T. Andrew Crockett – Chief Executive Officer
Andrew is a co-founder of KalVista Pharmaceuticals and its CEO. Prior to KalVista, Andrew held various senior management positions including Chief Executive, Vice President of Business Development and Director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs in biotech and specialty pharmaceutical companies in the United States and United Kingdom. During his career he has identified, negotiated and executed strategic corporate transactions on a global basis, including mergers and acquisitions, national and international product licenses, IP and technology licenses, and R&D alliances.
Andrew received a BA from the University of Utah, and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, with a major in Finance.
Benjamin L. Palleiko – President
Ben joined KalVista as Chief Financial Officer in August 2016, and in 2019 was promoted to the additional role of Chief Business Officer. In 2023, he was promoted to the additional role of President, where he was given the responsibility for leading the Company’s future business growth, including development of KalVista’s commercial organization. He has over 20 years of industry experience as a life sciences investment banker at firms including Robertson Stephens and SunTrust and a Senior Executive of several public and private biotech companies including SVP & CFO of Ore Pharmaceutical Holdings and Penwest Pharmaceuticals Co. In his roles, Ben has overseen strategic planning, business development, business operations, finance, human resources, legal, and investor relations. He has completed over 50 strategic, licensing and financing transactions and raised more than $2 billion in capital.
Ben holds a BA in Quantitative Economics from Tufts University and an MBA in Finance and MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago. He served as a Naval Aviator in the U.S. Navy.
Paul K. Audhya, MD, MBA – Chief Medical Officer
Paul joined as Chief Medical Officer in May 2021. Dr. Audhya has over 20 years of clinical development and global medical affairs leadership experience across a range of therapeutic areas and disciplines, including rare disease. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President, Global Medical Affairs at Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he established and provided oversight for all medical affairs functions including Health Economics and Outcomes Research and Global Patient Advocacy. Prior to that, he was Vice President, Global Strategy and Phase 4, Global Medical Affairs at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he led global launch and lifecycle management planning and implementation for the cystic fibrosis portfolio. Before Vertex, Dr. Audhya was Vice President, Medical Affairs at Hospira Inc. (acquired by Pfizer) where he introduced transformational strategies for biosimilars globally and led the successful launch of the first monoclonal biosimilar in the EU. In the years prior to Hospira, Dr. Audhya held positions of increasing responsibility across all stages of drug development at Reata Pharmaceuticals, Abbott Laboratories, Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb and Janssen. Dr. Audhya received a BA and MD from New York University, an MBA from Pepperdine University, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
Edward P. Feener, PhD - Chief Scientific Officer
Ed is a co-founder of KalVista and joined as Chief Scientific Officer in 2016. Previously, Dr. Feener was an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Senior Investigator in the Section on Vascular Cell Biology at Joslin Diabetes Center. He has 30 years of research experience in vascular biology and diabetic complications. His laboratory has performed pioneering research on the kallikrein kinin system and was first to identify plasma kallikrein as a potential therapeutic target for diabetic macular edema. Ed has published over 80 scientific articles and has served on multiple national and international scientific research review committees.
Ed received his PhD in Biochemistry from Boston University and completed postdoctoral training at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School.
Rachel M. Morten – Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and QA
Rachel joined KalVista in 2016. She has more than 25 years of regulatory and QA leadership experience. In her role as Senior Vice President at KalVista, she is responsible for global Regulatory and QA activities. Prior to joining KalVista, Rachel was the founder of Q-Regulatory Ltd., a regulatory and quality assurance consultancy. She began her career at Glaxo and, after 10 years in regulatory affairs, founded ChapelPharma Ltd., a regulatory, clinical and QA consulting company which was eventually acquired by Hesperion (now part of ICON). From 2009-2011, Rachel was Head, Regulatory Affairs and QA at Vantia Ltd.
Rachel received a BSc (Hons) in Microbiology from Chelsea College, University of London. She was elected a Fellow of The Organisation for Professionals in Regulatory Affairs (TOPRA) in 2012.
Michael D. Smith, PharmD - Senior Vice President of Development
Michael joined KalVista in February 2016 as Vice President of Clinical Development before being promoted to Senior Vice President of Development. Michael has nearly 20 years of development experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Recent experience includes senior management positions with Global Scientific Affairs, Early Development in the United States and Europe as well as Clinical Development and Regulatory Affairs at a US-based specialty pharma.
Michael received a PharmD from the University of Utah and a BS in Neuroscience from Brigham Young University. He maintains an appointment as Adjunct Assistant Professor, College of Pharmacy, University of Utah.
Nicole Sweeny - Chief Commercial Officer
Nicole has more than 20 years of commercial strategy and leadership experience and has launched several approved products for rare diseases, including HAE. She previously was US Franchise Head of the Hereditary Angioedema team at Takeda Pharmaceuticals where she was responsible for the US launch of the market-leading HAE prophylaxis treatment Takhzyro®. Before Takeda, Nicole held positions of increasing responsibility at Shire Pharmaceuticals in marketing, sales and product strategy across HAE treatments including Cinryze®, Firazyr® and Kalbitor®, as well serving as the Global Product Strategy Lead for Hemophilia.
Most recently, she served as Chief Commercial Officer at Praxis Precision Medicines, where she led commercial strategy and built capabilities to support global launches for both common and rare CNS conditions. Nicole received a BS in Marketing from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.
Christopher M. Yea, PhD - Chief Development Officer
Chris holds a BSc and PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol, UK. Following post-doctoral work, he spent several years at Roussel-UCLAF and Hoechst Marion Roussel before joining Ferring Pharmaceuticals. Chris led the Biology group and was responsible for transition of candidates into development. In 2008, Chris co-led the spin-out of Vantia Ltd and most recently was Chief Operating Officer where he was responsible for development activities through Phase 3 trials.
In his position as Chief Development Officer, Chris is responsible for all development-related activities within KalVista Pharmaceuticals.
