Dr. Ende became Chairman of the Board of Matinas in October 2022 and has served on our Board of Directors since 2017.  Since 2009, Dr. Ende has served as President of Ende BioMedical Consulting Group. Ende BioMed is focused on helping life sciences companies raise capital, identify licensing partners and acquirers, and optimizing corporate structure. In addition, it analyzes both private and public investment opportunities for clients within the life sciences industry. Ende also helps activist investors gain seats on Company Boards.

Dr. Ende was a Director on Genzyme’s Board from 2010 – 2011 until it was acquired by Sanofi-Aventis for $21 B in 2011. During his tenure on Genzyme’s Board, he was a member of the Audit and Risk Management Committees. Ende is currently on the Board of Directors of Matinas BioPharma, where he is the Chairman of the Compensation Committee and is serving on the Audit as well as the Nomination & Governance committees. Ende is also on the Board of Directors of Avadel plc, where he is the Chairman of the Nomination & Corporate Governance Committee and is serving on the Audit & Compensation committees. Ende was also voted to the Board of Progenics Pharmaceuticals, serving as Chair of the Compensation Committee as well as serving on the Audit and Science Committees. Ende is also on the Technology Transfer Committee of Mount Sinai Innovation Partners. He also served as the Chairman of the Unsecured Creditor’s Committee overseeing the Egenix Bankruptcy and on the subsequent Liquidating Trust Committee.

From 2002 through 2008, Dr. Ende was the senior biotechnology analyst at Merrill Lynch. From 2000 – 2002, Ende was the senior biotechnology analyst at Banc of America Securities. And, from 1997 – 2000, he was a biotechnology analyst at Lehman Brothers. During Dr. Ende’s career as a biotechnology analyst, he was named to Institutional Investor’s All-America Equity Research Team six times as well as to The Greenwich Survey list of top analysts. He was also named Top Stock Picker by The Street.com and Best Earnings Estimator by Forbes.com.

Dr. Ende received an MBA in Finance & Accounting from NYU – Stern Business School in 1997, an MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1994, and a BS in Biology and Psychology from Emory University in 1990.

Mr. Jabbour is Chief Executive Officer of Matinas BioPharma. He served as President since March 2016 and since October 2013, he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Business Officer and General Counsel. Mr. Jabbour has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, both domestically and internationally. Previously he served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary of MediMedia, a diversified health care services company. Prior to MediMedia, he was the Senior Vice President and Head of Global Legal Affairs for Wockhardt Limited, a global pharmaceutical and biotechnology company. Immediately prior to that, he served as Commercial Counsel and Assistant Secretary for Reliant Pharmaceuticals, a GlaxoSmithKline subsidiary. Earlier in his career, he held positions as counsel at Alpharma and in private practice at Lowenstein Sandler, PC. Mr. Jabbour earned his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, New Jersey and a B.A. in Psychology from Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Ms. D’An is an experienced board director and financial leader with extensive corporate governance, financial oversight, and accounting experience with a range of companies She is President of D’An Financial Services, a strategic consulting firm she established in 2004 and has been serving on corporate boards since 2006. From 1998 through 2004, Ms. D’An served as partner of Ernst & Young, an accounting and professional services firm, where she spent 18 years serving clients in retail, consumer products, technology, financial services, media and other sectors.  Ms. D’An serves on the board of directors of Zoomcar Holdings, Inc., a publicly-traded car sharing platform company (NASDAQ: ZCAR), where she has served since April 2023, GHD Group Pty Ltd., a privately-held technical professional services firm, where she has served since March 2020, and Backblaze, Inc., a publicly-traded open cloud storage platform (NASDAQ: BLZE), where she has served since August 2021. Ms. D’An is the chair of the audit committee of all three companies, a member of the compensation committee of Backblaze, Inc. and Zoomcar Holdings, Inc. and a member of the nominating committee of GHD Group Pty Ltd. Ms. D’An served on the board of directors of Renovaro Inc. (NASDAQ: REND) (formerly Enochian BioSciences Inc.) from April 2018 through June 2021, where she was a member of the audit committee and the nominating committee. Ms. D’An graduated with a B.S. in Accounting from the State University at Albany.

Ms. Giordano brings over 25 years of extensive experience in healthcare, including senior leadership positions and board director roles spanning across several pharmaceutical companies and sales and marketing service providers. She has served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a director of PLx Pharma Inc. since January 2016. Previously, Ms. Giordano served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of both ClearPoint Learning, Inc., and Healthcare Corporation of America.  From June 2009 to August 2012, Ms. Giordano served as Chief Operating Officer and then as Chief Executive Officer, President and a director of Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Ms. Giordano also served as a director for Aceto Corporation from December 2011 through September 2019.  Prior to that, she served as President, Americas, for Cegedim Dendrite (formerly Dendrite International Inc.) from 2007 to 2008 and as Senior Vice President, Global Customer Business Unit of Cegedim Dendrite from 2004 to 2007.  Earlier in her career, she worked for Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert then Pfizer, in several sales and marketing leadership positions.

Dr. Smith is a global business leader, medical doctor, author and entrepreneur who has held various C-Suite and board positions in the biopharmaceutical industry.   She currently serves on the boards of directors of Spiritus Therapeutics, which she co-founded, the International Board of Sanford Health, and is the Chairman, President and founder of the Cura Foundation, a nonsectarian public charity dedicated to improving human health and well-being and increasing quality of life globally.

 Dr. Smith has also had extensive experience serving on multiple private and public companies boards of directors and board committees, including audit, nominating, governance, compensation and science and technology committees in healthcare services, biotechnology, AI, technology and consumer products. Dr. Smith has founded numerous companies in regenerative medicine and is a managing partner of BRM Holdings family office. From 2006 until 2015, Dr. Smith was chairman and chief executive officer of Neostem, Inc., where she pioneered the company’s innovative business model, combining proprietary cell therapy development with successful contract development and manufacturing organization. 

Dr. Smith has been recognized for her extensive leadership in the biopharmaceutical industry, winning an array of industry awards and business recognitions. She received the Regenerative Medicine Foundation (RMF) 2019 Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Action Award for International Diplomacy, the 2018 HEALinc Future Health Humanitarian Award, the Business Intelligence Group’s Woman of the Year Award in 2018 and the 2018 Gold Stevie® Award for Woman of the Year (Government or Non-Profit). In April 2016, Pope Francis awarded Dr. Smith Dame Commander with Star Pontifical Equestrian Order of Saint Sylvester Pope and Martyr and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in Healthcare and Science by The National Museum of Catholic Art and Library.  

She received her B.A. degree from Yale University and her M.D. degree from the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Smith holds an M.B.A. degree from the Wharton School of Business and completed the Stanford University Directors Program and received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Thomas Jefferson Medical College.

Dr. Wikler currently serves as the Principal of Infectious Disease Technology Development Consulting (IDTD Consulting) where he provides clinical, medical and regulatory strategic insight to companies developing new technologies for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Prior to that from 2012 to 2015, Dr. Wikler served at The Medicines Company (NASDAQ: MDCO) as VP, New Business Ventures and VP and Medical Director, Infectious Disease Care.

During his time at The Medicines Company, Dr. Wikler was responsible for leading the clinical and medical teams and providing strategic direction for the US and EU clinical development and regulatory activities for oritavancin, which resulted in its approval in both the US and EU. Over the course of his career Dr. Wikler held senior leaderships positions for a number of pharmaceutical companies, including as Chief Development Officer of Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, President and Chief Executive Officer of IASO Pharma Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of antibacterial and antifungal therapeutics, the Institute for One World Health, Mpex Pharmaceuticals, Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), ViroPharma, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical (a division of Johnson & Johnson). Dr. Wikler began his career at Smith Kline & French/Smith Kline Beecham where he held positions of increasing responsibilities over ten years. Dr. Wikler held a variety of positions at the FDA, including the Deputy Director of the Division of Anti-Infective Drug Products.

Dr. Wikler earned a B.A. in Chemistry from Franklin and Marshall, an M.D. degree from Temple University School of Medicine, and his M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business. He completed his Infectious Diseases Fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.