Board of Directors
John P. Kelley
Board Chair since 2019
John P. Kelley was elected Chair of the Board of Directors in 2019 and has served as a member of Acorda’s Board of Directors since December 2008.
From November 2013 to April 2017, Mr. Kelley was Chief Executive Officer of Tenax Therapeutics, Inc. (formerly Oxygen Biotherapeutics, Inc.), a company that focuses on developing products for the critical care market, where he also served as a member of the Board of Directors. He was previously President, Chief Executive Officer, and a director of Phyxius Pharma, Inc., a privately-held development stage pharmaceutical company co-founded by Mr. Kelley that was acquired by Tenax Therapeutics in 2013.
Mr. Kelley was the President and Chief Operating Officer of The Medicines Company, a pharmaceutical company providing acute care hospital products worldwide, from 2004 to 2009. Mr. Kelley also served on the Board of Directors of the Medicines Company from 2005 to 2009.
From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Kelley held a series of positions at Aventis, a global pharmaceutical company, including Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Medical, where he was responsible for worldwide brand management. Prior to the formation of Aventis, he held a series of positions at Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc., a life sciences firm focused on pharmaceuticals, including Vice President, Commercial Director, U.S. from 1998 to 1999, and Vice President of Marketing from 1995 to 1998. Mr. Kelley received a B.A. from Wilkes University and an M.B.A. from Rockhurst University.
Ron Cohen, M.D.
Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer
Ron Cohen, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, founded Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. in 1995. Previously he was a principal in the startup and an officer of Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc., a biotechnology company engaged in the growth of human organ tissues for transplantation. Dr. Cohen received his B.A. with honors in Psychology from Princeton University, and his M.D. from the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia Medical Center, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine.
Dr. Cohen previously served as Chair of the Board of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), as Chair of the Emerging Companies Section of the BIO Board, and as Director and Chair of the New York Biotechnology Association (NYBA).He currently serves on the Board of Directors of VBL Therapeutics. Dr. Cohen was awarded Columbia University’s Alumni Medal for Distinguished Service.
Dr. Cohen was named NeuroInvestment’s (now called NeuroPerspective) CEO of the Year 2010 and was recognized by PharmaVoice Magazine in 2009 as one of the 100 Most Inspirational People in the Biopharmaceutical Industry. He is a recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the New York Metropolitan Region and is an inductee of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association’s “Spinal Cord Injury Hall of Fame.” In 2010, Dr. Cohen was recognized by the New York Biotechnology Association as the NYBA “The Cure Starts Here” Business Leader of the Year and was named by MM&M/PR Week as one of the top 50 health influencers of 2017.
Barry Greene
Board Member since 2007
Barry Greene has been a member of Acorda’s Board of Directors since January 2007. He is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. He joined Alnylam in September 2003, bringing more than 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry.
Prior to Alnylam, Mr. Greene was General Manager of Oncology at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he led the company’s global strategy and execution for its oncology business, including strategic business direction and execution, which culminated in the successful approval and launch of VELCADE™ (bortezomib) in mid-2003.
Before joining Millennium in February 2001, Mr. Greene served as Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer for Mediconsult.com. Prior to Mediconsult.com, Mr. Greene’s experience included serving as Vice President of Marketing and Customer Services for AstraZeneca, formerly AstraMerck; Vice President Strategic Integration, with responsibility for the AstraZeneca North American post-merger integration; and Partner, Andersen Consulting, responsible for the pharmaceutical/biotechnology marketing and sales practice. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Karyopharm Therapeutics, Inc. He received his B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. He serves as a Senior Scholar at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Peder K. Jensen, M.D.
Board Member since 2011
Peder K. Jensen, M.D., has been a member of Acorda’s Board of Directors since April 2011. Dr. Jensen is currently President of Bay Way Consultants LLC, a consulting firm he founded in 2010 that advises pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Dr. Jensen’s experience includes more than 20 years with global pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough, and then Merck & Co., Inc. following the merger of the two companies in 2009. During his tenure at Schering-Plough/Merck, Dr. Jensen held a number of global senior research and development positions, including Vice President Clinical Research, SPRI, Executive Vice President Worldwide Drug Development, SPRI, and most recently Corporate Senior Vice President, and General Manager, Resource & Development for Japan and Asia/Pacific from 2006 to 2010.
Dr. Jensen has more than 25 years of global drug development experience across a variety of therapeutic areas, including neurology, cardiovascular, anti-infective, oncology and immunology. Over the course of his career, Dr. Jensen has been responsible for more than 40 new drug approvals in the U.S., Europe and Japan. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of FivePrime Therapeutics, Inc.
Dr. Jensen received his M.D. from the University of Copenhagen.
Sandra Panem, Ph.D.
Board Member since 1998
Sandra Panem, Ph.D., has been a member of Acorda’s Board of Directors since 1998. She is currently a partner at Cross Atlantic Partners, which she joined in 2000. She is also currently President of NeuroNetworks Fund, a not-for-profit venture capital fund focusing on neurodisorders which she co-founded in December 2014. From 1994 to 1999, Dr. Panem was President of Vector Fund Management, the then asset management affiliate of Vector Securities International. Prior to that, Dr. Panem served as Vice President and Portfolio Manager for the Oppenheimer Global BioTech Fund, a mutual fund that invested in public and private biotechnology companies.
Previously, Dr. Panem was Vice President at Salomon Brothers Venture Capital, a fund focused on early and later-stage life sciences and technology investments. She was also a Science and Public Policy Fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, and an Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Chicago. Dr. Panem currently serves on the Board of Directors of Labcyte, Inc. and BioLineRx Ltd.
Dr. Panem received a B.S. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Chicago.
Lorin J. Randall
Board Member since 2006
Lorin J. Randall has been a member of Acorda’s Board of Directors since January 2006. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Athersys, Inc., where he serves as Chairman of the Audit Committee and Chairman of the Compensation Committee. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Randall, a financial consultant, was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Eximias Pharmaceutical Corporation, a development-stage drug development company.
From 2002 to 2004, Mr. Randall served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of i-STAT Corporation, a publicly traded manufacturer of medical diagnostic devices, which was acquired by Abbott Laboratories in 2004. From 1995 to 2001, Mr. Randall was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CFM Technologies, Inc., a publicly traded manufacturer of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In addition, he previously served on the Board of Directors of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Nanosphere, Inc., Tengion, Inc. and MotoLogic, Inc. Mr. Randall earned a B.S. in Accounting from The Pennsylvania State University and an M.B.A. from Northeastern University.
Catherine D. Strader, Ph.D.
Board Member since 2017
Catherine D. Strader, Ph.D., has been a member of Acorda’s Board of Directors since February 2017. Dr. Strader is a founding partner at Synergy Partners R&D Solutions, a consultancy network which advises biotechnology companies on research and development strategies.
Prior to founding Synergy Partners, Dr. Strader worked at Merck Research Laboratories in roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as Vice President and Discovery Site Head, where she led an external research initiative to build Merck’s early-stage pipeline using external sources of innovation. Dr. Strader held leadership positions at Schering-Plough before the company was acquired by Merck, including Executive Vice President of Discovery Research and Chief Scientific Officer. In that role, she had both strategic and operational responsibility for the company’s global small molecule and biologics discovery research and early development portfolio. She has guided more than 50 compounds through drug discovery and development during her career.
Dr. Strader received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, followed by a Howard Hughes postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University. She is the author of more than 150 scientific publications.
