Thomas G. Paese, Esquire, Executive Chairman.  Mr. Paese joined Profectus BioSciences in October 2009 when he was appointed to the Board of Directors as Chairman.  He assumed the role of Executive Chairman in January 2010. He has extensive experience in healthcare and strong ties to Profectus through the Institute of Human Virology, where he has been a member of the Advisory Board since 2003.  In addition, Mr. Paese served as Vice President & General Counsel for NovaCare, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listed company. Prior to NovaCare, he co-founded a successful start-up medical rehabilitation company, Rehab Systems Company, and secured three rounds of venture capital funding totaling $14M. He coordinated a lucrative acquisition by NovaCare, Inc., after positioning the company for a possible initial public offering.

Currently, he serves as the practice manager for government relations with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.  Prior to this current position, he served the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as Secretary of Administration to Governor Tom Ridge, where he advised the Governor on key executive branch functions, including healthcare matters.  He earned his BA in Government and International Relations from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana and his Juris Doctor from Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Jeffrey N. Meshulam, Chief Operating Officer.  Prior to joining the Company in 2005, Mr. Meshulam was Director of Corporate Development at the Institute of Human Virology from 1996-2004. Prior to that he held various positions in the biotechnology industry including founder, Cellular Products, Inc. where he held various positions from 1983-1996, including Chairman CEO, President CEO and Executive Vice-President. Cellular Products was a small publicly held biotechnology company specializing in the development, manufacturing and marketing of blood screening and research assays for human retroviruses. Under his leadership, Cellular Products developed, conducted clinical trials, received FDA approval, produced and marketed blood screening assays for HIV and HTLV-I. Cellular Products also was first to commercialize a kit for detecting HIV p24. In his positions with Cellular Products, Mr. Meshulam was directly responsible to develop and oversee joint development projects with small and large corporations which ultimately lead to the commercialization of two products that were FDA approved and in excess of 100 products for research use. Mr. Meshulam also served as President of Northern Scientific, Inc. a small ophthalmic manufacturer prior to him selling all manufacturing rights to Chiron. Northern Scientific was the sole commercial provider of MK Corneal Storage Media a vital product for the storage and transport of corneas for transplant internationally. Mr. Meshulam received a BA in Biology from SUNY Buffalo in 1979.

John Eldridge, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer - Vaccines.  Prior to joining Profectus BioSciences in September, 2008, Dr. Eldridge was Vice President of Advanced Vaccines Research for Wyeth Vaccines Research and oversaw the departments of Immunobiology, Bacteriology, and Cell Biology and Pathogenesis. He directed the research of approximately 147 scientists in these areas and was actively engaged in Wyeth Vaccine’s discovery and development programs. Dr. Eldridge has substantial practical experience in the management of vaccine programs in all phases of development.  As a Principal Investigator, his research has been supported by grants and contracts from the NIH and the DoD.  He is currently the Principal Investigator on two HIV Vaccine Design and Development Team Contracts from the NIH.  The FDA has recently approved the INDs for three clinical trials to be initiated under these contracts.  Dr. Eldridge is the inventor on 11 issued patents, and author of over 130 scientific papers that have appeared in peer-reviewed journals, as well as author of over 10 review articles and book chapters.  Prior to joining Wyeth (Lederle-Praxis), he held various faculty positions at the University of Alabama, Birmingham from 1984 to 1993.  He continues as an Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama.  Dr. Eldridge received his Ph.D. in Microbiology in 1981 from State University of New York at Buffalo.   

Terry Higgins, Ph.D., Executive Director of Operations and Outsourcing.  Dr. Higgins joined Profectus BioSciences in July, 2008 to establish and manage the outsourcing of GLP, GMP and GCP activities as well as Operations for the Tarrytown, NY facility. Dr. Higgins has over 20 years experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry spanning both small molecules and vaccines. Prior to joining Profectus, Dr. Higgins spent over 12 years at Wyeth Vaccines managing three groups with responsibilities for outsourcing production and testing of pre-clinical and clinical trials materials for all Phases of vaccine development; vaccine toxicology studies; and, labeling, packaging and global distribution of clinical trial material. In addition, Dr. Higgins had responsibility for internal GMP formulation and filling of vaccine candidates for Phase 1, 2, and pilot scale Phase 3 clinical trials. The successful completion of the global clinical trials for Prevnar 13 was critically dependent on the groups reporting to Dr. Higgins. Prior to Wyeth, Dr. Higgins led the Immunology efforts at Apollon, the first Company to conduct a clinical trial with a plasmid DNA vaccine. He is the author of over 40 publications in peer reviewed journals and several review articles and book chapters. Dr. Higgins received his Ph.D. in Immunology from Harvard University in 1976, and performed post-doctoral training at the John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) followed by faculty appointments at JCSMR and The University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine.

Timothy Fouts, Ph.D., Senior Director of Virology.  Dr. Fouts joined Profectus in 2005 as one of the founders and the principle scientist.  His responsibilities have been as a member of senior management to direct the team of scientists and technicians in the discovery and preclinical development of HIV vaccines, small molecule and antibody based antiviral therapies and microbicides that are within the Profectus research portfolio.  He continues with that role as Senior Director of Virology.  Dr. Fouts has 3 issued patents and numerous patent applications that form the vaccine and therapeutic technologies that are the intellectual property used to start Profectus BioSciences.  Prior to joining Profectus, Dr. Fouts held a faculty position at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.  Dr. Fouts has more than 32 scientific publications that have appeared in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters.  Dr. Fouts received his Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (Director, Dr. David Ho) at Rockerfeller University in NYC.

Jie Zhang, Ph.D., Senior Director of Biology. Dr. Zhang joined Profectus in January 2009 to lead the NF-kB program to develop small molecule Rel inhibitors as novel therapeutic agents for cancer, inflammation and infection treatments. Dr. Zhang has fourteen years of drug discovery and translational research experience in biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Profectus, Dr. Zhang worked continuously from a founding scientist to principal scientist and project leader for Guilford Pharmaceuticals, Inc., MGI Pharma and Eisai, with responsibilities for selecting drug targets, identifying lead compounds, establishing efficacy in disease models, and advancing drug candidates though pre-clinical development, pharmacokinetic characterization and toxicological profiling. Recognized as an expert in PARP drug discovery field, he served as a sole editor for the book “PARP as a Therapeutic Target”. He is an inventor for 26 issued US patents, author of 44 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, and author of 26 review articles and book chapters. Jie received his Ph. D in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and post-doctoral training in Department of Neuroscience under Dr. Solomon Snyder at Hopkins.