Leadership

Manuel Litchman, M.D.

President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Dr. Litchman has served as President and Chief Executive Officer and has been a member of Mustang’s Board of Directors since April 2017. Dr. Litchman joined Mustang from Arvinas, LLC, where he served as President and Chief Executive Officer. While at Arvinas, Dr. Litchman oversaw the advancement of the company’s pipeline of protein-degradation therapeutics for the treatment of cancers and other diseases toward Investigational New Drug applications, as well as the execution of multi-target discovery collaborations with Merck and Genentech. Prior to Arvinas, Dr. Litchman spent more than 18 years with Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, where he held positions of increasing responsibility related to the development of Novartis’ oncology pipeline. Most recently, Dr. Litchman served as Senior Vice President and Executive Global Program Head, CTL019, Cell & Gene Therapies Unit, where he led a collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania investigating chimeric antigen receptor modified T cells (CAR Ts) directed against CD19 on B cell malignancies. Prior to the CTL019 collaboration, Dr. Litchman served as Novartis’ Vice President and Head, Oncology Business Development & Licensing. Earlier in his career, Dr. Litchman was a senior equity analyst at Ursus Capital and directed oncology / immunology clinical research at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. Dr. Litchman received his M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine, and his B.A. from Princeton University. He completed his internal medicine residency and hematology-oncology fellowship at New York-Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Lynn E. Bayless, M.S., RAC

VP & Head, Regulatory Affairs 

Lynn E. Bayless joined Mustang Bio as Head of Regulatory Affairs in 2020. Ms. Bayless has over 19 years of global regulatory experience in the biopharmaceutical industry focusing solely on biologics, including gene therapies, for orphan genetic diseases. She is accomplished in the development and execution of innovative global regulatory strategies covering all stages of product development: proof-of-concept through commercialization and post-approval life cycle management. Prior to joining Mustang, Ms. Bayless was the Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs at Nightstar Therapeutics (Biogen), where she was responsible for the Phase 3 global development program for choroideremia, and the Director, Regulatory Affairs at Voyager Therapeutics, where she was responsible for the lead development programs for Parkinson’s Disease and ALS and supported the successful filing of a 510(k) application. Ms. Bayless also held multiple leadership positions over her 11 year tenure at Shire Human Genetic Therapies (Shire) where, in addition to supporting multiple global development programs, she successfully led the clinical and nonclinical regulatory strategy which resulted in the global launch of VPRIV® for the treatment of Gaucher disease and was a key contributor in obtaining global registrations for Elaprase® for Hunter syndrome. Ms. Bayless received her M.S. in Regulatory Affairs and Health Policy from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and a B.S. degree from Quinnipiac University in Laboratory Animal Technology/Pre-Veterinary Medicine and a minor in Microbiology.

Kerry Biron, B.B.A.

VP & Head, Clinical Operations 

Kerry Biron joined Mustang Bio in April 2020.  She is responsible for leading the Clinical Operations Department and has over 20 years of Global Clinical Operations and Project Management experience, including the clinical development and management of BLA and NDA activities through marketing approval.  Prior to Mustang Bio, she provided key clinical operations leadership at LFB USA, including the hemophilia therapeutic area and successful pivotal trial conduct leading to the marketing approval of Sevenfact®. Previously, Kerry built effective clinical operations teams in the United States and Europe during time at IPSEN, Inspiration Biotherapeutics and LFB USA, resulting in at least four NDA/BLA approvals including Dysport® and Obizur®. Kerry holds a B.B.A. from American InterContinental University in Atlanta, GA and attended Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, MA.

Richard Bodmer, M.S.

Head, CMC Development 

Richard Bodmer joined Mustang Bio in August 2022 as Head of CMC Development.  Rick has spent more than 25 years in biotechnology in engineering and manufacturing partnerships.  Prior to Mustang, Rick was Vice President of External Manufacturing and a CMC Leader at AVROBIO in Cambridge, MA.  Before that, Rick was at Bioverativ, a Biogen spin-off, where he served in several different roles, most recently as Executive Director of External Manufacturing for Cell & Gene Therapies and prior to that leading the Facilities & Engineering function for the company.  He also served as Head of Process Engineering at Shire (MA).  Rick worked for 19+ years at Genzyme/Sanofi Genzyme in a variety of engineering roles, directly supporting manufacturing sites an in Global roles.  His work primarily focused on leading tech transfers, implementing major capital programs and process improvements, and building and leading engineering teams.  Before joining biotech in Massachusetts, Rick spent several years each at Merck (VA) and Allergan (NY).  Rick received his M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Bruce Dezube, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer  

Dr. Dezube is the Chief Medical Offer of Mustang Bio, a company whose mission is to develop the next generation of gene and cell therapies. Dr. Dezube joined Mustang in June 2021 from Alkermes, Inc, where he served as Vice President and Clinical Head of Oncology. While at Alkermes, Dr. Dezube oversaw the advancement of the company’s interleukin-2 variant from Phase 1 to registrational studies for the treatment of cancers. Prior to Alkermes, Dr. Dezube spent more than 9 years with Millennium (now Takeda Oncology) and Tesaro (now GlaxoSmithKline), where he held positions of increasing responsibility related to the development of their oncology pipelines.  Fields of industry focus included lymphoma, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), ovarian cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, and renal cell cancer. Earlier in his career, Dr. Dezube was an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where he served as an Attending Physician for more than 20 years.  There he served on the Board of Trustees and was the Director of the Experimental Therapeutics/Phase 1 unit, Director of AIDS Oncology, and Deputy Director of the Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office.  He is triple board certified- internal medicine, hematology, and oncology and has authored more than 200 publications on PubMed.  He completed his internal medicine residency training at Tufts/New England Medical Center and hematology-oncology fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School.

James Edinger, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Edinger serves as the Chief Scientific Officer as of Feb. 2024.  In this capacity, he will continue the previous duties while managing the IP portfolio, representing our science to external parties and direct external collaborations, such as the in vivo CAR-T program at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Edinger has served as Vice President of Preclinical Sciences since September 2019. In this capacity, he oversees Mustang’s Research, Translational, Analytical and Process Development activities. Prior to Mustang, Dr. Edinger was Senior Director of Integrative Research and Strategy at Celularity, focused on scientific oversight of Intellectual Property, Research, Translational and Process Development in a matrixed environment, as well as driving scientific due diligence of external opportunities. Research efforts focused on developing products in several areas of cellular therapeutics, including placental mesenchymal stem cells, T cells, NK cells, CAR-T cells, CAR-NK cells and genetic modifications thereof. He previously served as Director of Research Strategy and Innovation at Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, leading Intellectual Property, Research, Translational and Process Development for an autologous HPV antigen specific T cell product in early development. His early career included academic appointments at Columbia University and Hunter College of CUNY, developing research programs in mouse and human immunology. Dr. Edinger holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry/Chemistry from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and he completed his postdoctoral research at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

Greg Furrow, M.S., FRQA

Chief Quality Officer

Greg Furrow joined Mustang Bio in January 2019 as head of Quality. He is responsible for leading the Quality Organization inclusive of Clinical Quality Assurance, Manufacturing Quality Assurance, Quality Control Chemistry, Microbiology and Raw Material, and Quality Systems in compliance with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), Good Clinical Practices (GCP), Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), and current ICH requirements.  Previously, Greg was Vice President of Quality and Compliance at Southern Research, an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit, scientific research organization where he was responsible for Quality Assurance, Bio-safety, Environmental Health and Safety, ISO-9000 Quality Systems Management, Information Technology (IT), Human Resources (HR), Export Control and Government Security.  Prior to Southern Research, Greg was Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Compliance at WIL research (now part of Charles River), a global CRO supporting the pharmaceutical, chemical and agrochemical industries where he was responsible for global Quality Assurance (GLP, GCP and cGMP) and Environmental Health and Safety.  Greg received his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Maryland at College Park. He is a past president of the Society of Quality Assurance, an honorary life Fellow of the Research Quality Association, a lecturer in Purdue University’s Regulatory and Quality Compliance graduate program and he is the EPA industry representative to the OECD GLP discussion group.

Debra Manning, SPHR

Senior VP & Head, Human Resources

Debra Manning joined Mustang Bio as Vice President Human Resources in 2019. Ms. Manning has more than 20 years of HR leadership experience leading the human resources function in biotechnology, clinical diagnostics and medical device environments. She has developed and implemented key HR programs and practices requiring in-depth knowledge and practical experience in HR strategy, organizational development, talent acquisition, benefits and compensation, labor law, and employee relations. Prior to joining Mustang, Ms. Manning held HR leadership positions at LFB USA, Stratus Technologies, Magellan Biosciences and ESA Biosciences. She attended Northeastern University and received her SPHR Certification in 2011.

James Murphy, B.A.

Ad interim Chief Financial Officer

James Murphy joined Mustang Bio as Ad interim Chief Financial Officer in January 2024.  Mr. Murphy has served as a consultant to several companies through Danforth, an advisory firm that provides operational and strategic support services to life science companies. During Mr. Murphy’s tenure at Danforth, he has served as interim Chief Financial Officer in both public and private life science companies since 2012. Prior to joining Danforth, Mr. Murphy served as the Chief Financial Officer at OxiGene, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company, from February 2004 to April 2012. Mr. Murphy began his career in this life science sector in 1990 when he joined Sepracor Inc., a publicly traded specialty pharmaceutical and device company. Mr. Murphy received his B.A. in economics and accounting from the College of the Holy Cross.Johns Hopkins University as well as his MBA in Strategic Management and B.S in Biology from Monmouth University.

Robert Sexton, M.S. M.B.A. 

Senior VP, Strategy & Program Execution

Robert Sexton brings over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical and biotechnology development and commercialization to his role as Senior Vice President, Strategy & Program Execution at Mustang Bio.  Robert oversees all aspects of program strategy and governance, including CMC (chemistry, manufacturing & controls), non-clinical, clinical operations, and regulatory affairs.  As the R&D Steering Committee Head, he leads Mustang Bio’s development programs from Phase 1 through commercial launch.  Additionally, his responsibilities include leading alliance management to oversee successful collaborations and lifecycle management of in-licensed products with strategic partners.  Beyond program execution, Robert plays a critical role shaping strategic direction and growth for the organization. In this capacity, he partners closely with the CEO and Leadership Team, to spearhead the development and implementation of comprehensive business and strategic plans to promote cross-functional collaboration and drive alignment with long-term organizational goals.  Prior to Mustang Bio, Robert’s career includes his role as Senior Director, Commercial CAR-T Operations at Legend Biotech. At Legend Biotech, he played a critical role in developing the market enablement strategy and operating model for the successful launch of the CAR-T product CARVYKTI™.  He also spent 10 years at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, where he held positions of increasing responsibility across clinical operations, patient & specialty services, market access, and cell & gene therapy.  Notably, he was part of the commercial launch team for Kymriah™, the first commercially approved CAR-T product.  Robert holds an M.S. in Biotechnology from The Johns Hopkins University, an MBA in Strategic Management, and a B.S. in Biology from Monmouth University. His unique blend of scientific expertise, business acumen, and leadership skills position him perfectly to propel Mustang Bio’s future success.