has authored or coauthored 65 manuscripts and published abstracts and holds 6 patents.

Mike holds a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the State University of New York at Buffalo and was awarded an NIH postdoctoral fellowship in natural products synthesis and structure elucidation at the University of Pennsylvania.

Laurence E. Reid, Ph.D. - Chief Business Officer

Picture of Laurence ReidLaurence joined Ensemble Discovery as Chief Business Officer in January of 2006.  Laurence’s role at Ensemble encompasses strategic planning, product strategy and corporate development.

During 2004-2005, Laurence worked as a founder of two start-up companies in the fields of stem cell therapeutics and implementation. Laurence previously spent ten years at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he had worked since 1993 in a range of general management and business development positions. From 2001-2003, Laurence served as General Manager of Millennium UK with responsibility for Millennium’s European operations and as spokesperson to the European investor and media communities. Previously (1998-2001), he had been the vice president of business development and strategic planning for the company's predictive medicine efforts. Prior to 1998, he held various roles at Millennium in pharmaceutical business development and technology acquisition.  Before joining Millennium, he was an assistant editor of the journal Cell.

Laurence has a B.A. from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from London University.

Nick K. Terrett, Ph.D. - Chief Scientific Officer

Picture of Nick TerrettNick joined Ensemble Discovery as the Chief Scientific Officer in May of 2006. In his role as CSO, Nick heads up our drug discovery program investigating the rapid synthesis of macrocycles using DNA-Programmed Chemistry, as drug candidates for disease relevant protein-protein and protease targets.

After working as a medicinal chemist for Glaxo, Nick joined Pfizer in Sandwich, England in 1984. He worked initially in cardiovascular disease, and is an inventor on patents for the neutral endopeptidase inhibitor candoxatrilat. Later he led the chemistry team on cGMP PDE inhibitors for angina and erectile dysfunction, and is an inventor on patents for Viagra®. Subsequently, Nick established Pfizer’s combinatorial chemistry group and authored several related papers and a textbook. He also managed the high throughput screening group and materials management, and played a key role in the global integration of the Pfizer, Warner-Lambert and Pharmacia compound collections. In 2003 Nick moved to the Pfizer Research Technology Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to lead the Chemical Sciences group investigating new targets for drug discovery and new chemistry technologies.

Nick has a B.A. and Ph.D. in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University.

David J. Livingston, Ph.D. - Senior Vice President, Biology

Picture of David LivingstonDavid joined Ensemble Discovery in 2007 as Senior Vice President, Biology, with 20 years of experience in drug discovery research and development. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at Brown University in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology. Prior to joining Ensemble, David was President of Biomedical Strategies Consulting, where he advised biotechnology clients on new therapeutic targets and technologies for drug development.  Prior to consulting, David was President and CEO of Spherics, Inc., a drug delivery company, and of Praelux Inc. (now part of G.E. Healthcare), which invented a rapid confocal imaging platform for high-content cell-based assays for drug discovery.  David also spent three years at Integrated Genetics, and nine years at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he was Vice President and Program Executive for the company’s inflammation program.  He is an inventor on more than 20 US patents.

David holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis, an MBA from Northeastern University in Boston, and a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at The Johns Hopkins University Medical School.

Edward D. Freedman, Esq. - General Counsel; Vice President, Operations & Finance

Picture of Edward FreedmanEd joined Ensemble as General Counsel and Vice President, Operations and Finance, in March of 2005.  Prior to joining Ensemble, Ed was General Counsel of Flagship Ventures, where he was involved with the formation of Ensemble.

Ed started his legal career as a corporate associate at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP, during which time he represented a number of private equity firms as well as operating companies at all stages of development. In addition, he represented buyers and sellers in mergers and acquisitions, as well as underwriters in numerous public offerings. Before going to law school, Ed was an accountant at Arthur Andersen & Co.

Ed holds a J.D. from Boston College Law School and a B.S./B.A. in Accounting from Boston University. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar.

Matt E. Schiller - Vice President, Corporate Development

Picture of Matt SchillerMatt joined Ensemble as Vice President, Corporate Development in 2007. He has over 15 years of partnering and business development experience in the life sciences field. Most recently, Matt was Senior Director of Business Development at Critical Therapeutics, Inc.  In that role, he established collaborations with major commercial partners including Abbott Laboratories, MedImmune, and Beckman Coulter.  Prior to Critical Therapeutics, he was at Elan Pharmaceuticals from 1997 to 2002.

Matt holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of South Florida.

Y. Philip Zhang, Ph.D., Esq. - Chief IP Counsel

Picture of Philip ZhangPhilip joined Ensemble Discovery Corporation in March of 2005 as Chief IP Counsel and handles all matters related to patents and other intellectual property rights. Prior to joining Ensemble, he was Patent Counsel at Genzyme Corporation where he handled patent matters for Genzyme’s drug discovery and development efforts, both for small molecule and polymer drugs.  He participated in various due diligence activities in connection with potential licensing and M&A deals.  Before joining Genzyme, he was in private law practice for several years with Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault LLP, where he advised numerous clients on various intellectual property matters.

Philip holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School.  He is a member of the Massachusetts bar and is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.