Leadership

Dr. Guo-Liang Yu is a leader in the Chinese and global biopharmaceutical communities as well as an accomplished scientist and serial entrepreneur. His many leadership roles include currently serving as the Chairman and CEO of Apollomics, an innovative US and China-based biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery and development of oncology combination therapies. In recent years he has also been Executive Chairman of Crown Bioscience Inc. which he successfully sold to JSR Corporation, and served as a Venture Partner at OrbiMed, a premier global venture capital firm. Dr. Yu has also personally helped start several companies where he has served in a board and/or advisory role. Earlier in his career, Dr. Yu co-founded Epitomics Inc., an antibody-based biotechnology company where he served as CEO for 10 years prior the company being acquired by Abcam. Dr. Yu is the founding president of the Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association and serves on the boards of BayHelix, CABS, National Foundation of Cancer Research, Ray Wu Memorial Foundation, and University of the Pacific. Dr. Yu’s success is driven by his scientific curiosity and a passion for translating scientific discovery into real products. His challenge is balancing his time between science and business, fun and work, family and community.

Dr. Yuling Li is a seasoned and well-respected biopharmaceutical professional who has led successful product development from clinical stage through commercialization. Prior to joining Innoforce, Dr. Li was a R&D Director and Fellow at MedImmune/AstraZeneca. She started her career at Roche and later worked at Human Genome Sciences (now GlaxoSmithKline) where she held several leadership roles including Director of Purification Sciences. While serving in these positions, Dr. Li played a key role in the development of 3 approved products and contributed to over 30 clinical development programs. Additionally, she has authored over 40 publications and is the primary inventor for five issued patents.  She is a well-recognized and frequently invited speaker and advisor, and was recognized for her professional accomplishments with the prestigious Rising Star Award from the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association. Dr. Li is also active in several industry organizations, having served as the President of the Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association and co-founding the Alliance of ALL-CABPA. She is also passionate about mentoring mid-stage biotech professionals, developing the next generation of women in leadership, and supporting the growth of young scientists. In her spare time, Dr. Li enjoys reading, sightseeing, meditation, and yoga.

Mr. Bing Zhu has more than 30 years of experience in finance, and has served as an executive in several public and private companies including multi-national companies, Fortune 500 companies, prominent Chinese entrepreneurial companies, and financial corporations. Among other roles, he served as the CFO of Gmax BioPharm LLC, CFO and COO of Crown Bioscience International where he led the IPO on TPEx in 2016, CFO of Shanghai Chemspec International where led the IPO on NYSE in 2009, and CFO of Canadian Solar Inc. where he led the IPO on NASDAQ in 2006. This broad experience base has led to Mr. Zhu having expertise in both public and private financing, IPO execution, M&A, leading strategy, commercial operations, and general management. Earlier in his career, he worked for several years in commercial banking in Toronto, Canada and was the Shanghai chief representative of Raytheon Corporation.

Dr. Kenneth Carter is a dynamic biotechnology industry executive and scientific leader with deep experience in early-stage company development. He has been involved in starting and guiding several biotechnology companies as a co-founder, advisor, CEO, and/or member of the Board of Directors including NexImmune (NASDAQ: NEXI) which he co-founded and served for many years as Chairman and CEO, and Seneca Biopharma (NASDAQ: SNCA) where he served as Executive Chairman. From 1999 until 2009, Dr. Carter was a co-founder and the CEO of Avalon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVRX, now part of AbbVie). Under his leadership, Avalon developed a pipeline of cancer drug candidates based on a novel high-throughput genomic screening technology, and completed an IPO and multiple partnerships with top 10 pharmaceutical companies. Earlier in his career, Dr. Carter was head of gene mapping at Human Genome Sciences, Inc. where he was involved in the discovery of dozens of novel human proteins with therapeutic or diagnostic potential, particularly for the treatment of cancer. Dr. Carter is also engaged in a range of educational and teaching activities and holds an adjunct faculty position at Johns Hopkins University, where he teaches a course titled “Creating a Biotechnology Enterprise”.

Dr. Min Zhu is a well-respected professional in the biopharmaceutical industry, with over 17 years of experience in process development, characterization, and validation support. Prior to joining Innoforce, Dr. Zhu served as Director of Protein Science at Boehringer Ingelheim in Fremont. At BI, she was responsible for CMC strategy and cross-functional alignment from process characterization to BLA submission. In addition, she led the technology development and implementation of a next-generation continuous manufacturing platform. Before that, Dr. Zhu led downstream commercial process development, process characterization and validation for several late-stage biologic pipeline products at MedImmune/AstraZeneca. Dr. Zhu has published more than twenty papers in peer-reviewed journals and is a frequent speaker in international biopharmaceutical conferences. In addition to her leadership in the biopharmaceutical community, Dr. Zhu is also passionate about photography and traveling.

Dr. Michael Huang has extensive technical and leadership experience in Quality Operations, Biopharmaceutical Development, and CMC Management. Over the course of his career, Dr. Huang has served at several biopharmaceutical companies including Sanofi Pasteur, Merck, and AstraZeneca, as well as US Pharmacopeia, a global standard-setting organization. He has played key roles in the development and licensure of new vaccines (Menactra, Gardasil) and new mAb-based biotherapeutics (Imfinzi, Fasenra, Lumoxiti, Adtralza) as well as in commercial operations and market supply for vaccines and biotherapeutic products. Dr. Huang has more than two decades of experience leading quality and CMC projects in the US, as well as extensive experience in China and Europe, including due diligence, joint venture management, regulatory submissions, program audits, and drug substance and fill-finish manufacturing management. In addition to his leadership in the biopharmaceutical community, Dr. Huang is a strong advocate for US-China culture exchange, which includes volunteering as a teacher for families with adopted children, business travelers, other community members, and cross-cultural awareness training in both China and the US.

Dr. Yingfei Wei is a world-class scientist and an experienced executive in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, with experience in both large and small companies at various stages of development. Among other notable accomplishments during her career, Dr. Wei served as the Chief Scientific Officer for 3SBio, Inc., where she helped lead the IPO for 3SBio which was the first NASDAQ-listed Chinese biopharmaceutical company. Prior to 3SBio, Dr. Wei served as Director of Cell and Analytical Biology of the Bayer Biotech Research Division. Earlier in her career, Dr. Wei was a principal scientist at Human Genome Sciences where she played a key role in discovery of the HPNCC gene for colorectal cancer, which was named as the Science “Molecule of the Year” in 1994. She completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard School of Public Health, where her research focused on DNA damage repair. Dr. Wei is actively involved in biopharmaceutical-related associations including CABS, CBA, and BayHelix. She is also an advocate and participant in developing programs for rural early-childhood education in rural China.

Ms. Keke Feng brings over 15 years of corporate legal experience to Innoforce Pharmaceuticals, having served both US and China-based companies. Prior to joining Innoforce, Ms. Feng held in-house counsel positions with Eli Lilly (China) and ChinaBio Group, and worked with US-based law firms Motley Rice, Wilson Sonsini, and Perkins Coie. She has also served as an independent counsel to several US-based biotech companies, assisting with their China operations and cross-border transactions. Previously, Ms. Feng clerked for Judge Jeffrey Barton, Superior Court of California, and assisted the State of California Department of Justice Attorney General’s Office on corporate litigation matters. She has also been a visiting scholar to Duke University for subjects in law and international relations. Ms. Feng holds a J.D., summa cum laude, from Thomas Jefferson School of Law, where she also served as Editor for the Thomas Jefferson Law Review. She is licensed to practice in the State of California as well as the U.S. Federal Court.

Dr. Henry He has deep practical experience in sales and marketing in the CDMO industry (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization), and has led teams to achieve 100%-300% annual sales increase multiple times. Dr. He served at several listed CDMO companies prior to joining Innoforce, including as VP of Business Development and Marketing at CMAB Biopharma (acquired by Wuxi Biologics on March, 2021), VP of Marketing and Sales at Porton Pharma, and Senior Sales Director at Asymchem. Dr. He earned his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry with Professor Song Li (Academician, China Academy of Engineering) and Professor Chun Hu from Shenyang Pharmaceutical University & Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

Dr. Guo-an Wang has extensive expertise in the field of plasmid and gene therapy, with over 20 years of experience in the research and development of biological products. Dr. Wang holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, followed by six years of scientific research at the National Institutes of Health, Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he published many scientific papers and special issues. Dr. Wang directed the completion of four pioneering SBIR projects from the National Institutes of Health. Prior to joining Innoforce, Dr. Wang served as Director of Plasmid Production at Vigene Biosciences in the United States, where he established and led a multi-functional team from plasmid research, process development to GMP production.