Directors

Bill Symonds has served as the chief executive officer of Altavant Sciences since its inception in August 2018. Previously, Dr. Symonds was a member of the founding management team at Roivant Sciences, Inc. where he served as Roivant’s chief development officer.

In that role, Dr. Symonds crafted the research and development plans for a number of products including rodatristat ethyl, Altavant’s lead asset for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Earlier in his career, Dr. Symonds held senior positions at a number of pharmaceutical companies including Pharmasset, Inc. and Gilead Sciences, Inc. During his tenure at Pharmasset, Dr. Symonds led the development of Sovaldi® for hepatitis C virus infection medicines. Based on the early success at Pharmasset, Dr. Symonds and his team were brought into Gilead after its acquisition of Pharmasset, where he continued to advance Sovaldi® through to FDA approval. Previously, he worked at GlaxoSmithKline and its predecessor companies on numerous approved medicines for HIV infection including Ziagen®, Agenerase® and Epzicom®.

Dr. Symonds received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Campbell University and completed a fellowship in clinical pharmacokinetics at the Clinical Pharmacokinetics Laboratory at Millard Fillmore Hospital in Buffalo, New York. He has authored or co-authored over 35 clinical articles and is named on nine patents related to the composition of matter and methods of use of drugs for hepatitis C infection.

Myrtle Potter was appointed Vant Operating Chair for Roivant Pharma in July 2018. In this role, she is expected to serve as one of two Roivant representatives on the boards of biopharmaceutical companies in the Roivant family.

Ms. Potter previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Genentech during a pivotal period of the company’s growth. Under her leadership, Genentech achieved record sales and earnings growth each year.

Prior to Genentech she was president of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s U.S. Cardiovascular and Metabolic business. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago and serves on the university’s board of trustees. She also serves on the boards of Rite Aid and Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, and previously served on the boards of Amazon, Express Scripts, and Medco Health Solutions.

Yuichiro Haruyama serves as Executive Vice President, Finance & Corporate Planning and a member of the board of Sumitovant Biopharma, a parent company of Altavant.

Mr. Haruyama started his career at Sumitomo Chemical, a leading Japanese chemical company in 1993, and since then he has played a key role in global pharmaceutical/chemical operations, corporate strategy, business development and finance. He was also instrumental in creating broad strategic partnership between Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and Roivant Sciences in 2019, including forming Sumitovant Biopharma.

Mr. Haruyama earned a bachelor’s degree in Business and Commerce at Keio University in Tokyo and an MBA in finance from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.