Hank Safferstein, PhD, JD, MBA

Hank Safferstein currently serves as senior advisor and executive in residence at UPMC Enterprises and CEO of Generian Pharmaceuticals, a UPMC portfolio company advancing first-in-class oral therapeutics for markets currently dominated by biologics. He is a board director of Ariel Precision Medicine and SeqCenter, an NGS services company.

He was the founding CEO of Cognition Therapeutics, where he helped advance Alzheimer’s programs into the clinic, and founding CEO of Complexa, a clinical-stage biotech developing therapies for fibrosis and inflammation. He also held senior business development roles at Acorda Therapeutics and Omrix Biopharmaceuticals (acquired by Johnson & Johnson). Earlier, at Bristol-Myers Squibb, he served as director of worldwide licensing (Cardiovascular) and director of Metabolics marketing and product life cycle management. He was selected for the company’s Leadership Development Program and received multiple President’s Awards. His career began at the NIH, where he directed technology transfer at the NHLBI and managed collaborations at NIAID, earning several Director’s Awards and the Vice President’s Hammer Award for government innovation.

Hank earned a BA in biochemistry from Rutgers University, a PhD in neurobiology from the University of Louisville, a JD from the American University Washington College of Law, and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is a member of the Maryland Bar and is RAPS certified.