Leadership

Janelle Ayres is a professor, head of the Molecular and Systems Physiology Laboratory, a member of both the Gene Expression Laboratory and the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis, and holder of the Salk Institute Legacy Chair at the Salk Institute, as well as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

In her research, Ayres aims to shift the paradigm in infectious disease research from an exclusive focus on pathogen eradication to a broader understanding of how a host can adapt to infections to maintain health and promote survival with cooperative defense mechanisms that protect from disease, without compromising pathogen fitness. By doing so, this research aims to provide a solution for the global crisis of antibiotic resistance.

Ayres has been recognized with numerous awards, including a National Institutes of Health Pioneer Award and a Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists. She earned her BA in molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and her PhD in microbiology and immunology at Stanford University before conducting her postdoctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley.

Wolfgang Busch is a professor, executive director of the Harnessing Plants Initiative, and Hess Chair in Plant Science at the Salk Institute.

He is a plant biologist who studies the genes and molecular mechanisms that determine how a plant’s genetic information interacts with the environment and is translated by molecular, cellular, and physiological networks to shape plant root growth. His research could help grow more resilient food sources—an increasingly urgent problem in the face of the planet’s shifting climate and increasing population—and help develop root systems that can be utilized on a large scale to store carbon in the soil that was captured by above-ground plant parts from atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Busch was recognized with the Society for Experimental Biology President’s Medal. He earned his MS in biology at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and his PhD in biology at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology and the University of Tübingen.

David Dolby has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2019. He is a San Francisco-based investor and philanthropist dedicated to advancing science, technology, and media. Committed to honoring the legacy of his father, Ray Dolby, he supports innovative cultures focused on differentiated signal processing to address real-world challenges.

As managing director of Dolby Family Ventures, Dolby oversees a diverse portfolio of more than 40 venture investments, including Internet technology, semiconductors, aerospace, and Alzheimer’s drug discovery. He also serves as a director of Dolby Laboratories and Cogstate Limited and as CFO of the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund.

Beyond his corporate roles, Dolby is an active board member and chair of the impact committee for Tipping Point Community, where he addresses poverty in the Bay Area. He also contributes to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, focusing on the technical aspects of filmmaking.

He earned his BS from Duke University Pratt School of Engineering and his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Jay T. Flatley has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2017. He is currently chair of the Audit Committee. He served as CEO of Illumina from 1999 until mid-2016, subsequently holding the position of executive chairman until 2019 and chairman of the board until mid-2021.

In August 2021, Flatley became Interim CEO of Zymergen until the company’s acquisition by Ginkgo Bioworks in October 2022. He currently serves on the boards of Denali, Rivian, Iridia (Chairman), and Wellcome Leap.

Previously, Flatley served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Molecular Dynamics, later acquired by Amersham Pharmacia Biotech and now a part of GE Healthcare. As a co-founder and member of the board of directors for Molecular Dynamics, he led the company to its initial public offering and helped develop and launch over 15 major instrumentation systems. Prior to joining Molecular Dynamics, Jay was Vice President of Engineering and Strategic Planning for Plexus Computers, Executive Vice President for Manning Technologies, and held various positions at Spectra Physics.

Flatley earned a BA in economics from Claremont McKenna College and both a BS and MS in industrial engineering from Stanford University.

Carol Gallagher has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2022. She has more than 35 years of experience in the biopharma industry, having been a CEO, a venture capital investor, and a board director.

She currently serves as a director for both public and private companies. Early in her career, she held both business and drug development roles in small and large biopharma. She was CEO of Calistoga Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Gilead in 2011. Over her career, she has been involved in various teams and boards that resulted in the development of multiple approved therapeutics. She previously served on the Sharp Healthcare Board and is currently a board member of Life Sciences Cares, a non-profit addressing poverty in San Diego.

Gallagher earned her BS and PharmD from the University of Kentucky.

Richard A. Heyman, PhD, has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2015. He is currently chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee. He is a scientist and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in the biotech and life science field. Recently, Heyman co-founded and serves as Chairman of Architect Therapeutics, a small molecule drug discovery company applying novel chemical editing technologies to expand the druggable space.

Previously, he served as Chairman of Vividion Therapeutics, purchased by Bayer Pharma, Amunix Pharma, purchased by Sanofi and Rayze Bio purchased by BMS in 2023. He is the co-founder and Chairman of ORIC Pharmaceuticals and serves as Chairman of Enliven Therapeutics and PMV Pharma. Earlier in his career, Heyman was the co-founder and CEO of Aragon and Seragon Pharmaceuticals, which focused on therapies for hormone dependent cancers; J&J purchased Aragon in 2013 and Genentech/Roche purchased Seragon one year later. He has been involved in the discovery and development of multiple FDA approved therapies, including the prostate cancer drug, Erleada. Heyman is a Venture/Science Partner for Arch Ventures and Nextech Invest. Outside his corporate experience, Heyman is Vice Chair of the Board at the Salk Institute, BOD member at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center and a founding member of both Life Science Cares, San Diego and Curebound. He has won numerous awards including E&Y San Diego Regional Entrepreneur of the Year, Connect Hall of Fame Award, the UCSD Rell Sun Award and Endocrine Society Outstanding Innovation Award. Heyman is the author or inventor on more than 125 publications and patents.

Lyn Hutton has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2021. She is currently co-chair of the Investment Committee. She has nearly 40 years of experience in financial and investment management for nonprofit organizations. Before retiring in 2015, she served as the managing director and chief operating officer of Prager & Co., LLC.

Before joining Prager, Hutton was the chief investment officer of Commonfund, where she chaired the firm’s Investment Committee and previously served as the chair of its board of trustees. Previously, she served as the vice president and chief financial & investment officer of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, managing the Foundation’s (then) $4 billion investment portfolio. Before MacArthur, Hutton served as vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer at Dartmouth College. Before Dartmouth, she was senior vice president of Finance and Administration for the University of Southern California and was its treasurer.

Hutton is a recipient of NACUBO’s Rodney Adams Award and, in 2010, was awarded Institutional Investor Magazine’s Investor Lifetime Achievement Award. She earned her BS in business administration from the University of Southern California.

Amy Jacobs has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2024. Since moving to San Diego in 2011, philanthropist she has supported local Jewish organizations, the Jacobs Cushman San Diego Food Bank, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and housing and homelessness initiatives in San Diego.

Jacobs and her husband, Adam, are parents to two young children. The driving force behind their philanthropy is based on “tikkun olam,” a Hebrew term for “world repair,” the idea that we are all responsible for leaving the world a better place than we found it.

Jacobs is a member of the Pauline Foster Women’s Leadership Institute and a former member of ForwardGlobal (formerly the Philanthropy Workshop). She earned her BS in biological science from the University of Alberta, Canada.

Gerald Joyce serves as the president of the Salk Institute. In addition, he is a professor in the Jack H. Skirball Center for Chemical Biology and Proteomics. Joyce began his scientific career at Salk as a PhD student and then a postdoctoral scholar. He returned as a faculty member in 2017 and served as senior vice president and chief science officer from 2022 to 2023. His research program focuses on the development of novel RNA and DNA enzymes and their potential application in clinical diagnostics and therapeutics. His research has led to the development of the first self-replicating RNA enzyme that is capable of exponential growth and evolution.

From 2014 to 2021, Joyce served as director of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF). He has served previously as dean of the faculty at Scripps Research and as a member of the Technology Advisory Council of BP.

Joyce earned his BA from the University of Chicago and his MD and PhD from the University of California San Diego. He completed his postgraduate medical training at Mercy Hospital in San Diego and postdoctoral research training at the Salk Institute.

Mark Knickrehm has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2019. He is chairman and CEO of Gainwell Technologies. Previously, Knickrehm was the global group chief executive of Accenture Strategy, Accenture’s consulting business, which focuses on solving clients’ most pressing challenges at the intersection of business, technology, and operations—helping clients’ C-suite executives develop strategies to transform their organizations. He was also a member of Accenture’s Global Management Committee. Prior to assuming the role, Knickrehm served as senior managing director, leading Accenture’s global health industry group; he was also responsible for growth and strategy in the Health & Public Services operating group.

Knickrehm spent 12 years at McKinsey & Company, where, as a partner, he focused on strategy, operations, and organization. He also served for two years as executive vice president, CFO, and president of international operations for Paging Network, Inc. (PageNet). Knickrehm is also on the board of Gainwell Technologies and is a board advisor to ZS Associates.

Knickrehm earned his BA from Northwestern University and his MBA from the University of Chicago.

Benjamin H. Lewis has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2011. He is a professor emeritus of medicine at Columbia University and an attending physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Lewis has devoted his career to the prevention of cardiovascular disease. His particular focus is on the increased use of lifestyle approaches, medical therapies, and noninvasive, nonradioactive techniques—in particular, ultrasound—for diagnosing and managing heart disease patients.

Lewis earned his BA in biological sciences from the University of California, Berkeley and his MD from the University of California, San Francisco Medical School. He then continued his training with an internship at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by his residency at Columbia University Medical Center. After a short sojourn in Boston to complete a two-year fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Lewis returned to Columbia-Presbyterian in 1982 and has remained with Columbia ever since.

Fred Luddy has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2024. He founded ServiceNow, a leading intelligent platform driving end-to-end digital transformation. Under his leadership, ServiceNow became the fastest-growing enterprise software company to achieve more than $10 billion in annual revenue organically. During his nearly 20-year tenure with ServiceNow, Luddy has held several leadership roles, including CEO from 2004 to 2011. He has served as a member of the company’s board of directors since 2004, including as board chair from 2018 to 2022.

Today, Luddy continues to innovate as a technology visionary, focusing on projects to revolutionize spreadsheets and improve the diagnosis and treatment of rare genetic diseases in children. A committed philanthropist, he supports numerous causes, including Indiana University, where his contributions have led to the construction and expansion of the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering.

Luddy attended Indiana University but left before graduating to dedicate more time to programming. He has been recognized with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2011) and Indiana University’s Bicentennial Medal (2020).

Christian Metallo is a professor in Salk’s Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory and an adjunct professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego. He is a bioengineer who studies how our body metabolizes molecules like glucose, fats, and amino acids to generate the building blocks and energy needed to perform life-sustaining tasks—and how changes in metabolism contribute to disease.

Metallo has made key discoveries about the metabolic pathways that drive cancer progression, peripheral neuropathy, and macular disease—pathways that can be influenced through dietary manipulations or targeted therapies.

Metallo earned his BS in Chemical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and his MS and PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He trained as a postdoctoral researcher at MIT. He was to the AIMBE College of Fellows in 2021.

Howard Newman has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2002. He is chairman and CEO of Pine Brook Road Partners, LLC, which he founded in 2006.Pine Brook currently has $2.6B under management in venture capital funds that make business building and other growth equity investments, primarily in the energy and financial services industries.

In addition to overseeing Pine Brook’s portfolio, Newman serves on the board of the Tunisian American Enterprise Fund. He has served as a director (or designated observer) of more than 40 companies, including 18 public companies. During the term of Governor George Pataki of New York, Newman served as an advisor to Governor Pataki on energy policy. Newman is past Chairman of the Yale University Council Committee on New Haven Economic Development and the Yale Alumni Fund. Prior to forming Pine Brook, Newman was vice chairman of Warburg Pincus, LLC, where he developed the energy and financial services businesses and led several other investing practices. He also spent 10 years in investment banking at Morgan Stanley & Co., Incorporated, before joining Warburg Pincus.

Newman earned his BA and MBA in economics from Yale University and his PhD in business economics from Harvard University.

Frederik Paulsen has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2005. He is a Swedish businessman and explorer. In July 2021, Paulsen became chairman emeritus of Ferring Pharmaceuticals after serving as chairman of the board since 1988. Ferring Pharmaceuticals, which he joined in 1976, is a leader in reproductive medicine, gastroenterology, and urology.

Paulsen is known for his interest in polar exploration, being a founding member of the Swiss Polar Institute and chairman of the University of the Arctic (UArctic). Paulsen maintains support for a diverse range of philanthropic activities in culture, science, education, and research, from Europe and the US to the remote island of South Georgia and the Kingdom of Bhutan. As founder of the Museum Kunst der Westküste (Museum of West Coast Art) in Alkersum, Germany, Paulsen has supported the economy and heritage of the Island of his ancestors, Föhr. He is also a founding member of the South Georgia Heritage Trust in Scotland and has substantially contributed to the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, as well as to the Kingdom of Bhutan’s Royal Textile Academy.

His accolades include being named an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) and a Knight of the Order of St. John by Queen Elizabeth II. He studied chemistry at Christian-Albrecht University in Kiel, Germany, and Business Administration at the University of Lund, Sweden. Paulsen earned his PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Markus Reinhard has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2015. He is currently chair of the People & Culture Committee. He is the managing director of the NOMIS Foundation based in Zurich, Switzerland since 2015. The NOMIS Foundation promotes and funds highly innovative basic research in the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities with a strong emphasis to enabling insight-driven science across all disciplines, focusing on researchers who put forth bold new ideas, exhibit a pioneering spirit, and seek to inspire the world around them. Prior to his NOMIS appointment, he spent more than 25 years as a human resources and communications executive in international business.

He worked in the healthcare industry for more than 15 years and has served as senior vice president and head of global human resources for Baxter International’s former Global BioScience Division (Baxalta). He lived and worked in Chicago (US) and Vienna (Austria) before moving to Zurich (Switzerland).

Reinhard earned advanced degrees in clinical psychology, education sciences, and communications from the University of Vienna (Austria).

Eric Sagerman has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2016. He is currently co-chair of the Investment Committee. He is a strategic advisor and director with experience across various industries, including financial services, technology, and healthcare.

He was previously CEO and president of Universata. Previously, he served as managing director and head of strategy at Allianz Global Investors, following his role as managing director at Nicholas Applegate Capital Management. Sagerman began his career at American Express, where he became a senior vice president.

He is currently co-chair of the Salk Institute Investment Committee and a member of the Salk Finance Committee.

Sagerman earned his BA in economics from Tufts University and an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College.

Mary Jane Salk has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2014. She was for many years editor of the women’s magazine group of Magazine Management, then parent company of Marvel Comics. She was editorial director of Transworld Feature Syndicate, an international magazine consortium.

She is the author of five in a series of young adult books for Chelsea House Publishers; author of a work of fiction, Kingdoms; and associate producer of the feature films Goodbye, New York and Forever Lulu.

Timothy M. Schoen has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2019. He is currently chair of the Finance Committee. He is the CEO of BioMed Realty, having joined the company as president in May 2016. In this role, he leads strategic initiatives to advance the firm’s mission of providing real estate solutions for the life sciences sector.

Before BioMed Realty, Schoen served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of HCP, Inc. from May 2011 to May 2016. During his tenure at HCP, he held various executive roles, including executive vice president of Life Science & Investment Management and senior vice president of Investment Management. Prior to HCP, he spent nine years as vice president of corporate finance at Kilroy Realty Corporation, where he honed his expertise in real estate finance and investment.

Schoen earned his BS in finance and international business from Minnesota State University and his MBA from the University of California, Irvine.

Haeyoung Kong Tang has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2015. She is currently vice chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee. She is a philanthropist. Through her foundation, Tang supports educational, environmental, and community causes. As a former research scientist, she has co-authored scientific articles and holds patents related to her earlier discoveries.

Tang earned her BS in chemistry at Duke University and her PhD in pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dan Tierney has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2015. In 1999, he co-founded GETCO-Global Electronic Trading Company, one of the world’s first automated market-making firms. In 2012, Tierney started Wicklow Capital, his family office. Wicklow Capital engages in a combination of venture capital investing and venture philanthropy. The core focus is ABCD— AI, Blockchain, Climate, and Democracy.

Tierney earned his BS in economics and finance from Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, yet found his minor in philosophy to ultimately be of greater value.

Horacio Valeiras has served on Salk’s Board of Trustees since 2025. He is CEO of Frontier Global Partners. He previously held investment roles at Anderson & Sherrerd and later acted as managing director of Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Valeiras went on to serve as chief investment officer at Allianz Global Investors in 2002, and later founded HAV Capital LLC, which merged into his current CEO role at Frontier Global Partners.

Valeiras earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Virginia Tech and his master’s degree at MIT. While in Boston, he began taking business classes and quickly realized the discipline and analytical skills he developed as an engineer were also powerful business skills. This inspired his post-graduation pivot from chemicals research at Chevron to earning his MBA at UC Berkeley.

Irving Weissman is the founding director of the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he is a professor of Pathology and Developmental Biology. He leads a research group focused on stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, training hundreds of students and authoring more than 950 scientific articles.

An expert in hematopoiesis and leukemia, Weissman’s lab was the first to identify and isolate blood-forming stem cells from mice. He discovered human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), demonstrating their potential to regenerate blood formation in cancer patients. His work has included clinical trials for stem cell treatments in eye, brain, and spinal cord diseases, and he has explored CD47 as a cancer therapeutic.

Weissman has received numerous awards and is an elected member of prestigious organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences. He served as president of the American Association of Immunologists and the International Society of Stem Cell Research. He has founded several companies focused on stem cell therapies and has been involved in the scientific advisory boards of major biotechnology firms.

Weissman earned his BS from Montana State College and his MD in medicine from Stanford University.