A team dedicated to putting patients first

Steven Kelly

Steven Kelly joined Carisma in February 2018 bringing nearly thirty years of experience in Pharma/Biotech at all phases of the business across multiple therapeutic categories. Prior to joining Carisma, Mr. Kelly held a number of leadership positions in the biotechnology industry including: CEO, Pinteon Therapeutics; CEO, Theracrine; CCO, BioVex; CEO, Innovive Pharmaceuticals; as well as various commercial and manufacturing roles at Sanofi, IDEC Pharmaceuticals and Amgen.

Steve holds a BS from the University of Oregon and an MBA from Cornell University.

Michael Klichinsky,
PharmD, PhD

Mike is a co-inventor of the CAR-Macrophage technology and a scientific co-founder of Carisma. In his role as Chief Scientific Officer, he oversees the research & discovery efforts of the company.

Mike developed CAR-Macrophages during his doctoral thesis under the co-mentorship of Saar Gill and Carl June at the University of Pennsylvania. Michael’s scientific expertise is in the intersection of immunology, synthetic biology, cancer immunotherapy, and translational pharmacology.

Mike previously earned a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Sciences in Philadelphia, and a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Eugene Kennedy, MD

Eugene Kennedy joined Carisma in April 2024. He brings over 15 years of clinical and industry experience, including cross-functional leadership driving clinical development and regulatory strategies for oncology and immuno-oncology focused organizations. Prior to joining Carisma, Eugene was Chief Medical officer at several pharma and biotech organizations, including Galera Therapeutics, Innovative Cellular Therapeutics, Lumos Pharma, and NewLink Genetics.

Before joining NewLink Genetics, Eugene served as Associate Professor of Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University and held leadership roles at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Louisiana State University. He received an M.D. from the Medical College of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia.

Kenneth Locke

Ken Locke joined Carisma in June 2020. He has over 25 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience including discovery, laboratory automation, sourcing/contracting strategy, supply chain and manufacturing. Prior to joining Carisma, Ken served as Global Head of Cell Therapy External Manufacturing and Strategic Sourcing at Bristol Myers Squibb (formerly Celgene/Juno Therapeutics) where he was responsible for all external manufacturing operations for plasmid, viral vector and cell processing. Prior to BMS, Ken was Executive Director at Novartis supporting global materials and services sourcing for all Technical R&D as well as Cell and Gene Therapies. He started his pharmaceutical career as a discovery researcher at 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals and held research roles of increasing responsibility at Rhône-Poulenc Rorer, DuPont Pharmaceuticals and Bristol Myers Squibb.

Ken holds a BS from Millersville University of Pennsylvania and an MS from Lehigh University.

Richard Morris

Richard Morris joined Carisma in June 2021 bringing more than 25 years of experience in building and growing successful biotech organizations with a track record of delivering corporate value through capital fundraising (including IPOs), financial strategy and operations execution, and business development efforts.

Mr. Morris previously served as the CFO at Passage Bio, where he was instrumental in transforming the genetic medicines company from a private start-up to a public development stage company. Before that, he was the Executive Vice President and CFO for Context Therapeutics; he also was CFO for Vitae Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Allergan in 2016, and held several senior financial roles at ViroPharma, acquired by Shire in 2013.

Richard holds a BS in Accounting from Saint Joseph’s University and is a certified public accountant.

Terry Shields

Terry joined Carisma in May 2023. She holds more than 25 years of experience as a human resources consultant specializing in building and leading HR for start-up and fast growth life science companies from the discovery to commercial stage. Prior to officially joining Carisma, she served as a consultant for the company beginning in January 2019. In this role, she advised the team on development and execution strategies for talent management, talent acquisition, organizational effectiveness, compensation and benefits, and programs to enhance culture and employee experience.

Terry earned a B.S. in advertising from the University of Florida.

Eric Siegel

Eric joined Carisma in June 2023. He brings more than 25 years of experience as an attorney in the life sciences industry. Prior to joining Carisma, Eric held leadership positions at several pharma and biotech organizations, including Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Incyte Corporation, Global Chief Compliance Officer for Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Chief Compliance Officer for Idorsia Pharmaceuticals US.

Eric earned a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA from Temple University.

Tom Wilton

Tom joined Carisma in September 2019. He brings over 20 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry experience, including corporate strategy, business development, R&D operations and marketing. Tom most recently served as the Chief Business Officer for LogicBio Therapeutics, Inc., a genome editing company, where he was responsible for leading strategy, business development and intellectual property, and supported a successful initial public offering.

Prior to LogicBio, Tom was the Chief Business Officer for The University of Pennsylvania’s Gene Therapy Program, where he completed multiple partnerships that enabled the group to grow to over 250 employees. Tom began his career at GlaxoSmithKline, where he was instrumental in establishing the Rare Disease Business Unit and served in various leadership positions in the US and Europe.

Tom holds a BS from the University of London, an MA from the University of Leeds, and an MS from Brunel University.

Sascha Abramson, PhD

Sascha joined Carisma in March 2019 bringing more than 20 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience including laboratory experience in biomaterials, stem cells, and immune-oncology, project and alliance management experience, and project leadership experience in early phase development. In her current role as Vice President of Scientific Operations she develops and implements the scientific operational strategy for Carisma’s continued growth and success.

Previously she led a patient-specific neoepitope oncology program for Advaxis developing a personalized neoantigen targeted therapy from research concept through Phase I clinical trial while managing Advaxis’s strategic alliances. Prior to Advaxis, she worked for Celgene’s Cellular Therapeutics Division performing research and later project management for Celgene’s placenta derived cells and materials.

She holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University and a BA in English from University of Pennsylvania.

Heather Ansorge, PhD

Heather joined Carisma in September 2023. She has 18 years of experience in R&D operations, cross-functional program leadership, early and late stage development, cell and gene therapy, and oncology. In her current role as Vice President of Program and Portfolio Management, she leads the development teams by focusing on strategic objectives while always maintaining patient centric team values.

Prior to joining Carisma, Heather worked at Merck Sharpe & Dohme, where she led multiple large collaborations in early and late stage oncology. Prior to Merck, she was the Alliance Manager for Spark Therapeutics and the Gene Therapy Program at UPenn. Her experience also includes working in management consulting at PwC.

Heather holds a BS in Biological and Agricultural Engineering from Cornell University and a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Thomas Condamine, PhD

Thomas joined Carisma in June 2020 bringing more than 15 years of expertise in myeloid cell biology in various disease settings including oncology, as well as expertise in immune-therapy and translational sciences in early phase development. In his current role as Vice President of Discovery and translational Sciences, he is currently leading correlative studies and biomarkers analysis in support of Carisma’s clinical trial, as well as leading preclinical development.

Prior to joining Carisma, Thomas worked at Incyte corporation, where he was leading the translational effort in support of six large molecule targeting immune checkpoint in early clinical development and worked in close collaboration with the pre-clinical group to support several programs through IND submission. Prior to Incyte, he worked with Dr. Gabrilovich at the Moffitt Cancer Center and the Wistar Institute where he was conducting basic and translational research focused on the study of Myeloid-derived suppressor cells and Macrophage’s function in cancer.

Thomas holds an MS in Immunology from Paris XI University and a PhD in Immunology from Nantes University in France.