Leadership
Biostage is led by an experienced team with an extensive background in biotechnology, patient care, finance, and new product development.
Jerry He
CEO
Hong Yu
President
Joseph Damasio, Jr
Chief Financial Officer
William Fodor, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Shunfu Hu, PhD
VP of Business Development and Operations
Linghui Meng, PhD
Director of Product Development
Mr. He was the Executive Vice Chairman of Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited (NYSE listed: BEDU) until February 2023. Prior to such promotion in January 2019, Mr. He had served as the CEO of Bright Scholar since October 2015. Prior to joining Bright Scholar, Mr. He was a Managing Director at TStone Corp, and he also served as CFO, CEO and a director of Noah Education Holdings Ltd., a former NYSE listed private education services provider in China, from July 2009 to December 2011. Mr. He was a portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Global Wealth Management from June 2008 to June 2009 and was employed by Bear Stearns from July 2006 to May 2008. Mr. He also had extensive experience working with pharmaceutical and biotech companies when he was a management consultant. Mr. He obtained a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Peking University and a Master's degree in Chemistry, MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago. Mr. He is also a CFA charter holder.
Hong Yu, age 46, is a seasoned executive with extensive knowledge in strategic analytics, wealth management, and investment research. Prior to Biostage, Mr. Yu was most recently a Senior Vice President responsible for strategic analytics at Bank of America, where he was employed for nearly 20 years. During his career, Mr. Yu has built strong business connections in various industries, including biotech/healthcare, financial services, and robotics/artificial intelligence. He developed an expertise in matching emerging companies with cross-border investors, often providing U.S. companies with market access to the vast capital supply in China. Mr. Yu graduated from Huanggang High School (Hubei, China) in 1990 and obtained a B.S. in Biophysics from Peking University (Beijing, China), and M.S. in Biostatistics from School of Public Health, University of Illinois (Chicago, IL). Mr. Yu is a charterholder of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Bill Fodor was a founding scientist at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, where he served as an executive management team member and Senior Director of the Cell/Tissue Engineering, Transgenic Animal and Transplant Programs. He has also served as an Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut Department of Molecular Cell Biology and the Center for Regenerative Biology, extending research areas into stem cells and stem cell engineering. Dr.Fodor was Senior Director of Product Development at ViaCell Inc., leading programs in hematopoietic stem cell process development and manufacturing, mesenchymal stem cell basic research and manufacturing for cardiac repair and pancreatic stem cell research. He was a consultant for the biotechnology industry, serving clients in stem cell research, gene therapy, stem cell manufacturing and stem cell genome engineering. Dr. Fodor has expertise in programs targeting transplant immunology, hematopoiesis, cardiac repair, stem cell potency, gene therapy for liver diseases, tissue engineering, design and oversight of pre-clinical non-GLP and GLP animal models and investigational New Drug Applications (Pre-clinical and CMC Modules). Dr. Fodor earned a PhD. in genetics from Ohio State University. He completed post-doctoral work at Yale University School of Medicine in the department of immunobiology, investigating the regulation of MHC class I and MHC class II genes in the histocompatibility complex.
Dr. Hu has over 15 years of experience in business and market development, process and product development, investment and R&D strategy. He founded and co-founded 3 startups in China and managed global business operations in China, USA and EU. He has broad experience with CMC on medical devices, biologics and drugs, operations and project management including expertise in technologies transfer, cGMPs commercial manufacturing, and contract manufacturing management through Bioventus, Biostage, Velcro, GT Advanced Technologies and others. He holds a B.S. degree in Materials Science with minors in International Trade; Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering.
Dr. Meng has over 10 years of experience in developing biomedical products with a focus on novel polymeric material design and implantable bio-scaffold fabrication. He has been working extensively on a wide range of projects covering tissue regeneration strategies and 3d polymeric scaffold development in organ systems such as skin, lung, trachea, and esophagus. Dr. Meng was a senior scientist at Becton Dickson Interventional (Formerly C.R.Bard) and served as a core science member to oversee technical aspects of biosurgery products development from the concept through commercialization. Dr. Meng has authored numerous scientific research articles and patents in the area of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. He received his PhD in Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University.
Joseph Damasio has over 20 years of finance and accounting experience, most recently as Vice President of Finance at Inhibikase Therapeutics, a publicly-traded clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, since October 2021 prior to joining Biostage. Before joining Inhibikase, Mr. Damasio was Controller at Cue Biopharma from June 2020 to October 2021, Controller at XL Fleet from February 2019 to June 2020, and Chief Financial Officer at Pressure BioSciences, Inc. from April 2017 to February 2019. Mr. Damasio earned a bachelor's degree in accounting, with honors, from the University of Massachusetts. He holds an MBA and MSF from Boston College and is a Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts.