William J. Garner, M.D., has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Urigen since December 2005. Dr. Garner is an experienced entrepreneur. Prior to founding Urigen, Dr. Garner had been the founder and managing director of EGB Advisors, LLC, a pharmaceutical commercialization boutique. Through this entity, Dr. Garner worked on a number of biopharmaceutical business transactions and has raised financing for another company that he founded called Inverseon, Inc., developing a novel therapy for asthma. Before this, Dr. Garner worked in medical affairs at Hoffmann LaRoche in oncology. Prior to Roche, Dr. Garner was in the venture capital department at Paramount Capital Investments in New York City. Dr. Garner has a Master of Public Health from Harvard and received his M.D. degree from New York Medical College. Dr. Garner did residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Columbia-Presbyterian and is currently a licensed physician in the State of New York.
Terry M. Nida, has served as Urigen’s Chief Operating Officer since October 2006. Prior to that, Mr. Nida served as vice president for sales, marketing and corporate development. Prior to joining Urigen, Mr. Nida served as vice president, worldwide sales, marketing and corporate development for VIVUS, Inc. From November 1995 to August 1998, Mr. Nida was vice president, Europe, and effective March 28, 1996 was appointed as an executive officer. Prior to joining VIVUS, Mr. Nida was vice president, sales, marketing and business development at Carrington Laboratories, with responsibility for all sales, marketing and business development activities. Mr. Nida was senior director, worldwide sales, marketing and business development for Centocor, Inc. from 1993 to 1994, and director of sales and marketing in Europe for Centocor, Inc. from 1990 to 1993. He holds a B.S. degree in english and an M.A. degree in administration of justice from Wichita State University.
Martin E. Shmagin, has served as Urigen’s Chief Financial Officer since December 2005. For over ten years Mr. Shmagin served as president of Innovative Financial Solutions Ltd., an accounting and financial consulting firm that serves as chief financial officer and controller for start-up through mid-size businesses. From 1978-86, Mr. Shmagin was vice president, Finance/chief financial officer of Fisher & Brother, Inc. From 1986-89, he was comptroller of Strober Bros., Inc. and supported the company’s successful initial public offering. He then opened his own consulting firm where he assisted Stenograph Corporation with its acquisition of Baron Data Corporation and Hanover Direct with its acquisition of Gumps. He also supported a $24 million global systems conversion of American President Companies, Ltd., a $2.6 billion transportation company, where he coordinated the data conversion of eighty-three subsidiaries in multiple currencies. Mr. Shmagin holds a B.S. degree in accounting from New York University.
Dennis H. Giesing, Ph.D., has served as Urigen’s Chief Scientific Officer since October 2007. Dr. Giesing is a senior executive with more that thirty years of experience in pharmaceutical drug development, most recently as CEO and co-founder of CepheidRX, LLC, a pharmaceutical design and development company. At Aventis Pharmaceuticals, he served as Senior Vice President of Lead Optimization and Vice President, Global Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics. Previously, he held numerous leadership roles at Hoechst Marion Roussel, Marion Merrell Dow, and Marion Laboratories. He has participated in numerous development programs that have resulted in global regulatory approvals in a variety of therapeutic areas, including anti-infectives, arthritis, bone, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, metabolism and respiratory. Dr. Giesing earned his PhD in Biochemical Pharmacology from the University of Missouri, Kansas City and also has a B.S. in Chemistry.
Amie E. Franklin, Ph.D., has served as Urigen’s Manager, Clinical, Regulatory and Intellectual Property since December 2005. Dr. Franklin is working to implement Urigen’s drug development program for URG101. Dr. Franklin has been a member of EGB Advisors LLC since its founding by Dr. Garner and has contributed to the establishment of its first portfolio company Inverseon, Inc. Prior to entering the biopharmaceutical industry, Dr. Franklin was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California campuses in Berkeley and San Francisco. Dr. Franklin earned her Ph.D. in biological sciences from Stanford University and holds a B.S. degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
